Exampler essay question1a

 G325 Section A: Exemplar Essay

1a)

Over the two year media course we had to produce both a foundation portfolio of a school magazine and music magazine as well as an advance portfolio of a horror teaser trailer, film magazine – developing foundation skills further and a poster to advertise our trailer.

In the first year we researched existing music magazines and analysed each one so that we could gain knowledge of particular layouts, fonts and key elements that need to be contained in our production to make it successful. Research and planning allowed us to recognise ‘mastheads’ on magazines as being the most important and therefore the need to focus on a font more detailed to keep continuity with the contents page and double page spread which we also had to create.

Personally I researched ‘Rock’ magazines such as Kerrang, NME and others because I had chosen after carrying out a questionnaire to use Rock music as my theme. The real life media texts allowed me to visualise my favourite parts from each magazine – wripped sticker graphics and broken font on my own work which I then attempted to recreate within Photoshop CS4. In year one we were limited to what we could research because magazines were the only theme however, in the second year I was able to develop my ability to research real life media texts much further because we had a range of products we needed to create all under the ‘horror’ genre this time. I was able to research teaser trailers analysing my favourite and least favourite parts allowing me to plan with a mood board which I produced from a range of stills from previous horror films my ideas for my own trailer which helped me to develop my production of my products in relation to real life media texts and techniques such as restricted narration and handheld camera found in the ‘Blair Witch Project’ trailer which inspired my trailer ‘Laquem’ which is also set in the woods. Research into film documentaries like the ‘American Nightmare’ inspired me to create a product which reinforced fear and went against usual horror conventions to make it more interesting. Over the second year research became so important to achieving a product which was realistic and is now like my own distributed on on youtube as a real life media text of its own.

Real life media texts like advertising film posters were able to help me develop my Photoshop skills further because I was able to push myself with the ‘colour burn’ filters and want to create the scary atmosphere of my trailer from just an image and text which I found really fun.

Research into film magazines allowed me to develop my work from AS level so much further because I was able to produce a high standard piece of work in two weeks this year when the magazines took over 3 months last year which shows how much my skills have improves just by being able to constantly refer back to real life media texts for inspiration and even colour schemes that work well together such as black and red which in the first year I just found experimenting with. Research into horror trailers allowed me to recognise different styles of film and how we like Alfred Hitchcock could be an auteur creating new angles and ideas using generic conventions as well as unconventional representations that I have picked upon when watching films and analysing certain techniques which I have then attempted to do in Final Cut Pro when editing certain shots together to create collision cutting and changes in pace which my trailer does extremely well. I was inspired initially by the hand held camera in the

trailer REC and the fact I want as an auteur to change the stereotyped representations to be able use a female psycho killer.

Research also allowed me to produce text and intertitles that shook in order to capture my audience but narrating the story slightly so the shots when together made sense. Research into types of camera movements needed were really helpful and allowed me to completely change the pace with tracking shots and handheld camera which I noticed was used in Silent Hill and American Werewolf in London which I analysed and placed on my blog for reference as some pieces of footage I wanted to recreate including the final girl representations.

the answer is descriptive and may offer limited clarity. There is little, if any, evaluation of progress

 

candidates offer a mostly clear, relevent and reasonable examples but didn't elaborate

 

the answer makes basic use of relevent media termonology

 

some simple ideas have been expressed 

 

6

6

3

= 15

 

What are the five areas that could be used to answer this question?

creativity

digital technology

research and planning

post production

using conventions from your text

 

Describe how you developed research and planning skills for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative descision making?

 

Section A Question 1a

Marking Criteria	Student Guidance/ Digital technology
Explanation/analysis/argument	During my AS coursework I used Photoshop to create my music magazine,  I used this to edit my photos and edit the pictures to make my final picture for my AS coursework. For my A2 coursework, I used a video camera to record my trailer, then used premier pro to edit my teaser trailer and create my final trailer. I also used publisher to make my poster, with the use of photoshop once again. I also used IMBD to look at trailers to do my research for my own trailer. I also used you tube to upload my trailer on to
Use of examples	Photoshop C55 Adobe Premiere Pro You tube
Use of terminology	Photomanipulation Colour correction eye dropper tool

 

Section A Question 1a

Marking Criteria	Student Guidance/research and planning
Explanation/analysis/argument	For my AS coursework I had to do a prelimanry task, and lots of research into magazine front covers,  and poster front covers, I also had to do the same for my A2 coursework also. I also had to do lots of planning for my A2, including scripts, diarys, planning, research into music for the trailer, research into trailers also.
Use of examples	Free sound  Google Publisher Photoshop
Use of terminology	preliminary

Section A Question 1a

Marking Criteria	Student Guidance/ Digital technology
Explanation/analysis/argument	During my AS coursework I used Photoshop to create my music magazine,  I used this to edit my photos and edit the pictures to make my final picture for my AS coursework. For my A2 coursework, I used a video camera to record my trailer, then used premier pro to edit my teaser trailer and create my final trailer. I also used publisher to make my poster, with the use of photoshop once again. I also used IMBD to look at trailers to do my research for my own trailer. I also used you tube to upload my trailer on to
Use of examples	Photoshop C55 Adobe Premiere Pro You tube
Use of terminology	Eye correction Black and white eye dropper tool Upload Download

breakdown of section A

Question 1

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 and evaluate your skills development over the course of your production work - this can include the prelimanary tasks, 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 from 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 question

Representations

"What is happening to our young people? They distrespect their elders; they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets, inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?" Plato 4th centuary

Stereotypes

Stereotypes are social constructs

• They originate in & reflect power relations in society because they are part of a cultures ideaology
• They moralize people, treating them as 'the other'
• They catogarize people into groups whose members supposedly share inevitable characteristics, most typically, negative ones

Characteristics of stereotypes

• Stereotypes are categorical & general, suggesting the traits apply to all group members
• They are inflexiable or rigid, thus not easily corrected
• They are simplisitic

Hegemony in News Representation of Youth/Teen/Teenagers

• Media industries operate within a structure that produces and reinforces the dominant ideaology via a consensual 'world view'.
• This world view is produced predominantly by white middle class, middle aged, heterosexual men
• It is their ideas and values that infiltrate media texts and ensure that other voices do not get heard

Propaganda - Is a form of communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position

What words describe youth and youth culture in todays media?

hoodies
gangs
violence
crime
thugs
theives
yobs

What words describe adults

Boring
No sense of humour
Take life to serious
Judgemental

london riots case study

Press/Print representations

Teen trouble 2007

The public believe that a high percentage of crime is due to teenagers
When really its only 12% of crime thats commited by teenagers
News of the world uses negative stories about teenagers rather than postive because negative sells better
people forget youths are equally part of the community/society
Girl gangs are worse in Swindon
Dispersal orders in operation
Mosquito's placed outside shops to keep youths away
4.2 million CCTV camera's
6 times more likely to die from falling down a flight of staires than in a knife attack


Cultivation theory, the amount of proliferation of press coverage will believe that is whats happening in real life, which in turn creates moral panic, ending up in everyone being scared of youths. Hyperdemic needle theory, were injected by the media and we believe everything we read against youths. Hyperdemic needle theory is disputed though, but because of moral panic, it can still be argued. The more criminality we see on the media, the more desensitised we become by it.


Reading the Riot Acts

IPSOS MORI survey 2005: 40% of articles focus on violence, crime, anti-social behaviour; 71% are negative

Brunel Univerisity 2007: TV news: violent crime or celebrities; young people are only 1% of sources

Women in Journalism 2008: 72% of articles were negative; 3.4% positive
75% about crime, drugs, police
Boys: yobs, thugs, sick, feral, hoodies, louts, scum
Only positive stories about the boys that who died young

What role did new media technologies, partically social networking sites play in the london riots?

I think that the social working sites and other technology made the riots bigger, and invited more people, but it didnt start the riots, but it helped continue them and make them much bigger

Do media cause riots or reveloutions?

How can you link cultural hegemony to this article?

You can link cultural hegemony to this article because of the way, there MP's are stating that they are scared to send their children to a state school, meaning that they are filled with lower class children who their middle class children shouldnt mix with. Allowing Cultural Hegemony to be applied here, because of the clear divide between classes.

How does the article suggest moral panic is being caused?

That middle class people have heard a few bad stories that have happened in state schools, causing them to think every child and every state school is bad and is filled with crime and their children wouldnt be safe there. So there is general moral panic as they think its all like that what they have heard.

Can you link in McRobbies Symbolic Violence Theory? How?

You can link McRobbies Symbolic Violence Theory in to this article because it talks about lower class children and state schools, which links it with the symbolic violence we have seen on TV in lower state schools such as 'Waterloo Road' which creates symbolic violence, linking it to this article.

How far do you agree with this article that governments decisions and policies are continuing to create a divide between the middle and working class? Discuss

I believe strongly that the goverment is creating a huge divide between the middle and working class, unfairly diving them, and labelling the social class and 'thugs' as they all commit crime, when it is completley untrue.

Between 6 and 10 August 2011, several London boroughs and districts of cities and towns across England suffered widespread rioting, looting and arson.

Online media

What are the connations of the icon for facebook?

Friends
Photos
Events
Advertising
Mark Zuckerburg
Justin Timberlake (Social network)
Chating
Stalking
Networking
Groups
Likes
Status's
Gossip
Bitching

Positives
Gets you invited to partys/events
News
A way of promoting yourself to others
You can use it to advertise
Its accessable to everyone
Free
Communitcation

Negatives
Private photo's can be put up without your confirmation
Bullying
Cheating
Web sex
No trust
No privacy
Judgemental
Fraping

What forms of social interaction have media technologies enabled?

Globalistation
Sharing of information
Development of self-identity
Self-realisation
Collective intelligence
Reshaping media messages and their flow; reshape and recirculate messages
Increased voice
Consumer communication with business (greater influence) - mass collaboration
Awareness - bands/skills
Communication has become interactive dialogue
User generated content (UGC)
Self-presented and self-disclosure
Increasing diveristy within cultures
Online media focus on some or all of the 7 functional building blocks - identity, conservations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation, and groups (kietzmann et al. (2011).

Quotes

Online media are especially suitable to construct and develop several identities of the self (Turkle, 1998)

The mobile phone has become a central device in the construction of young peoples individual identity (Castells, Fernandez-Ardevol, Linchua Qui & Sey, 2006

Digital Identity

A person has not just one a stable and homogeneous identity

Identity consists of several fragments that permenantly change

Multiple, but coharent

A live-long developing and new conceptualized patchwork

Media Use in Identity Construction

Katherine Hamley

Highlight ke points/quotes that you think are important and then answer these questions when reading this text:

•      Young people are surrounded by influential imagery – popular media (Examples?)

Through television, magazines, advertising, music and the Internet adolescents

•      It is no longer possible for an identity to just be constructed in a small community and influenced by a family (Discuss)

Identities are created by music, television input also, not just families and small comuninities, but many more factors that creates how help mold a persons identity

•      Everything concerning our lives is ‘media saturated’ (What does this mean?)

Therefore, it is obvious that in constructing an identity young people would make use of imagery derived from the popular media

In society today the construction of a personal identity can be seen to be somewhat problematic and difficult. Young people are surrounded by influential imagery, especially that of popular media. It is no longer possible for an identity to be constructed merely in a small community and only be influenced by family. Nowadays, arguably everything concerning our lives is seen to be ‘media-saturated’. Therefore, it is obvious that in constructing an identity young people would make use of imagery derived from the popular media.
However, it is fair to say that in some instances the freedom of exploring the web could be limited depending on the choice of the parents or teachers. So, if young people have such frequent access and an interest in the media, it is fair to say that their behaviour and their sense of ‘self’ will be influenced to some degree by what they see, read, hear or discover for themselves. Such an influence may include a particular way of behaving or dressing to the kind of music a person chooses to listen to. These are all aspects which go towards constructing a person’s own personal identity.
Firstly, it is important to establish what constitutes an identity, especially in young people. The dictionary definition states the following:

“State of being a specified person or thing: individuality or personality…” (Collins Gem English Dictionary. 1991).

The mass media provide a wide-ranging source of cultural opinions and standards to young people as well as differing examples of identity. Young people would be able to look at these and decide which they found most favourable and also to what they would like to aspire to be. The meanings that are gathered from the media do not have to be final but are open to reshaping and refashioning to suit an individual’s personal needs and consequently, identity. It is said that young people:

“…use media and the cultural insights provided by them to see both who they might be and how others have constructed or reconstructed themselves… individual adolescents…struggle with the dilemma of living out all the "possible selves" (Markus & Nurius, 1986), they can imagine.” (Brown et al. 1994, 814).

When considering how much time adolescents are in contact with the popular media, be it television, magazines, advertising, music or the Internet, it is clear to see that it is bound to have a marked effect on an individual’s construction of their identity. This is especially the case when the medium itself is concerned with the idea of identity and the self; self-preservation, self-understanding and self-celebration.

 “With a simple flip of the television channel or radio station, or a turn of the newspaper or magazine page, we have at our disposal an enormous array of possible identity models.” (Grodin & Lindlof 1996)

I believe the Internet is an especially interesting medium for young people to use in order to construct their identities. Not only can they make use of the imagery derived from the Internet, but also it provides a perfect backdrop for the presentation of the self, notably with personal home pages. By surfing the World Wide Web adolescents are able to gain information from the limitless sites which may interest them but they can also create sites for themselves, specifically home pages. Constructing a home page can enable someone to put all the imagery they have derived from the popular media into practice. For example:

“…constructing a personal home page can be seen as shaping not only the materials but also (in part through manipulating the various materials) one’s identity.” (Chandler 1998)

This is particularly important as not only are young people able to access such an interesting and wide ranging medium, but they are also able to utilise it to construct their own identity. In doing this, people are able to interact with others on the Internet just as they could present their identities in real life and interact with others on a day to day basis.
In conclusion it can be seen that the popular media permeates everything that we do. Consequently, the imagery in the media is bound to infiltrate into young people’s lives. This is especially the case when young people are in the process of constructing their identities. Through television, magazines, advertising, music and the Internet adolescents have a great deal of resources available to them in order for them to choose how they would like to present their ‘selves’. However, just as web pages are constantly seen to be 'under construction’, so can the identities of young people. These will change as their tastes in media change and develop. There is no such thing as one fixed identity; it is negotiable and is sometimes possible to have multiple identities. The self we present to our friends and family could be somewhat different from the self we would present on the Internet, for example. By using certain imagery portrayed in the media, be it slim fashion models, a character in a television drama or a lyric from a popular song, young people and even adults are able to construct an identity for themselves. This identity will allow them to fit in with the pressures placed on us by society, yet allow them to still be fundamentally different from the next person.

Media and Collective Identity

"Identity is complicated - everybody thinks theyve got one" David Gauntlett

"A focus on identity requires us to pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups" David Buckingham

Buckingham

He classifies identity as an 'ambigious and slippery' term;

- Identity is something unique to each of us, but also implies a relationship with a broader group
- Identity can change according to our circumstances
- Identity is fluid and is affected by broader changes
- Identity becomes more important to us if we feel it is threatened

[ Cultural imperiliasm = American culture being imprinted on British culture ]

David Gauntlett

- Identity is complicated, however, everybody feel that they have one
- Religious and national identities are at the heart of the major international conflicts
- The average teenager can create numerous identities in a short space of time ( Especially using the   
internet,social networking sites, etc )
- We like to to think we are unique, but Gauntlett questions whether this is an illusion, and we are all much more similar then we think

5 Key themes

1. Creativity as a process
About emotions and experiences

2. Making and sharing
To feel alive, to participate, in community

3. Happiness
Through creativity and community

4. Creativity as a social glue
A middle layer between individuals & society

5. Making your mark
And making the world your own

What is collective identity?

Representation: The way reality is 'mediated' or 're-presented' to us

Collective identity: The individuals sense of belonging to a group (part of personal identity)

An Anthropological Introduction to Youtube

Michael Wesch

Whilst watching the video answer these question

1.       When was Youtube first released?

April 23rd 2005

2.       According to Michael Wesch what does Web 2.0 allow people to do?

Is about linking people

3.       When media changes what else changes?

Human relationships change

4.       What influenced the loss of community? And what has now filled this void?

Woman joined the workforce, massive communities of surbibia

Fill the void; TV's, Cell phones, cultural inversion

5.       How are communities connected?

6.       Explain what he means by voyeuristic capabilities?

Watch other people without staring at them or making them uncomfortable, its really intresting

7.       Write 3 points about what he refers when he discusses playing with identity

•   People having many faces

•   You dont know who or what is real

•   Videos not being what you think they are

8.       What does the ‘Free hugs phenomenon’ suggest about people?

There trying to reconnect with humanity

Media Effects

Hypodermic model - The media injecting their idea's into our society
Cultivation theory - If you see enough violence amongst british youth the more likely you are to believe its happening
Copy cat theory - Influnced what you see, so you copy what you see
Moral panic - Creates a panic within society

Contempory British social realism

What do you undersrtand by contempory British social realism?

Social realist films attempt to portray issues facing ordinary people in their social situations

Social realist films try to show that society and the capitalist system leeds to the explanation of the porr or dispossessed

These groups are shown as victims of the system rather than being totally responsible for their own bad behaviour

'These places represent an everywhere of Britain, where relationships are broken down and where people have become isolated and disconnected. Their britishness is their culturally specific address to audiences at home'. (Murray, 2008)

Audience

Social realist films which address social problems in this country offer a very different version of 'collective identity' than British films which are also aimed at American audience. Films like Notting Hill and Love Actually reach a much bigger audience than the lower budget social realist films.

Social realist films are aimed at a predominantly British Audience

If many more people see the more commercial films, consider which version of our collective idendity is the more powerful or has the most impact

Analysing Representation of Collective Identity

When comparing how Britishness and our collective identity is represented in films, consider the following questions:

Who is being represented?

Who is representing them?

How are they being represented?

What seems to be the intentions of the representations?

What is the dominant discourse? (World view offered by the film).

What range of readings are there?

Look for alternative discourses

Collective Identity

The media contributes to our sense of 'collecitve identity' but there are many different versions that change over time

Representations can cause problems for the groups being represented because marginalized groups have little control over their representation / stereotyping.

The social context in which the film / TV programme is made influences the messages / values / dominant discourse of the film

British soical realism - Films generally made on a lower budget, attempt to portray ordinary issues and ordinary people.

Encoding - Decoding (Stuart Hall, 1980) - Active Audience Theory

Encoding-decoding is an active audience theory developed by Stuart Hall which examines the relationship between a text and its audience

Encoding is the process by which is constructed by its producers

Decoding is the process by which the audience reads, understands and inteprets a text

Hall states that texts are polysemic, meaning they may be read differently by different people, depending on their identity, cultural knowledge and opinions

Hall states that there are three ways to read a text:

Preffered Reading/Dominat Hegemonic

When an audience interprets the message as it was ment to to be undertsood, they are opertating in the dominant code. The position of proffesional broadcasters and media producers is that messages are already signified within the hegemonic manner to which they accusotmed. Proffesional codes for media organizations serve to contribute to this type of industrial pyshcolohy. The producers and the audenice are in harmony, understasnfinh communication and sharing mediated signs in the established.

Negotiated reading

Not all audiences may understand may undertsand the media producers take for granted. There may be some acknowledgement of differences in undertsnading

Decoding within the negotiated version contains a mixture of adaptive and oppisitonal elements; It acknowledges the legitmacy of the hegemonic definitions to make the grand significations (abstract) while at a more restriced level, it makes its own grand rules - it operates with exceptions to the rules

Oppostitional reading/'counter-hegemonic'

When media consumers undertsands the contextual and literary inflections of a text yet decode the message by a completely oppisitonal means. This is the globally contrary position/oppositional reading

Any representation is a mixture of itself:

The thing itself

The opinions of the people doing the representation

The reaction of the individual to the representation

The context of the society in which the representation is taking place

Sterotypying

Why do we stereotype?

The fact that we naturally see the world in this kind of shorthand way, with connections between different character traits, allows the media to create simplistic representations which we find believavble. Implicit personalitly theory explains  this process.

'Its almost as if we conspire with the media to misunderstands the world'