Dear Moderator,

thank you for looking at our A2 Media Studies blogs.

Below are the links to all A2 candidates coursework blogs this academic year from Cardinal Heenan RC High School:

Daniel Arnold (0038): 

http://a2chchsmediastudiesdanielarnold.blogspot.co.uk/

Mathew Dagnall (0077):    

http://matd99.blogspot.co.uk/

Owen Davison (0083): 

http://a2chcsowendavison.blogspot.co.uk/

Boj Gonzaga (0122):  

http://a2chchsbojg.blogspot.co.uk/

Marcus Lam (0161):  

http://a2mediamarcuslam.blogspot.co.uk/

Daniel Williamson (0264):

http://a2chchsdannywilliamson.blogspot.co.uk/

GROUP A BLOG
Daniel Williamson, Marcus Lam, Daniel Arnold
http://groupaa2mediastudies.blogspot.co.uk/

GROUP B BLOG
Boj Gonzaga, Owen Davison, Mathew Dagnall
http://a2chchsmob.blogspot.co.uk/

WeMedia - JayZ - Use of promotion

https://youtu.be/XNic4wf8AYg

Exam Questions (Q.2) - WeMedia

WeMedia and Democracy Exam questions (Q.2)

These are the previous questions set for this topic:

• How far can the media in 2017 be considered to be democratic?

• Assess the claim that the media is becoming more democratic.

• Discuss the meanings of the term ‘we media.’

• Explore the claim that the ‘new’ media are more democratic than the ‘old’ media.

• What is ‘we media’ and what difference does it make to citizens?

• ‘We get the media we deserve.’ Discuss, in relation to the role of media in a democracy.

So as you can see, several previous questions focus on old media versus new media, some on what might be defined as WeMedia and some very specifically on notions of democracy.

If we look at the bullet points in the Specification, which defines what should be studied, we should be able to relate them to the questions set so far:

• What are ‘We Media’?

• Where / how has ‘We Media’ emerged?

• In what way are the contemporary media more democratic than before?

• In what ways are the contemporary media less democratic than before?

The kinds of thing you might use as case studies include:

•  ‘homegrown’, local, organic and potentially counter- cultural media (eg blogging and digital film uploading and sharing)

• You could compare potentially alternative / progressive ‘WeMedia’ examples with other examples of more orthodox production and ownership models you should know a bit about the history of such media before the web (fanzines, pamphlets, radical documentaries, etc)

This part of the exam asks you to do three more specific things, whatever topic you answer on:

1. You MUST refer to at least TWO different media

2. You MUST refer to past, present and future (with the emphasis on the present- contemporary examples from the past five years)

3. refer to critical/theoretical positions

• For this topic, since a lot of what you look at is likely to be online, a comparison between online media and any form of traditional media (newspapers, broadcast news, film) would ensure you quickly meet the criteria for no.1

• For no.2, the main thing is to ensure you have a majority of material from the past five years. This really should not be a problem when using online media, and to be honest I think you could use material from the last few months to construct a really good answer!

• And for no.3 you should have a range of writers that you could use - for example Dan Gillmor who coined the term 'We Media'or sceptics of the power of social media such as Evgeny Morozov or some of the advocates of people power through social media such as Clay Shirky

In all cases, you should be looking for case studies which raise questions about how much the web and social media appear to offer more democratic options for the audience than what was there before. The work of Graeme Turner is quite useful for offering a critique of many assumptions about democracy and new media. You can preview his findings here. 

http://www.participations.org/Volume%208/Issue%202/5c%20Cross%20Review.pdf

For this topic, it is likely you will look at news and citizen journalism, but you could also look at media such as reality TV and shows where ordinary people get to be stars through public participation (the 'democracy of texting'). 

You could also look at the creative options open to ordinary people such as youtube and how far this really does represent a change. David Gauntlett's work on creativity would be useful here.

http://davidgauntlett.com/

Guardian Paper article -

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/feb/16/why-print-newspapers-remain-the-dominant-media-power-in-britain

ESSAY PLANNING SLIDE SHARE 1a, 1b & Q2.

https://www.slideshare.net/pattimcd/a2-med-powerpoint-essay-layout-1bpp?ref=http://chchsmediamrsmcdonaldholmes.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Exam%201B

Essay Structure

Introduction

Sub-Point 1
Sub-Point 2
Supporting Evidence

                                         

                                          Opposing Point 1

                                          Sub-Point 1

                                          Sub-Point 2

                                          Supporting Evidence 

                                          Analysis of Supporting Evidence

                                                                        Main Point 2

                                                                        and so on until

                                                                                                 Summary 

                                                                                                 Conclusion

EXAMPLE 1a Responses

1a) Explain how far your understanding of the conventions of existing media influenced the way you created your own media products. 

Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how this understanding developed over time. 

Plan -> 

Also meant to say music was much improved in A2 as I looked at music specifically in Teen Comedies and replicated the music myself in Garage Band. Creating a much more accurate and specific, original sound than if I’d looked through the web. 

In AS media I made a preliminary task and an opening sequence of a fictional film entitled ‘Hunting Innocence’. Whilst in A2 media I created a Teaser Trailer for my fictional film ‘Spinning Time’ and an accompanying poster and magazine cover to promote the same film. 

Entering onto the course I wasn’t used to the idea of using conventions from media texts. As such getting to grips with this in my AS year was definitely a challenge. As a regular consumer of media texts including television, radio and magazine I knew what I expected from the mediums so that did help when putting myself in the position of producer. 

Towards the creation of my opening sequence I worked with a partner to create a thriller film. Together we knew the conventions of a thriller in terms of ‘mise en scene, soundtrack and camerawork so we didn’t look that extensively into already existing media texts, which is probably why there is a vast improvement in the quality of my A2 production. We did however site the thriller ‘Brick’ as an influence as we wanted to try and recreate the dull muted colour scheme of that in our own film. We achieved this by filming in dystopic urban landscapes of South East London. 

We also knew the convention of thrillers was to follow Sergeis theory of using silence. As such we did use it towards the end of the opening sequence to create a tense atmosphere when Abby finally reaches home, before the non-diegetic sound of Abby’s heartbeat begins to build representing her anticipation and fear. Aside from that we used the thriller convention of having quiet acoustic music which we downloaded from a copyright free music website. The rest of the sequence consisted of ambient and diegetic sounds captured when filming. 

However, in my A2 project as I was working on my own I was able to consider everything in my own time to different levels of depth. Pauling and Czimentiniyli’s theory is that the best ideas spring from the group work as you need to have loads of ideas before you can have one really good idea. However, I found this not to be the case. In AS my partner and I had to compromise on a lot of decision to please us both, whereas working alone in the second year I only had to please myself. Subsequently I was able to produce something I was more interested in, in terms of genre, which ultimately, I think, led to a more successful outcome. 

Towards the creation process of ‘Spinning Time’ I did extensive research into already existing trailers. I browsed teaser trailers on YouTube and IMDB from a variety of different genres before analysing exactly what I wanted in my trailer in terms of genre, structure and mise en scene. This was far more developed than my research in  AS which consisted of watching the opening sequences of just ‘Office Space’ and ‘Brick.’ 

I decided I wanted to create a voice over for my teaser trailer, complying with conventions of Teen Comedy and specifically ‘Chick Flick’ trailers like ‘Picture This’, ‘Mean Girls’ and ‘Not Another Teen Movie’. I wanted the voice over to have the same happy tone but take on the structure of the ‘Buried’ Teaser trailer voice over, in which the setting, situation and dilemma of the film are presented to the audience, leaving them in anticipation of what happens. I followed through with this convention, filming the voice over on a video camera and extracting the sound in iMovie, before inserting it into the trailer. With my experience of digital technology increased I was able to do this, but I never would’ve had the confidence to do this in AS Media. 

In A2 media the mise en scene of my trailer was considered in more detail than in the AS. In ‘Hunting Innocence’ we dressed Abby using only Barthes’ theory of connotations and denotations as a guide. Her red coat was to suggest danger, whilst the rucksack and art portfolios were to suggest her academia. Whereas in ‘Spinning Time’ I focussed much more on dressing protagonist Myles in accordance to pre-established conventions. I drew influence from ‘Mean Girls’ in which the girls dressed fashionably and predominantly in pink. I used this convention by dressing Myles fashionably, but also challenged the stereotype by not having her in pink and revealing attire as this would present her to be like the ‘plastics’ of ‘Mean Girls’ which her character is not intended to be. 

My set design was another heavily considered aspect. It was based on ‘Freaky Friday’ and the design of protagonist Anna’s room. In her room there are pictures on the wall, and CD’s and books on display. As such I made these props visible to suggest aspects of Myle’s character and personality. Comedy ‘Ramona and Beezus’ also influenced set design and lighting as I wanted to replicate the happy atmosphere presented in its cinematic trailer. I did so by filling the room with bright props, dressing myles in bright clothes and scheduling filming for sunny days to achieve high lighting – as I didn’t have the means to create it artificially. 

In AS media we filmed predominantly outside and so could not change the appearance of our locations, as such not using any real media conventions. 

In conclusion in AS media my partner did not use many specific conventions of media products. Rather we worked with the general vague things we knew about the thriller genre from being audiences. Whereas in A2 media I immersed myself in the idea of producing. Extensively researching and analyzing the form of a teaser trailer and drawing influences from a wide range of existing media texts. 

This is a clear level 4, 

excellent response which meets all of the level 4 criteria. 

Progression over time is described and evaluated with specific and well-used examples – of real media conventions and creative decisions made that were informed by understanding of those. Two kinds of theory are deployed – institutional techniques which have become conventional over time, and media theory which accounts for the conventional nature of meaning and its reception.

------------------------------------------------------------

1a) Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to the concept of audience. 

‘Spinning Time’ was the teaser trailer I made in A2 media and is what I will eb analysing in terms of genre.

‘Spinning Time’ is a teen comedy about a teenage girl who has a watch that can control time. As such it is aimed at teenage girls who can relate and identify with the protagonist. Subsequently my target audience is girls aged between eleven and nineteen.

I catered for this audience, firstly by presenting a relatable protagonist in Myles Brown. She is a student dedicated to her work, though also a bit lazy as depicted by her hesitance to get out of bed the trailers beginning. The film was intended to be a Disney family film and as such ‘Funmi Buriamoh’ the actress playing Myles Brown is the new up and coming teen start like Selena Gomez in ‘Ramona and Beezus’. As such the casting of Buriamoh would be an aspect to draw in the target audience. 

My target audience are predominantly fans of popular music – energetic, exciting, like stuff from the top 40.
Chick flicks which are the sub genre of films that cater to my audience feature this kind of music throughout teaser trailers and the film. As such I complied with the conventions of Chick Flicks by incorporating this kind of music to entice my target audience.

I was in no way trying to create moral panic with my film. It’s Disney-esque vide was highly considered during its creating, empowering it to be the kind of film the family can see together. 

I think that there are many uses and gratifications to ‘Spinning Time’. The positive portrayal of an Afro-Caribbean teen is not something that is often seen in big-budgeted Hollywood films/ As such it breaks stereotypes and challenges conventions, and subsequently some preconceptions regarding the demographic. Additionally it provides the target audience with a new role model to look up to and possibly use as reinforcement for their personal values and beliefs – as Myles is quite a positive character.

The preferred reading of ‘Spinning Time’ is that audiences will wish they were in Myles position; having a watch that could control time as it would make life more exciting, easy and generally more fun. Having the instant opportunity to rewind time and do things over again (like a test for example) would eliminate the universal fear of making mistakes. I think eroding that fear would generally make people happier and less self conscious.

However, an oppositional reading to the film could be that Myles is too lazy and selfish to be using such an amazing gift for lazy personal gain reasons – like catching a bus. The audience may expect Myles to do something much more meaningful like prevent deaths or wars.

In conclusion I provided for my target audience in a number of ways (including music, casting, mise en scene to give the happy Disney-esque vibe and plot) duting the creation of ‘Spinning Time’. The piece is for entertainment as opposed to creating  moral panic, and hopefully offers audience members the opportunity for self discovery and social integration through discussing what they’d do if they had a time controlling watch.

This is a level 3 response. Some elements are proficient and some are competent. 

Proficient – the ability to select one piece of work and to relate it to theories of audience / effects such as moral panics and preferred readings (though these are not attributed to Cohen or Hall / Morley). 

Competent – the examples are clear and the theoretical analysis is straightforward – in this sense the understanding of audiences’ reading the text is insufficient for the higher mark level. 

EXAMPLE ANSWERS/ RESPONSES 1b WeMedia

G325 June 2011 We Media Questions

(12) Explain how some features of contemporary media are more democratic than others. 

The introduction of contemporary media such as web 2.0 and social networking has caused today’s media to become more democratic. The new media has joined the old media platforms like newspapers, television and radio giving citizens greater opportunity to share the opinions and express their thoughts.

The medium through which they can most easily do this is documentary, citizen journalism and even fandom. Whilst other mediums like Reality TV allow some levels of audience participation, however it is limited, meaning the medium is not as democratic. Whilst overall the digital divide does threaten the democracy of the earlier mentioned mediums. 

With the development and evolution of technology, documentary has become a more accessible medium for regular citizen to communicate their opinions. The compacting of technology like digital cameras and their affordability has enabled citizens to own them as opposed to that technology always being in the hands of big budgeted producers. 

In addition to the accessibility of recording software, the wealth of editing programmes available such as ‘iMovie’, ‘Windows Movie Maker’ or more extensive programmes like ‘Sony Vegas’ empower and encourage citizens to film and edit their own footage, which is essentially creating documentary. Sites born from web 2.0 like YouTube allow citizens to distribute their creations to huge audiences for free, providing them with a platform they never would have been able to acquire before the introduction of contemporary media. 

An example of an individual who did this is Jonathan Caouette. He created his own documentary entitled ‘Tarnation’ depicting the story of his life and how it was impacted by his mother Renee and her illness. He comprised the film completely of his own accord using his own family photographs, recorded footage, and compiled it all together in ‘iMOvie’. 

The film was shown in 22 theatres and grossed approximately $600,000 which is amazing considering its meagre £200 (approximate) budget. The documentary opened a lot of doors for Caouette in terms of his career as he then went on to direct ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties,’ another documentary consisting of footage captured by the music festival audience. 

‘Loose Change’ is another documentary that was able to be made by cause of the medium democracy. The film portrayed a very controversial opinion of the 9/11 terrorist attackers being a conspiracy. A media text with such a controversial message would never receive the funds to be put into production, and no cinema would ever screen it. Thus, if documentary wasn’t such a democratic, accessible medium a documentary like this could’ve never been made. 

Citizen Journalism is an extremely democratic aspect of contemporary media as it empowers citizens to have a voice. As stated in the indymedia mission statement (a site where citizens can post articles for free) ‘Indymedia erodes the dividing line between the reporters and reported,’ suggesting it aims to challenge Gramsci’s theory of Hegemony by allowing and enabling citizens to share their opinions in the way that journalists do. 

This medium has been severely bettered by the introduction of web 2.0 

as (similarly to YouTube for video texts) it gives citizens readers, literally, from all over the world. Web optimist Dan Gillmore thinks citizen journalism is a great thing as it empowers citizens. 

He acknowledges ‘there is this cliche that journalists write the first draft of history; now I think these people are writing it in some ways and thats an important shift.’ His quote refers to the development of new media like camera phones and handheld camcorders that give citizens the means to capture life as it occurs. For example, most of the footage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks were caught by tourists on camera, before big news stations. Documentaries like ‘Hurricane Katrina: Caught on Camera’ are testament to the power of citizens now by cause of contemporary media. Jeff Jarvis also notes, ‘We live in the era of news served raw – life is on the record.’ 

The democratisation of Citizen Journalism can also be interpreted from individuals who have used the medium for their benefit and become an almost ‘second-tier’ to the news as Alex Bruns suggested citizen journalists should be. For instance online activists like YouTubers Phillip de Franco and Michael Buckley have their own online news shows (‘The Phillip de Franco Show’ and ‘What the Buck’ respectively) which draw in millions of viewers daily. ‘The Phillip de Franco Show’ concentrates on world wide news and American Politcs as it develops, whilst ‘What the Buck’ focuses on celebrity news. More formal online news shows can be found in ‘Democracy Now’ which also has a big following.

Andrew Keen believes that Citizen Journalism isn’t democratic as it only offers opinions rather than facts. He argues the audience’s role is to engage with news provided for them by professionals. However, I think the prior examples show just how versatile and democratic the medium of Citizen Journalism is due to contemporary media like web 2.0 and the advancements in digital technology. 

Fandon is democratic in similar ways to Citizen Journalism. Web 2.0 has empowered citizens to become participants as opposed to just spectators. Media theorist Henry Jenkins acknowledges fans as being ‘the most active segment of the media; the one that refuses to just accept what they’re given; rather insisting to become full participants.’ 

The web including social networking sites like ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ allow them to connect with other individuals with similar likes. The same software that enables individuals to make documentaries allows fans to make fan videos which they can share with huge audiences on YouTube. Whereas prior to contemporary media fans wouldn’t have been able to do any of this or at least not with such ease. With just the aid of old media if a fan had written a story they could only email it, or send to people they knew. Whereas web 2.0 allows them to share textual creations with millions of sites like fanfiction.net and livejournal.com. 

An example of fans who have benefited from the democratisation of fandom brought on by contemporary media is the theatre company ‘Starkid’ based in Chicago. A play they wrote and performed ‘A Very Potter Musical’ based on the ‘Harry Potter’ series went viral.

Through the help of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter it acquired mass recognition, accumulating over 60 million views altogether. As such the introduction of contemporary media has really democratised fandom as a medium and brought even more truth to Henry Jenkins belief that: 

‘fans are consumers who are also producers, readers who also write, spectators who also participate.’ 

Although still democratic, the medium of reality TV is no way near as democratic as documentary journalism and fandom. It is partially democratic in the way that it encourages audience participation; allowing consumers to vote for real citizens on television on shows like Big Brother, ‘X Factor’ and ‘Afghan Star’. 

However, as theorist Sue Holmes acknowledges the levels of audience participation are limited as, in the case of ‘Big Brother’ you can only vote for the people who are up for eviction. Whilst in the case of ‘The X Factor’ and ‘American Idol’ the celebrity judges make the final call on who goes and who stays. 

In conclusion, contemporary media is extremely democratic. Web 2.0 and the introduction of social networking sites have enabled citizens to create change through mediums of documentary, citizen journalism, fandom and social networking. Through viral advertising on Facebook, virtually unknown band ‘Rgae Against The Machine’ were able to beat Joe McElderry and the ‘X Factor’ backed by huge network ITV to the coveted Christmas Number One. 

The success of the ‘Rage Against The Machine’ campaign derived from the fact that it raised awareness of citizens wanting change, not necessarily that the ‘Rage Against The Machine’ song was better. Similarly, the recent uproar in Egypt was partially begun by Wael Ghonin, a google executive via twitter. He encouraged protests via the site, and he raised huge awareness instantly which led to the necessary changes being made. As such these occurrences highlights that social networking doesn’t just create ‘weak ties’ as Malcolm Gladwell thought, but rather provides evidence for Clay Shirky’s theory: 

‘A revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new tools; it happens when it adopts new behaviours.’ 

Finally, the democratic values of all of these mediums pale in comparison to the small democratic opportunity posed by reality TV. 

This is a level 4 response. 

It consistently deals with the complex issue of the relationship between media and democracy and manages to offer contemporary examples throughout. 

The examples are discussed in the context of appropriate and well-handled theories which are not only understood but also the subject of some critique. 

Most importantly, the candidate consistently evaluates this critical perspective, rather than offering a one-sided account of how democratic media is. The complex nature of the debate is described articulately.

..........................................................................

EXAM QUESTIONS - 1b - WeMedia

Past exam questions:

1. How far can the media in 2016 be considered to be democratic?

2. Assess the claim that the media is becoming more democratic.

3. Explore the claim that the ‘new’ media are more democratic than the ‘old’ media.

4. What is ‘we media’ and what difference does it make?

EXEMPLAR responses for G325 - essay structure 1a & 1b

How to answer 1b

This is where you need to take a step back and look at your own work critically  (but always be positive; don't write about what you think is wrong, but rather what you have chosen to do). 

Remember, the examiner on this paper won't have actually seen your production work!

For Question 1(b) you have to select one production and evaluate it in relation to a media concept. This will be one of these:

• Genre
• Narrative
• Representation
• Audience
• Media language

For ideas about applying theory, look at the Useful Quotations and References page of the A2 Collective Identity blog.

Past Questions:
January 2010 - Analyse one of your productions in terms of representation.
June 2010 - genre
January 2011 - narrative
June 2011 - audience
January 2012 - representation
June 2012 - media language
January 2013 - narrative
June 2013 - representation
June 2014 - genre
June 2015 - narrative

Basic essay structure for 1b (Choose only ONE product to write about):

Paragraph 1 Intro:

1. First, define the concept you have been given in the question. For example, for Narrative you might say that every text tells a story. Add a quotation, such as for genre, "Genre is a type" (Daniel Chandler, 2001).

2. Outline the production you've chosen to evaluate.

3. Tell the examiner you're going to discuss (x) number of ideas about the concept. Use no more than 5 theories in your answer (so you'll need to have learnt about 6-7 theories in total).

para 2: Using the theorists, describe some of the key features of the concept you are being asked to apply. Outline two or three of the theories/ideas of particular writers, relating them to your production.

para 3: Start to apply the concept, making close reference to your product and to other examples to show how the concept is evident in it.

para 4: Show ways in which ideas work in relation to three areas of your product - production, distribution and exchange - and also ways in which those ideas might not apply/could be challenged.

para 5: Conclusion - Sum up by returning to the question and, having discussed key issues, say how your product follows or challenges the conventions of that issue

Tips for each concept from Pete Fraser, Chief Examiner:

1. Genre

Discuss how this changes over time and how the industry uses it to help find audiences and distribute work, and how YOU have used this knowledge. If you’ve made a music video at A2 level, an analysis of the video would need to set it in relation to the forms and conventions shown in such videos, particularly for specific types of music. But it would not simply comprise a list of those conventions. There are a whole host of theories of genre and writers with different approaches. Some of it could be used to inform your writing about your production piece. Some you could try are: Altman, Grant and Neale- all are cited in the wikipedia page here.
1. Andrew Goodwin, "Dancing in the Distraction Factory" (1993)

Quotation from Andrew Goodwin: "Music videos are simply an extension of the lyrics."

Goodwin's theory intro and tasks from Naamah Hill

Also see this good example of Goodwin's theories in practice at:
http://mrsblacksmedia2.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/andrew-goodwin-music-video-theory/

Genre as a concept is complicated. See textbook p35: Should we read genre as a noun or an adjective? Mark Reid (2001) asks the challenging and critical question: "How something is categorised is determined by who does it, for whom, where, and when. The same is true for films" (and, in our case, for music videos).
Reid uses the example of tomato puree, suggesting we ask the philosophical question: what would happen to this item if it were shelved in another part of the shop? Would the 'thing' itself be any different? You could use Reid's quotation at the beginning of your essay, then move on to how your own work fits into Reid's categories of 'who, for whom, where and when'.
 

OCR media A level - genre, section 1 exam from hasnmedia

Genre Quotations to use:

"Genre is a type" (Chandler, 2001) (see theory page)

David Buckingham, Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Loughborough University, argues that 'genre is not... simply "given" by the culture: rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change' (Buckingham 1993, 137). 

For Chick Flicks, use this quotation from the book 'Chick Flicks: Contemporary Women at the Movies' (2007, Suzanne Ferriss and Mallory Young): The chick flick is, "in the simplest, broadest sense, a commercial film that applies to a female audience". See article: http://www.culturacritica.cc/2015/01/the-film-industry-and-the-chick-flick-genre/?lang=en

2. Narrative

Discuss how you have structured your product to create a story (or how you have deliberately NOT followed conventions to create something new, different, edgy...). A film opening or trailer will be ideal for this, as they both depend upon ideas about narrative in order to function. An opening must set up some of the issues that the rest of the film’s narrative will deal with, but must not give too much away, since it is only an opening and you would want the audience to carry on watching! Likewise a trailer must draw upon some elements of the film’s imaginary complete narrative in order to entice the viewer to watch it, again without giving too much away. If you made a short film, you will have been capturing a complete narrative, which gives you something complete to analyse. If you did a music video, the chances are that it was more performance based, maybe interspersed with some fragments of narrative. In all these cases, there is enough about narrative in the product to make it worth analysis. The chances are you have been introduced to a number of theories about narrative, but just in case, here’s a link to a PDF by Andrea Joyce, which summarises four of them, including Propp and Todorov. 

3. Representation

Discuss how you've mediated representations of social groups or subcultures, etc, to create your own production. If you take a video you have made for your coursework, you will almost certainly have people in it. If the topic is representation, then your task is to look at how those representations work in your video. You could apply some of the ideas used in the AS TV Drama exam here- how does your video construct a representation of gender, ethnicity or age for example? You need also to refer to some critics who have written about representation or theories of media representation and attempt to apply those (or argue with them). 
See the PowerPoint below for key points and theories:

 

A2 Media Studies: Representation Intro from Nicola Naisbett

Going further: Interesting writers on representation and identity include Richard Dyer, Angela McRobbie and David Gauntlett. See what they say...

Exemplar Response for REPRESENTATON

Analyse Representation in one of your Coursework Productions.

I will be analysing my music video that we filmed and edited for our main task which formed part of my Advanced Portfolio in Media – a promotional package for release of an album, to include a music promo video. In class, we studied representation in existing Music Videos such as Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball, Pharrell Williams’ Happy, Katy Perry’s I Kissed a Girland Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s Telephone – I extended this study to look at videos across a range of genres including Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Blur’s Parklife and Johnny Cash’sHurt to get an idea of representation across a range of genres. This enabled us to fully understand how representation can be applied to our own productions.

My music video was a high energy hybrid of both Electro Pop and Dance using the music of a local, unsigned band called Money Honey, making clear intertextual references to the music of Gaga and Beyonce’s Telephone but also Toni Basil’s Mickey from 1982. The song was called Take Me There and our intentions from the start were to represent femininity asempowered, referencing Angela McRobbie’s concept of the post feminist icon. Looking at existing media was important in helping us understand the representation we were looking to achieve, linking with a sense of narrative – in Gaga and Beyonce’s Telephone for example the narrative shows a sexualised, but in control Lady Gaga leaving prison, picked up by a sultry but again in complete control Beyonce. The video then takes on the genre conventions of a road movie while also referencing the Tarantino film, Kill Bill and also the Ridley Scott production Thelma and Louise. Take me There has limited production values but we did manage to film the three characters (one male and two female) in three separate locations and believe we achieved the representation we were looking for.

The narrative of the song was important in terms of how to decide to achieve this representation – as a song about wealthy banker who loves, and cheats on two women, the song and music video has a revenge narrative. As well as challenging hegemonic cultural stereotypes of gender, a more liberal pluralistic view of race and ethnicity is apparent with all three actors being of mixed race origin. The main setting is on the north bank of the River Thames at St Katherine’s Dock, with Tower Bridge in the background establishing regional identity, intercut with two domestic interiors and an exclusive west end club suggesting wealth and status – connotations are made here with the song title, Take Me There which encodes an aspirational representation.

The establishing shot shows the two women at home, isolated and alone while the video intercuts with a male character in a plush west end bar, flirting with women – he is framed using a canted ‘dutch’ angle suggesting his drunken state and insert close up shots of his body indicate his overweight body shape. At this point the music is fast tempo and upbeat which creates the ideal reading in terms of how contrapuntal sound reflects the isolation of the two women – high energy dance music is playing while one character works on a laptop in a sparsely furnished room while the other is seen sitting in a bath with a glass of wine. The shots then cut to the two girls performing the number on St. Katherine’s dock to an elaborate dance routine that uses red filters and extreme high key lighting to frame the action. The girls are wearing elaborate outfits that are similar to Jean-Paul Gaultier fashion garments with dramatic primary colours, high shoulders and plunging necklines – close up shots show knee length black plastic boots, again of elaborate design as the speed of the editing increases and intercuts with the happy, smiling faces of the singers.

The St. Katherine’s Dock setting is then cut with a key narrative moment in the video which sees the two women meet up in the same bar that the male character was initially photographed in, as they engage in clearly romantically provocative action that is filmed by a friend’s phone. The quality of the image and resolution changes to represent this narrative moment as the next shot cuts to an image of the girls uploading the images to Facebook for the male character to see – close up shots of shock on the man’s face mirror a joyous moment in the song as the dance rhythm become euphoric reflecting their triumph. Using Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory, both female characters are framed for the male gaze but also are represented as aspirational and progressive to a female audience. The music video moves from a marginalised representation to an empowered narrative thatcelebrates female sexuality. Dominant, mainstream culture is challenged and usingRichard Dyer’s theory - the initial gendered representation suggests that thesestereotypes legitimise the ideology of patriarchy.

As the music video progresses, the representations become more fragmented and suggest that, using David Gauntlett’s theory that “identity is complicated, everyone’s got one’. A number of diverse representations are addressed in my music video that both reinforce and challenge dominant, mainstream culture that ultimately allow audiences to understandpluralistic representations through narrative and creative visual language.

4. Audience

Discuss how audiences are represented and how your product applies - mention the effects theory and audience consumption habits. Every media product has to have an audience, otherwise in both a business sense and probably an artistic sense too it would be judged a failure. In your projects, you will undoubtedly have been looking at the idea of a target audience- who you are aiming it at and why; you should also have taken feedback from a real audience in some way at the end of the project for your digital evaluation, which involves finding out how the audience really ‘read’ what you had made. You were also asked at AS to consider how your product addressed your audience- what was it about it that particularly worked to ‘speak’ to them? All this is effectively linked to audience theory which you then need to reference and apply. Here are some links to some starting points for theories:

 

Audience theory powerpoint from robertclackmedia

general intro

presentation on reception theory

Audience has only come up once, in 2011, and there are no exemplars from the exam board on this topic, so the video below outlines how to write an essay on audience for 1b and below the video for an exemplar response from Media Edusites:

Exemplar Response for AUDIENCE

Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to the concept of audience.

I will be analysing my music video that we filmed and edited for our main task which formed part of my Advanced Portfolio in Media – a promotional package for release of an album, to include a music promo video. We studied audience and audience theory and in particular, the way music videos are consumed on a range of media platforms reflecting a digital convergence culture – audience consumption of music videos as a media productstereotypically target youth audiences so we wanted to ensure this demographic was the main focus of our music video.

Importantly, it is necessary initially to identify the target audience in depth of our Electro Pop/Dance hybrid music video of the song Take Me There by the unsigned band Money Honey – students and first time jobbers, 16-25 both male and female are the primary target audience who are aspirers and mainstreamers using psycho graphic categorisation but also from the socio economic backgrounds, C1, C2 and D. Typically the target audience are unmarried, single and free from responsibilities and a have a ‘live for the weekend’ lifestyle. This is very much reflected by the narrative and representations in our music video that show aspirational urban (city) locations and focus on interpersonal relationships. Themise-en-scene is very colourful using a bright palette but also saturated high key lightingto appeal to this audience. Editing is fast paced and the shots are dynamic and also use humour to appeal to youth audiences. Relationships are a universal theme, particularly with young people and female empowerment we felt would not necessarily alienate a male demographic.

In this way, using Stuart Hall’s theory the audience were positioned into decoding a dominant preferred reading (in terms of female empowerment) not just through the mise-en-scene but also through our use of technical language which included shot selection, camera angle and camera movement – close up shots of the overweight body of the banker in a club scene for example reinforced a critical reading of his personality. Audience positioning is as important as audience identification for commercial reasons in a music video media artifact for purposes of entertainment - we ensured the acting and performances mirrored this need in a mainstream market saturated by upbeat, dynamic music videos. In terms of audience identification we linked the key signifiers of the dance genre to the music video to ensure audiences make connections, and used graphics that would allow audiences to go online and follow the band on social networking platformslike Twitter and Facebook. Colour, pace, graphics, representation, body movement and sex appeal were all aspects of the video we hoped would draw audiences in.

Using Blumler and Katz’ Uses and Gratification theory as a model to understand audience appeal in our music video, surveillance was achieved by uploading information about the band. Personal relationships were established through blogging, YouTube and forums discussing the video while personal identification in relation to the actors and performers (particularly the female representations) was apparent. Diversion was a key appeal – the Electro Pop/Dance genre has an upbeat mode of address that sometimes suggests escapist scenarios that are aspirational to an audience. In filming an ‘amateur’ music video by an existing unsigned artist and uploading to YouTube we were invitinginteractive feedback but also seeking publicity for the band. While Andrew Keen would suggest this creates a long tail of amateurs, we believe that as well as being the stereotypical audience of music videos we were now producers of media. This made us more appropriately labeled using Gauntlett’s model of the prosumer. We understood what audiences would be interested in seeing and constructed the video in this way – we were both the originators of our music video but also the first audience to see it and able to offer aself-reflective evaluation on it to which we could then add audience feedback.

The concept of audience is now much more of a complex concept – our music video needed to be made available online initially but also to be seen by as many people as possible within the limitations of a restricted marketing budget. Seeding the video on YouTube seemed the obvious first move to encourage file sharing but also to build a micro blogging website to promote the video and the band: takemetherevid.co.uk. This was a hub that allowed the video to be viewed but also ensured that convergent links to the band were embedded, as were links to the band’s Facebook page and Twitter feed. We received interesting feedback on the genre hybridisation that we felt was necessary to maximize target audiences and also align the product (in terms of intertextual references) with existing successful media. We believe that what was also important was recognising the limits of promoting a band through a music video that to all intents and purposes were independent and not signed to a major artist. The net result was positive in terms ofaudience feedback and was an interesting exercise in constructing media with a specific audience in mind.

5. Media language

In your case, media language refers to the ‘language of film’ or 'video' - ways in which film-makers make meaning in ways that are specific to film/video and how audiences come to be able to 'read' such meaning within film/video. This is closely connected to other media concepts such as genre or narrative so you will make such connections in your answers. Think connotations, mise en scene, camera angles and shots, semiotics, binary oppositions, codes and conventions. See this film terms glossary for illustrated explanations of film language. If you think back to the AS TV Drama exam, when you had to look at the technical codes and how they operate, that was an exercise in applying media language analysis, so for the A2 exam if this one comes up, I’d see it as pretty similar. For moving image, the language of film and television is defined by how camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene create meaning. Likewise an analysis of print work would involve looking at how fonts, layout, combinations of text and image as well as the actual words chosen creates meaning. Useful theory here might be Roland Barthes on semiotics- denotation and connotation and for moving image work Bordwell and Thompson 

Theorists to quote:If you've made a short film:

See Christian Metz's academic essay on Film Language:  http://academic.uprm.edu/mleonard/theorydocs/readings/Metz%20on%20film%20language.pdf

Bordwell & Thompson Narrative Theory
A very interesting text, 'Three Dimensions of Film Narrative' by David Bordwell is at http://www.davidbordwell.net/books/poetics_03narrative.pdf

In 'Three Dimensions of Film Narrative', Bordwell explains that a chain of events within a media form (such as a film or music video) cause effects on a relationship in time and space. The narrative shapes this material in terms of time and space, such as where and when things take place. This can be portrayed by using effects to show the time and space: for example, flashbacks, forwarding time, slow motion and speeding up. There might be titles used, such as in 'The Shining', to show which day it is during flashbacks or flashforwards, connoting the importance of time in the narrative. 

Narrative is one of the main ways that characters and their characteristics are relayed to the viewer. Narrative also dominates and affects other aspects of film such as editing. For example, if a film centres on the story of a particular character (Shaun in 'This Is England' (2006); Rita O'Grady in 'Made In Dagenham (2002), Jenny and Steve in 'Eden Lake' (2008)), it needs to be filmed and edited to privilege their point of view.

Todorov's theory of equilibrium - basically, the pattern where many narratives begin with a state of equilibrium, which is then disrupted by an event, forcing characters to face up to the disruption in order to reclaim equilibrium.

Propp's theory of character function - where characters and events can be seen as constructs to drive the narrative. Propp set up a list of character types with clear functions: the hero, villain, donor (who gives the hero some magical key or information), helper (assists the hero on the quest), heroine (used by the villain and a reward for the hero). See all Disney Princess films, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings.

Levi-Strauss and binary opposition – Claude Levi-Strauss identified a narrative system of 'binary opposites' in which symbols and ideas exist in relation to their opposites, with which they are in conflict. The theory is that this helps us draw meanings from a text, such as the need to side with a character who is 'good'. Typical binary oppositions are Good v Evil; Male v Female; Us v Them (Think 'Eden Lake', 'Ae Fond Kiss').

"Genre is a type" (Chandler, 2001)
The study of genre has often focused on film, where certain codes and conventions have been identified. These are recurrent character, narrative and visual tropes (patterns) that can be identified over a series of films. For example, if we consider the horror genre, we can identify key components that tell us we are viewing that type of film. For example, use of the supernatural, gory scenes, shots from behind objects, through windows, at odd angles, use of a vulnerable female character, music to add tension, sometimes an 'unhappy' tragic ending.

David Buckingham, Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Loughborough University, argues that 'genre is not... simply "given" by the culture: rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change' (Buckingham 1993, 137). 

Barthes - semiotics, enigma codes, 'steak and chips'

Barthes, a French media theorist writing from 1950s to 1970s, developed the theory of semiotics - where any text is a complex bundle of meaning which can be unravelled to create a whole range of different meanings. These threads are called narrative codes. Texts that can be read in a number of ways are polysemic texts. The handiest code to refer to in essays is the enigma code - found in all successful texts from 'Bob the Builder' to 'CSI'. These codes are constructed to attract and hold the attention of the audience, usually be creating a mystery or puzzle which the audience want to see solved - why has this man been murdered?
See Barthes' article 'Steak and Chips' on p62 of his book, 'Mythologies':  https://soundenvironments.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/roland-barthes-mythologies.pdf



All you really need to know about each of the five areas including theorists and theories, is on the presentation below:

 

Media Theory - Audience Representation Narrative Genre fromMissMoore866

If you've made a music video: 

Andrew Goodwin, "Dancing in the Distraction Factory" (1992)
* Music videos rarely point to the lyrics; typically they serve to set a mood.

Carol Vernallis, "Experiencing Music Video: Aesthetics and Cultural Context"