Exam Centre
The 2025 statements
The five statements from the 2025 paper, with a survival-reality planning guide for each. These are for practice — they will not be repeated.
Use these to practise the method, not to predict
The value here is rehearsing how to decode and respond to a statement. Treating any past statement as a prediction is exactly the trap that produces a memorised, ill-fitting essay. Want more? The Question Bank holds every released statement back to 2015.
Statements are attributed to the official 2025 examination paper. We quote the statements only and provide original planning guidance.
"Changes in the audience are what drive changes in the media genre."
audience2025 paper
"Changes in the audience are what drive changes in the media genre."
- Key terms
- changes in the audience, drive, changes in the genre
- Absolute language to challenge
- what drive (implies the main/only driver)
- Possible agreement
- Audience literacy and fatigue push producers to refresh conventions.
- Possible disagreement
- Technology, platforms and commercial competition often drive change as much as audiences.
- Evidence routes
- Audience familiarity with visible reality-TV construction → demand for authenticity → Alone's self-filming.
- Streaming-era audience habits → binge structure → Outlast's serial cliffhangers.
- Counterargument
- Self-filming technology and streaming platforms enabled changes audiences had not demanded.
- Implications
- If audiences drive change, audience response becomes commercially decisive.
- Main trap
- Treating 'audience' as 'society'; ignoring technology and industry as rival causes.
"The need for profit means that genres will take very few creative risks."
commercial2025 paper
"The need for profit means that genres will take very few creative risks."
- Key terms
- need for profit, very few creative risks
- Absolute language to challenge
- very few (near-absolute)
- Possible agreement
- Repeatable formats and proven conventions reduce risk (Survivor).
- Possible disagreement
- Profit also rewards differentiation, producing 'controlled innovation' (Alone, Outlast).
- Evidence routes
- Survivor's licensable format as risk reduction.
- Alone's authenticity branding and Outlast's hybrid as calculated risks that paid off.
- Counterargument
- Successful risks become the next conventions, so profit can drive innovation.
- Implications
- Formulas can stagnate; but copied innovations keep the genre moving.
- Main trap
- Reducing the strand to 'producers are greedy'; ignoring controlled innovation.
"A media genre must take on influences from other genre(s) to remain relevant."
change2025 paper
"A media genre must take on influences from other genre(s) to remain relevant."
- Key terms
- influences from other genres, remain relevant
- Absolute language to challenge
- must (absolute)
- Possible agreement
- Hybridisation (Outlast borrowing game-show and documentary codes) refreshes appeal.
- Possible disagreement
- Internal innovation (Alone's self-filming) can renew a genre without external borrowing.
- Evidence routes
- Outlast's hybridisation of Alone-hardship and Survivor-strategy.
- Documentary/adventure influences across the genre.
- Counterargument
- Some renewal comes from intensifying existing conventions, not borrowing new ones.
- Implications
- Hybridisation can broaden audiences but blur genre identity.
- Main trap
- Accepting 'must' uncritically; treating all change as borrowing.
"A genre is successful only when it reflects what audiences are thinking about at the time."
audience2025 paper
"A genre is successful only when it reflects what audiences are thinking about at the time."
- Key terms
- successful, only, what audiences are thinking about
- Absolute language to challenge
- only (absolute)
- Possible agreement
- Authenticity's rise reflects audience scepticism about staged reality TV.
- Possible disagreement
- Success also depends on format, platform and production quality, not just cultural mood.
- Evidence routes
- Alone's authenticity turn matching a media-literate, sceptical audience.
- Survivor's longevity resting on a strong format, not just topical relevance.
- Counterargument
- Survivor remains successful across decades despite shifting cultural moods.
- Implications
- If success needs cultural fit, genres must keep re-reading their audience.
- Main trap
- Letting 'only' go unchallenged; sliding from audience into vague 'society'.
"As a genre evolves, its conventions will also evolve."
change2025 paper
"As a genre evolves, its conventions will also evolve."
- Key terms
- evolves, conventions, also evolve
- Absolute language to challenge
- will (confident generalisation)
- Possible agreement
- Elimination evolves: vote → tap-out → team failure.
- Possible disagreement
- Some core conventions (prize, confessional) persist; not everything evolves.
- Evidence routes
- Track one convention (elimination or authenticity) across all three texts.
- Show which conventions stay stable as proof that evolution is selective.
- Counterargument
- Stable conventions are what keep the genre recognisable; evolution is partial.
- Implications
- Successful innovations quickly become new conventions.
- Main trap
- Writing a broad chronological history instead of a narrow, evidenced argument.