OCR A-Level Media Studies Active Recall Guide (H409)
OCR · A-Level
OCR A-Level Media Studies Active Recall Guide
Every topic of specification H409 written as exam-style questions with the answers printed after them. 1,986 questions across 10 topics and 143 subtopics, cut by the media theoretical framework so it holds whichever set products your centre chose.
- OCR
- A-Level
- Specification H409
- 1,986 questions
Guide overview All 10 topics Sample questions Papers and weighting Look inside Questions and answers
What the exam asks of you
OCR A-Level Media Studies is two written papers of two hours and 70 marks each, worth 35 per cent apiece, plus a non-examined production worth the remaining 30 per cent.
The papers are built on the theoretical framework, media language, representations, industries and audiences, applied to set products that OCR publishes and periodically changes. The framework and the named theorists do not change when the products do, which is why the guide is cut that way.
| Paper | Covers | Length | Marks | Weighting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Component 01 Media messages |
News, Online and Participatory Media Advertising, Marketing and Magazines Music Video |
2 hours | 70 marks | 35% |
|
Component 02 Evolving media |
Film, Radio and Video Games Long Form Television Drama |
2 hours | 70 marks | 35% |
|
Components 03/04 Making media |
Non-examination assessment | 60 marks | 30% |
What is in the guide
All 10 topics
Every topic has its own page with its subtopics, what it covers and sample questions.
Sample questions
Taken from the guide. Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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The five media contexts: social, cultural, political, economic and historical
Define political context.
Show the answer
Political context is the distribution of power, the arguments over public policy and the ideological positions in play around a product at the time it is made. -
Signs, codes and conventions in media language
Define the term convention.
Show the answer
A convention is an expected way of doing something in a media form or genre that has become established through repeated use. -
Selection, combination and the construction of reality
Why is absence as important as presence when analysing a representation?
Show the answer
What is consistently left out shapes meaning as strongly as what is shown, because audiences judge a group by the range of things the media routinely omit about it. -
Production, distribution and circulation in a global context
How does planning for a global release shape the content of a mainstream film?
Show the answer
Producers favour spectacle, simple universal narratives and recognisable stars, and limit culturally specific dialogue, so the product travels between territories with little adaptation. -
Demographics, social grade and audience profiling
Define the social grades C1 and C2.
Show the answer
C1 covers supervisory, clerical and junior managerial workers, and C2 covers skilled manual workers. -
The Daily Mail as a mid-market tabloid
What is Femail, and what does its existence tell you about the paper's audience strategy?
Show the answer
Femail is the paper's long-running women's section covering fashion, health, relationships and consumer advice, and it shows the paper deliberately building around a female readership that most tabloids do not hold. -
Codes and conventions of print advertising
Why is direct address to camera so common in advertising photography?
Show the answer
Eye contact imitates a personal encounter, so the reader feels individually spoken to and a relationship with the brand appears to have been established. -
Music video as a form: performance, narrative and concept
Explain what lip sync contributes to a music video.
Show the answer
Miming the vocal ties the artist's body to the sound, confirms ownership of the track, and gives the editor a fixed point to cut around.
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.
Look inside
Questions for a subtopic print together and the answers for that section print after them.
- Contexts of Media139
- Media Language233
- Media Representations237
- Media Industries214
- Media Audiences235
- News, Online and Participatory Media195
- Advertising, Marketing and Magazines194
- Music Video151
- Film, Radio and Video Games209
- Long Form Television Drama179
- What does the term media language refer to?
- Define the term code as it is used in the analysis of media products.
- What is the difference between a technical code and a symbolic code?
- Give an example of a written code and explain what it contributes to a media product.
- Define the term convention.
- What is the difference between a code and a convention?
- Explain the difference between form conventions and genre conventions.
- What does it mean to say a media text is polysemic?
- Why do producers rely on shared codes rather than inventing new ones for each product?
- Media language is the whole set of elements a product uses to communicate, including its visual, audio, verbal and written choices, together with the codes and conventions that tell an audience how to read them.
- A code is a system of signs whose meanings are broadly agreed within a culture, so that an audience can decode them without being told what they mean.
- Technical codes are meanings created by equipment and process choices such as framing, lighting and editing, while symbolic codes are meanings carried by what is placed before the camera or on the page, such as costume, setting, colour and gesture.
- A newspaper headline is a written code, and its wording, size and capitalisation push the reader towards a particular attitude to the story before a word of the article is read.
- A convention is an expected way of doing something in a media form or genre that has become established through repeated use.
- A code is a sign system that carries meaning, whereas a convention is a habitual practice of the form or genre, so low-key lighting is a code that has become a convention of the thriller through repetition.
- Form conventions are shared by every product in a medium, such as a masthead on a magazine, while genre conventions belong only to a type of product within that medium, such as the cover lines used by a fashion title.
- It means the text carries more than one possible meaning, so different audiences can reasonably decode it in different ways.
- Shared codes let an audience decode a product almost instantly, so meaning can be established in a few seconds and the producer can borrow existing associations instead of explaining everything.
questions
Scroll sideways to turn through the pages.
Questions students ask first
My set products are not the same as my friend’s. Does this still work?
Yes. OCR publishes a list of set products and rotates them, and for some sections your centre chooses from a list. The guide is cut by the theoretical framework instead, and every set text on OCR’s lists has its own subtopic, so whichever ones you were taught are in here.
Do I have to name theorists?
Yes. The specification names the academic theories you are assessed on, and a point made without its theorist is credited less than the same point attributed. The guide asks for the theorist, the concept and what it claims separately.
Is the production coursework covered?
No. Components 03 and 04 are the non-examined production, marked by your centre and worth 30 per cent. It is a practical piece rather than examined content.
The guide covers the two written papers, which are 70 per cent between them.
What is on each paper?
Component 01, Media Messages, covers news, advertising and marketing, magazines and music video. Component 02, Evolving Media, covers film, radio, video games, long form television drama and online participatory media. The framework and contexts run through both. The topic list shows which is which.
OCR A-Level Media Studies Active Recall Guide
Every question paired with its answer, grouped by topic and subtopic, ready to work in three passes.