A level Media Exam Blog

 1) Type up your feedback in full (you don't need to write the mark and grade if you want to keep this confidential). 2) Read the whole mark scheme for this assessment carefully. Identify three specific aspects from Figure 1 (the Google Home advert) that you could have mentioned in your answer (e.g. selection of image, framing and focus, colour, text etc.) - Reinforces white, western, middle-class representation of family life to the exclusion of other backgrounds (race/ethnicity, sexuality, age, class). Presents the white, western ‘2.4 children’ average as desirable, aspirational lifestyle – some audiences will reject this. - Google presenting its smart speaker as a ‘natural’ part of home life will be strongly rejected by audiences concerned with data, privacy and the power technology companies such as Google have in modern western societies. 3) Now use the mark scheme to identify three potential points that you could have made in your essay for Question 2 (Hesmondhalgh - validit...

Factsheet #107 - Fandom Read Media Factsheet #107 on Fandom . Use our Media Factsheet archive on the M: drive Media Shared (M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets) or log into your Greenford Google account to access the link. Read the whole of Factsheet and answer the following questions: 1) What is the definition of a fan? Fans do more than just like or even love a particular media text, ‘true fans’ have a devotion that goes beyond simply consuming media texts, and is, as Matt Hills argues, part of a person’s identity in much the same way as gender, class and age define who we are. 2) What the different types of fan identified in the factsheet? Hardcore/True Fan ,Newbie, Anti-fan 3) What makes a ‘fandom’? Fandoms exhibit a ‘passion that binds enthusiasts in the manner of people who share a secret — this secret just happens to be shared with millions of others.’ Fandoms are subcultures within which fans experience and share a sense of camaraderie with each other and engage in partic...

Language and contexts Homepage Go to the Voice homepage and answer the following: 1) What news website key conventions can you find on the Voice homepage? Top menu bar: range of content such as 'hard' and 'soft' news to appeal to target audience. Subscription icon: Diversification/convergence -> print media to online content stay in the loop uses + gratification -> sense of surveillance information gained Advertisements: marketing jobs for target audience ad for book on the history of The Voice -> example of product placement Variety of thumbnails offer content linked to top menu bar (hard + soft news) feature/represent the black community  Images centrally placed to grab target audience's attention. Attempt to hold interest through digital content (clickbait) 2) What are some of the items in the top menu bar and what does this tell you about the content, values and ideologies of the Voice? Drop down from top-menu bar  uses + gratifications - diversion...

 1) OSP: Clay Shirky - End of Audience blog tasks 2) OSP: Influencers and celebrity culture 3) OSP: Taylor Swift CSP - Language and Representations 4) OSP: Taylor Swift CSP - Audience and Industries  5) Baseline Assessment learner response 6) OSP: Postcolonial theory - Gilroy and diasporic identity 7) OSP: The Voice - blog case study

 Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet 170: Gilroy – Ethnicity and Postcolonial Theory. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets or you can access it online here using your Greenford Google login. Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks: 1) How does Gilroy suggest racial identities are constructed? He has consistently argued that racial identities are historically constructed – formed by colonisation, slavery, nationalist philosophies and consumer capitalism. 2) What does Gilroy suggest regarding the causes and history of racism? Gilroy suggests that racism creates race, not the other way around. He argues that racism emerged from historical processes like colonialism and slavery, and race was used to justify the oppression and exploitation of certain groups, rather than being the natural cause of this oppression. 3) What is ethnic absolutism and why is Gilroy oppos...

Audience Background and audience wider reading Read this Guardian feature on stan accounts and fandom. Answer the following questions: 1) What examples of fandom and celebrities are provided in the article? Fandom: Lady Gaga’s Little Monsters, Beyoncé’s Bey Hive, Taylor Swift’s Swifties, and Nicki Minaj’s Barbs. 2) Why did Taylor Swift run into trouble with her fanbase?  When the presale for Taylor Swift’s tour turned into a battle royale for fans locked out of Ticketmaster’s system, frazzled Swifties voiced their disappointment. Ticketmaster and Swift quickly apologized, with the singer calling the process “excruciating”. Ticketmaster ended up testifying in Congress in a hearing about consolidation in the ticketing industry. 3) Do stan accounts reflect Clay Shirky's ideas regarding the 'end of audience'? How?   They do reflect the theory as Stan accounts are like roving reporters in that they comment on the action live and as it happens. Stans don’t just root for th...