Paper 2: Media Two — Structure and Focus

Paper 2, titled Media Two, extends your study into how media products, industries, and audiences change in digital environments. It is the paper where synoptic thinking — connecting ideas across forms, platforms, and contexts — is most rewarded. You will be expected to link CSPs from different media forms, to discuss how online and digital distribution reshape traditional forms, and to evaluate the role of industries and audiences in a converged media landscape.

The Shape of Paper 2

Like Paper 1, Paper 2 is a written examination. Where Paper 1 privileges media language and representation, Paper 2 tilts more heavily towards industries and audiences, and towards digital, online, and participatory media. You should expect CSPs drawn from areas such as:

• Radio (including online extensions)
• Video games and online gaming culture
• Television (often including streaming and online distribution)
• Newspapers (including their online platforms)
• Online and participatory media (social media, blogs, influencers)

The paper typically divides into two sections, each mixing short-answer and extended-response questions, with one or more longer essays requiring synoptic treatment.

What Makes Paper 2 Different

Three features distinguish Paper 2 from Paper 1:

1. Synoptic focus — You are expected to draw links across different media forms and across the theoretical framework.
2. Industries and Audiences priority — While language and representation are not ignored, questions here often anchor in how products are produced, distributed, regulated, funded, and received.
3. Digital and participatory emphasis — You must engage with how online and digital platforms have transformed CSPs, even those that originated in traditional forms.

Key Theoretical Areas for Paper 2

You should be confident applying theorists in the industries and audiences areas, including:

• Curran and Seaton — power and ownership in the media
• Livingstone and Lunt — regulation, citizens and consumers
• Hesmondhalgh — cultural industries
• Jenkins — participatory culture and convergence
• Shirky — the end of audience
• Clay Shirky and Jean Burgess — digital audiences and platforms
• Bandura — media effects and social learning
• Gerbner — cultivation theory

Paper 2 questions frequently invite you to apply these to specific industrial or audience phenomena: platform ownership, audience participation, regulation, or monetisation.

Question Types in Paper 2

1. Industries-focused short questions

These might ask about ownership, regulation, funding models, or distribution of a named CSP. They typically reward AO1 (accurate knowledge) combined with concise AO2 (interpretation of industrial significance).

2. Audience-focused analysis

Questions that ask how a product targets, reaches, or positions its audience; how audiences respond; and how participatory audiences shape the product itself.

3. Cross-form synoptic essays

The flagship question type for Paper 2. You will be asked to draw links between two or more CSPs from different forms, typically under a unifying concept such as convergence, representation in digital spaces, audience participation, or the pressures of digitisation on traditional forms.

4. Theorised evaluation essays

Similar to Paper 1's theorised essays, but anchored in industries/audiences theory and often with explicit digital or online framing.

Worked Example — A Synoptic Question

Hypothetical question (approx. 25 marks): "Digital platforms have fundamentally reshaped the relationship between media producers and audiences." Evaluate this statement with reference to CSPs from two different media forms.

Strategy: