A2 G325 - Critical Perspectives: March 2012

- Section A, question 1a of the A2 exam is worth 25 marks
- You will be evaluating your AS and A2 coursework in terms of the skills you have developed over the 2 years
- You will have 30 minutes to answer this question

Question 1a:
'Describe abd evaluate your skilles development over the course of your production work - this can include the preliminary task, your actual c/w, ancillary tasks and any other pieces you have created in the past year'

In the exam 1 or more of the following areas will be selected for you to write about:
- digital technology
- creativity
- research and planning
- post-production
- using conventions of real media texts

What is it about?
- what did you do?
- how did you do it?
- how did your skills develop?
- all supported with specific examples
- in relation to the area(s) in the question

Media Essay: Guided questions

How do contemporary media represent different collective groups in different ways?

- This must be the main focus of your essay!

- Diverse representations including fiction, non-fiction and self-representation

- Harry Brown, Fish Tank, The Inbetweeners, Attack the block, The London Riots news coverage, The Internet and Self mediation

How does contemporary representation compare with that of the past?

- Examples needed for similarity and difference

- Examples from the past – Quadrophenia Mods and Rockers

- Have they changed? – Plato quote

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

- Stereotyping: what is its impact?

- What power does the audience have to ‘resist’

- Propaganda, moral panic, youths as empty categories, cultural hegemony, Stuart Hall and reading the texts and their messages

- Statistics on result of these representations on attitudes and beliefs Vs the reality of the issues

To what extent is human identity increasingly ‘mediated?’

- Increasing media=increasing mediation?

- Re-presentation by others/by selves (Facebook, YouTube)

- Be critical of who is offering the representations and for what purpose

- Mediated: How the media shapes your world and the way you live in it

Guidance:

- Add your own personal opinion

- What in your opinion is the future of representation and what are you basing this on?

- Connections must be made between the examples/contrasts are discussed

- You must embed the theory into what you are saying

- Refer to MORE than one media – (film, newspaper, TV)

Essay Structure:

1- Introduction – Start with a quote, paraphrase it and link it to issues of identity, representation, and the media. State your focus (YOUTHS AND YOUTH CULTURE)

2- Historical example (Quadrophenia/Plato) – talk about wider context

3- Contemporary examples – (Harry Brown, The Inbetweeners, Facebook, YouTube)

4- Connect examples together

5- Conclusion – return to start. Prediction for the future

6- Sentence structure: Example – Significance – Theory – Critique

Advice

- Use referencing (name and year of publication Eg, Giroux 1997)

- use one text older than 5 years – Quadrophenia

- Other texts from within the last 5 years

Conclusion

- Return to the start

- Summarise key idea