Section A content

Question 1 - media concepts (form, representation, institutions, audience, values and ideology) 

Question 2 - wider contexts

Question 3 - Media Issues and debates
The following represents an indication of the possible issues and debates currently prevalent in the study of the media. They may be added to or subtracted from, depending on their relevance.

• Representation and stereotyping
  
• Media effects
  
• Reality TV
  
• News Values
  
• Moral Panics
  
• Post 9/11 and the media
  
• Ownership and control
  
• Regulation and censorship
  
• Media technology and the digital revolution – changing technologies in the 21st century
  
• The effect of globalisation on the media 
  
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  0. Media theories studied during the course might include: 
     
     Media analysis eg:
     
     • Semiotics (denotation connotation - making meaning through signs)
       
     • Structuralism and post-structuralism (Character and narrative Theories Vs Stuart Hall's audience readings)
       
     • Postmodernism and its critiques (The distinction between reality and media has collapsed. Baudrillard - Hyper reality)
       
       Politics and the Media eg:
       
     • Gender and ethnicity
       
     • Marxism: mass media exists to serve the ideological interests of the ruling class.
       Hegemony: The theory claims that the ideas of the ruling class come to be seen as the norm.
       
     • Liberal Pluralism: supports different views and opinions being passed through media. So, this means that media is completely free to express itself the way it sees fit.
       
       
       
       
       Consumption and Production eg:
     • Audience theories
       
     • Genre theories