This activity is designed to help you get more confident with one of the key debates in the Cambridge OCR A Level Sociology media topic: how far the media affects audiences. Rather than simply memorising the labels direct, indirect and active audience, you need to be able to recognise what each theory is actually suggesting about the relationship between media messages and the people who receive them.

As you work through the scenarios, look carefully at the clues in each case study. Ask yourself whether the audience is being shown as passive and easily influenced, whether media effects are more gradual and filtered through other factors, or whether the audience is interpreting the message for itself. If you use the activity carefully, it will help you move beyond simple definitions and develop stronger, more analytical OCR-style answers on media effects.