Re-presentation and reality — AQA GCSE Media Studies 8572
AQA GCSE Media Studies · 8572
Re-presentation and reality
Media representations
What you need to know
Why the media re-present rather than present the world: selection, construction and mediation.
Realism: why some representations seem more truthful than others, and the competing ideas that the media are a window on the world and that the medium is the message.
Producers' choices and audience positioning, and selective, biased and prejudiced representation.
How purpose changes representation: persuasion in advertising and marketing, political bias and propaganda.
McLuhan, who coined the idea that the medium is the message, and Stuart Hall, who looked at how products position audiences to accept a preferred reading: useful perspectives, though not ones the specification requires.
The Close Study Products for 2027 and 2028 exams are His Dark Materials ('The City of Magpies') and Doctor Who ('An Unearthly Child'); the Daily Mirror and The Times; Marcus Rashford's and Kim Kardashian's online presence; Lara Croft Go, with Blackpink The Game for 2027 exams and Lego Fortnite for 2028 exams; the Galaxy, Represent and OMO adverts; the Tatler and Heat covers; Black Widow and I, Daniel Blake; the Arctic Monkeys and Blackpink videos; and Radio 1's launch and Kiss Breakfast. Kim Kardashian: Hollywood was set only for 2025, so past questions on it are practice only.
