NEA Component 3: Introduction to Cross-Media Production

Component 3 — the Non-Examined Assessment, or NEA — is the creative heart of AQA A-Level Media Studies. Roughly 30% of your overall A-Level grade rides on it. It is where AO3 (creating media products) lives, supported by AO1 and AO2 through the Statement of Intent. Students who treat the NEA as a side project underperform; students who plan it seriously often exceed their exam-paper performance. This lesson gives you the map.

What the NEA Requires

The AQA NEA asks you to produce a cross-media production in response to a brief set by AQA. Cross-media means your production must span at least two media forms — for example, a print magazine with a linked website; a short film with an accompanying social media campaign; a music video with a digital EPK; a podcast with a print launch campaign. The exact brief options change year to year.

The NEA typically consists of:

1. A Statement of Intent (written, often around 500 words)
2. A media production spanning the required forms
3. Evidence of the production process (planning, research, drafts) as required by your centre

Your teacher will guide you through the exact deliverables; the structure that follows is general.

The Role of the Brief

You will be given a brief — or a choice of briefs — that specifies:

• Target audience — often quite specific (age, interest, demographic)
• Genre or form — e.g., a music magazine aimed at a specific subculture
• Purpose — to promote, to inform, to entertain
• Cross-media requirements — which forms must appear, at what scale

Do not deviate from the brief. Briefs are not writing prompts; they are contracts. A beautiful product that ignores the brief will lose you major marks.

How the NEA Is Assessed

AO3 is the headline objective, but the NEA also assesses AO1 and AO2 through the Statement of Intent. AO3 rewards:

• Use of media language appropriate to form, genre, audience, and purpose
• Construction of representations aligned with the brief
• Awareness of industry conventions
• Technical quality
• Cross-media coherence

The Statement of Intent is where AO1 (knowledge of the theoretical framework) and AO2 (applying it to your own production) are assessed.

The Planning Arc

A realistic NEA timeline from briefing to submission typically spans roughly six months, usually from around October of Year 13 to a late-spring internal deadline. Break it into phases:

Phase	Approx. weeks	Key work
Research and audience	2-3	Genre conventions, existing products, audience research
Planning	3-4	Statement of Intent draft, storyboards, page layouts, scripts
Production	6-8	Shooting, designing, writing, recording
Post-production	3-4	Editing, layout, refinement
Finalisation	2-3	Final Statement of Intent, checks, submission

If you miss the research phase, your production will lack genre intelligence — the single most visible weakness in low-band NEAs.

Research and Audience

Good NEA work is researched. You should analyse:

• Existing professional products in the same form and genre
• Audience behaviours — who they are, where they consume, what they expect
• Industry conventions — typography, shot choice, pacing, copy register

Keep a research portfolio — screenshots, notes, annotations — to demonstrate depth. This feeds the Statement of Intent later.

Mini worked example

If your brief is a music magazine aimed at indie music fans aged 18-24, you should:

• Analyse at least three comparable magazines (cover layouts, colour palettes, masthead styles, cover-line registers)
• Identify audience interests (festivals, artists, streaming behaviours)
• Note industry conventions (pricing, ad-to-content ratio, feature lengths)
• Link this to theorists — e.g., Hesmondhalgh on niche cultural industries

Statement of Intent (Overview)

You will write your Statement of Intent towards the end of planning and refine it after production. It articulates: