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Unit 4: Power and persuasion

11 dot points across 11 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do persuasive producers target audiences by values and attitudes, and how does this positioning reflect, challenge or shape what audiences believe?

Analyse how persuasive media target and position audiences by values and attitudes, and how this reflects, challenges or shapes audience beliefs
A focused answer to the WACE Year 12 Media Production and Analysis Unit 4 detail on audience. How producers segment audiences by values and attitudes, target mainstream and niche groups, and position them so that persuasion reflects, challenges or shapes belief.
6 min answer →

How do genre conventions and audience engagement strategies make persuasive media effective for a target audience?

Analyse how genre conventions and audience engagement strategies are used to make persuasive media effective
A focused answer to the WACE Year 12 Media Production and Analysis Unit 4 dot point on genre and audience. Genre conventions and hybridity, target audience, pleasures and engagement strategies, and how persuasive media use them across forms.
6 min answer →

How do the conventions of advertising, documentary and propaganda as genres shape the way persuasive media position audiences?

Analyse how the genre conventions of advertising, documentary and propaganda shape persuasive meaning and position audiences
A focused answer to the WACE Year 12 Media Production and Analysis Unit 4 detail on persuasive genres. The conventions of advertising, documentary and propaganda as forms, how each genre positions audiences, and how producers exploit genre expectation to persuade.
6 min answer →

How do ideology, values and bias shape the messages persuasive media construct, and how can audiences read them critically?

Analyse how ideology, values and bias underpin persuasive media messages and influence the meanings audiences construct
A focused answer to the WACE Year 12 Media Production and Analysis Unit 4 dot point on ideology. How values, beliefs and bias are embedded in persuasive media, dominant ideology, and how audiences read messages as dominant, negotiated or oppositional.
6 min answer →

How do media institutions, their ownership and their commercial and regulatory contexts shape the persuasive messages audiences receive?

Analyse how media institutions, ownership and regulation influence the production and distribution of persuasive media
A focused answer to the WACE Year 12 Media Production and Analysis Unit 4 dot point on institutions. Media ownership, commercial and public producers, regulation and classification, funding, and how institutional context shapes persuasive media.
6 min answer →

How do legal and ethical considerations shape what persuasive media producers may and should do?

Evaluate the legal and ethical issues that constrain and guide persuasive media production, including the gap between what is legal and what is ethical
A focused answer to the WACE Year 12 Media Production and Analysis Unit 4 detail on legal and ethical issues. Copyright, defamation, privacy, consent, truthfulness, the difference between legal and ethical, and the responsibilities of persuasive media producers.
6 min answer →

How do media ownership, concentration and funding shape which persuasive messages are produced and circulated?

Analyse how media ownership, concentration and commercial funding influence the production and circulation of persuasive media
A focused answer to the WACE Year 12 Media Production and Analysis Unit 4 detail on ownership. Concentration of ownership, commercial and public funding models, gatekeeping, and how ownership and money shape which persuasive messages reach audiences.
6 min answer →

How do regulation, classification and codes of practice control and constrain persuasive media, and where are their limits?

Analyse how regulation, classification, censorship and codes of practice control and constrain persuasive media and protect audiences
A focused answer to the WACE Year 12 Media Production and Analysis Unit 4 detail on regulation. Classification, censorship, codes of practice, regulatory bodies, self-regulation, and the limits of regulating persuasive media across platforms.
6 min answer →

How do persuasive media use codes, conventions and rhetorical techniques to position an audience toward a particular view?

Analyse how persuasive techniques are used across media forms to position audiences and shape values and attitudes
A focused answer to the WACE Year 12 Media Production and Analysis Unit 4 dot point on persuasion. Persuasive techniques such as repetition, rhetorical questions, endorsement, exaggeration and stereotyping, and how they position audiences across advertising, documentary and propaganda.
6 min answer →

How do you plan, produce and justify an original persuasive media production and its accompanying production statement?

Plan, produce and refine an original persuasive media production for a target audience, and justify the choices in a production statement
A focused answer to the WACE Year 12 Media Production and Analysis Unit 4 detail on the production project. Planning and producing an original persuasive media work for a target audience, and writing the two-page practical production statement that justifies intention, audience and key choices.
6 min answer →

How does the system of communication explain the way producers encode messages and audiences decode them in persuasive media?

Analyse the system of communication, including encoding and decoding, to explain how persuasive messages are produced and interpreted
A focused answer to the WACE Year 12 Media Production and Analysis Unit 4 detail on the system of communication. Encoding and decoding, communication models, the role of technology and audience context, and how messages produce dominant, negotiated or oppositional meanings.
6 min answer →