Media AS Exam - HELP !!!

Hi Guys
I was just wondering who was taking the Media AS Exam this year (AQA) and i was wondering what i need to revise.
There are 2 exams - MED 1 & MED 2
And i dont know what bits i need to revise for MED 1 & MED 2
IM SO CONFUZED :confused:

Someone help me pleaseeeeee

x

Reply 1

Pollypeptide

Nothing? Surely you don't need to revise for media studies?:P

Reply 2

.Daniel

http://www.aqa.org.uk/qual/pdf/AQA-5571-6571-W-SP-08.PDF

Read pages 24-27. The specification is what your lecturers use so they know what they've got to teach you. :smile:

Reply 3

princessbecky

Thank you so much
This has helped me loads
:smile:

Thanks again
x

Reply 4

wilsonio

Does anyone have any revision material for MED1? i.e. the key concepts in more detail

Media Language
Institution
Genre
Representation
Audience
Ideology
Narrative

HELP!!!!!

Reply 5

princessbecky

Thats what i need!!
xxx

Reply 6

prettyblueeyes

princessbecky

someone help me pleaseeee

wilsonio

Does anyone have any revision material for MED1? i.e. the key concepts in more detail

Media Language
Institution
Genre
Representation
Audience
Ideology
Narrative

HELP!!!!!

I got 100% in both these exams last year so I'll help if I can! MED1 was first, and basically an analysis of the text in relation to the MIGRAIN key concepts. We had a moving image text (the opening sequence to the BBC's 'Blackpool' programme..no dialogue). On a double page in the answer booklet, I made headings for each of the concepts and tried to take notes whilst I was watching them. You get to watch the clip three times I think (overall you get 15 minutes 'reading' time), and then tried to go through the concepts in the essay. Basically for each of the concepts, I thought about..

MEDIA LANGUAGE (and form)- denotative and connotative meanings within the text
- significance/effect of connotations on the audience/rest of text
- non-verbal meanings in the text - layout, font, gesture, clothing, props etc
- Dominant images and relation to main themes
- Techniques used to convey meaning - editing, anchorage, sounds/voiceovers etc

INSTITUTION- Institutional source of the text (who produced it basically)
- How has the institution shaped the meaning of the text?
- Public service vs commercial - does this affect content? Does it fit in to the BBC's Reithian values, 'inform, educate, entertain'? Commercial channel trying to attract particular advertisers/audience?
- Control/ownership - effects over the journalist/producer. Murdoch and News Corp is good to know about.
- How is the text distributed. Free newspapers, internet based, late night TV broadcast etc. What effect does this have on the text?
Main institutions to know about - the BBC, Apple Corporation, Sony Corporation, EMAP, Channel 4, News Corp (Murdoch - The Sun/NOTW; Times, BSkyB, Fox News etc etc)

GENRE- What genre does the text belong to?
- Major generic conventions and paradigms - are these fulfilled/ignored/treated playfully or ironically?
- Are audience expectations met?
- Does it feature a star/writer/director who is strongly associated with the genre, if so what implications does this have?
Producers use genre to: market towards a niche audience; standardise production practises according to genre (cost-cutting); subscribe to established conventions of verisimilitude, but also allowing creativity within a given format.
Reality TV is an interesting genre to look at.

REPRESENTATIONS- Who is being represented in the text? Majorly or subtly?
- How are they represented?
- By whom?
- Why is the subject represented in this way?
- Fair, accurate, positive? Or unfair, questionable and negative?
- Is there opportunity for self-representation by the subjects? (Are they quoted in an article, or able to speak in a documentary?)

Have a look at the reflective, intentional and constructionist view of representation for some theory on this, but don't focus too much on it.
Representation - a mixture of: The thing; opinions of people doing the representing; reaction of individual to the representation; context of society in which representation takes place.

AUDIENCE
- Who is the audience addressed to? Target audience?
- Assumptions about audience characteristics implicit in text? (gender, age, some understanding of context?)
- Scheduling on TV or positioning in print - daytime programming aimed at women/stay at home Mums etc
- Where is it meant to be received?
- Probable and possible readings of the text
- To what extent is your reading influenced by your background/age etc?
Look at demographics and psychographics (more recent, arguably a more relevant way of looking at audience segmentation as it's based on lifestyle, attitudes and behaviours rather than just age/gender/class etc)
Generational cohorts - eg 'baby boomers' born 1942-1953; generation X born 1966-1977; 1988-present nicknamed 'google generation' etc.

IDEOLOGIES AND VALUES- Major values, ideologies and assumptions underpinning the text, or implicit within it.
- What criteria have been used for selecting the content presented? (News Values)
Have a look at the political bias of newspapers and press ideologies. Briefly:
The Sun - since 1970s supported Conservatives, supported Thatcher (beneficial reforms to Murdoch) but recently support New Labour. Have a tradition of supporting current government. Sister paper = News of the World. Also own The London Paper (in competition with The London Lite, owned by Associated Newspapers who run the Daily Mail, Evening Standard etc)
The Mirror - left wing tabloid, Labour paper, launched 1903
Daily Star - sister of Daily Express, used to fill print capacity.
Daily Mail - v. right wing, criticised over its coverage of asylum seekers/immigration etc. Nicknamed 'Daily Hate'. Biggest readers = middle class, female.
The Times - longest running national. Been criticised for tabloidisation and dumbing down. Another Murdoch paper.
The Telegraph - aka 'Torygraph' - most popular quality/broadsheet paper
Guardian - liberal broadsheet

NARRATIVE
- How is the text organised or structured?
- Audience positioned in relation to the narrative?
- Narrative function of the characters?
- Techniques of identification or alienation
- Major themes of the narrative

Narrative plot: everything audibly or visibly present
Narrative story: everything explicity present AS WELL AS inferred (character's pasts etc)
As a society, narrative is important to us - everything is told as a story - fairytales, the Bible, news stories etc.
Opening sequence to a film often referred to as the exposition - requires us to work to make connections between shots in order to establish the story and character roles. The less apparent connections require us to engage more with the text.
Todorov theory of narrative - equilibrium-->disequilibrium/event/problem--> equilibrium (normal but not the same as in the beginning)
Claude Levi-Strauss - looked at binary oppositions in narraitve - sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. eg: earth v space, good v bad/evil, humans v aliens, past v future, normal v strange, known v unknown.
2 main modes of narrative: Narrative of events = a sequence of actions and events. Narrative of drama = nothing much happens in terms of events, but a lot happens dramatically (eg heroine argues and decides to leave the hero).

MED 2 paper - you get 4 sections, two of which you have to answer. Each section has two questions, you can pick which. Last year, one question tended to be more vague and one was more tied to a particular text or issue if I remember right. I chose Marketing&Advertising, and something else. It's best to prepare for three areas and then read the questions properly and pick the ones which you're best able to answer in the time (about 45 mins per section). You just have to keep in mind lots of examples! The best thing to do is look up some past papers to get an idea of the types of questions and make sure you're reading or taking notice of things in the news or in advertising/the press so that you could mention a few things. In the marketing and advertising, as a class we looked at the re-vamp of M&S and then I looked at loads of other examples (plus thought of some to mention in the exam), including the Maddie McCann press campaign in the news etc.