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A2 CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES PAPER G325

REVISION GUIDE

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THE EXAM

The A2 exam worth 25% of your final A-level grade and is made up of 2 separate sections

Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Your Production

2 compulsory questions worth 25 marks each = 50 marks in total

Section B: Contemporary Media Issues

1 question (Question number 2) from a choice of 2 worth 50 marks

There are a selection of optional topics for this section but here we study “Media and Collective Identity” so make sure you look for that on the exam paper!

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SECTION A - THEORETICAL EVALUATION OF PRODUCTIONS

Question 1

A question that requires students to describe and evaluate the development of their skills over the course of their AS Production work to their A2 Production work.

The question will ask students to focus their answer on ONE OR TWO of the following issues:

Digital Technology Creativity Research and Planning Post-Production Using conventions of real media texts

Candidates can also choose to discuss media products they have made outside of school during these two years.

On the following pages is a detailed breakdown of things you could discuss for each of the above 5 topics.

The sections highlighted in green are the most important to include if you get that question

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D igital Technology – how your skills have progressed and how they helped you in your productions

Throughout your essay you should try and give several examples of real occasions you used these technologies. For example “At AS we started to use Blogger to keep a record of all our coursework. We had no real experience of blogging prior to this etc …… then at A2 we developed our skills with blogger so instead of having a group blog, we were able to have an individual one. This gave us more autonomy over our own work and helped us take more responsibility for all the research and planning”

Intro: Digital technologies have a had a massive influence on media production over the last few years and since you started in Year 12 you have learned a massive amount about how to use them and what the benefits are of using them. They in turn have had a massive impact on the quality of your finished products.

Final Cut Pro / Express in comparison to I Movie etc – Had zero experience at the beginning and have now moved from basic editing to more complex editing, effects, transitions, sound manipulation. Quick to upload so something can be filmed, uploaded and edited in a matter of minutes. – Be specific – What specific techniques did your group use and where?

Social Networking Sites – Allows you to communicate with a far wider network of people than other websites. You could have used this to gather audience research, upload your video and ask for feedback etc.. Be specific – Give an example of something you did using facbook etc

You Tube – Allows you to communicate with a far wider network of people than other websites. Allowed you to research existing opening sequences and music videos.. you uploaded your opening sequences and used the feedback / comments that people posted to help you improve when it came to your A2 productions etc.. Enabled you to post your own video to a massive audience. Be specific – Give example of real video you looked at, real comment you got etc..

Digital Cameras – Never used before. Struggled initially with holding steady shots, framing etc.. But they allow instant playback, LCD screen, small, portable (in comparison to larger older bulkier cameras) etc. Allowed you to film in small spaces, to easily travel all over London to film, to film something and view it straight away to check if was ok. Now can easily film a variety of shot types.

Photoshop (you used to use Word and Powerpoint etc) – Photoshop allows manipulation of images, effects, colours, cropping, layering images and words. Be specific – What did YOUR GROUP do on Photoshop?

Other technologies you could mention include : Live Type, Blogging, Prezzi, Internet

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Conclusion: Digital Technology has enabled you (a consumer of media) to become a producer that can not only make a higher quality media product, but edit it and distribute it to a wide audience..

To get A & B grades

To get the higher grades on this question, you need to ensure you are not just DESCRIBING how your skills developed. Instead you need to focus on the EVALUATE part. To EVALUATE you could comment on any of the following throughout your work

HOW important digital technology was

WHY was digital technology important

WHAT EFFECT did digital technology have on your final work

WHAT would you NOT have been able to do without digital technology?

HOW did digital technology benefit you?

To Prepare:

In this space write at least one example of something specific you did with this technology and explain how it helped you

Technology How it helped usAt AS we used Premiere Pro to…

At A2 we used Premiere Pro in a different way…

At AS we used Facebook…..

At A2 we used Facebook in a different way…

At AS we used You Tube to…..

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At A2 we used You Tube in a different way…

At AS we used Digital Cameras to…

At A2 we used Digital Cameras in a different way…

At AS we used Fireworks/Photoshop to

At A2 we used Fireworks/Photoshop in a different way…

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Creativity - how your skills have progressed and how they helped you in your productions

Intro - What IS Creativity – DEFINE IT - It is “the making of new things and the re-arranging of the old.” –eg the ability to have your OWN ideas and not just copy other peoples. The ability to do things that are unusual and different etc..

Where did your original ideas come from? – How did you increase your ability to come up with your own ideas? Did you mind map? Did you share ideas? Did you do creative types of research eg not just questionnaires with people you knew, but using You Tube to get comments from people around the world, etc. Give real, specific examples.

Locations / Sets / Costumes – At first you chose locations that were near by and easy to access (give example) Then at A2 you were more creative in your choices (give example) Did you choose unusual ones? Did it take creative planning to adapt them? Be specific – What creative locations did you use? Why did using creative locations help your production?

Camera – At first your shots and filming were practical. You filmed a medium shot because you hadn’t considered doing anything else. In your prelim task at AS you had a set of specific camera shots to include. For AS, your camera skills were quite basic. Now you have developed so you started filming in a more creative way eg high / low angles, putting the camera on the floor, in the fridge, using stop motion, green screening etc.. Be specific giving real examples of creative camera shots you used and explain how they made your production better

Editing – At first you weren’t very creative. Editing was functional putting shots next to shots to create some meaning for your AS opening sequence.. However you couldn’t do that at A2 as just having a narrative wasn’t enough.. you needed to create energy and engage the audience and edit to the flow of the music using effects etc ... be specific, give real examples of creative editing you tried and explain what impact they had on your production

Genre / Conventions – How have you developed your use of genre / conventions from just copying conventions, to instead, being able to challenge and subvert conventions of genres. Were you creative by combining genres?

Casting – At AS you weren’t very creative in your casting.. Chose people who were friends etc.. Then you became more creative at casting including sending out facebook messages, holding auditions etc.. How were you creative in your casting? Be specific. What impact did this have?

Photoshop - Never used before. When using Word / Publisher your creativity was stifled because you are limited in how much you can edit the images. Photoshop allowed you to manipulate images etc.. Be specific, give real examples of creative Photoshop work you did

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Conclusion

Certain Restraints on your creativity in place from exam board - you HAD to make a music video, digipak, poster etc.. These rules do limit your ability to be creative to a certain extent

Not easy to just be creative. You actually needed to do practical things like research, paperwork, storyboards etc to ALLOW you to develop our creativity. Without solid research and planning, being creative was impossible. You needed a balance of organised AND creative people in a group to be successful.

You can’t just BE creative. Often it is a learning process where you start by being told what to do, then you try doing things on your own and then you end up being confident and skilled enough to experiment which leads to creativity. You have to make mistakes at first to be creative.

To get A & B grades

To get the higher grades on this question, you need to ensure you are not just DESCRIBING how your creativity developed. Instead you need to focus on the EVALUATE part. To EVALUATE you could comment on any of the following throughout your work

HOW important creativity was

WHY was creativity important

WHAT EFFECT did creativity have on your final work

What PROBLEMS are there with being creative?

WHAT would you NOT have been able to do without creativity?

HOW did creativity benefit you?

Creativity How it helped usAt AS we were creative coming up with ideas by…

At A2 we were more creative coming up with ideas by…

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At AS we were creative choosing locations by…..

At A2 we were more creative choosing locations by…

At AS we chose costumes by

At A2 we were more creative with our costumes by

At AS we copied conventions of the genre for example…

At A2 we were more creative with the conventions for example…

At AS we used basic editing techniques such as…

At A2 we were more creative with our editing for example…

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Research & Planning - how your skills have progressed and how they helped you in your productions

Intro: Research & Planning have played a huge role in all of your production work so far and hence your skills in R&P have developed massively. Your research and planning have made your production work develop in terms of quality.

Audience questionnaires – allowed you to find out who your target audience was, what they wanted, what they liked etc.. Be specific, what did you find out from your questionnaires? How did you improve your use of questionnaires at A2? Asked better people to complete them? Wrote better, more focused questions? Qualitative and Quantitative questions

Audience focus groups (both before and after) – same as above, allowed you to personally interact with your target audience, delve deeper, get them to clarify what they mean etc.. Focus groups after production helped you to see if you’d achieved your goals. At the beginning many people didn’t know how to do a focus group, or what questions to ask. Now at A2 you are confident talking directly to the audience members, asking the right questions etc. Be specific with things you asked your focus group or what they said

Looking at real film opening sequences /music videos – At first your analysis was mainly descriptive, as you simply watched the opening sequences on You Tube / DVD’s and described what you saw.. but as your analytical skills have developed at A2 your ability to use these as research has developed too.. Now you can deconstruct a piece of footage in tiny detail, commenting on colour, camera angle, shot size etc.. Be specific with what real texts you looked at and what you learned from them. You now watch a wider variety of texts (not just famous ones) and also watched student made work which helped you see what was possible on zero budget with school equipment.

Storyboarding / Shotlists – Never done storyboarding before A-Level.. First storyboards at AS tended to be simple, with mainly pictures, and very little shot description or editing information. Now as you have developed your technical skills, your ability to create detailed storyboards have developed.. these are useful to give the crew a specific idea of what to shoot (useful if someone is absent) and helps you to focus on getting particular shots rather than just filming random stuff. Helped you get the right amount and type of footage.

Location recces – Never did one at AS, you just filmed in local places eg school.. At A2 you have learned to check for other aspects such as noise levels, power points to plug in equipment, health & safety, availability etc. Plus you have sourced more interesting, exciting locations.

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Casting – At beginning you tended to cast friends, students etc.. Quickly learned that people were unreliable, or didn’t look right for the part etc.. Now you are able to cast the right people for the role, hold auditions, do test shots, try them out on camera to see if they can act etc.. be specific with real casting issues you had

Prelim – The prelim in Year 12 helped you to develop skills you didn’t have before such as framing, different angles, 180 degree rule etc.. For music videos you did a prelim task that involved shooting material for a quick song and then re-editing it for a slow song. Some of you also made a trial sequence for a Britney Spears video. How did this help you progress? Be specific with real issues you had. If you hadn’t done the prelims, what problems might you have encountered?

Conclusion: Research & planning skills have changed you from a producer of basic media texts, into a producer of complex quality media texts. R&P skills are essential to making someone a better, more creative producer of media.

To get A & B grades

To get the higher grades on this question, you need to ensure you are not just DESCRIBING how your research and planning developed. Instead you need to focus on the EVALUATE part. To EVALUATE you could comment on any of the following throughout your work

HOW important research and planning was

WHY was research and planning important

WHAT EFFECT did research and planning have on your final work

What PROBLEMS are there with research and planning?

WHAT would you NOT have been able to do without research and planning?

HOW did research and planning benefit you?

Research and Planning How it helped usAt AS we used questionnaires to…

At A2 we improved our use of questionnaires by…

At AS we used focus groups to…

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At A2 we improved our use of focus groups by…

At AS we examined real opening sequences such as / in order to…

At A2 we improved our research / analysis of real texts by…

At AS we used storyboards for…

At A2 we improved our use of storyboards by…

At AS we completed prelim tasks to…

At A2 we improved the way we used the prelim task by…

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Post Production - how your skills have progressed and how they helped you in your productions

Intro: You have gone from knowing virtually nothing about post production to now being able to complete complex editing of video, sound and graphics..

Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 etc – Had zero experience at the beginning and have now moved from basic editing to more complex editing, effects, transitions, sound manipulation. Quick to upload so something can be filmed, uploaded and edited in a matter of minutes. Can also export your movie to allow you to upload it online etc – How did this change the footage that you had? – be specific with real tools and effects you used and how it helped eg chroma keying, green screen, stop motion animation etc

Specific about premiere pro tools you specialised in– compare what special effects you used last year and this year. What are the differences. Why was this useful?

Photoshop (you used to use Word and Powerpoint etc) – At A2 Photoshop allows manipulation of images, effects, colours, cropping, layering images and words - – How did this change the footage that you had? – Be specific with real effects you tried on Photoshop

You Tube / Redrafting / Peer Assessment – At AS, you just uploaded your final version to You Tube and left it there. At A2, after editing you uploaded your opening sequences you used the feedback / comments that people posted to help you improve it further and make multiple improvements.. – be specific with real comments you got and how this helped your post production

Wix.com

What did you use to make your digipak?

Anything else?

Conclusion: Your post production skills have developed hugely and has enabled you to take a simple piece of footage and turn it into something complex and creative.

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To get A & B grades

To get the higher grades on this question, you need to ensure you are not just DESCRIBING how your post production skills developed. Instead you need to focus on the EVALUATE part. To EVALUATE you could comment on any of the following throughout your work

HOW important post production skills were

WHY were post production skills important

WHAT EFFECT did post production skills have on your final work

What PROBLEMS are there with your post production skills?

WHAT would you NOT have been able to do without post production skills?

HOW did post production skills benefit you?

Post production How it helped usAt AS we used Adobe Premiere...

At A2 we improved our editing skills on Premiere by…

At AS we used tools for film sound...

At A2 we improved our use …

At AS we knew this about Photoshop…

At A2 we improved our understanding of Photoshop by…

At AS we got feedback after the production by..

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At A2 we improved post production feedback by…

Use of Real media Conventions

Conventions are the “common features” of a particular type of media or a particular genre.

Introduction – Over the two year course you have learned a lot about, not just what the conventions of particular forms and genres are, but how to use them in creative ways in your own work

Main:

Prelim task – you included different types of camera shot, and editing techniques. But did you make the “genre” clear of what you were doing? Did you colour grade it? Did you change the sound levels or add sound / editing effects? Probably not.. So your use of conventions was very limited. Although you could probably name a few conventions of horror / action etc you didn’t actually know how to use them in your work yet. At A2 you were more confident with your technical abilities which meant you could use the prelim task to experiment with conventions of the genre – give example

Your genre - At AS, how did you identify what the conventions were of your film genre? What videos did you watch and what were the conventions you found? How easy was it to identify the conventions? Then show development by discussing A2 – What did you do differently to identify the conventions of the genre? Did you look at videos AND theory (Andrew Goodwin / Laura Mulvey)? This was likely to be a lot harder as music videos often belong to 2 or more genres and many genres of music have very few “semantic” elements (eg visual conventions). Discuss some videos you watched and identify what you thought the main conventions of your genre were. How did using media theory to identify conventions help you at A2?

Camera – At AS, what camera shots / movements did you use that are conventional of horror films? For A2, give an example of how you used conventional camera work for music videos in your video. At A2, your camera work may have been more about being creative. Explain how you “pushed the boundaries” with your camera work at A2? What did you do differently?

Mise-En-Scene – At AS, what mise-en-scene did you use that was conventional of horror films? (costumes, locations, colours etc) and what effect might these have had on the

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audience? At A2, give some examples of mise-en-scene you chose that was conventional of your genre. You could discuss how at A2 your mise-en-scene was likely to be more creative because of how you have developed your sense of how elements can communicate meaning to an audience. Where as AS was about what was convenient and easy, at A2, you deliberately chose locations and costumes that were more planned to signify a meaning, more creative etc. Give an example of how you “pushed yourself” with your mise-en-scene at A2? What did you do differently?

Editing – At AS, what editing techniques did you use that were conventional of horror films? (cuts, dissolves, flash to white, wipes, colour grading, other effects etc) and say why you used them. At A2, give some examples of editing you chose that was conventional of your genre. You could discuss how at A2 your editing HAD to be more creative as when you researched videos (give example) you discovered that most videos have fast paced shots lasting less than 3 seconds which meant your editing had to be faster, more visually interesting (to engage an audience instantly) etc. Give an example of how you “pushed yourself” with your editing at A2? What did you do differently?

Sound – At AS, what sound techniques did you use that were conventional of horror films? (diegetic, non diegetic, sound effects, sound bridges, soundtrack, dialogue etc) and say why you used them. At A2, you were very restricted with your use of sound as most of you just used whatever came on the music track itself. However this forced you to become more creative. If you did add sound / dialogue on, then give an example of where you did this and why. If you did, you could explain how actually, not being able to manipulate or cut the sound made the process more difficult as you had to ensure all the miming of the lyrics complete matched, at the right pace etc. Give example of how you did this or problems you encountered and how you solved them. ]

Conclusion – At AS, you were still learning about the concept of genre, and felt as though conventions were very much easily identifiable and set in stone. Many of you ensured that you followed lots of your genre’s conventions in your AS work. However by the time you reached A2, you learned that genre is much more of a “fluid” concept, less easy to define, especially within music, and this led to you being confident enough to both follow and challenge conventions of your genre, pushing the boundaries throughout which impacted your creativity.

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QUESTION 2

This question will require students to select EITHER their AS production OR their A2 production (whichever makes more sense for the question) and evaluate it in terms of one of the following media concepts.

Genre Narrative Representation Audience Media Language

Each of the above 5 topics of broken down here into more detail for you to consider.

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GENRE

To get C&D Grades

Intro: What was your genre? What are the conventions of the genre (eg horror / rock etc) and how did you find these out? Give examples of real films / music videos you watched to find this out

Main: How have you signified the genre using:

Colour Camera shots / angles / movements Editing techniques Sound / dialogue / music Mise-en-scene such as Costumes / props / Locations

Conclusion

Do you think you made the genre of your piece clear to an audience? How do you know this?

How to get A&B Grades

To gain an A or a B grade you really need to try and incorporate theories into the above points. Try and use some of the theories below (incorporating them throughout rather than having a whole separate sections for them.) What do theorists say about the genre? Explain how your video either conforms to the theorists ideas OR challenges them and why

FILM GENRE THEORIES MUSIC VIDEO GENRE THEORIES

GENERAL GENRE THEORIES

Steve Neale thinks that film genres are constantly changing and evolving and are not set in stone. He thinks there are 5 main stages in film genres. Which stage does your film fit into? Explain why.

The form finding itself (Psycho) The classic (Halloween) Stretching the boundaries of the

genre (Nightmare on Elm Street)

Andrew Goodwin – Thinks that music videos follow the following conventions:

Conventions depend on the genre of the music

Star persona is important and companies use close ups to sell them to the audience

Robert Stam – suggests genre is hard to define, doesn’t really exist and is just a concept made up by theorists and critics. Do you agree? Give examples from your work that suggests that genre either IS or ISN’T easy to define

Rick Altman says that the way we define

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Parody (Scary Movie) Homage (Scream)

Voyeuristic images are used to attract an audience

They often contain intertextual references to other media

There is a link between the lyrics and the visuals

There is a link between the visuals and the music / pace etc

a genre is by two main things:

Semantic Elements (eg signs such as knives, blood, dark colours, eerie music). He thinks these elements are easier for audiences to recognise and identify

Syntactic elements (includes THEMES such as fear, revenge, rage as well as plots such as PLOTS such as group go on trip, one by one they die, last girl survives and kills killer) He thinks these elements are more subtle and harder to recognise.

Identify semantic and syntactic elements in your video that might help audiences identify the genre of your film / music video

Laura Mulvey - Suggests that women in all media are objectified. She is a feminist who believes that women are often shown through the ideas of men (male gaze) and are seen in voyeuristic ways. She also thinks that women are seen in one of either two ways the “virgin” character or a “whore” character. This is the “virgin / whore dichotomy”

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AUDIENCE

To get a C/D grade

Intro: Why is it important / essential for a media product like a film or a music video to appeal to an audience?

Who was your target audience for your production? Gender, age, class, hobbies and media interests. To get the A&B grades, try and describe their social demographic groups (ABC1C2DE)

What did you do to research what your audience wanted? What did you find out about what they wanted? To get the A&B grades, don’t just describe what they wanted, try and comment on why they might want these things – use theory here.

Main: How did you use the following things to attract / engage an audience?:

Camera

Editing

Sound

Mise-en-scene

What feedback did you seek AFTER your production and what was it like? How did a “real audience” react to your product? Did they react in the way you thought they would? Why?

Conclusion: How important it is to consider your audience in depth and how this changed / affected your production overall.

To get A&B grades

To gain an A or a B grade you really need to try and incorporate theories into the above points. Try and use SMALL portions of SOME of the theories below (incorporating them throughout rather than having a whole separate section for them.)

Theorist How I will apply it to my textRichard Dyer – thinks that audiences want media products that offer them Utopian Solutions to their problems

Blumler & katz – Think that audiences want

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media products that gratify particular needs (Uses & gratifications) eg escape, entertainment etc

Frankfurt School – Hypodermic needle theory. Think audiences might be directly influenced by media products

Stuart Hall – Encoding and Decoding tests AND Preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings. Thinks audiences will react in different ways to media products.

Pluralists – think that the media operates on a supply and demand basis and so the media must give the audience what it wants in order to survive and be successful.

Tajfel & Turner – intergroup discrimination theory. Think that audiences enjoy watching texts where they can feel superior to the characters in terms of money, class, success etc..

Andrew Goodwin – believes that audiences are often played in the position of a voyeur within music videos (watching someone). He also believes that the use of close ups is important to help the audience appreciate the “star persona” of the lead singer

Laura Mulvey – believes the media texts often encourage the audience to objectify women and look at them with a “male gaze”

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REPRESENTATION

Depending on who the main characters were in your AS & A2 productions, choose 1 or more of the following categories of people, and discuss how your video represents them

Intro: Explain what media product of yours you will be analysing and which social group/s you will be analysing the representation of…

Main:

AGES - How does your video construct a representation of different ages? – consider costumes, props, location, body language, facial expression, camera, sound, editing

ETHNICITY - What about different ethnicities? – consider costumes, props, location, body language, facial expression, camera, sound, editing

GENDER– consider costumes, props, location, body language, facial expression, camera, sound, editing.

CLASS – consider costumes, props, location, body language, facial expression, camera, sound, editing

GOOD vs EVIL - consider costumes, props, location, body language, facial expression, camera, sound, editing

Have you included stereotypes in your production and why? (class, age, gender, ethnicity etc?)

Have you challenged stereotypes in your production and why? (see above)

Conclusion: Why did you create these specific representations? What effect might they have had on the audience?

Techniques I used How it represents that characterCamera shots:

Mise-En-Scene:

Editing:

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Sound:

To get A&B grades

To gain an A or a B grade you really need to try and incorporate theories into the above points. Try and use some of the theories below (incorporating them throughout rather than having a whole separate sections for them.)

Theorist Theory – What to write about

Levi Strauss said that media texts often represent characters in terms of binary opposites such as good vs evil, weak vs strong. Did you do this? If so how and why? What effects might it have on the story, the audience etc..

Laura Mulvey Believes that women are often objectified in the media. She says they are looked at with a “male gaze” and are seen as sex objects.

She also believes that there are all too often only two roles for women in the media. Either the “virgin” character or the “whore” character. This is called the “virgin / whore dichotomy”.

Can their theories be applied to your video? Did you conform to their ideas of representation or challenge them? Why?

Vladimir Propp Propp’s theory of narrative suggests that texts often represent characters as particular types in order to make them easily identifiable to an audience and help them know how to react to them.

Hero Villain Princess Donor / Helper

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Dispatcher

If you included any of these characters, how did you represent someone as the “hero” or “villain”. Why does it engage an audience if they either DO know who they are or DON’T know who they are?

Angela McRobbie http://www.angelamcrobbie.com/

Angela McRobbie says that men and women are often represented through stereotypes in the media and are often shown in traditional gender roles. For example women are often shown as weaker, victims, mothers, carers etc. Men are often shown as aggressive, strong, managers, leaders etc.

Can their theories be applied to your video? Did you conform to their ideas of representation or challenge them? Why?

Stanley Cohen Believes that particular groups in society are “demonised” and “marginalised” through negative representations which may have the effect of causing a moral panic where the majority of society fears that social group. Have you demonised a particular group eg black people? Young people? Why?

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NARRATIVE

To get a C grade

Intro: What is the traditional type of narrative for your genre / type of product? How did you find this out? What other real texts did you look at that helped you work this out?

Have you used a Linear / Non Linear Narrative, where and why?

Main: How have you used the following to signify / communicate the narrative of your film / music video?

Camera – give several examples of real shots / movements you used

Editing - give several examples of real transitions / effects you used

Sound - give several examples of real sounds, music, dialogue you used

Mise-en-scene – give several examples of real costumes, locations, props, you used

Narrative Enigma – where have you included this in your opening sequence and why is it important?

Conclusion: Explain what audiences thought of your narrative. Was it clear? Could it have been better? How?

Techniques I used What it signified about the narrative of my textCamera:

Mise-En-Scene:

Editing:

Sound:

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To get A&B Grades

Theorist Theory – what to write about

Todorov thinks there are several main stages to a complete narrative, recognisable in any story

Equilibrium Disruption Resolution Equilibrium

Explain whether you included these stages and where. Did you have them in the same order? If not, why not? What was the benefit of starting with the disruption for example?

Levi Strauss – says that Binary opposites are important in narratives such as good vs evil, women vs men, crime vs justice. Explain any binary opposites identifiable in your text and explain why you think they might be important to include

Unknown theorist According to an unknown theorist, there are two types of narrative

Unrestricted narration – where information is given out in as much detail as possible with very little restrictions so the “narrative” is clear. Audiences often know more than the characters so we know who the killer is, or where he is. If you used this technique, explain where and why is it engaging for an audience?

Restricted narration – where the narrative is kept minimal, with parts unclear eg a thriller film. Audiences are often in the dark about many parts of the narrative. If you used this technique, explain where and why this is engaging for an audience

Vladimir Propp Propp’s theory of narrative suggests that texts NEED particular characters to develop the narrative

Hero Villain Princess Donor / Helper Dispatcher

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If you included any of these characters, how did you make it clear who was the hero / villain etc? Why does it engage an audience if they either DO know who they are or DON’T know who they are?

He also thinks there are particular parts of a narrative that always happen eg hero gets a quest, someone is hurt, hero battles the villain etc. If you included any of these things, why do you think audiences enjoy seeing them?

Andrew Goodwin thinks that in music videos the narrative often links to the lyrics and the tempo of the music.. How did you do this?

Allan Cameron thinks there are several different types of more unusual narrative. If you included any of these, explain where, and then explain why you included them.

Anachronic Narrative – includes regular flashback and flashforwards, with all different narrative parts being just as important. Such as Pulp Fiction, Memento

Forking Path narrative – shows two different outcomes that are different only as a result of a small change or decision such as GroundHog day, Sliding Doors

Episodic Narratives – separate narratives that have some sort of link. Eg different characters lives, linked only by the fact that they are all involved in one incident

Split Screen Narratives – Different stories, linked by the fact that they are shown on screen at the same time.

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MEDIA LANGUAGE - IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT “MEDIA LANGUAGE” REFERS TO THE 4 MAIN TECHNICAL ELEMENTS

Tackle this one in much the same way as you tackled the TV Drama exam at AS. You should be ANALYSING your work (not describing), discussing how you created meaning for the audience on particular issues such as genre, representation, narrative, audience, atmosphere etc.. Basically WHY you chose particular shots, sounds, transitions etc

Intro: Explain what text you are analysing

Main: Include all 4 of the following key areas

Camera – shot size, framing, high & low angles, subjective & objective filming, hand held, tilts, pans, zooms etc, green screen

Sound – diegetic and non-diegetic, sound effects, ambient sound, dialogue, music, voice over

Editing – fades, cuts, wipes, dissolves, slow motion, fast motion, colour effects like black & white, bad tv, stop motion animation, green screening and chroma key work

Mise En Scene – costume, lighting, location, body language, acting, make up, props etc

Conclusion: How well do you think you used media language to communicate meaning to an audience?

Techniques I used What it signified to an audienceCamera:

Mise-En-Scene

Editing:

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Sound:

To get A&B Grades

For this question you could choose to include ANY of the theories we have looked at. Particularly good ones might be:

Theorist Theory – what to write about

Blumler & Katz / Richard Dyer

Uses & Gratifications theory / Utopian Solutions – explaining how your use of MEDIA LANGUAGE offers these to an audience

Vladimir Propp Propp’s Character theory – how your MEDIA LANGUAGE helps audiences identify particular characters as heros / villains etc

Stuart Hall Explain that your decision to use the MEDIA LANGUAGE you chose was to create a “preferred reading” for your text. But that audiences are used to Encoding and Decoding tests AND could take a negotiated or oppositional reading

Rick Altman – Explain how you used MEDIA LANGUAGE to include Semantic Elements (eg signs such as knives, blood, dark colours, eerie music) or to signify Syntactic elements (eg themes like love, revenge).

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SECTION B – MEDIA AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITY

Students will have a choice of two questions on this topic and will only have to answer one.

The questions will be related to ONE of the four following topics although it could be worded in a variety of different ways:

How do the contemporary media represent nations, regions and ethnic / social / collective groups of people in different ways?

How does contemporary representation compare to previous time periods?

What are the social implications of different media representations of groups of people?

To what extent is human identity increasingly mediated?

The “collective” group we choose to study here is “British people” so all your case studies will involve British people in some way. Students MUST discuss case studies from TWO different types of media. Here we study Film AND Television examples. Students who only refer to one of these cannot get higher than a D grade.

The focus is on contemporary media texts from the last 5 years which means students must have lots of “modern” case studies to refer from although they can refer to older texts to make points about changes in identity. Students must also be prepared to discuss the history and future of identity in any answer they give and will be unable to obtain higher than a B grade if they do not mention these in any answer.

The material we have learned over the last 6 months has been broken down over the following pages.

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British People In the Media

Britain is (and has mostly always been) represented in two binary opposite ways.

In a commercial, positive way In a gritty, social realist, negative way

Commercial Representations

Britain is portrayed in a glossy, positive light. These representations often centre on Surrey / West London and often focus on the white middle and upper classes. We often see royals, lords and ladies, or just very successful characters in them. They often speak with a formal RP English accent and live either in the idyllic countryside with cobbled streets and country cottages and estates OR in upmarket London flats and houses in Chelsea and other expensive areas. The syntactic themes that are tackled tend to be positive ones such as love, life, friendship, family etc. Characters are often quite successful, good, and enjoy their lives in Britain. If they do show working class people then they are portrayed as being very happy with their lives too and are often shown as mingling happily with the middle and upper classes. British people are portrayed in a positive light, as friendly, welcoming, hard working, successful, lovable etc. These films are mainly aimed a mass audience, including Americans. They often star international film stars from America. They are often high budget. There is always a happy ending.

Film examples: Mrs Miniver, Mary Poppins, Love Actually, Notting Hill, The Holiday, The King’s Speech, Atonement, The History Boys, The Duchess, The Queen, Quantum Of Solace

TV Examples: My Family, Downton Abbey, Lark Rise to Candleford

Social Realist Representations

Britain is portrayed in a negative light. These representations often centre around South and East London OR regional areas in the north of England. They often focus on working classes and a mix of ethnicities. We often see teenagers, gang members, unemployed people, and other unsuccessful people. They often speak with informal language and / or regional accents and live in run down towns, urban areas, council estates etc. The syntactic themes tackled include negative themes such as crime, drugs, bullying, racism, divorce, loneliness etc. Characters often are very poor, have bad lifestyles and dislike many things about their lives. They are often shown as being totally separate from the middle and upper classes and unable to mingle with them. British people are often shown as being rude, involved in crime, aggressive, selfish and unsuccessful. These films are often aimed a niche

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British audience. They often star British actors or unknown new actors. They are often low budget. There is rarely a happy ending.

Film Examples: Saturday Night Sunday Morning, Kidulthood, Shank, Adulthood,

TV Examples: Coronation Street, Shameless, Only Fools and Horses, Phoneshop, Jeremy Kyle.

New Hybrid Representations

Now we are starting to see a few representations of Britain in films and programmes which have merged these two binary opposite representations into a more “grey” area to try and appeal to both markets. There is no real formula for this. Characters might be represented as working class but living good lives and having fun. Or characters might be represented as middle / upper class but are shown having lots of problems. In order to attract a wider range of British people they often feature “middle ground” British person with both working and middle class characteristics, harder to categorise into a particular social demographic, and in order to attract an international / American audience they often have either higher production values including action sequences and special effects. They often have an ending which is both happy and sad.

Film Examples: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, St Trinians, Eden Lake, Attack The Block

TV Examples: Outnumbered, Primeval, Dr Who, Misfits

New Regional Representations

Some argue that rather than a unified collective “British identity”, audiences are now craving to feel part of a regional identity instead as it feels more identifiable for them. Britain is segregated into different regions of identity such as London, Essex, Liverpool, Scotland etc. Each region has its own set of cultural values and ideologies that are easier to recognise. Audiences enjoy them as they can either identify with them or laugh at them, aspire to be them etc. They are represented in a mixture of both positive and negative ways. These representations are most popular in TV.

TV Examples: The Only Way is Essex, Desperate Scousewives, Made in Chelsea, Gavin & Stacey

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REASONS FOR THE DIFFERING REPRESENTATIONS OF BRITAIN IN THE MEDIA

FUNDING / PROFIT – Where the money has come from will affect the type of representation they create. If a film is entirely British funded (domestic production), the representation is likely to be social realist as there is less money in Britain for high budget stories / actors and they tend to want to just appeal to a niche British audience. If the project is funded through a combination of British and International funding (a co-production) then it is likely to be a commercial representation as they will want to appeal to audiences from both countries who have a more stereotypically positive view of Britain.

PLATFORM – Films are often seen as more escapist entertainment where people go to see them because they want to escape to a more utopian place. They want to be entertained. They also often get released internationally so need to appeal to an international audience. TV programmes will often be more “gritty” representations as TV programmes have lower budgets, and often are only see by a British audience so only really need to appeal to them. Programmes on bigger channels such as the BBC often get more recognition globally so things like Dr Who have bigger budgets and a more commercial standpoint.

PURPOSE OF THE TEXT – Some directors have different purposes for their work. For example, Mike Leigh’s films are made to make a “social comment” on society and to try and get people to discuss tricky or controversial issues. This means his films often show the negative side of Britain or shows people as unhappy etc

DIRECTOR’S BACKGROUND – Their background might include their race, their class, their childhood, their birthplace, their nationality, their gender etc. All these things have an effect on the films they make and the way they represent Britain. For example, Shane Meadows grew up in a very poor estate, his life badly affected by the strikes and recession in the 80’s and he was involved in petty crime etc. Therefore he represents Britain different to Richard Curtis, who was born into a middle / upper class household, who travelled the world. He went to Oxford University and met a lot of famous upper class people whilst there.

DOMINANT IDEOLOGY OF THE RULING CLASS – Whatever the dominant ideologies of the ruling class are will affect the way Britain is shown at the time. For example, a country where the ruling class want to encourage tourism in their country, and want to portray a middle class lifestyle as being the optimal aspirational circumstances to be in, might portray middle class people as being happy, and the country being very positive.

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TARGET AUDIENCE – Depending on who the target audience is, the type of representation of Britain will change. An American target audience will require a more commercial positive representation of Britain. A British target audience might need a more niche, gritty representation.

CURRENT POLITICAL CLIMATE – The zeitgeist of the time will affect the representation of Britain. Films made in the 1940’s were often used as propaganda to motivate British spirit and so were positive and showed strong communities. Films in the modern age often show a society torn apart by an age divide with a clear fear of foreigners etc

GLOBALISATION – Globalisation is the increasingly global relationships shared between different cultures. Many people think that there are now no specific national cultures, as globalisation encourages us to borrow our culture from other people. Some argue that British culture is becoming increasingly “Americanised” so that we are losing our traditional heritage. Hence why companies cast Americans as British people in films, and we are finding increasingly blurred “middle ground” in terms of films where there is no strong British national identity.

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How does contemporary representation compare to previous time periods?

TIME PERIOD FILM IS SET

SOCIAL REALIST COMMERCIAL

40’s / 50’s Britain shown as working class, poor, full of crime, no jobs, no love and divided in terms of age. Main themes are teenagers and the problems they cause in society

Reason: Teenagers given their own identity for the first time as they now have to stay in school till they are at least 15 rather than work. Adults scared that young people will go wild with their new found freedom. Audiences wanted media texts that they could identify with rather than escape into.

Examples: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, A Taste Of Honey

Britain shown as one big happy community. The enemy is foreigners in other countries. Communities come together to fight against Germans. British people all commune together and there is no divided culture. The main themes are marriage, survival, winning the war

Reason: Britain needed propaganda to encourage solidarity among its people, to convince them that they would win the war, and to encourage fear in their enemies.

Examples: Mrs Miniver

60’s / 70’s Britain shown as working class, grim, divided in terms of race. Main themes are racism and skin colour.

Reason: A wave of immigrants entered Britain leading to a massive change in the ethnic make-up of the country. British people were scared of what this would mean for them and their community.

Examples: Love Thy Neighbour, Rising Damp

Britain shown as a fantasy land where anything was possible, and everyone was happy

Reason: The government needed working class audiences to enjoy working and be satisfied with their lives. They were trying to calm people’s fears about the increasing number of foreigners entering the country via immigration

Example: Mary Poppins80’s / 90’s Britain shown as working class,

poor, full of crime, no jobs and disappointment, divided in terms of gender. Main themes are recession, drugs, strikes and the problems caused by women and feminism

Reason: Maggie Thatcher, strikes and recession meant that British

Britain shown as sweet, blustering, obsessed with true love, rainy, old fashioned, romantic, friendly etc. British women shown as being quite powerful. There is no divided culture.

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people had no jobs. In particular men lost their identities as the breadwinners. Feminism led to a rise in power for British women and Britiain was scared for what this would mean for British life.

Examples: The Full Monty, This is England, Secrets & Lies, Trainspotting

Examples: Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sense & sensibility, Golden Eye, Shakespeare In Love, Notting Hill, Vicar Of Dibley,

2000 - 2010 Britain shown as dirty, full of crime, no jobs, very divided. Main themes are crime, terrorism. Shown as divided in many ways (class, age and ethnicity mainly).

Reason: recession has led to lots of unemployment and therefore divides between classes, moral panics over teenagers including riots and knife crime have led to divides between the ages and terrorist attacks have led to divides between ethnicities.

Examples: Kidulthood, Adulthood, Shank, Shameless, Sket, This is England

Britain shown mainly from middle class perspective. Life is glamorous and positive. Main themes are love, romance, marriage and national pride. There is no divided culture.

Reason: Mostly to do with the results of 9/11 and the 7/7 bombings making audiences feel scared. The films and programmes are designed to make us feel proud and patriotic of our country in the wake of the fight against terrorism

Examples: Love Actually, The Holiday, Downton Abbey, My Family

2010 - present Films centre around working class characters with elements of social realism, but combined with commercial storylines such as sci fi, action etc..

Reason: Audiences are getting bored with seeing working class life portrayed as being so depressing and dreary.

Examples: Attack The Block, Eden lake, Misfits

National identity falling slightly in current climate. On rare occasions the media portrays VERY nationalistic representations, but mostly the trend is now going towards regional representations with commercial glossy characters

Reason: People are getting bored with seeing only South / London based commercial programming.

Example: The Royal Wedding on the BBC, The Only Way is Essex, Desperate Scousewives

Summary Social Realist films and TV programmes have changed

Commercial films and tv programmes have changed very little over the years,

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consistently over the years to reflect the current political climate. Although the representations of British life are nearly always negative in some ways, they tackle whatever the main political issues are in Britain at the time to give audiences something to identify with

always representing Britain in a positive way as their main purpose is to give audiences a way of escaping from whatever is happening in reality.

Possible Future

1) More and more films mixing social realist and commercial representations are becoming popular. For example Misfits, Outnumbered, Attack The Block. In the future perhaps we will no longer have two clearly defined binary opposites in terms of representation, and instead we might have more films that portray more of a culturally homogenous Britain containing both of these representations of Britain as well as others.

Reason: Extreme recession has led to unemployment in ALL classes, inability to purchase houses in ALL classes, crime within ALL ages, more acceptance of different ethnicities etc meaning there is less of a divide between different social groups.

2) More TV programmes that focus on “regional British identity” rather than “national British identity” are becoming popular. For example Made in Chelsea, The Only Way Is Essex.

Reason: many say that due to globalisation, we have lost our collective national British identity as we have so many cultures mixed up together in one country. We no longer feel like we are British, and so in search of a sense of collective identity we have recognised that many of us feel part of a collective group in terms of the region we are from. It gives us a sense of belonging that we don’t get when we consider the country as a whole.

Important to note: Changes in the way Britain is represented are not JUST explainable by changes in social / political zeitgeist. Changes might also occur because of director, funding, target audience, purpose of the film (social comment or entertainment), why people watch the film (Uses & Gratifications etc)

ConclusionMany aspects of representation have changed over time, probably to reflect the changes in society that have occurred over the years. Changes in representation can also be explained by a changing audience, different directors, different target audiences and purposes of a text.

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What are the social implications (effects) of different media representations of British people?

This question is basically asking you what the different effects could be of the different representations of British people. I would still discuss the two main types of representations and incorporate a selection of the effects below into the appropriate places.

Communication of hegemonic values / dominant ideologies – Very similar to the above point. For example some films are clearly made by the upper classes (Love Actually / Richard Curtis) and the representations within the film may reflect the dominant ideologies that those institutions / producers have, showing the middle / upper classes as polite, attractive, sexy, exciting, generous, loving, caring etc and reflecting a massive class divide implying that in our society the working class tea ladies and the upper class prime ministers can get along and mix etc. The government provides lots of funding to British films through the UK Film Council and Lottery Funding and clearly a “national” government has a vested interest in promoting films that portray a “national collective identity” to encourage harmony and unity. Theory that could be used here =

Increased / Decreased tourism and British Pride – Some films show Britain as an amazing positive place filled with glossy celebrities, famous landmarks, polite well spoken people, mainly white, mainly upper class (Love Actually / Notting Hill etc). British audiences may see these and feel a sense of national pride. American audiences may see these and be encouraged to visit here. This could lead to disappointment (eg American tourists visiting Notting Hill were amazed by the fact that it is a mainly black area, something that was never shown in the film, and that the streets of London were so grotty and grey compared to the film). Some films tackle our sense of National Pride (This is England) and make us question what it actually means to love our country and be proud of it.

Destruction of Dominant Ideologies - Some films challenge the dominant ideologies communicated by the ruling classes. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Shameless and Kidulthood go against the usual positive representations and show that Britiain is divided and fragmented and people can and do live very poverty stricken lives with very little happiness.

Destruction of stereotypes - Different representations create stereotypes which can create misconceptions about groups of people. For example, Kidulthood uses stereotypical violent, criminal teenagers wearing hoodies and involved in gang culture which can create fear of young people (moral panics). Alternatively some films attempt to break stereotypes (for example Woody in This Is England although

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may appear as part of a gang culture etc but he is also kind and considerate and polite to adults and takes care of Shaun. This may encourage audiences to question their stereotypical views of young British people. Attack the block is a film which tries to break the stereotype that all British youths are violent criminals with no good qualities. It tries to explain their behaviour and change audience’s opinions.

Introduction of Moral Panics – Some theorists believe that the repeated use of these stereotypes in the media is often blown out of proportion by media such as news. They think that they lead to moral panics when society begins to demonise a particular group based on the stereotypes they have seen in the media. For example in the 70’s punks were demonised as being the root of all youth crime after the media created a “moral panic” about them. The same could be said now of the situation with Muslims being associated with terrorism and with British teenagers being associated with crime. Theorist that could be used here =

Allows audiences to form their own identities – Some audiences will watch films and get a sense of their own identities from them. They will sometimes get ideas about how to act or behave from films (which could be a problem if they are watching films like Kidulthood) or they could be reading the films in a different way and learning from the mistakes of the characters in the films and understanding that they should act in a different way. Some sociologists argue that when people are “labelled” or “stigmatised” by society, this creates a self fulfilling prophecy. This means that teenagers who feel they have been labelled by society / the media as hoodie wearing gang members and trouble makers, will be default, end up acting this way as they believe everyone already believes they are like that anyway. Theories that could be used here =

Increased Cultural Homogenisation and decreased national identity – Some argue that the increasing Americanisation of our media is leading to us losing our traditional British culture and is increasing the cultural homogenisation of our country. Theory that could be used there =

Increased / Decreased Class Divide – Depends on the film they see, but some films suggest that there is a massive class divide in this country and that it is impossible for the two classes to coexist happily. (eg Kidulthood, the middle class lady in the shoe shop rejects the working class black teenager, the middle class girl gets bullied until she commits suicide etc..)..

Increased discussion of social issues – The effects of some representations may be to trigger social reform and discussion. For example, although Kidulthood portrays teenagers and gang culture, they are represented in a very negative manner, clearly

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implying that audiences should have a clearer awareness of their children’s lives. That teens should not be part of gangs etc.. These films serve as a “social comment” to affect change in our society.

Effects vary with the success of the film - Depends on the film’s success as to which representations have the most effects on an audience. A film that is hardly seen, only released on a small scale, and has little in the way of marketing budget, will not have as much social impact as a film like Love Actually which has hundreds of millions of pounds in its budget, is shown internationally, is one of the most commercially successful films of all time, and is shown on television multiple times in many countries.

Things to bear in mind

Effects depend on if audiences are active / passive readers, or if they take a preferred / negotiated / oppositional reading – Some audiences will blindly accept what they see on screen, accepting the message that the director is trying to put across, accepting the representations as realistic etc.. Some will reject the representations entirely and some will find a middle ground. This will have an effect on what the implications are of each representations.. – THEORIST YOU COULD USE HERE =

Effects depends on why the audience watches or consumes the text –Some audiences will learn from a film because that is the purpose of the text and that is why someone has gone to see it.. Some audience members go to see films because they offer escape and entertainment and a “perfect world” they can escape into therefore know the representations are not realistic but don’t really mind. THEORIES YOU COULD USE HERE =

Effects depend on audience background – The implications of a representation depend entirely on who is viewing it. A white middle class man would receive something in an entirely different way from a working class, black woman. Depends on class, age, gender, sexuality, nationality, regionality etc.. For example, a teenager from South London who goes to a state school might see Kidulthood as an “exaggeration” of teenager life (the same as Skins). A middle class person might see it as realistic, confirming all their fears about young people. THEORIST YOU COULD USE HERE:

Conclusion: There are a range of implications that arise from different representations of British people. The effects of the representations vary depending on a large number of factors. Many media outlets such as the news, fail to see the positive effects of these

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representations. Instead of seeing the sometimes obvious social messages created they choose to report on these representations as though they were reality. For example, the film Kidulthood was demonised by the media simply because it featured a lot of youth crime. They failed to see that the purpose of the film was to make a social comment about the negative effects of crime in Britain.

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To what extent is human identity increasingly mediated?

This is a question that could come up and is one of the more complicated questions. I would suggest only tackling this if you feel confident in your use of media theory. Otherwise see if the alternative question on the paper might be better for you.

Mediated means “an exchange of ideas”. So this question is asking you to consider the following things:

Do audiences just passively accept the British identity they see on screenOR

Do they watch films and television programmes actively mediate the identities they see (eg accept some ideas, reject others etc)

So here is table for you to add to:

Evidence that audiences are PASSIVE and accept their identities from what they see on screen

Evidence that audiences are ACTIVE and mediate their identities from what they see on screen

Propaganda – some texts are used as propaganda, to directly change the identity of the audience

Examples:

Audiences are directly influenced by the media they consume

Theory:

Theory 2:

Audiences are capable of rejecting or negotiating these messages by taking different readings

Theory:

Audiences use the media as a source of “identification” and enjoy seeing texts where they can recognise themselves

Examples:

Theory:

Audiences know that many texts are there just as entertainment and escape and don’t expect them to be realistic

Examples:

Theory:

Some selective representations become more Audiences enjoy watching representations of British

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popular than reality and form a “hyperreality” that audiences accept as more real

Examples:

Theory:

identities that they do not identify with as they can “look down” on people less well off than they are etc

Example:

Theory:

The media operates on a supply and demand basis. If audiences just blindly accepted what they saw on television there would never be a need for these representations to evolve and change. However, they ARE changing and this is due to audience demand

Example:

Theory:

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Examples we have looked at (in no particular order)

COMMERCIAL EXAMPLES SOCIAL REALIST EXAMPLES

HYBRID EXAMPLES REGIONAL / SUB CULTURE EXAMPLES

Mrs Miniver Coronation Street Attack The Block Made In ChelseaSaturday Night Sunday Morning

Shameless Misfits The Only Way Is Essex

Outnumbered Kidulthood PhoneShop Desperate ScousewivesLove Actually This Is England Little Britain Gavin & StaceyDownton Abbey Shank The InbetweenersMy Family Sket Eden LakeKeeping Up Appearances Rising Damp 4,3,2,1Notting Hill Only Fools and Horses St TriniansThe Queen AdulthoodThe King’s Speech Fish TankPride & Predjudice A Taste Of HoneyThe Royal Wedding Top BoyMary Poppins Clubbed

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THEORIES/ QUOTES we have looked at

Theories in green are ones you MUST use to get at least a D/E grade.

Theories in yellow are the ones you COULD use to get a B/C or higher (don’t need all of them!)

Theories in blue are the ones you COULD use to get an A/A* (Don’t need all of them!)

THEORYFUNCTIONALISTS Believe that the media has a useful and important purpose in people’s lives and that we NEED it. For example:

They believe that it is important to feel as though you belong to a community and to have a national identity. Durkheim believes it is very important to feel a sense of national identity to keep a community going.

Blumler & Katz were functionalists that came up with the “Uses & Gratifications Theory” which states that the media has different functions and uses for audiences. They think that audiences need different types of media for information, entertainment, escape, identification and social interaction

Richard dyer’s Utopian solutions theoryHe believes that an audience will enjoy a text if it offers them a glimpse of a “utopian” perfect life and if it offers them solutions to particular problems they have. For example audiences suffering from boredom will need products offering entertainment. Audiences suffering from isolation will seek out a text that offers them a sense of community

MARXISTS

Believe that the media is used to deliberately manipulate an audience into believing specific things. They think it is a BAD thing because they think we are being duped. Believe that audiences are passive, and that we are manipulated and the media affects our behaviour and our beliefs about what it is to be British.

Karl Marx believed that the ruling class dominates the working class. And they believe that as the majority of film production companies are large, commercial and run by ruling classes, they tend to perpetuate the dominant ideology to exert hegemonic control over the working classes to create a “false consciousness” where working class people are convinced that society is good and their lives are fine the way they are.

The Marxist group the FRANKFURT SCHOOL came up with the idea of the “HYPODERMIC SYRINGE

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MODEL” often also known as the “MEDIA EFFECTS THEORY”. This is a theory which states that the media is like a needle injecting its message into the audience and that all audiences get the same message. The audience is powerless to resist this message and they are directly influenced by it.

NEO MARXISTS Stuart Hall is a “neo Marxist” who believes that although the media TRIES to manipulate and control audiences, audiences might NOT automatically believe or accept what they see. He believes that audiences take either a preferred, oppositional or negotiated reading of a text. He says the way people interpret the media depends on their cultural background and personality

He believes that the more a specific representation is repeated in the media, the more it becomes “naturalised” and it can lead to politically constructed representations seeming like “a common sense”.

He also believes that the media tends to construct society rather than reflect it.

DANIEL CHANDLER’S CAGE THEORY

He believes that our sense of identity is made up of 4 main aspects which he nicknames the “CAGE THEORY”. This consists of Class, Age, Gender and Ethnicity. He believes the media’s portrayal of these 4 aspects affects how we feel about our own identity

Also agrees with Stuart Hall and thinks that representations which become familiar through constant re-use come to feel 'natural' and unmediated

PLURALISTSBelieve that media only reflects what audiences want and that if it didn’t do this, film companies would go out of business.

They admit that some representations are more common, but that this is just because those beliefs already exist in society so films have to reflect them

POSTMODERNISTSBelieve that culture is so diverse now that class, gender, ethnicity and age don’t really define who we are. They don’t think there is a big class divide (or any other divide for that matter) and they believe that audiences are diverse and varied.

They don’t believe that having a “National Identity” is possible anymore because Britain is such a diverse place and we are now all so different.

Some postmodernists think that globalisation has led to us being “Americanised” and not having any real sense of national identity. They think that all around the world people are losing their sense of

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national identity because of this and that we live in a state of “cultural homogeneity” where all the cultures are virtually the same.

Baudrillard also thinks that in this day and age where we are bombarded with media, we often start to accept media as reality without looking at the real world. He thinks that we prefer the “created” version of reality as it is often more glamourous and entertaining. He calls this a “hyper-reality”.

SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORISTS (Tajfel and Turner)They believe that there is “intergroup discrimination” where audiences enjoy seeing representations of others, that make them feel that they as an audience are better and of a higher status. They think that audience strive to see themselves as successful and positive and actively seek out products that make them feel assured of their own status. STANLEY COHEN – MORAL PANICSHe believed that occasionally in society there would be panics where the majority of people would be utterly convinced that certain groups in society were going to disrupt society and cause problems. For example he believes that after 9/11 there was a moral panic involving muslims where ALL muslims were seen as terrorists. He believes that the media often starts these moral panics and makes them worse.

DAVID GAUNTLETT Thinks the idea that the media affects the way we behave is rubbish. He studies the Frankfurt schools Media Effects theory and contradicts all of its ideas. He thinks we:

Shouldn’t blame the media for issues that already exist in societyShouldn’t assume the audiences is passive and naive Shouldn’t believe the Frankfurt School’s research as it was conducted in an artificial way and there’s no real way we could ever find out the real effect media has on societyShouldn’t assume that there will only be negative results from consuming a media text. Sometimes a media text that contains negative issues has a positive repercussion on the audienceBelieves that we use the “media as navigation points for developing our own identities”.Believes that the media “disseminates a huge number of messages about identity and acceptable forms of self-expression, gender, sexuality and lifestyle.”

JACQUES LACAN – MIRROR STAGE THEORYLacan carried out research with children and animals using mirrors and discovered that humans reach an age where they are able to recognise their own reflection and that people were able to develop a sense of their own self by examining their reflections

Samantha Lay She thinks that “Film is by and large a commercial medium rather than an educational tool”

Marshall McLuhan“All media exists to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values.”

Walt Disney“Movies can and do have tremendous influence in shaping young lives in the realm of entertainment towards the ideals and objectives of normal adulthood.”Kathryn Woodward

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‘Identities are produced, consumed and regulated within culture – creating meanings through symbolic systems of representation about the identity positions which we might adopt’

www.newinfluencer.comMass media plays a significant role in the transmission and maintenance of cultural identity, through a repetitive display of cultural norms and values which eventually become seen as simple ‘truths’

Gary GiddensBelieves that “mediated experiences make us reflect upon and rethink our own self-narrative in relation to others.”

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GLOSSARY OF KEY WORDS

Add in any other words you have learned

TERMINOLOGYA/A* words (all of the below, PLUS these ones)

Hegemony – The dominance of the ruling class over the working classes

Marginalisation – when a group of people are made to seem less important than another

Cultural Homogenisation – the process by which culture becomes less unique and becomes more like other cultures

Verisimilitude – the “realness” of something, how truthful it is

Iconography – images that “mean” something or represent something. Eg films show British cultural iconography such as black taxis, red buses etc

B/C words (all of the below, PLUS these ones)

Dominant Ideology – The commonly held belief within a society about something.

Mediation – an exchange of ideas between the film makers and the audiences

Selective Construction – a representation that has been chosen specifically to communicate something, deliberately choosing some aspects and leaving out others.

Propaganda – a representation that has been designed to specifically influence an audience, normally to communicate a political message to an audience

False Consciousness – A state of mind that audiences sometimes are in where they are not in touch with reality.

Demographic – specific section of audience eg young, british male working class audiences

Polarised nation – a country that has two extreme opposites of society that do not mix, and often clash

Binary Opposites – two very opposite things eg black / white or upper class / working class

Social Gulf – A large gap between groups in society

Americanisation – the increasing influence of American culture on other cultures

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Globalisation – the increased global connections between cultures around the world leading to less individual cultures and instead having one large culture across the globe

Aspirational – Something that makes people “aspire” or “want” to be better or different than they are. For example, escapist films are seen as aspirational as audiences want to live like the main characters

D/E words

Identity – the elements that make up who we are

Culture – shared identities, values and beliefs between members of the same community

National Identity – shared feelings of identity between people from the same country

Representation – the way something is shown

Social Realism – a style of film marking which is designed to be “realistic” and gritty, often centred around the working classes

Mainstream – something that is considered to be popular

Mass-market – something that is considered to be popular

Niche – something that is considered to be popular only to a small number of people or a certain type of person

Commercial – something that is popular, and makes profit

Target Audience – the type of people who the programme or film is made for

Working class – people who work for a living, who earn a limited amount of money, often in manual labour jobs

Middle Class – people who may or may not work for a living, who earn what is generally considered to be enough money to be comfortable, often in more senior jobs such as doctors or teachers

Upper class – people who may not need to work for a living, who earn a high amount of money, who have senior positions in society eg MP’s, lords, ladies, kings etc

Underclass – people who are considered lower than working class, may be unemployed,

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students, pensioners, on benefits

Escape – to leave reality and be in a fantasy world

Entertainment – something designed to entertain, amuse and interest people

Identification – the ability for people to recognise their own lives in a text

Film Industry – everything that is part of the businesses that make films eg film companies, audiences, directors, cinemas etc.. The film industry revolves around making money

Film Institutions – Companies that make films

Realistic – something that is truthful or “real”

Unrealistic – something that is not truthful or “real”

Fictional – something that is made up, not based on reality

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Questions to practise with

Section A part 1 – development of skills

Discuss the development of your research and planning skills from AS to A2

Explain how your post production skills have developed from AS to A2 and how this has impacted on your creativity

Evaluate how your creativity has developed and impacted your production work

Explain how you have developed your use of real media conventions / texts over the two year course

Analyse how your research and planning over the two year course had an impact on your use of real media conventions

Discuss how your post production skills developed over time

Explain how you have developed your skills in the use of digital technology over the two year course

Section A part 2 – Analysing one production

“Media texts rely on cultural experiences in order for audiences to easily make sense of narratives”. Explain how you used conventional and / or experimental narrative approaches in one of your production pieces

Analyse representation of a social group in ONE of your media productions

Analyse ONE of your media productions in relation to genre.

Apply theories of narrative to ONE of your coursework productions

Media Language is designed to communicate specific ideas. Analyse the communication of ideas in ONE of your productions in relation to media language

Media texts often contain worn out stereotypes. Discuss how you represented social groups in one of your productions.

Robert Stam says that genre is increasingly hard to define. Discuss genre in one of your productions.

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Audiences are incredibly important in the formation of any media text. Analyse one of your productions in terms of audience.

Explain how you have represented particular characters within one of your productions

Section B – Collective Identity

How do the modern media represent a collective group you have studies?

The representation of collective Identity is becoming increasingly complicated. Discuss.

A collective, unified British identity in the media no longer exists. How far do you agree?

Explain how the representation of collective Identity has changed over time.

Discuss the effects of representations of social groups on audiences

Audiences passively absorb their sense of British Identity from the Media. Discuss.

The media constructs rather than reflects British Identity. How far do you agree with this statement?

Representations of collective identities are simple - do you agree?

What are the social implications of particular representations of collective groups?

Audiences are becoming increasingly active in the way they consume representations of collective identity. Discuss.

The representations of Collective Identities within the media has stayed mostly the same over the years. Do you agree?

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LEVEL / GRADE

APPLICATION OF LEARNING FOR ARGUMENT

USE OF MEDIA THEORIES

KNOWLEDGE OF MEDIA INDUSTRIES, AUDIENCES AND TEXTS

PERSONAL ENGAGEMENT

16-20 Excellent adaptation of learning for the specific question. Arguments are coherent and relevant

Clear fluent use of media theories

Clear fluent knowledge of media industries, audiences and texts

Clear personal engagement with issues and debates

12-15 Good adaptation of learning for specific question.

Sensible, mostly clear use of media theories

Sensible, mostly clear knowledge of media industries, audiences and texts

Clear attempt at personal engagement with issues and debates

8-11 Limited ability to adapt learning to specific question

Partially coherent and / or basic use of media theories

Partially coherent and / or basic knowledge of media industries, audiences and texts

Very basic personal engagement with issues and debates

0-7 Answer may lack relevance to the question and may be incoherent.

Inaccurate or little use of media theory

Inaccurate or little knowledge of media industries, audiences and texts

No personal engagement with issues and debates

MARK SCHEME - EXPLANATION AND ARGUMENT

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MARK SCHEME –- EXAMPLES

LEVEL / GRADE

USE OF EXAMPLES HISTORY AND FUTURE OF BRITISH IDENTITY

16-20 Examples of theories, texts and industry knowledge are clearly connected and form an excellent argument

History and the future of British identity are discussed with conviction in a fluent manner

12-15 Examples of theories, texts and industry knowledge are connected together in places to form a clear argument

History and the future of British identity are mentioned with some relevance

8-11 Some examples of theories, texts and industry knowledge have been included and the student tries to connect them

Discussion of the history and the future of British identity is mentioned in a limited way

0-7 Very few examples or a narrow range of examples of theories, texts and industry knowledge is offered

Inclusion of the history and the future of British identity may be missing

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LEVEL / GRADE USE OF THEORY AND THEORETICAL TERMINOLOGY

IDEAS AND STRUCTURE SPELLING, GRAMMAR AND PRESENTATION

8-10 All ideas are linked to contemporary media theory and there is an excellent use of appropriate theoretical terminology

Complex issues have been expressed clearly and fluently. Sentences and paragraphs have been well structured using appropriate terminology. Arguments are consistently relevant.

There may be few, if any errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar.

6-7 Most ideas are linked to contemporary media theories and there is a good use of appropriate theoretical terminology

Straightforward ideas have been expressed with some clarity and fluency. Arguments are generally relevant but may stray from the point of the question.

There will be some errors of spelling, grammar or punctuation, but these are likely to be minimal and unlikely to make meaning unclear.

4-5 Some contemporary media theory used and some basic theoretical terminology

Some simple ideas have been expressed in an appropriate context

There are likely to be some errors of spelling, grammar and punctuation, some of which may be noticeable and could make meaning unclear.

0-3 Media theory and theoretical terminology is absent or minimal

Some simple ideas have been expressed

There will be some errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar which are likely to be intrusive and make meaning unclear. Writing may be illegible.

Now add together your marks for each

section to find your approximate grade

TOTAL MARK ROUGH GRADE40-50 A35-39 B30-34 C25-29 D21-24 E0-20 U

MARK SCHEME – TERMINOLOGY & STRUCTURE

Total Mark Grade

40-50 A

35-39 B

30-34 C

25-29 D

21-24 E

0-20 U

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Total Mark Grade

40-50 A

35-39 B

30-34 C

25-29 D

21-24 E

0-20 U