Unit 3:

Candidates will be given two pre-set topic areas for study during the year, which they will explore across one or more of the three media platforms. Each of the topic areas will allow candidates to examine media issues and debates, theory and wider contexts, while also consolidating their understanding and use of the media concepts and other aspects of the specification covered at AS level. Each candidate should produce an individual case study of their own choice for each pre-set topic selected. It is not advisable for a whole group of candidates to be given the same title for an area of research. Candidates will be expected to examine media texts in detail in terms of their meanings and their functions.

Pre-set topic areas for examination in 2015:

Identities and the Media

The Impact of New and Digital Media 

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

Media Theories (cross-media)

Media theories studied during the course might include:
Media analysis eg:

• Semiotics
• Structuralism and post-structuralism
• Postmodernism and its critiques

Politics and the Media eg:

• Gender and ethnicity
• Marxism and hegemony
• Liberal Pluralism
• Colonialism and Post-colonialism

Consumption and Production eg:

• Audience theories
• Genre theories

It is not expected that candidates will learn all these media theories, but that they will be able to use elements of relevant media theories when analysing media texts.