This document provides information for students taking the A2 Sociology course at Knights Haberdashers' Aske's Federation Sixth Form. It outlines the units and exams for Mass Media (Unit 3) and Crime and Deviance (Unit 4), including exam dates and marks available. Revision materials and resources are listed, including a revision checklist and sample exam questions for each unit. Contact information is provided for two teachers, Mrs. Griffiths and Mr. Pearce, and the document specifies that it is for the new AQA Sociology GCE specification.

1. Sociology A2 at Knights
Unit 3: Mass Media
Unit 4: Crime and Deviance
Revision pack
Haberdashers’ Aske’s Federation Sixth Form
Mrs Griffiths: sj-griffiths@hahc.org.uk
Mr Pearce: sd-pearce@hahc.org.uk
2012

2. Unit 3 exam: Wednesday 13th
June, am
Unit 4 exam: Tuesday 19th
June, pm
Easter Revision: tbc
A2 Syllabus: AQA Sociology GCE (new specification)
Unit 3: Mass Media (SCLY3)
• Worth 20% of your final A Level
• Written paper, 1 hour 30 minutes
• 60 marks available
Unit 4: Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods (SCLY4)
• Worth 30% of your final A Level
• Written paper, 2 hours
• 90 marks available
Timetable
• Use your revision checklists to draw up a timetable for revision leading up to the exam. Make
sure you cover everything, but make sure it is manageable – you can’t spend every minute
working, so allow yourself some time off, both short breaks and occasional days or half days.
• Try http://getrevising.co.uk/
Resources
• Handouts and powerpoints from lessons are available on the shared drive and on the VLE.
• Additional revision resources will be available to download from the VLE
• Use the list of websites in this pack to help you identify other useful revision resources
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3. AQA SCLY3
Unit 3: Mass Media
There are 4 sections – choose the CORRECT one, Mass Media (should be section C), and answer all the
questions from that section.
Time allowed: 1 hour 30 mins
Maximum marks: 60
Time per mark = max 1.5 min.
Questions carrying 18+marks should be answered in continuous prose and you will be marked on your
ability to use good English, to organise information clearly and to use specialist vocabulary where
appropriate.
Answer question 10 and 11 and either 12 OR 13.
Possible Question outlines Marks Timing
10 Identify and briefly explain 3 ways / problems…
e.g. 3 ways in which the news is socially constructed
9 marks <15
mins
To get full marks for either permutations of this question, you need to:
• Identify 3 separate pieces of relevant and appropriate sociological evidence that support the view
expressed in the item, you will get 1 mark for each relevant and appropriate identification.
• Give a detailed, but brief, explanation of how the identified sociological evidence supports the view
expressed in question (a).
Question 10 might also be expressed as one 3 mark and one 6 mark question, but the process of
identifying or explaining is the same.
Possible 10 questions:
• Identify and briefly explain three problems of using ‘laboratory-style experiments’ to study the
effects of the mass media on their audiences (Item C, line 4). (9 marks) (specimen paper)
• Identify and briefly explain three ways in which the news could be said to be “a social construct
that is ‘manufactured’.” (Item C, line 3). (9 marks) (January 2010)
• Identify and briefly explain three examples of news values. (9 marks) (June 2010)
• Identify and briefly explain three ways in which media representations of sexuality and/or disability
could be said to be stereotypical. (9 marks) (January 2011)
• Identify and briefly explain three ways in which governments seek to influence or control the
output of the mass media. (9 marks) (June 2011)
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A2 Sociology, Revision 2012

4. 11 Using the item provided, assess the view that…
e.g. exposure to media violence does not produce violent behaviour in the
audience
18
marks
<25
mins
Refers to Item C, but on this occasion you are asked to use Item C in your answer, you must do this, to get
the full 18 marks.
You get 6 marks for AO1 skills, and 12 marks for AO2 skills. So, weight your answers much more heavily in
terms of Analysis, Interpretation, Evaluation and Application.
To get full marks for this question, you have to successfully interpret material and apply it to answering the
question, and explicitly refer back to the question, make it clear how your discussion is answering the
question. It is acceptable to repeat key language from the question when doing this, however, don’t simply
make statements such as and this shows how exposure to media violence does not produce violent
behaviour in the audience. This is not good enough, you must explain how your discussion of relevant
evidence answers the question.
Possible 11 questions
• Using material from Item C and elsewhere, assess the view that exposure to media violence does
not produce violent behaviour in the audience. (18 marks) (Specimen paper)
• Using material from Item C and elsewhere, assess the view that media imperialism threatens ‘the
cultural identities of many countries’ (Item C, line 12). (18 marks) (January 2010)
• Using material from Item C and elsewhere, examine how the new media have affected the role of
the mass media in society today. (18 marks) (June 2010)
• Using material from Item C and elsewhere, assess the view that ‘today’s children use the media in
new and very different ways from their parents’, (Item C, lines 14 – 15). (18 marks) (January
2011)
• Using material from Item C and elsewhere, assess the view that the selection and presentation of
the news ‘is inevitably partial and biased’ (Item C, lines 13–14). (18 marks) (June 2011)
12/1
3
essay question: [ ‘quote’] to what extent do sociological arguments and
evidence support this view.
e.g. ‘Both the selection and presentation of news are ideologically
controlled.’
33
marks
<50
mins
Questions 12 and 13 are the final questions on the Mass Media paper; they are each worth 33 marks. You
choose one of these questions. You DON’T ANSWER BOTH.
You get 15 marks for AO1 skills, and 18 marks for AO2 skills. This skills breakdown is almost even. This
means to you need to weight your answers only slightly more heavily, in terms of AO2 skills.
The structure of questions 12 and 13 is often a quote, followed by the functional question language, ‘To
what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support this view?’
To get full marks for this question, you have to successfully interpret material and apply it to answering the
question, and explicitly refer back to the question, make it clear how your discussion is answering the
question. It is acceptable to repeat key language from the question when doing this, however, don’t simply
make statements such as and this shows that the selection and presentation of news are ideologically
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5. controlled. This is not good enough, you must explain how your discussion of relevant evidence answers
the question.
Possible questions for 12 and 13
• ‘‘Both the selection and presentation of news are ideologically controlled.’ To what extent do
sociological arguments and evidence support this view? (33 marks) (specimen paper)
• ‘Media representations both of gender and of sexuality tend to portray well-worn stereotypes.’ To
what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support this view? (33 marks) (specimen
paper)
• Assess the view that the output of the mass media has little direct effect on the audience. (33
marks) (January 2010)
• ‘Both age and ethnicity are still too often portrayed by the mass media in ways that reinforce
stereotypes.’ To what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support this view? (33
marks) (January 2010)
• Evaluate Marxist theories of the ownership and control of the mass media. (33 marks) (June 2010)
• Assess the effects of the mass media on popular culture. (33 marks) (June 2010)
• Evaluate the pluralist view of the ownership and control of the mass media. (33 marks) (January
2011)
• Assess the impact of globalisation on the structure and role of the mass media in the world today.
(33 marks) (January 2011)
• ‘What is shown by the mass media will not make people violent, but it may lead people to believe
that we live in a violent society.’
To what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support this view? (33 marks) (June 2011)
• ‘Media representations of minority ethnic groups are problematic and often negative.’
To what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support this view? (33 marks) (June 2011)
However, they might not always follow this structure. Whatever the structure, you are still being asked
to do the same thing; write a sociological answer, the argument of which is outlined successfully in the
introduction, ‘weighed up’ throughout the essay and reiterated and supported in the conclusion – what
you’ve been doing for the last two years!
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A2 Sociology, Revision 2012

6. REVISION CHECKLIST Unit 3: Mass Media
1. The relationship between ownership and control of the mass media
• Private and state ownership; public service broadcasting; recent trends in ownership and control
both in the UK and globally (eg concentration of ownership;
• global conglomerates)
• Traditional Marxist, neo-Marxist and pluralist theories of ownership and control
• The ideological role of the media.
2. The mass media, globalisation and popular culture
• Globalisation: the media as a global industry (ownership, production and consumption); role of the
media in creating a global culture; Americanisation and cultural homogenisation
• Popular culture: the distinction between high and low culture; mass or popular culture, the
dumbing down debate
• Postmodernism and the media: the media become reality, simulacra, Baudrillard.
3. The processes of selection and presentation of the content of the news
• Economic and structural factors influencing the selection and presentation of news, eg costs and
need for profits, technology, competition
• Political and cultural factors influencing the selection and presentation of news, e.g. censorship
(direct and indirect, self-censorship); the social construction of news
• News values and the role of gatekeepers; agenda setting and ideology
• The impact of new media on the selection, presentation and control of the news
• Moral panics.
4. Media representations of age, social class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and disability
• The nature of representations; key terms used in discussing representations such as stereotype,
under-representation, the gaze, binary oppositions, the other
• Representation and power: representations as arising from the power of social groups with power
in the media, negative representations of minority groups
• Representations in relation to age, social class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and disability, with
examples
• Reasons for changes in representations over time.
5. The relationship between the mass media, media content and presentation, and audiences
• Methodological problems in researching media effects
• Strong media/weak audience theories of media effects, eg the hypodermic syringe model
• Theories of limited media effects eg the two step
• Weak media/strong audience theories eg uses and gratifications
• Cultural effects theories; encoding and decoding; different readings of media texts; the work of the
Glasgow Media Group
• The debate about whether the media can cause violence
6. The new media and their significance for an understanding of the role of the media in contemporary
society
• The development of new media, their range and importance: multi channel and digital television,
mobile telephones, email, the Internet and Web 2.0, blogs and virtual realities
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7. • The effects of new media and new technologies on old media; convergence
• Significance of new media for the changing relationship between audiences and the media and for
the debates about ownership and control and about media effects.
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A2 Sociology, Revision 2012

8. AQA SCLY4
Unit 4: Crime and Deviance, Theory and Methods
There are 2 sections – choose the CORRECT one, Crime and Deviance (should be section A), and answer all
the questions in that section.
Time allowed: 2 hours
Maximum marks: 90
Time per mark = max 1 1/3 min.
Questions should be answered in continuous prose and you will be marked on your ability to use good
English, to organise information clearly and to use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.
The paper has five questions: You are advised to spend 30 minutes on Question 01
You are advised to spend 30 minutes on Question 02
You are advised to spend 20 minutes on Question 03
You are advised to spend 40 minutes on Question 04
No Possible Question outlines Marks Timing
01 Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the view…
e.g. that ethnic differences in crime rates are the result of the ways in
which the criminal justice system operates.
21 marks <30 mins
Question 01 uses the functional word ‘Assess’. To get full marks for this answer you will need to show sound
knowledge and understanding and successfully identify, interpret, analyse and evaluate material to meet the
synoptic requirements of the question.
You will need to accurately interpret and apply material from the Item, (as well as from your own
knowledge), and analyse and evaluate this material. Use it to answer the question.
The structure of the exam changes from January 2012, so there are few example questions, however, typical
topics might include:
• effectiveness of situational crime prevention as a means of reducing the impact of crime on society
• reasons why white-collar crimes are under-represented in official crime statistics.
• the relationship between crimes against the environment and the process of globalisation.
• Marxist contributions to an understanding of why people commit crime.
• reasons why females may be less likely than males to commit crimes.
• Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the view that ethnic differences in crime rates are
the result of the ways in which the criminal justice system operates. (21 marks) (specimen Jan 2012)
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9. 02 Using material from item B and elsewhere, assess the view…
e.g. assess sociological views of the relationship between crime and the mass
media
21 marks <30 mins
This question is worth 21 marks. It uses the functional word ‘Assess’. The marks are broken down into 9 AO1
marks and 12 AO2 marks, so weight your answer more heavily in favour of Interpretation, Application,
Analysis and Evaluation.
To get full marks for this question, you have to successfully interpret material and apply it to answering the
question, and explicitly refer back to the question, make it clear how your discussion is answering the
question. It is acceptable to repeat key language from the question when doing this, however, don’t simply
make statements such as and this shows how useful realist theories are for an understanding of crime and
deviance. This is not good enough, you must explain how your discussion of relevant evidence answers the
question.
Possible 02 questions:
• Assess the usefulness of conflict theories for an understanding of crime and deviance in
contemporary society. (21 marks) Specimen paper
• Assess the usefulness of Realist theories for an understanding of crime and deviance. (21 marks)
Browne A2 book
• Assess the usefulness of different crime reduction strategies. (21 marks) Webb, Westergaard, Trobe
and Steel A2 book.
• Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the view that ethnic differences in crime rates are
the result of the ways in which the criminal justice system operates. (21 marks) January 2010
• Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess sociological views of the relationship between
crime and the mass media. (21 marks) June 2010 Paper
• Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the usefulness of subcultural theories in explaining
‘subcultural crime and deviance’ in society today. (21 marks) January 2011
• Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess different Marxist views of the relationship
between crime and social class. (21 marks) June 2011
• Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess sociological views of the relationship between
crime and the mass media. (21 marks) specimen Jan 2012 Paper
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A2 Sociology, Revision 2012

10. 03 Methods in context using item and material from elsewhere, assess…
e.g. the strengths and limitations of unstructured interviews as a means of
investigating victims of crime.
15 marks <20 mins
Question 03 is worth 15 marks and uses the functional word assess, you will need to carefully read Item C,
and identify the ‘hooks’, clues written into the Item about material to include in your answer. The marks are
broken down into 6 AO1 marks and 9 AO2 marks, so weight your answers more heavily in terms of
interpreting, applying, analysing and evaluating. This question requires you to apply your knowledge and
understanding of sociological research methods to the study of this particular issue in crime and deviance.
Possible 03 questions:
• Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess the strengths and limitations of covert participant
observation as a means of investigating edge work as a motivation for crime. (Item B, line 10). (15
marks) Specimen paper
• Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess the strengths and limitations of using official
statistics as a means of investigating the extent of crimes in society. (15 marks) Browne A2 Book
• Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess the strengths and limitations of unstructured
interviews as a means of investigating victims of crime. (15 marks) January 2010 Paper.
• Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess the strengths and limitations of overt participant
observation as a means of investigating police attitudes. (15 marks) June 2010 Paper
• Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess the strengths and limitations of using written
questionnaires as a means of investigating prisoners’ experience of imprisonment. (15 marks)
January 2011
• Using material from Item B and elsewhere, assess the strengths and limitations of using unstructured
interviews to investigate domestic violence. (15 mark) June 2011
• Using material from Item C and elsewhere, assess the strengths and limitations of covert participant
observation as a means of investigating ‘edge work as a motivation for crime’ (Item C, line 10). (15
marks) specimen January 2012
10

11. 04 Theory and methods essay:
[statement] To what extent do sociological arguments and evidence support
this view?
e.g. ‘Sociology cannot and should not be a science.’
33 marks <45 mins
Question 04 is worth 33 marks, the marks are broken down into 15 AO1 marks and 18 AO2 marks. So weight
you answer only slightly in favour of AO2 skills.
To get full marks for this question, you have to successfully interpret material and apply it to answering the
question, and explicitly refer back to the question, make it clear how your discussion is answering the
question. It is acceptable to repeat key language from the question when doing this, however, don’t simply
make statements such as and this shows how Sociology is not a science. This is not good enough, you must
explain how your discussion of relevant evidence answers the question.
Possible questions for 04:
• ‘Sociology cannot and should not be a science’. To what extent do sociological arguments and
evidence support this view?
(33 marks) Specimen paper
• ‘Sociology can and should be value free’. To what extent do sociological arguments support this
view? (33 marks) Browne A2 Book
• “Feminism has revolutionised sociology by placing women at the centre of its analysis of society.
However, while all feminists share this starting point, there are now many different ‘feminisms’
within sociology.”
Assess the contribution of feminist theorists and researchers to an understanding of society today.
(33 marks) January 2010
• Assess the relative importance of the different factors that affect sociologists’ choice of research
methods and of topics to investigate.
(33 marks) June 2010
• Assess the view that positivist methods are inappropriate for investigating society. (33 marks)
January 2011
• ‘Sociology cannot and should not be a science.’ To what extent do sociological arguments and
evidence support this view? (33 marks) June 2011
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A2 Sociology, Revision 2012

12. REVISION CHECKLIST Part One of Unit 4: Crime and Deviance
1. Different theories of crime, deviance, social order and social control
• Different definitions of crime, deviance, social order and social control
• The distinction between sociological theories of crime and other theories (e.g. biological,
psychological); crime and deviance as socially constructed
• Functionalist theories of crime: Durkheim, anomie, collective conscience; Merton’s strain theory;
manifest and latent functions; functionalist subcultural theories
• Marxist and neo-Marxist theories of crime: classical Marxism, laws reflecting class interests; Neo-
Marxism, hegemony, the CCCS studies, critical and new criminology
• Interactionist theories of crime: labelling theory, the self-fulfilling prophecy
• Feminist theories of crime: patriarchy, male control of women’s lives
• Control theory and other contemporary approaches to crime: social bonds, communitarianism,
situational prevention; postmodern theories; Foucault on individualisation and surveillance
• Realist theories: New Left Realism and Right Realism
• The relevance of the various theories to understanding different types of crime, and their
implications for social policy.
2. The social distribution of crime and deviance by age, ethnicity, gender, locality and social class,
including recent patterns and trends in crime
• Study of statistics and other evidence on the social distribution of crime by age, ethnicity, gender,
locality and social class, including recent patterns and trends
• Issues related to and explanations of the social distribution of crime and deviance by age: juvenile
delinquency and youth crime
• Issues related to and explanations of the social distribution of crime and deviance and ethnicity:
explanations from different theories, racism in the criminal justice system
• Issues related to and explanations of the social distribution of crime and deviance and gender:
explanations of the rates of male and female crime, the gendering of crime, chivalry thesis, the
gender deal
• Issues related to and explanations of the social distribution of crime and deviance and locality: rural
and urban crime
• Issues related to and explanations of the social distribution of crime and deviance and social class:
explanations from different theories; white collar crime; occupational crime.
3. Globalisation and crime in contemporary society; the mass media and crime; green crime; human
rights and state crimes
• Globalisation and crime: examples and explanations of globalised crimes such as web-based crimes,
global trades in drugs, weapons and people; global corporate crime
• Mass media and crime: media’s role in social construction of crime including moral panics and
amplification; crime and news values and agenda setting; representations of crime (both fact and
fiction)
• Green crime: definitions, criminalisation of environmental offences; extent, enforcement of green
crimes: environmental laws, corporate and state environmental crimes, crimes against non-human
species
• Human rights and state crimes: international rules and norms and examples of violations of them;
human rights violations; state crimes.
4. Crime control, prevention and punishment, victims, and the role of the criminal justice system and
other agencies
12

13. • Crime control, prevention and punishment: contemporary policies, linked to the theories studied;
surveillance, zero tolerance, anti-social behaviour orders, expansion of imprisonment
• Victims of crime: statistics and other evidence on victims of crime; ethnicity, age and gender;
different theoretical accounts, eg positivist and radical victimology
• Role of the criminal justice system and other agencies.
5. The sociological study of suicide and its theoretical and methodological implications
• Durkheim’s classic study of suicide, including typologies
• Interpretivist responses to Durkheim, eg Atkinson, Douglas
• Realist approaches, eg Taylor’s ‘people under trains’
• The theoretical and methodological implications of the different approaches of the study of suicide.
6. The connections between sociological theory and methods and the study of crime and deviance
• Quantitative and qualitative data in crime and deviance; the dominance of statistics (police
statistics, BCS)
• Positivist and Interpretivist approaches, consensus and conflict approaches and structural and
social action approaches as applied to crime and deviance
• Issues, strengths and limitations and examples of the application to the study of crime and
deviance of the main sources of data studied
o Questionnaires
o interviews (formal/structured; informal/unstructured)
o self-report and victimisation studies
o participant and non-participant observation
o experiments
o use of documents, official statistics and other secondary data
• The theoretical, practical and ethical considerations influencing choice of topic, choice of method(s)
and the conduct of research on stratification and differentiation, including issues of subjectivity,
objectivity, value freedom, danger, ‘going native’
• Subjectivity, objectivity and value freedom in the study of crime and deviance
• The relationship between the sociological study of crime and deviance and social policy.
Part Two of Unit 4: Theory and Methods
7. Students should first revisit the content learned during the AS course, with their knowledge and
understanding extended through use of a range of examples of the application of methods in their
Unit 4 topic area:
• Quantitative and qualitative methods of research; their strengths and limitations; research design
• Sources of data, including questionnaires, interviews, observation (participant and non-participant),
experiments, documents and official statistics; the strengths and limitations of these sources
• The distinction between primary and secondary data and between quantitative and qualitative data
• The relationship between positivism, interpretivism and sociological methods; the nature of ‘social
facts’
• The theoretical, practical and ethical considerations influencing choice of topic, choice of method(s)
and the conduct of research.
8. Consensus, conflict, structural and social action theories
• Sociology as concerned with the problem of social order; consensus and conflict as broad differing
approaches
• Examples of consensus approaches, eg Parsons; examples of conflict approaches, eg Marx, Weber
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A2 Sociology, Revision 2012

14. • Sociology as concerned with the problem of choice and determinism; structural and social action
theories as broad differing approaches
• Examples of structural theories, eg structural functionalism, Marx; examples of social action
theories, eg symbolic interactionism; phenomenology; examples of approaches attempting to
integrate the two sets of theories, eg Giddens’s structuration theory.
14

15. 9. The concepts of modernity and post-modernity in relation to sociological theory
• The distinction between modernity and post-modernity
• Postmodern theorists, eg Lyotard, Baudrillard
• Theorists of post-modernity, eg Harvey
• Alternative modern theories, eg Giddens and high modernity.
10. The nature of science and the extent to which sociology can be regarded as scientific
• Scientific methodology; accounts of the relationship between science and truth eg Popper; the
social context of science
• The extent to which scientific methods can and should be applied in sociology
• Differing accounts of how scientific sociology can and should be eg Popper, Kuhn, realism.
11. The relationship between theory and methods
• Deductive theory: the process of deduction and its implications for research methods, with
examples
• Inductive theory: the process of induction and its implications for research methods, with examples
• Epistemological issues: positivism and interpretivism
• Ontological issues: objectivism and social construction.
12. Debates about subjectivity, objectivity and value freedom
• The relationship between debates about subjectivity, objectivity and value freedom and the
debates about the nature of science and of the nature of sociology
• The arguments and evidence for and against the view that sociology can or should be objective
• The arguments and evidence for and against the view that sociology can be value free.
13. The relationship between sociology and social policy
• The nature of social policies
• The practice of social policy and of policy research; ‘applied sociology’; multi-disciplinary research
• The relationship between social policy and sociological methods and theories, including the role of
politics in sociology and issues of power in the research process.
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A2 Sociology, Revision 2012

16. Websites
http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/barrycomp/bhs/
A very good school-based website with links to a range of content, revision materials, ‘duffers guides’ etc
for AS and A2 Sociology.
www.esociology.co.uk
Another good school-based website, includes information on education and methods at AS level and crime
and deviance at A2.
http://www.chrisgardner.cadcol.ac.uk/
Sociology Learning Support site with interactive tests and quizzes, good for revision.
http://www.sociology.org.uk/drevise.htm
Sociology Central website produced by Chris Livesey, a Sociology teacher, with specific links to AQA
Sociology at AS level.
www.s-cool.co.uk
A good revision site with an A Level Sociology section.
www.sociologyonline.co.uk
Site covers good introductory materials (e.g. on gender, class, feminism) and information on some of the
big thinkers (e.g. Durkheim, Marx and Weber)
www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/sru/
Useful information on a range of sociological research methods, produced by the Sociology Department at
the University of Surrey.
http://media.pfeiffer.edu/lridener/DSS/
‘Dead Sociologists Website’ providing summaries and links to information for key Sociological thinkers of
the past.
http://www.sociologyexchange.co.uk/index.php
mainly provided for teachers, but lots of resources available to download
http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/sociology/
blog site highlighting news stories and developments, with some resources. Good for keeping up to date
with contemporary developments in sociology.
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