This document provides a detailed list of potential topics that could be asked about for analysis in relation to media language and representation for Question 2. It covers various aspects of genre, representations, codes and conventions, audience interpretation, and relevant theoretical approaches. The list includes how genres can be socially constructed and dynamic, the significance of challenging conventions, representations of events and groups, the role of selection and combination, and theories around representation, identity, gender and postcolonialism.

1. Question 2 is focussed on genre but any element of the
subject content for media language and representation could
be asked about for analysis (spec pages 24-26).
● how the different modes and language associated with different media
forms communicate multiple meanings
● how the combination of elements of media language influence meaning
● how developing technologies affect media language
● the codes and conventions of media forms and products, including the
processes through which media language develops as genre
● the dynamic and historically relative nature of genre
● the processes through which meanings are established through
intertextuality
● how audiences respond to and interpret the above aspects of media
language.
● how genre conventions are socially and historically relative, dynamic and
can be used in a hybrid way
● the significance of challenging and/or subverting genre conventions
● the significance of the varieties of ways in which intertextuality can be used
in the media
● the way media language incorporates viewpoints and ideologies.
● semiotics, including Barthes
● narratology, including Todorov
● genre theory, including Neale
● structuralism, including Lévi-Strauss
● postmodernism, including Baudrillard

2. Question 2 is focussed on genre but any element of the
subject content for media language and representation could
be asked about for analysis (spec pages 24-26).
● the way events, issues, individuals (including selfrepresentation) and social groups
(including social identity) are represented through processes of selection and
combination
● the way the media through re-presentation constructs versions of reality
● the processes which lead media producers to make choices about how to represent
events, issues, individuals and social groups
● the effect of social and cultural context on representations
● how and why stereotypes can be used positively and negatively
● how and why particular social groups, in a national and global context, may be
under-represented or misrepresented
● how media representations convey values, attitudes and beliefs about the world and
how these may be systematically reinforced across a wide range of media
representations
● how audiences respond to and interpret media representations
● the way in which representations make claims about realism
● the impact of industry contexts on the choices media producers make about how to
represent events, issues, individuals and social groups
● the effect of historical context on representations
● how representations may invoke discourses and ideologies and position audiences
● how audience responses to and interpretations of media representations reflect
social, cultural and historical circumstances.
● theories of representation, including Hall
● theories of identity, including Gauntlett
● feminist theories, including Bell Hooks and Van Zoonen
● theories of gender performativity, including Butler
● theories around ethnicity and postcolonial theory, including Gilroy

3. Applying media terminology and
analysing why choices have been made
Find examples of media terminology being used on the
front cover of two newspapers
What is the effect of this media language? How can
elements be combined to create meaning?
How could this be interpreted differently?

4. Conventions in British newspapers
Layout
Broadsheet and Tabloid
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/sep/12/pressandpublishing.newsp
aperformats1
The overall effect of combination and positioning

5. Conventions in British newspapers
Layout
Broadsheet and Tabloid
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/sep/12/pressandpublishing.newsp
aperformats1
The overall effect of combination and positioning

6. Different papers
How the content is
different for different
newspapers:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/
news/blogs-the-papers-
47599614

7. Front pages from Monday

8. The Guardian pages 2 and 3

9. Daily Mail pages 2 and 3

10. The Guardian Brexit double-page spread (pages 6-7)

11. The Guardian Brexit double-page spread (pages 10-11)

12. Daily Mail – two other pages (7 and 9)

13. The Guardian – double-page spread on
knife-crime (12-13)

14. Question 2
Sources A and B cover the same news event but are from
different genres of newspaper.
How far has genre influenced the media language used in
Sources A and B?
In your answer you must:
● outline genre conventions in British newspapers
● analyse the contrasting use of media language in the
sources
● make judgements and reach conclusions about how far
genre has influenced the media language used. [15]
Plan a response.
The bullet points work well as a plan.