Our final media topic on the coursework side is Radio. We have two CSPs to study for this topic and also need to consider the place for radio in a digital media landscape. Radio CSPS
War of the Worlds – Columbia Broadcasting Company (1938) Newsbeat – BBC Radio 1 These are targeted CSPs and need to be studied with reference to two elements of the Theoretical Framework (Audiences and Industries) and all relevant contexts (Social, Cultural, Political, Historical).
Example exam questions
Briefly define public service broadcasting. [2 marks]
Identify two strategies or techniques used by Radio 1 to attract a youth audience. Explain the reason for each. [4 marks]
Explain how regulatory contexts shape the output of media industries. You should refer to your radio Close Study Product, Newsbeat. [9 marks]
To what extent is War of the Worlds a historically significant media product? [20 marks]
Key question: Is radio still relevant in the digital age? How does radio respond to the digital media landscape we now find ourselves in. Will younger audiences listen to the radio? Does it have influence? Are podcasts the future for younger listeners? BBC Sounds BBC Sounds is a relatively new app designed to bring younger listeners to BBC Radio content. It aims to fulfil its requirements as a public service broadcaster while also responding to the demands of the digital media landscape.
Download the BBC Sounds app on your phone and try to listen to some of the content over the next few weeks, especially Radio 1. Introduction to radio: blog tasks Create a new blogpost called 'Introduction to Radio' on your Media 2 Coursework blog and complete the following tasks:
Read Media Factsheet #224 Understanding the Industrial Context of Radio. This will give you a wider perspective on industry contexts for radio with particular focus on the industry theorists (Hesmondhalgh, Curran & Seaton, Livingstone & Lunt). Answer the following questions:
1) Read the first two pages of the factsheet. How does the Factsheet argue that radio still has cultural significance in the digital age?
2) Look at the page 4 section on media theories. Briefly summarise the ideas of Curran and Seaton, Hesmondhalgh and Livingstone and Lunt.
3) What is the definition of public service broadcasting?
4) Look at the list of eight key principles for BBC Radio on page 6 of the factsheet. Choose the three you think are most significant and explain why.
5) What does the Factsheet suggest is the future of PSB radio? Do you agree?
The second part of our GQ case study explores Audience and Industry contexts.
Audience
To explore the Audience context for GQ we need to think about who reads GQ and what audience pleasures might be linked to the brand.
GQ: numbers
GQ (UK edition) had a circulation of around 69,000 in 2025 (a decline on the 85,000 in 2022) which included 20,000 free copies (e.g. provided to airport lounges/Eurostar). GQ’s total readership is around 200,000 meaning each copy is read on average by 2 or 3 people.
Definitions: Circulation is the actual number of copies printed and distributed. Readership is an estimate of how many people read the magazine in total (also known as readers-per-copy). For GQ, copies in an airport lounge may be read by many different people.
Circulation figures are provided by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) and readership estimates by the National Readership Survey (NRS).
Demographics and psychographics
GQ has a largely middle class readership:
ABC1: 61%
With an average household income of £138k, GQ attracts wealthy readers with money to spend. This encourages top-end brands to advertise with the magazine.
The GQ Media Pack focuses on products that reflect a certain lifestyle such as fashion, watches, grooming and cars. This would suggest targeting the Aspirer and Succeeder psychographic groups.
Audience pleasures
There are many potential audience pleasures for GQ readers. Applying Blumler & Katz’s Uses & Gratifications theory, two in particular would be:
Personal identity: Readers enjoy having their lifestyle reflected and endorsed through reading the magazine.
Surveillance: GQ focuses on offering a range of content to help their readers be informed about the world – particularly in terms of politics, fashion and culture.
Industries
To explore the Industries context for GQ we need to study publisher Conde Nast and look at the impact of digital media on the print magazine industry.
This means interrogating why the internet has had such a devastating effect on certain print brands and why some other magazines are continuing to survive in the digital age. We also need to spend some time on the GQ website and study social media and video content to see how the brand is expanding beyond print. GQ publisher: Conde Nast
Condé Nast was founded in 1909 in New York. It describes itself:
“Condé Nast is one of the world's most renowned media companies creating and distributing every type of media today — print, video and film, digital, audio and social – widening our influence through technological innovation and by fully leveraging the global infrastructure we've built for over a century.”
Its revenue was just under $2billion in 2021 but in previous years had been losing $100m a year.
Condé Nast is owned by Advance Publications which makes it a case study in conglomerate ownership. Advance Publications is also a major shareholder in website Reddit and Warner Bros. Discovery.
The impact of digital media on the magazine industry
Suggestions for SWOT analysis of the impact of digital media on magazines:
Strengths: Magazine brands are well established to diversify online, audiences already know and like them.
Weaknesses: Print publishers do not have the expertise or knowledge of digital – it is a very different medium.
Opportunities: Magazines can find new audiences online.
Threats: Audiences will stop buying paper products and expect everything online for free.
Ultimately, it is this threat that has had the most devastating impact on the industry:
Print sales fell by 42% from 23.8m to 13.9m between 2010 and 2017.
Back in 2000, sales were over 30m – signalling a 55% decline in just 17 years.
Advertising in consumer magazines fell from £512m in 2010 to £250m in 2017.
Google and Facebook now dominate online advertising (they account for 65% of the UK digital ad market).
As a result of these changes, many magazines have closed.
GQ and diversification
The decline in print media has meant traditional print publishers like Condé Nast have had to diversify on to digital platforms and live experiences.
This means social media and video and streaming content is crucial to the GQ brand alongside the GQ Heroes summit held in Oxfordshire each summer. It is described:
“GQ Heroes is a premier event for top-tier business and creative minds, bringing together some of the world's most influential figures to discuss the evolving nature of industry and creativity in a world that's changing by the second.”
GQ - Audience & Industries blog tasks
Audience
Look through the GQ Media Kit and answer the following questions:
1) How does the media kit introduction describe GQ?
2) What does the media kit suggest about masculinity?
3) Pick out three statistics from the data on page 2 and explain what they suggest about the GQ audience.
4) Look at page 3 - brand highlights. What special editions do GQ run and what do these suggest about the GQ audience?
5) Still on page 3, what does the video and social series section suggest about how magazine audiences are changing?
Media Magazine feature: GQ
Go to our Media Magazine archive and read the article on GQ (MM82 - page 12). Answer the following questions:
1) What are the elements that go into choosing a cover stars for GQ?
2) How is the magazine constructed to serve the target audience?
3) What does the article suggest about GQ's advertisers and sponsorships - and what in turn does this tell us about the GQ audience?
4) What is GQ Hype - and how does it reflect the impact of digital media on traditional print media?
5) Finally, what does the article say about additional revenue streams for print magazines like GQ?
Industries
Your industries contexts are divided into three areas - Conde Nast, GQ's website and social media content and the impact of digital media on print industries.
Condé Nast Read this Guardian news article on editorial changes at Condé Nast and answer the following questions: 1) Who was previously GQ editor for 22 years? 2) What happened to the 'lads' mag' boom magazines such as Nuts, Maxim and Loaded? 3) What changes have been taking place at Condé Nast in recent years and why?
1) How is Condé Nast moving away from traditional print products?
2) What examples are provided of Condé Nast's video and streaming content?
3) What does the end of the article suggest modern media audiences want?
GQ website, video and social media content
Visit the GQ website, Instagram and YouTube channel. Note that some of these may be blocked in school. Once you have looked over GQ's online content, answer the following questions:
1) What similarities do you notice between the website and the print edition of the magazine? 2) Analyse the top menu of the GQ website (e.g. Fashion / Grooming / Culture). What do the menu items suggest about GQ's audience?
3) What does GQ's Instagram feed suggest about the GQ brand? Is this appealing to a similar audience to the print version of the magazine? 4) In your opinion, is GQ's social media content designed to sell the print magazine or build a digital audience? Why? 5) Evaluate the success of the GQ brand online. Does it successfully communicate with its target audience? Will the digital platforms eventually replace the print magazine completely?
The magazine cover production task was a brilliant introduction to Adobe Photoshop/InDesign and the kind of work we will be doing for coursework next year.
Thank you for your patience in receiving feedback on this - we've been snowed under with coursework marking and exam preparation so you may have waited a while for your mark.
Depending on lesson timetabling and staff availability, you will receive this feedback either via email or verbally/handwritten in class. It will be marked out of 15 using the NEA (non-exam assessment) mark scheme. This divides up your mark using the different Media concepts: Media Language, Media Representations, Media Industries and Audiences. For this front cover assignment, we are only using the mark scheme for Media Language:
Magazine front cover - Learner response
Create a new blogpost called 'Magazine cover learner response' and complete the following tasks:
1) Add your finished magazine cover as a JPEG image.
2) Type up your feedback from your teacher. If you've received this by email, you can copy and paste it across - WWW and EBI. You don't need to include a mark or grade if you don't want to.
3) Consider your mark against the mark scheme above. What are the strengths of your production based on the the mark scheme? Think about magazine cover conventions and the media language techniques you have used to communicate with your audience (e.g. mise-en-scene, camera shot etc.) Notice the focus on narrative in the mark scheme for Media language.
4) Look at the mark scheme again. What can you do to move your mark higher and, if required, move up a level?
5) What would be one piece of advice you would give a student about to start the same magazine cover project you have just completed?
Complete for homework - due date on Show My Homework.
The Advertising & Marketing assessment was a great opportunity to keep learning the skills we'll need in your next set of mocks and in next year's exams.
The first part of your learner response is to look carefully at your mark, grade and comments from your teacher. If anything doesn't make sense, ask your teacher - it's crucial we're learning from the process of assessments and feedback.
Learner response blog tasks
Create a new blog post called 'Advertising & Marketing assessment learner response' and complete the following tasks:
1) Type up your feedback in full (you don't need to write the mark and grade if you want to keep this confidential). For the EBI (write down each bullet point for each question)
2) Read the whole mark scheme for this assessment carefully (find this on your class Google Classroom). Identify at least one potential point that you missed out on for each question in the assessment.
3) Look at your answer and the mark scheme for Question 1 (Diamonds advert unseen text). List three examples of media terminology or theory that you could have included in your answer.
4) Look at your answer and the mark scheme for Question 2. What aspects of the cultural and historical context for the Score hair cream advert do you need to revise or develop in future?
5) Now look over your mark, comments and the mark scheme for Question 3 - the 9-mark question on Sephora 'Black Beauty is Beauty'. List any postcolonial terminology you could have added to your answer here and link this to a moment in the advert.
If you do not finish your learner response in the lesson your work is returned, this needs to be completed at home - due date on Show My Homework.
Your Year 12 Media exams will be a great opportunity to practice exam skills and work out what progress you need to make next year to reach your targets.
Your exams will be two mini-versions of the real exams you'll do next summer. Below is a full guide to what you need to revise for each section of the exam. Please note that the current topic of Magazines will NOT be tested in these exams as we have only studied one of the CSPs. Instead, we'll give you a baseline assessment at the start of Year 13 that will focus on Magazines and Radio.
Know your exams
One of the most important aspects of preparing for examinations is knowing exactly what topics could come up in each exam. For your A Level Media exams, your Year 12 content will come up in the following places:
Music Video: Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus - Old Town Road and The Specials - Ghost Town (12 or 9 marks in this exam). The Music Video lesson slides are here.
Your real exam in Year 13 will also contain a 20-mark essay evaluating theory linked to either the Advertising or Music Video CSPs but this will not be part of your Year 12 exam due to time limitations.
Revision is a very personal thing and everyone has different techniques. Think back to your GCSE exams and which systems worked for you. If you're open to new techniques, here's a video on YouTube with top tips for A* A Level revision:
Personally, I strongly recommend using flash cards (they are often called record cards if you are trying to buy them online or in WHSmiths). The simple act of distilling topics into a few key words or phrases to put on the card will seriously help in remembering the key information in the final exams. I have spare flash cards in DF05 if you'd like some.
In summary, you need to revise the following for your Year 12 Media exams:
All media language and theory learned throughout the course so far - look back particularly at the extended MIGRAIN Introduction to Media unit as this contained a lot of key terminology and theory e.g. genre, narrative, industry theory, gender theory etc.
All our CSPs and associated theory - and focus in on the areas YOU ideally want to write about in next year's exams e.g. politics or postmodernism for TV, Gilroy, double consciousness or postmodernism in Music Video etc.
Good luck with your revision and give these exams your best shot!
Our first Magazine Close-Study Product is men's lifestyle magazine GQ.
We need to study this across all four key concepts but will begin with a focus on language and representations. Notes from the lesson
GQ was launched in the UK in 1988 as a monthly men’s lifestyle magazine.
The magazine evolved from two American magazines: Apparel Arts was launched in New York in 1931 and later evolved into Gentleman’s Quarterly – which was then shortened to GQ.
It is published by international media giant Condé Nast.
GQ: cultural significance
GQ represents a notable social and cultural shift in expectations of contemporary masculinity (compared for example with the Score hair cream advert).
For example, the influence of fashion, consumerism, diversity, body image and changes in what society deems acceptable and unacceptable when it comes to masculinity.
Will Welch – new editorial direction
GQ’s global editorial director Will Welch introduced significant changes to the magazine’s approach. He placed less emphasis on print and instead focused on web, social media and video content.
Welch also championed the concept of ‘New Masculinity’ and explored of how traditional notions of masculinity are being challenged and overturned. GQ has since featured a number of celebrities, including Brad Pitt, Pharrell Williams, and Robert Pattinson, in cover shoots that defy gender stereotypes. He also said that the magazine has been moving from giving general style advice to offering examples of self-expression.
Representations
GQ's new editorial direction gives us plenty to think about regarding representations and masculinity. Revise the theories we have covered:
David Gauntlett on masculinity
“The mass media is a force for change… The traditional view of a woman as a housewife or low-status worker has been kick-boxed out of the picture by the feisty, successful 'girl power' icons. Meanwhile the masculine ideals of absolute toughness, stubborn self-reliance and emotional silence have been shaken by a new emphasis on men's emotions, need for advice, and the problems of masculinity.”
“Views of gender and sexuality, masculinity and femininity, identity and selfhood, are all in slow but steady processes of change and transformation.”
Raewyn Connell: hegemonic masculinity
Hegemonic masculinity is a concept of proposed practices that promote the dominant social position of men, and the subordinate social position of women. According to Connell, hegemonic masculinity is:
“The configuration of gender practice which embodies the currently accepted answer to the problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy, which guarantees (or is taken to guarantee) the dominant position of men and the subordination of women.”
Does GQ magazine contribute to maintaining the dominant position of men in society?
bell hooks: “normalised traumatisation”
Feminist writer bell hooks has highlighted the corrosive, damaging effect of toxic masculinity on both men and women.
She builds on Judith Butler’s work, agreeing that gender roles are constructed, not ‘natural’. In fact, she suggests that patriarchy (a male dominated society) indoctrinates people from an early age so “gender becomes a set of connotations that have become naturalised”.
This then results in “normalised traumatisation” – meaning the damage caused by these representations is simply accepted as part of society.
Van Zoonen: “sex role stereotypes”
Liesbet van Zoonen suggests that the media reinforces sex role stereotypes, helping to construct gender roles. She gives examples of reinforcing sex-appropriate behaviours and the use of airbrushing to change appearances.
She accepts that the media sexualises both men’s and women’s bodies but highlights key differences. The representation of women’s sexuality is generally submissive and disempowering. In contrast, representations of male sexuality are based on strength and power.
Some of GQ's video content is clearly inspired by the 'new masculinity' that Will Welch has pushed such as this Netflix Heartstopper feature. Does this mean that GQ challenges the gender theories we have learned?
GQ - Language & Representation blog tasks
Create a blogpost called 'GQ: Language and Representation' and complete the following tasks: Language: Media factsheet
1) What are the different magazine genres highlighted on page 2 and how do they link to our magazine CSPs?
2) Look at the section on GQ on page 2. How do they suggest that GQ targets its audience?
3) What does the factsheet say about GQ cover stars?
4) Pick out five of the key conventions of magazine front covers and explain what they communicate to an audience.
5) What is a magazine’s ‘house style’? How would you describe GQ’s house style?
Extension tasks: Look at the final pages of the magazine factsheet that focus on creating magazine pages for coursework. What can you take from this to help future coursework projects?
1) Write a summary of our annotations on the media language choices on the cover of GQ - e.g. colour scheme, typography, language, photographic codes etc. 2) Identify three specific aspects/conventions/important points (e.g. cover lines, colour scheme, use of text, image etc.) from each page/feature of the CSP that you could refer to in a future exam. Explain why that particular aspect of the CSP is important - think about connotations, representations, audience pleasures, reception theory etc.
Front cover: Robert Pattinson image - Art & Fashion issue
Inside pages: Jonathan Bailey feature and fashion shoot
3) Apply narrative theories to GQ - Todorov's equilibrium, Propp's character types, Barthes' action or enigma codes, Levi-Strauss's binary opposition. How can we use narrative to understand the way the cover and features have been constructed? 4) Analyse the cover and inside pages of GQ. Does this offer an example of Steve Neale's genre theory concerning 'repetition and difference'?
Representations: applying theory We have already covered many relevant theories in our work on Advertising and Marketing (for example, David Gauntlett's writing on Media, Gender and Identity). We now need to apply these theories and ideas to GQ and specifically the CSP pages allocated by AQA. 1) How can Gauntlett's ideas on masculinity, gender and identity be applied to the GQ CSP pages we have analysed? 2) How could van Zoonen's work on feminist and gender theory be applied to GQ? Does the magazine challenge or reinforce these ideas? 3) Does bell hooks's work on 'corrosive masculinity' apply to GQ?
4) How does the Jonathan Bailey feature represent masculinity and sexuality? Representations: wider reading - GQ and the new masculinity Read this CNN feature on how GQ is redefining masculinity and answer the following questions: 1) Which GQ issue is discussed at the start of the article and what was notable about it?
2) How did Will Welch view GQ when he took over as Editor-in-Chief and what did he want to offer readers?
3) How has publisher Conde Nast responded to changes in the magazine industry and how did this impact GQ?
4) What did the GQ New Masculinity edition feature?
5) What did journalist Liz Plank say about toxic masculinity?
6) How did Welch respond to suggestions GQ was responsible for toxic masculinity?
1) What does the article suggest masculinity involved at the start of the 20th century?
2) What social change occurred from the 1930s?
3) What is suggested about masculinity today?
4) Why does it suggest these changes are important?
A/A* extension tasks
Read more of GQ's New Masculinity issue - you may need to register (for free) with the GQ website to access this. How is masculinity and identity discussed? Can you link it to any of our theorists?
There is also a New York Times interview with Will Welch which covers GQ's new approach to masculinity. The New York Times has a paywall but you can usually read the first article you click on for free.
We need to produce a final index for our Music Video unit. As we've established now, keeping an index of all your work is extremely good practice from a revision perspective. This keeps the vital CSP information fresh in your mind and also highlights if you've missed anything for whatever reason. This is particularly important with an end-of-year assessment approaching and remember music video will appear in Paper 1 Section A.
Music Video: index Your final Music Video index should include the following:
For your index, it needs to link to YOUR corresponding blogpost so you can access your work and revision notes quickly and easily. This also means if you have missed anything you can now catch up with the work/notes and won't underperform in future exams due to gaps in your knowledge.
