CRITICAL
PERSPECTI
VES PAPER
G325
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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
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
Digital Technology
Creativity
Research and Planning
Post-Production
Using conventions of real media texts
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Digital 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
Final Cut Pro we 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?
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..
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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?
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
To Prepare:
At AS we used Facebook..
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At A2 we used Facebook in a
different way
At AS we used Photoshop to
At A2 we used 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.
Camera At first your shots and filming were practical. You filmed a
medium shot because you hadnt 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 werent very creative. Editing was functional putting
shots next to shots to create some meaning for your AS opening
sequence.. However you couldnt do that at A2 as just having a narrative
wasnt 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
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including sending out facebook messages, holding auditions etc.. How
were you creative in your casting? Be specific. What impact did this
have?
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
You cant 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 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
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Creativity How it helped us
At AS we were creative coming up
with ideas by
At AS we chose costumes by
At AS we copied conventions of
the genre for example..
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At AS we used basic editing
techniques such as..
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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.
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
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levels, power points to plug in equipment, health & safety, availability etc.
Plus you have sourced more interesting, exciting locations.
Prelim The prelim in Year 12 helped you to develop skills you didnt
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 hadnt done the
prelims, what problems might you have encountered?
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
WHAT EFFECT did research and planning have on your final work
WHAT would you NOT have been able to do without research and
planning?
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At A2 we improved our use of
questionnaires by
At AS we completed a prelim
tasks to..
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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..
Live Type used to use the Final Cut text, now Live Type. Whats the
difference? It has more functions and potential to create moving text.
Why was this useful?
After Effects had zero experience. Some of you then learned how to use
this in your own time, practised effects etc.. discuss how this helped make
your work better
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.
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
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need to focus on the EVALUATE part. To EVALUATE you could comment on
any of the following throughout your work
WHAT EFFECT did post production skills have on your final work
WHAT would you NOT have been able to do without post production
skills?
At A2 we improved our
understanding of Photoshop by
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At AS we got feedback after the
production by..
At A2 we improved post
production feedback by
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 didnt 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
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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?
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. ]
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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 genres
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
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
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?
Steve Neale thinks that film Andrew Goodwin Robert Stam suggests genre is
genres are constantly Thinks that music videos hard to define, doesnt really
changing and evolving and are follow the following exist and is just a concept made
not set in stone. He thinks conventions: up by theorists and critics. Do
there are 5 main stages in film you agree? Give examples from
genres. Which stage does Conventions depend your work that suggests that
your film fit into? Explain why. on the genre of the genre either IS or ISNT easy to
music define
The form finding itself (Psycho)
The classic (Halloween) Star persona is
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Stretching the boundaries of important and
the genre (Nightmare on Elm companies use close
Street) ups to sell them to Rick Altman says that the way we
Parody (Scary Movie) the audience define a genre is by two main
Homage (Scream) things:
Voyeuristic images
are used to attract an Semantic Elements (eg signs
audience such as knives, blood, dark
colours, eerie music). He
They often contain thinks these elements are
intertextual easier for audiences to
references to other recognise and identify
media
Syntactic elements (includes
There is a link THEMES such as fear,
between the lyrics revenge, rage as well as plots
and the visuals such as PLOTS such as group
go on trip, one by one they
There is a link die, last girl survives and kills
between the visuals killer) He thinks these
and the music / pace elements are more subtle and
etc harder to recognise.
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AUDIENCE
To get a C/D grade
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, dont 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?
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Blumler & katz Think that audiences
want media products that gratify
particular needs (Uses & gratifications)
eg escape, entertainment etc
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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:
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)
Mise-En-Scene:
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Editing:
Sound:
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.
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Hero
Villain
Princess
Donor / Helper
Dispatcher
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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?
Mise-En-Scene:
Editing:
Sound:
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To get A&B Grades
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
Vladimir Propp Propps theory of narrative suggests that texts NEED particular
characters to develop the narrative
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Hero
Villain
Princess
Donor / Helper
Dispatcher
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 DONT know who they are?
Andrew thinks that in music videos the narrative often links to the lyrics
Goodwin 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.
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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
Camera shot size, framing, high & low angles, subjective &
objective filming, hand held, tilts, pans, zooms etc, green screen
Mise-En-Scene
Editing:
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Sound:
For this question you could choose to include ANY of the theories we have
looked at. Particularly good ones might be:
Blumler & Katz / Uses & Gratifications theory / Utopian Solutions explaining
Richard Dyer how your use of MEDIA LANGUAGE offers these to an
audience
Vladimir Propp Propps 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
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SECTION B MEDIA AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITY
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.
Commercial Representations
Film examples: Mrs Miniver, Mary Poppins, Love Actually, Notting Hill,
The Holiday, The Kings Speech, Atonement, The History Boys, The
Duchess, The Queen, Quantum Of Solace
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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 British audience. They often star
British actors or unknown new actors. They are often low budget. There
is rarely a happy ending.
Film Examples: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, St Trinians, Eden Lake,
Attack The Block
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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.
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DIRECTORS 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 80s 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.
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How does contemporary representation
compare to previous time periods?
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feminism
2000 - 2010 Britain shown as dirty, full of crime, Britain shown mainly from middle class
no jobs, very divided. Main themes perspective. Life is glamorous and
are crime, terrorism. Shown as positive. Main themes are love,
divided in many ways (class, age romance, marriage and national pride.
and ethnicity mainly). There is no divided culture.
2010 - present Films centre around working class National identity falling slightly in current
characters with elements of social climate. On rare occasions the media
realism, but combined with portrays VERY nationalistic
commercial storylines such as sci fi, representations, but mostly the trend is
action etc.. now going towards regional
representations with commercial glossy
Reason: Audiences are getting characters
bored with seeing working class life
portrayed as being so depressing
and dreary. Reason: People are getting bored with
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seeing only South / London based
commercial programming.
Examples: Attack The Block, Eden
lake, Misfits Example: The Royal Wedding on the
BBC, The Only Way is Essex,
Desperate Scousewives
Summary Social Realist films and TV Commercial films and tv programmes
programmes have changed have changed very little over the years,
consistently over the years to reflect always representing Britain in a positive
the current political climate. way as their main purpose is to give
Although the representations of audiences a way of escaping from
British life are nearly always whatever is happening in reality.
negative in some ways, they tackle
whatever the main political issues
are in Britain at the time to give
audiences something to identify with
Possible 1) More and more films mixing social realist and commercial
Future 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: 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 dont 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
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occur because of director, funding, target audience, purpose of the film (social
comment or entertainment), why people watch the film (Uses & Gratifications
etc)
Conclusion
Many 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.
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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 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
audiences opinions.
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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 =
Effects vary with the success of the film - Depends on the films
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.
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therefore know the representations are not realistic but dont really
mind. THEORIES YOU COULD USE HERE =
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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.
Evidence that audiences are PASSIVE Evidence that audiences are ACTIVE
and accept their identities from what and mediate their identities from what
they see on screen they see on screen
Propaganda some texts are used as
propaganda, to directly change the
identity of the audience
Examples:
Theory 2:
Audiences use the media as a source of Audiences know that many texts are there
identification and enjoy seeing texts just as entertainment and escape and dont
where they can recognise themselves expect them to be realistic
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Examples: Examples:
Theory: Theory:
Examples: Example:
Theory: Theory:
Example:
Theory:
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Examples we have looked at (in no particular order)
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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
(dont need all of them!)
Theories in blue are the ones you COULD use to get an A/A* (Dont need
all of them!)
THEORY
FUNCTIONALISTS
Believe that the media has a useful and important purpose in peoples 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
MARXISTS
Karl Marx believed that the ruling class dominates the working class. And they
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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 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.
Also agrees with Stuart Hall and thinks that representations which become familiar
through constant re-use come to feel 'natural' and unmediated
PLURALISTS
Believe that media only reflects what audiences want and that if it didnt do this,
film companies would go out of business.
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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
POSTMODERNISTS
Believe that culture is so diverse now that class, gender, ethnicity and age dont
really define who we are. They dont think there is a big class divide (or any other
divide for that matter) and they believe that audiences are diverse and varied.
They dont believe that having a National Identity is possible anymore because
Britain is such a diverse place and we are now all so different.
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.
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:
Shouldnt blame the media for issues that already exist in society
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Shouldnt assume the audiences is passive and naive
Shouldnt believe the Frankfurt Schools research as it was conducted in an artificial
way and theres no real way we could ever find out the real effect media has on
society
Shouldnt 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 audience
Believes 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.
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
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.com
Mass 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 Giddens
Believes 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
TERMINOLOGY
A/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
Iconography images that mean something or represent something. Eg films show British
cultural iconography such as black taxis, red buses etc
Dominant Ideology The commonly held belief within a society about something.
Mediation an exchange of ideas between the film makers and the audiences
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
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Binary Opposites two very opposite things eg black / white or upper class / working class
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
Culture shared identities, values and beliefs between members of the same community
National Identity shared feelings of identity between people from the same country
Social Realism a style of film marking which is designed to be realistic and gritty, often
centred around the working classes
Target Audience the type of people who the programme or film is made for
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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 MPs, lords, ladies, kings etc
Underclass people who are considered lower than working class, may be unemployed,
students, pensioners, on benefits
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
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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
Explain how you have developed your skills in the use of digital
technology over the two year course
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
A collective, unified British identity in the media no longer exists. How far
do you agree?
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?
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MARK SCHEME - EXPLANATION AND
ARGUMENT
LEVEL APPLICATION OF USE OF MEDIA KNOWLEDGE OF PERSONAL
/ LEARNING FOR THEORIES MEDIA ENGAGEME
GRAD ARGUMENT INDUSTRIES,
E AUDIENCES AND
TEXTS
16-20 Excellent adaptation Clear fluent use Clear fluent Clear person
of learning for the of media theories knowledge of media engagement
specific question. industries, issues and
Arguments are audiences and texts debates
coherent and
relevant
12-15 Good adaptation of Sensible, mostly Sensible, mostly Clear attemp
learning for specific clear use of clear knowledge of personal
question. media theories media industries, engagement
audiences and texts issues and
debates
8-11 Limited ability to Partially coherent Partially coherent Very basic
adapt learning to and / or basic use and / or basic personal
specific question of media theories knowledge of media engagement
industries, issues and
audiences and texts debates
0-7 Answer may lack Inaccurate or Inaccurate or little No personal
relevance to the little use of media knowledge of media engagement
question and may theory industries, issues and
be incoherent. audiences and texts debates
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MARK SCHEME - EXAMPLES
LEVEL USE OF HISTORY AND
/ EXAMPLES FUTURE OF
GRAD BRITISH
E IDENTITY
16-20 Examples of History and the
theories, texts and future of British
industry knowledge identity are
are clearly discussed with
connected and form conviction in a
an excellent fluent manner
argument
12-15 Examples of History and the
theories, texts and future of British
industry knowledge identity are
are connected mentioned with
together in places some relevance
to form a clear
argument
8-11 Some examples of Discussion of the
theories, texts and history and the
industry knowledge future of British
have been included identity is
and the student mentioned in a
tries to connect limited way
them
0-7 Very few examples Inclusion of the
or a narrow range of history and the
examples of future of British
theories, texts and identity may be
industry knowledge missing
is offered
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MARK SCHEME TERMINOLOGY & STRUCTURE
TOTAL ROUGH
MARK GRADE
40-50 A
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35-39 B
30-34 C
25-29 D
21-24 E
0-20 U
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