Media Industries | AQA A-Level Media Studies (7572)
Media Industries
- 189 questions
- 15 subtopics
- The theoretical framework, examined on both written papers
- Media One and Media Two
Media industries is examined on both Media One and Media Two.
It covers production, distribution and circulation, patterns of ownership, funding and the UK regulatory framework, together with Curran and Seaton on power, Livingstone and Lunt on regulation, and Hesmondhalgh on the cultural industries.
Sample questions from Media Industries
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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Production, distribution and circulation
Why is media production described as specialised?
Show the answer
Because it requires specific technical skills, equipment and professional expertise. -
Ownership and control
What is cross-media ownership?
Show the answer
The ownership by one company of outlets in more than one media sector, such as holding newspaper titles alongside broadcast and online interests. -
Marketing and maintaining audiences
How do trailers function as marketing and as media products in their own right?
Show the answer
They advertise a forthcoming release while also being constructed texts that use editing, music and voice-over to signal genre, tone and audience. -
Regulation of media in the UK
Which body regulates advertising in the UK?
Show the answer
The Advertising Standards Authority, the ASA. -
Regulation in global production and circulation
What is a co-production treaty and why do countries enter into them?
Show the answer
An agreement allowing a production shared between countries to qualify as national in each, giving access to funding, tax relief and quota status that a foreign production would not receive. -
Curran and Seaton: regulation, deregulation and the free market
How do Curran and Seaton view the role of the state in relation to media?
Show the answer
As a necessary counterweight to market concentration, since regulation and public funding can sustain provision and diversity that commercial competition alone does not deliver. -
Curran and Seaton: neo-liberalism, surveillance and privacy
Give an example of what surveillance by media organisations might involve.
Show the answer
Tracking audience viewing habits, collecting data on online behaviour, or monitoring what content users engage with. -
Curran and Seaton: the central argument
How would Curran and Seaton interpret a newspaper's editorial line coinciding with its owner's business interests?
Show the answer
As evidence for their central claim that media products reflect the interests and ideologies of those who own and control the industries producing them.
The 15 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Production, distribution and circulation | The three processes, why production is specialised and institutionalised, and how technological change has altered each. | 12 |
| Ownership and control | Conglomerate ownership, vertical and horizontal integration, synergy, diversification and cross-media ownership. | 12 |
| Economics and funding of media industries | Commercial and public funding, the licence fee, subscription against advertising, freemium and crowdfunding, and why first-copy costs dominate. | 12 |
| Marketing and maintaining audiences | Teaser campaigns, trailers, viral strategies, brand identity, and how release strategy differs between cinema and streaming. | 12 |
| Regulation of media in the UK | Ofcom and the Broadcasting Code, the watershed, IPSO and press self-regulation, the BBFC, the ASA, PEGI and the Online Safety Act 2023. | 13 |
| Digital convergence and the individual producer | Convergent platforms, lowered barriers to entry, platforms as algorithmic gatekeepers, and the creator economy. | 12 |
| Regulation in global production and circulation | Why national regulators struggle with services hosted abroad, co-production treaties, content quotas, geo-blocking and territorial rights. | 12 |
| Curran and Seaton: regulation, deregulation and the free market | Regulation, deregulation and the free market, why more outlets is not more diversity, and the idea of market failure. | 12 |
| Curran and Seaton: concentration, conglomerates and public service broadcasting | Media concentration as a democratic problem, conglomerate ownership, globalisation, and the case for public service broadcasting. | 12 |
| Curran and Seaton: neo-liberalism, surveillance and privacy | Neo-liberalism and ownership, surveillance as a question of power, and the tension between personalisation and privacy. | 12 |
| Curran and Seaton: the central argument | Who controls the media and in whose interest, the mixed system they defend, and the criticisms of their emphasis on ownership. | 12 |
| Livingstone and Lunt: the public sphere and governance | Habermas and the public sphere, the citizen and consumer tension, governance against regulation, and co-regulation. | 12 |
| Livingstone and Lunt: media literacy | The four components of media literacy, and why shifting protection onto audience skill leaves the least resourced least protected. | 12 |
| Livingstone and Lunt: power, value and globalisation | Power shifting to transnational corporations, measuring media value culturally rather than economically, and the limits of national regulation. | 12 |
| Cultural industries as summarised by Hesmondhalgh | Cultural industries as high risk, commodification, convergence, diversity, innovation, conglomeration, vertical integration and cultural imperialism. | 20 |
How the guide is worked
Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.
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Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
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Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
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Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.
Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.
Nearby topics
AQA A-Level Media Studies Active Recall Guide
Every topic, not just this one. 1,066 questions with their answers.