Resources

NZQA official materials

Copies of the key official documents are stored with this site. For the live versions, search the NZQA website (nzqa.govt.nz) for "Scholarship Media Studies".

• 2026 Assessment Specifications (PDF) — the current year's exam format. Published March 2026; summarised on the Exam Overview page.
• Performance Standard 93303 (Word doc) — the official outcome description and the Scholarship / Outstanding descriptors.

• NZQA Scholarship Media Studies subject page — the live source for each year's specifications and the performance standard.
• NZQA Media Studies past exams and exemplars — where new papers, schedules, and exemplars are published.
• New Zealand Scholarship — general information — entry, dates, results, and monetary awards.

Past exams and assessment schedules — local archive

The single highest-value preparation resource, stored with this site. Work through all three papers; read the schedules to see what was rewarded. Notice how stable the format is — and how the quotations change every year.

2025

• Question booklet
• Answer booklet
• Assessment schedule

2024

• Question booklet
• Answer booklet
• Assessment schedule
• 2024 assessment specifications

2023

• Question booklet
• Answer booklet
• Assessment schedule

Examiner reports and exemplars — local archive

Each year's assessment report describes what successful (and unsuccessful) candidates did — read them like scouting reports. The exemplars are real scripts at Scholarship, Outstanding, and Top Scholar level: study how they argue, never memorise their content. The recurring messages are summarised on the Examiners page.

Assessment reports

• 2025 assessment report
• 2024 assessment report
• 2023 assessment report

Exemplar scripts

• 2025: Scholarship · Outstanding · Top Scholar
• 2024: Scholarship · Outstanding · Top Scholar
• 2023: Scholarship · Outstanding · Top Scholar

Core theories & evidence — key reading

A small set of foundational and current research papers behind the Theory Toolkit. These give you a precise concept plus evidence you can cite — not quotations to memorise. Read the abstract and conclusion; use the idea. All open in a new tab; a few classics may sit behind a publisher page (use your school's library access).

News, power & public opinion

• McCombs & Shaw (1972), “The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media” ↗ — the foundational agenda-setting paper. Pairs with the agenda-setting entry.
• Entman (1993), “Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm” ↗ — the clearest short account of how media select and make salient. Underpins framing.

Platforms, virality & echo chambers

• Törnberg (2018), “Echo Chambers and Viral Misinformation” ↗ — open access (PLOS ONE); models how misinformation spreads.
• Cinelli et al. (2021), “The Echo Chamber Effect on Social Media” ↗ — compares Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Gab.
• Bail et al. (2018), “Exposure to Opposing Views… Can Increase Political Polarization” ↗ — a sharp counter to “more exposure fixes it”.

Aotearoa: algorithms & identity

• Brown et al. (2024), “Māori Algorithmic Sovereignty: Idea, Principles, and Use” ↗ — open access (Data Science Journal); a genuinely local lens on algorithms, data, and power.

Citing a paper's idea precisely — not just naming it — is exactly the "theory used to think" move examiners reward.

Current evidence & data

Authoritative, up-to-date evidence for trust, AI, platforms, and technological change. Strong for Question One and for backing claims with figures rather than assertions.

• Reuters Institute — Digital News Report ↗ — the leading annual survey of news use, trust, AI attitudes, and news avoidance across ~48 markets (interactive charts; reuse permitted with attribution).
• AUT / JMAD — Trust in News in Aotearoa New Zealand ↗ — the key local annual trust data; ideal as the NZ evidence box on any journalism argument.
• Our World in Data — Internet ↗ — clean, openly licensed (CC BY) charts on internet access and technological change. (Two live charts are embedded on the Technology and Globalisation concept pages.)

Media theory resources

For going beyond the papers above. Prefer sources that apply theory to current media rather than just summarising it. Video essayists worth searching for: Every Frame a Painting (film form), Thomas Flight (close reading), Lessons from the Screenplay (narrative).

Media industry news sources

Reading industry news weekly is how you build the independent, current knowledge examiners reward.

• Variety — screen industry trade news: deals, commissioning, box office, labour disputes.
• The Verge — platforms, technology, and media policy.
• Nieman Lab — the future of journalism: funding models, platforms, trust.

New Zealand media sources

Aotearoa-specific knowledge sets strong candidates apart — examiner reports reward current, accurate local industry evidence.

• RNZ Mediawatch — weekly critical coverage of NZ media; the single best ongoing source for Question One evidence.
• NZ On Air — funding decisions, research, and the annual Where Are The Audiences? survey.
• Te Māngai Pāho — Māori language media funding.
• Te Ao Māori News (Whakaata Māori) — by-Māori news media in action.
• Whakaata Māori — the broadcaster itself: indigenous media, language, and public-service perspectives (live TV, on-demand).
• NZ On Screen — the rights-cleared archive of NZ television, film, music video, and web series. Outstanding for close reading, representation, genre, and TV history; watch on the official page (don't download).
• The Spinoff — Media section — NZ media industry analysis and commentary.
• NZ Film Commission — local screen industry structure, funding, and strategy.

Useful documentaries, podcasts, and articles

Build a department watchlist here. Aim for items that model arguing about media, not just describing it. Good categories:

• A documentary on social media's design and business model.
• A documentary or series on a media scandal (press ethics, misinformation, reality TV ethics).
• A podcast that critiques news media weekly.
• One or two landmark long-form articles on algorithms, streaming economics, or AI and media.
• An NZ documentary about Māori media, language revitalisation, or local industry history.

Image credits

Theorist portraits on the Theory Toolkit page are used under free licences from Wikimedia Commons. Each licence requires attribution, given here in full and in the caption beside each image. If you reuse these images elsewhere, the same attribution requirements apply (share-alike licences also require derivatives to carry the same licence).

• Stuart Hall — Hall_Stuart.jpg, author unknown, Free Art Licence.
• Laura Mulvey — photo by Mariusz Kubik, CC BY 3.0.
• bell hooks — photo by Alex Lozupone, CC BY-SA 4.0.
• Henry Jenkins — photo by Peabody Awards, CC BY 2.0.
• Jean Baudrillard — photo by Ayaleila, CC BY-SA 3.0.
• Marshall McLuhan — photo by Josephine Smith, public domain.
• Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer — photos (Horkheimer) by Jeremy J. Shapiro, CC BY-SA 3.0.
• Noam Chomsky — photo by Σ, retouched by Wugapodes and Jonnmann, CC BY-SA 4.0.
• Manuel Castells — photo by La Moncloa – Gobierno de España, free use with attribution.
• Pierre Bourdieu — photo by Bernard Lambert, CC BY-SA 4.0.

No freely licensed portrait could be verified for David Gauntlett or Edward S. Herman, so none is used — a deliberate choice: this site only includes images whose licences were checked at source. All other visuals on the site (gradients, icons) are original.