Presentation of news | AQA A-Level Sociology
Updated: Aug 31
For Specification 7192
AQA A-Level Sociology | Free Revision Notes
Estimated study time: 75 minutes
Selecting a story is only part of news production. Media organisations must also decide how that story will be presented to audiences, and those choices can influence the meanings attached to events, issues and social groups. This Presentation of news A-Level Sociology revision page examines news values, sensational presentation, ownership, ideology, professional control, new media and globalisation. It builds directly on news selection [Selection of news] and prepares you to examine media representations of age [Media representations of age] and other social groups. AQA requires students to understand both the selection and presentation of news content.
Learning Objectives 🎯
By the end of this revision page, you should be able to:
Define what sociologists mean by the presentation of news.
Explain how media professionals may shape the way selected events are presented.
Analyse how news values, sensationalism, ownership and commercial pressures may influence presentation.
Explain how the presentation of news may contribute to particular interpretations of events and social groups.
Examine how new media and globalisation have changed news presentation.
Evaluate Marxist, pluralist and other sociological explanations of news production and presentation.
Revision Notes 📚
Presentation of news A-Level Sociology revision: what you need to know
AQA requires students to understand sociological explanations of "the processes of selection and presentation of the content of the news".
These are connected processes, but they are not identical.
News selection concerns whether an event or issue becomes news.
News presentation concerns how a selected event or issue is communicated to audiences.
Your previous work on news selection [Selection of news] therefore provides an essential starting point.
Once a story has been selected, decisions still have to be made about:
which aspects of it receive emphasis;
how it is described;
how much attention it receives;
which images or material accompany it;
whether it is presented dramatically or sensationally;
which interpretations are made more visible.
Presentation can therefore affect the meaning audiences are offered, even when the underlying event remains the same.
News is socially produced
AQA's specimen assessment describes news as a social construction and emphasises the role of media professionals in deciding which stories appear.
The same principle is important for presentation.
News does not simply arrive in a finished form.
A process of production occurs:
An event or issue becomes available as a potential story.
Media professionals select material for inclusion.
Decisions are made about how the selected material will be presented.
The completed news content is communicated to audiences.
Audiences encounter a particular version or interpretation of the event.
The news audiences receive is therefore the outcome of social decisions made during production.
This does not mean the event itself is necessarily invented.
It means the news account involves decisions about what to emphasise and how to communicate it.
Selection and presentation compared
Selection of news | Presentation of news |
Determines which stories are included | Determines how selected stories are communicated |
Involves gatekeeping | Involves decisions about emphasis and portrayal |
Determines what receives attention | May influence the meaning attached to what receives attention |
Can be affected by ownership, news values and professional judgement | Can also be affected by ownership, news values and professional judgement |
Happens before the audience receives the story | Produces the version of the story the audience encounters |
The distinction matters in examinations.
If the question asks about presentation, an answer dealing only with why the story was originally selected is not sufficiently focused.
How presentation can shape meaning
Different ways of presenting the same broad issue can encourage different interpretations.
Presentation may influence:
which features of an event seem important;
whether behaviour appears ordinary or unusual;
whether an issue seems threatening or reassuring;
how particular social groups are understood;
which explanation of an event appears most convincing.
This is why the study of news presentation leads naturally into AQA's required study of media representations.
For example, understanding how news presentation constructs particular images of young people will help with media representations of age [Media representations of age].
The role of news values
News values are the professional criteria and judgements that influence news production.
They are important to selection, but AQA examiner evidence also confirms that news values can shape presentation. In the 2022 Media questions, the examiner report noted successful explanations that connected news values with both selection and presentation.
Once a story has been selected, news values may affect which aspects receive greatest emphasis.
For example, AQA's 2022 assessment material describes mass media concentrating on exciting stories and sensational headlines in order to attract audiences.
This demonstrates that news presentation is not independent of ideas about what will attract attention.
A useful analytical chain
news value → particular aspect of story considered attractive or significant → that aspect receives greater emphasis → audience encounters a particular presentation of the event
News values therefore affect not only what becomes news, but potentially what the story appears to mean.
Sensational presentation
AQA's 2022 examination material explicitly refers to media concentrating on exciting stories and sensational headlines to attract audiences.
Sensational presentation emphasises striking, dramatic or exciting aspects of a story.
This can affect meaning because the most unusual or dramatic elements may come to represent a wider event or group.
AQA's mark scheme illustrates this through negative representations of young people. It recognises that the media may exaggerate occasional deviant behaviour by a minority of young people.
The process can therefore be:
unusual behaviour occurs → dramatic aspects are emphasised → story becomes more sensational → exceptional behaviour may appear more representative than it actually is
This is an important link between presentation and representation.
Presentation and stereotypes
A stereotype is an oversimplified representation of a social group.
News presentation may contribute to stereotyping if certain characteristics are repeatedly emphasised while others receive less attention.
AQA's 2022 mark scheme explicitly recognises stereotypical representations produced by media professionals when examining negative portrayals of young people.
This means presentation can influence the meanings attached to a social group.
For example:
particular behaviour receives repeated emphasis → group becomes associated with that behaviour → stereotypical representation may be reinforced
This issue becomes central in the next lessons on:
media representations of age [Media representations of age];
media representations of social class [Media representations of social class];
media representations of ethnicity [Media representations of ethnicity];
media representations of gender [Media representations of gender].
Who controls presentation?
Several actors may influence how news is presented:
owners;
editors;
journalists;
other media professionals;
audiences indirectly through commercial demand;
users of new media who produce or circulate material.
This creates one of the main sociological debates.
Does presentation mainly reflect the interests of powerful media owners, or is it shaped by professional judgement, competition and audience preferences?
Owners and news presentation
Ownership can influence both the selection and presentation of news.
AQA's 2022 mark scheme recognises:
owners acting as agenda setters;
news being produced in accordance with owners' business or class interests;
owners requiring editors to follow instructions;
ideology and bias;
propaganda;
concentration of ownership.
These mechanisms can also influence how a selected story is communicated.
An owner does not necessarily need to personally write a story for ownership to matter.
Control may operate through:
organisational priorities;
editorial expectations;
decisions about acceptable content;
the wider ideological position of a media organisation.
This makes media ownership and control [Media ownership and control] an important part of evaluating news production.
Ideology and bias
Ideology refers to a system of ideas and beliefs about society.
Bias refers to content favouring particular interpretations, interests or viewpoints rather than treating all possible interpretations equally.
AQA explicitly identifies ideology and bias as relevant to the relationship between ownership and news content.
From a critical perspective, presentation may therefore shape meaning by:
giving some interpretations greater legitimacy;
presenting particular interests positively;
marginalising alternative explanations;
reproducing dominant assumptions about society.
AQA's 2025 Media mark scheme also recognises that the news values of producers and editors may marginalise coverage of poverty and inequality.
This shows how decisions made within media production can influence which social realities become most visible.
Propaganda
AQA identifies the use of media for propaganda and influencing opinion as relevant to ownership and news content.
Propaganda represents a particularly direct relationship between media presentation and attempts to influence meaning.
News content may be presented in ways intended to encourage audiences towards particular interpretations.
This supports sociological approaches that see media production as connected to wider power relationships.
Evaluation
The existence of propaganda does not prove that all news presentation operates in this way.
Pluralists argue that media organisations compete with one another and can offer alternative interpretations.
Audiences may also reject or reinterpret what they receive.
Editors and journalists
Presentation is also shaped by the professionals who actually produce news.
AQA's examiner report for 2022 states that students successfully explained how controllers can hold stereotypical views and how news values affect selection and presentation.
This is important because media owners do not necessarily make every individual production decision.
Journalists and editors may influence:
the focus of a story;
which material receives emphasis;
how social groups are represented;
how dramatic or sensational a story becomes.
This provides support for explanations that give professional media workers some relative autonomy.
Relative autonomy
Relative autonomy means that professionals may have some independence without necessarily having complete freedom from the organisation within which they work.
Editors can make everyday decisions, but these decisions are still made within media organisations possessing:
owners;
commercial objectives;
established practices;
audience expectations.
This helps avoid two overly simple positions:
"owners control absolutely everything"
and
"journalists are completely independent".
Professional perspectives and representation
Media professionals themselves are social actors.
AQA's 2022 item noted that much mass-media content was produced and controlled by professionals who were middle-aged or older. The mark scheme recognised that this could contribute to stereotypical understandings of youth cultures.
This illustrates a broader sociological point:
the characteristics and perspectives of those producing media content may influence how other groups are presented.
Presentation can therefore reflect not only owner interests but also the assumptions of professional controllers.
Commercial pressures and presentation
News organisations may also need to attract audiences.
AQA's 2022 item directly connects sensational headlines with the goal of attracting audiences.
This provides a commercial explanation of presentation.
The reasoning is:
Media organisations need audiences.
Some forms of presentation may attract greater attention.
News may therefore emphasise dramatic or exciting features.
Commercial pressure can influence how stories are communicated.
This can be interpreted in two different ways.
Critical interpretation
Commercial pressure may encourage sensational presentation rather than a fuller account of an issue.
Pluralist interpretation
The need to attract audiences shows that media organisations cannot simply ignore consumer preferences.
Audience demand may therefore limit the control of owners and journalists.
Tabloidisation
AQA's 2022 mark scheme identifies tabloidisation as a relevant concept when considering the content of news.
Within the evidence supplied by AQA, it is useful to understand this in relation to the growing emphasis on attention-grabbing and sensational presentation.
News presentation may become more focused on:
dramatic material;
exciting content;
presentation designed to attract audiences.
This overlaps with the commercial pressures discussed above.
The key examination point is the effect on presentation, not simply knowing the term.
Presentation and audience attraction
AQA assessment material repeatedly connects media content with the need to attract audiences.
This means the audience may indirectly influence presentation.
If organisations believe that audiences favour:
immediacy;
breaking news;
exciting stories;
dramatic headlines;
they may adapt their presentation accordingly.
Pluralists interpret this as evidence that consumer demand influences media organisations.
Critical sociologists may instead argue that commercial competition itself constrains the type of news produced.
New media and the presentation of news
The growth of new media has altered news production as well as news selection.
AQA's 2020 mark scheme identifies several relevant changes:
greater immediacy;
citizen journalism;
participatory culture;
a wider range of sources and opinions;
changes to the traditional news cycle;
greater accountability;
changes in news values.
This provides a direct connection with the new media [The new media].
Immediacy
Immediacy refers to the growing importance of rapid or instantaneous news coverage.
AQA's 2020 mark scheme states that new media may require news organisations to provide greater immediacy through instantaneous coverage.
This can change presentation because stories may increasingly be communicated as:
breaking news;
rapid updates;
immediate reports.
AQA's 2023 mark scheme also recognises audience expectations for breaking news and live images within global news production.
How immediacy changes presentation
A useful chain is:
faster communication → audiences expect immediate information → news organisations present stories increasingly rapidly → presentation becomes centred on breaking developments
This affects both the form and timing of news.
Live images
AQA's 2023 assessment material specifically recognises the importance of live images for global news audiences.
Live material can make presentation appear especially immediate.
Audiences may experience an event while it is still unfolding rather than only receiving a later completed report.
Evaluation
Immediacy creates a potential problem.
The same AQA mark scheme recognises that pressure to report news as it happens may reduce opportunities for fact-checking.
The 2023 examiner report found that successful students developed this connection between rapid reporting and potentially misleading information.
The key evaluation is therefore:
greater immediacy can make news more accessible and up to date, but speed may reduce the time available to check material before it is presented.
Citizen journalism
Citizen journalism involves ordinary members of the public contributing to news production.
AQA identifies this as an important consequence of new media.
Individuals may record events and make their material available to audiences or professional news organisations.
This affects presentation because the material through which an event is shown no longer has to originate exclusively from professional media workers.
Sociological significance
Citizen journalism may:
widen the range of perspectives available;
challenge professional media accounts;
make previously unavailable material visible;
reduce the exclusive control of traditional media producers.
This supports more optimistic or pluralist interpretations of contemporary media.
Evaluation
Professional organisations still decide how material is used within their own news output.
Citizen production therefore challenges traditional professional control without necessarily removing it.
Participatory culture
AQA's 2020 mark scheme recognises participatory culture as another change associated with new media news production.
The distinction between producer and consumer becomes less clear.
An audience member can:
consume news;
comment on it;
redistribute it;
provide their own material;
challenge an existing presentation.
This means news presentation can become more interactive.
The implications for audiences are examined further in presentation and audience response [Presentation and audience response].
Greater accountability
AQA's 2020 mark scheme also recognises the possibility of heightened accountability because audiences can respond through new media.
Traditional media presentations can therefore be publicly challenged.
Audiences may question:
the accuracy of material;
the interpretation offered;
representations of people or groups.
This limits the idea that professional producers can present news without audience response.
Evaluation
The existence of audience criticism does not guarantee that all audiences have equal influence or that media organisations will change their presentation.
It does, however, make the relationship between producer and audience less one-directional.
Wider sources and opinions
New media make a wider range of sources and opinions more easily available, another change explicitly recognised by AQA.
This may allow audiences to compare different presentations of the same broad issue.
From a pluralist perspective, this supports media diversity.
From a Marxist perspective, however, major corporations can continue to exercise significant ownership and control despite greater apparent choice.
Fake or misleading news
AQA's 2020 mark scheme identifies the proliferation of fake news stories and problems of regulation as relevant consequences of new media.
This is important when evaluating claims that new media automatically improve news production.
Greater participation means more people can produce and circulate content.
However:
more producers → more available material → greater diversity, but not necessarily greater reliability
News production therefore involves a tension between openness and verification.
Globalisation and news presentation
The relationship between globalisation and news content was directly assessed by AQA in 2023.
Globalisation can change presentation through:
faster communication;
international audiences;
breaking news;
live images;
citizen journalism.
This develops your understanding of the media and globalisation [The media and globalisation].
Presentation for global audiences
News organisations may communicate with audiences across different societies.
AQA's mark scheme recognises that global news organisations may tailor content to audiences who expect breaking news and live images.
This means globalisation can influence both:
what audiences expect, and
how organisations present news to meet those expectations.
Globalisation therefore does not simply increase the geographical reach of news.
It can alter news production itself.
Presentation and social representations
Presentation is closely related to AQA's requirement to study media representations.
A story can contribute to the representation of a group through the aspects it repeatedly emphasises.
The 2022 youth question demonstrates this clearly.
AQA linked:
sensational headlines;
exciting stories;
stereotypical assumptions among producers;
with negative portrayals of young people.
This provides a useful bridge between this lesson and media representations of age [Media representations of age].
The same broad sociological issue applies when later considering social class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and disability.
Marxist interpretations of news presentation
Marxist approaches focus on ownership, class power and ideology.
They may argue that the presentation of news is influenced by the interests of powerful groups.
AQA's Media mark schemes recognise:
manipulative or instrumental Marxism;
hegemonic or neo-Marxism;
ideology;
bias;
agenda setting;
ownership and control.
Instrumental or manipulative Marxism
An instrumental Marxist explanation emphasises more direct owner influence.
The reasoning is:
Media ownership is concentrated.
Owners possess substantial economic power.
Owners can influence media organisations.
News may be selected and presented in ways favourable to owner or class interests.
Audiences therefore encounter news shaped by unequal power.
This interpretation fits AQA material recognising that owners may require staff to follow instructions about news content.
Evaluation
This approach may exaggerate direct owner intervention.
Professional journalists and editors make many everyday decisions about presentation.
Different organisations may also offer competing accounts.
Hegemonic or neo-Marxist explanations
A hegemonic or neo-Marxist explanation places less emphasis on owners personally instructing journalists.
Instead, news professionals may work within dominant assumptions about society.
These assumptions can influence:
news values;
professional judgements;
portrayals of social groups;
interpretations considered legitimate.
AQA's assessment framework recognises hegemonic Marxism as relevant to Media explanations.
The argument is therefore:
dominant social assumptions → become embedded within media production → journalists reproduce them through everyday professional decisions → news presentation may reinforce existing ideology
Strength
This can explain patterned presentation without requiring evidence that owners personally interfere with every story.
Evaluation
It can be difficult to distinguish ideological influence from professional news values, organisational routines or genuine attempts to respond to audiences.
Pluralist interpretations of news presentation
Pluralists argue that media power is dispersed rather than concentrated entirely among owners.
News presentation may be influenced by:
professional independence;
competition;
audience preferences;
diversity between media organisations;
new media sources.
If audiences dislike one source, they can potentially choose another.
News organisations therefore have incentives to respond to consumer preferences.
Professional autonomy
Pluralists give considerable importance to journalists and editors.
Different media professionals can make different judgements about:
what aspects of a story matter;
which interpretation deserves attention;
how a story should be communicated.
This helps explain why different media organisations do not always present events identically.
Evaluation
Marxists argue that professional autonomy is constrained by ownership and the organisational context.
Pluralists may therefore underestimate structural inequalities in media power.
Competition and audience demand
Pluralists also argue that media organisations compete for audiences.
AQA's 2020 item sets out this argument directly, stating that competition means owners and companies may have limited power because they need to produce content audiences choose.
This may help explain:
sensational presentation;
emphasis on immediacy;
efforts to produce attention-grabbing news.
From this perspective, presentation reflects consumer demand as well as producer power.
Evaluation
Critical sociologists may argue that choosing between available media presentations is not the same as controlling the conditions under which those presentations are produced.
New-media interpretations
The growth of new media challenges theories that treat professional organisations as the only producers of news.
AQA's 2020 assessment recognises:
citizen journalism;
participatory culture;
audience responses;
greater diversity of sources;
changing news values.
This supports the argument that presentation has become more decentralised.
However, AQA's 2022 examiner report warns against presenting new media only positively. Stronger evaluation recognises the continuing power of large corporations alongside issues such as surveillance and data collection.
The broader lesson is:
technological change may redistribute some opportunities to produce and challenge news without eliminating existing structures of media power.
Comparing explanations of news presentation
Explanation | Main influence on presentation | How meaning may be shaped | Main evaluation |
Instrumental Marxism | Powerful owners | Direct influence may produce content favourable to owner or class interests | May exaggerate direct owner control |
Hegemonic / neo-Marxism | Dominant ideological assumptions within media organisations | Professional presentation may reproduce dominant ideas without direct instructions | May underestimate competing professional and audience influences |
Pluralism | Journalists, editors, markets and audiences | Different organisations produce competing presentations | May underestimate ownership concentration |
New-media approaches | Increasingly diverse producers and active users | Citizen journalism and audience responses challenge traditional presentations | Professional organisations and large corporations remain powerful |
Presentation, content and audiences
The final stage in understanding news production is the audience.
A particular presentation does not automatically produce the same response in every individual.
AQA requires students to study the relationship between the media, their content and presentation, and audiences.
This distinction is important:
presentation affects the media message available to audiences
but
audience response determines how that message is interpreted or used.
Your later work on media content and audiences [Media content and audiences] and presentation and audience response [Presentation and audience response] develops this debate in detail.
Does presentation determine meaning?
It would be too simplistic to say that presentation has no influence.
Media professionals clearly make decisions that can:
emphasise particular information;
reproduce stereotypes;
create sensational accounts;
prioritise particular interpretations.
However, it would also be too simplistic to say that presentation completely controls meaning.
Audiences may:
compare different news sources;
question media accounts;
produce competing accounts through new media;
respond publicly to news content.
The safest sociological conclusion is therefore that presentation offers and emphasises particular meanings, while the eventual audience interpretation cannot automatically be assumed.
A useful overall judgement
News presentation is a social process shaped by several overlapping influences.
Media professionals matter because they construct the finished news account.
News values matter because they affect what aspects of events receive emphasis.
Ownership and ideology may influence the organisational context in which presentation occurs.
Commercial pressures can encourage dramatic or sensational forms of presentation.
New media and globalisation have increased immediacy, live reporting, citizen journalism and audience responses.
No single factor completely determines how news is presented.
A strong sociological judgement therefore recognises an interaction between:
ownership + professional judgement + commercial pressure + technology + audiences
rather than explaining presentation through only one of these.
Key Words 🔑
Key word | Student-friendly definition | How it may be used in an exam |
News presentation | The process through which selected news material is communicated and given emphasis for audiences. | Use to distinguish how a story is communicated from why it was originally selected. |
Social construction of news | The idea that news results from social decisions made during media production rather than simply reproducing events automatically. | Use when explaining why different presentations of events are possible. |
News values | Professional criteria and judgements influencing news production. | Apply when explaining why some aspects of stories receive particular emphasis. |
Sensationalism | Presentation that places strong emphasis on exciting or dramatic elements of a story. | Use when analysing commercial pressures and representations. |
Bias | The favouring of particular interpretations, interests or viewpoints within media content. | Use when evaluating Marxist and other critical explanations of presentation. |
Ideology | A system of ideas and beliefs about society. | Apply when explaining how news presentation may reinforce dominant ideas. |
Immediacy | The increasing emphasis on rapid or instantaneous news coverage. | Use when explaining the effects of new media and globalisation. |
Citizen journalism | News material produced or circulated by members of the public rather than only professional journalists. | Apply when evaluating whether news production has become more diverse. |
Participatory culture | A media environment in which audiences also participate in producing and circulating content. | Use when explaining changes in the relationship between news producers and audiences. |
Pluralism | The view that media power is distributed among competing owners, organisations, professionals and audiences. | Use to evaluate Marxist explanations of control over news presentation. |
Hints from the Examiner Reports 💡
Examiner hint: Make the connection between the factor and the presentation explicit. The 2022 examiner report found that successful students explained how news values shaped both selection and presentation, rather than simply naming news values.
Examiner hint: When explaining representations, answer why the particular group may be presented in that way. In 2022, relatively few students fully explained why young people, rather than other groups, might receive negative treatment.
Examiner hint: Develop the consequences of sensational presentation. AQA's 2022 question linked exciting stories and sensational headlines with negative representations, and stronger analysis needs to explain how emphasis can exaggerate behaviour rather than simply stating that the media are sensational.
Examiner hint: For new-media material, avoid writing only about the advantages. The 2022 examiner report noted that weaker evaluation sometimes concentrated on interactivity and citizen journalism while overlooking continuing corporate power and other limitations.
Examiner hint: Greater speed needs development. AQA's 2023 mark scheme allows students to connect pressure for immediate reporting with reduced opportunities for checking information. Explain the full chain rather than stopping at "news is faster".
Examiner hint: In a 10-mark outline and explain response, develop two distinct points. Evaluation is not required. For a 10-mark analyse response with an item, explicitly use the two item hooks and develop each one.
Examiner hint: In a 20-mark response, compare explanations around the precise issue of news production. AQA's general examiner guidance repeatedly rewards focused evaluation that weighs strengths and limitations and reaches a reasoned judgement rather than listing theories.
Common Mistakes ⚠️
Mistake: Confusing selection with presentation
Why this is incorrect: Selection explains why an event becomes news. Presentation explains how the selected event is communicated.
How to improve: Use this quick test:
"Why was this story included?" = selection
"How was this story portrayed?" = presentation
Mistake: Describing a headline without explaining its sociological significance
Why this is incorrect: A description alone does not show how presentation shapes meaning.
How to improve: Develop the chain:
sensational presentation → dramatic features receive emphasis → exceptional behaviour may appear typical → audience is offered a particular representation
Mistake: Assuming presentation changes the facts of the event
Why this is incorrect: The sociological argument is not that presentation necessarily invents the underlying event.
How to improve: Explain that presentation can influence which aspects are emphasised and which meanings are made most visible.
Mistake: Treating news values as relevant only to selection
Why this is incorrect: AQA's 2022 examiner report explicitly recognises that news values can shape both selection and presentation.
How to improve: Explain how the qualities considered newsworthy may continue to affect the emphasis given to the selected story.
Mistake: Assuming owners personally construct every story
Why this is incorrect: Journalists and editors make many day-to-day decisions about news presentation.
How to improve: Separate ownership from professional control, then evaluate the extent to which professionals possess relative autonomy.
Mistake: Ignoring commercial pressures
Why this is incorrect: AQA assessment material directly links sensational headlines with the need to attract audiences.
How to improve: Ask whether presentation may be shaped by what media organisations believe will gain audience attention.
Mistake: Claiming new media have removed professional control
Why this is incorrect: Citizen journalists provide additional material, but professional media organisations still make decisions about their own news output.
How to improve: Argue that new media challenge or reduce some traditional control, rather than claiming it has disappeared.
Mistake: Assuming the audience receives the intended meaning passively
Why this is incorrect: AQA separately requires the relationship between presentation and audiences, showing that presentation and audience response are not the same process.
How to improve: Conclude that media presentation offers particular meanings, but audience interpretation needs separate analysis in presentation and audience response [Presentation and audience response].
Exam-Style Questions ✍️
Question 1
Define the term news presentation.[2 marks]
Answer:
News presentation is the process through which selected news material is communicated to audiences, including decisions about which aspects receive emphasis.
Award credit for a clear definition that distinguishes presentation from the initial selection of a story.
Question 2
Explain one difference between the selection and presentation of news.[4 marks]
Indicative answer:
Selection concerns which potential events or issues are chosen for inclusion in the news. Presentation concerns how those selected stories are communicated and which aspects are emphasised for audiences.
A developed response should clearly distinguish whether a story appears from how it appears.
Question 3
Outline and explain two ways in which news values may affect the presentation of news.[10 marks]
Indicative mark scheme:
Answers may include:
dramatic or exciting aspects of stories receiving greater emphasis;
sensational headlines being used to attract audiences;
immediacy becoming more important in news presentation;
greater emphasis on breaking developments or live coverage;
professional judgements shaping which aspects of an event are highlighted.
Higher-level responses should develop two distinct ways and explicitly connect:
news value → presentation decision → effect on the version of the story offered to audiences
Evaluation is not required.
Question 4
Outline and explain two ways in which media ownership may influence the presentation of news.[10 marks]
Indicative mark scheme:
One way could involve owner interests:
owners possess organisational power;
editors may operate according to organisational expectations;
content may present issues in ways consistent with business or class interests;
news presentation may therefore show ideological bias.
A second way could involve concentrated ownership:
a small number of owners may control substantial media resources;
similar organisational interests may influence presentation across more than one outlet;
this may increase the potential power of owners to shape news content.
Other valid routes may include:
propaganda;
instructions to editors;
ideology;
bias;
organisational control.
Question 5
Read Item A and answer the question that follows.
Item A
A news organisation regularly concentrates on dramatic incidents because it believes these will attract audiences. When reporting the behaviour of a social group, unusual incidents receive much greater attention than everyday behaviour.
Applying material from Item A, analyse two ways in which the presentation of news may shape meanings attached to social groups.[10 marks]
Indicative mark scheme:
One route could use "dramatic incidents":
sensational presentation;
dramatic material receives particular emphasis;
audiences may come to associate the group with unusual behaviour;
presentation may therefore contribute to a stereotype.
A second route could use "unusual incidents receive much greater attention":
behaviour of a minority may appear representative of the wider group;
ordinary behaviour is less visible;
the resulting portrayal may exaggerate negative characteristics.
For the highest marks, both item hooks should be explicitly applied and developed.
Question 6
Read Item B and answer the question that follows.
Item B
Digital technology allows news organisations to present events to audiences immediately through breaking reports and live material. However, the pressure to publish rapidly may mean that less time is available to check information before it is presented.
Applying material from Item B, analyse two ways in which new media may have changed the presentation of news.[10 marks]
Indicative mark scheme:
One route could use "breaking reports and live material":
greater immediacy;
stories can be presented while events are unfolding;
news presentation becomes faster and more continuous;
audiences receive information much sooner.
A second route could use "less time is available to check information":
competition for immediacy may reduce fact-checking;
inaccurate or misleading material may be presented;
speed can therefore reduce reliability.
Answers should analyse changes to presentation, rather than simply describing new technology.
Question 7
Read Item C and answer the question that follows.
Item C
Professional journalists and editors traditionally played a major role in deciding how events were presented. New media now allow members of the public to record events, circulate their own material and challenge professional news accounts.
Applying material from Item C, analyse two ways in which citizen journalism may affect the presentation of news.[10 marks]
Indicative mark scheme:
One route could use "record events":
news organisations can receive material produced outside professional journalism;
a wider range of visual or other material may become available;
this can alter how an event is presented.
A second route could use "challenge professional news accounts":
audiences can compare professional presentation with alternative accounts;
media organisations may face greater accountability;
traditional professionals have less exclusive control over the meanings made available.
Strong answers should keep citizen journalism linked to the presentation of events, not simply explain that citizens can use new media.
Question 8
Read Item D and answer the question that follows.
Item D
Some sociologists argue that news is produced within organisations controlled by powerful owners. They argue that news content may therefore reflect dominant interests and ideologies.
Other sociologists argue that journalists have professional independence and that media organisations compete for audiences. New media also provide audiences with access to alternative versions of events.
Applying material from Item D and your knowledge, evaluate the view that the presentation of news mainly reflects the interests of powerful media owners.[20 marks]
Indicative mark scheme:
Arguments supporting the view may include:
Marxism;
instrumental or manipulative Marxism;
ownership and control;
concentration of ownership;
ideology;
bias;
propaganda;
owner influence over editors;
business and class interests;
hegemonic or neo-Marxist explanations.
Evaluation may include:
professional autonomy of journalists and editors;
news values;
pluralism;
competition;
audience demand;
diversity between media organisations;
citizen journalism;
new media;
greater accountability;
access to alternative sources.
Higher-level responses should evaluate the extent to which ownership translates into control over presentation rather than simply giving a general account of ownership.
A reasoned conclusion might argue that ownership provides powerful structural influence over the organisations producing news, but presentation is also shaped by professional decisions, commercial pressures, technology and increasingly active audiences.
Question 9
Read Item E and answer the question that follows.
Item E
News organisations increasingly present stories as they happen and use material from a wider range of professional and non-professional sources. Some sociologists argue that these developments have made news more diverse and responsive to audiences.
Others argue that powerful organisations continue to control much of news production and that pressure for dramatic and immediate content can reduce the quality of news presentation.
Applying material from Item E and your knowledge, evaluate sociological explanations of the presentation of news in contemporary society.[20 marks]
Indicative mark scheme:
Relevant material may include:
social construction of news;
news values;
professional control;
sensational presentation;
audience attraction;
ownership and control;
Marxism;
hegemonic or neo-Marxism;
ideology and bias;
pluralism;
commercial competition;
new media;
immediacy;
breaking news;
live material;
citizen journalism;
participatory culture;
wider sources and opinions;
accountability;
misleading information;
globalisation.
Strong answers should compare explanations rather than simply list factors.
A balanced judgement might argue that contemporary news presentation is more open and immediate than in a model dominated entirely by traditional professional producers. However, the growth of new media has not removed ownership, professional news values or commercial pressures. News presentation is therefore best explained as the outcome of several competing influences rather than any single source of control.
Comments