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Media Studies G325 OCR: Critical Perspectives 2017

I am worried and surprised no one has made a post on this yet.
What is everyone's predictions on the exam on the 7th of june?

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Reply 1
Original post by carlosisgreat12
I am worried and surprised no one has made a post on this yet.
What is everyone's predictions on the exam on the 7th of june?


I dont have any predictions but am also a bit worried. I am usually fairly okay on the first section about own coursework but its the second section that I struggle with, what topic are you doing? Im doing postmodernism and I really don't love it however feeling slightly more comfortable having gone through mark schemes to work out exactly what theyre looking for and planning a few of the trickier past questions. I'd also recommend looking at the past examiners reports available.
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by carlosisgreat12
I am worried and surprised no one has made a post on this yet.
What is everyone's predictions on the exam on the 7th of june?


For Question 1 Section A I think digital technology or post-production may come up, I'm still planning these questions but when I have a decent essay plan for it I'll try to share how i organised it.

For Question 1 Section B I personally think representation is going to come up. I'm unsure of what came up last year but if it was Audience then after analysing past questions that have come up, section B follows a type of pattern of R-G-N-A-R-M-N, so if audience came up last year then representation according to the pattern should come up this year. Otherwise my next best guess would be media language which wouldn't follow the pattern but also has only come up once.

Outlining section B if representation does come up mentioning several different theories and concepts such as these could be useful:

- Laura Mulvey - The Male Gaze
- Chandler's theory on denotation, connotation and myth
- Fiske's interpretation of denotation
- Stuart Hall on encoders/decoders, dominant, negotiated and oppositional readings and on identity
- Levi-Strauss on binary oppositions, although this is more on narrative you could incorporate it into representation, perhaps mention how your characters aren't represented as merely good or bad and that you challenge Strauss' theory by portraying character A as an anti-hero who has qualities of a good and bad character etc.
- Barthes - Hermeneutic(?)/Enigma code
I'm not entirely educated on post-modern theorists but if your coursework can relate to any concepts or theories on post-modernism then totally mention it too!

Also be sure to mention real media texts that you perhaps paid homage to, or influenced you.

According to my media teacher mentioning how you challenged certain theories is also really beneficial with getting a higher grade, rather than just stating that you conformed or subverted from them.

Hopefully that helps in some way.

Sorry for any errors.

Good luck to us all!
Reply 3
Does anyone have any tips for creativity in section A? Our teacher hasn't taught us anything
Original post by nvchxl
Does anyone have any tips for creativity in section A? Our teacher hasn't taught us anything


Creativity:
- media skills you formerly had and developed, elaborate on how you developed these skills, provide evidence of these skills from AS to A2 or AS to AS resubmitted work.
- software, design (use of colours, fonts, layout design), photography/cinematography skills you developed, how, evidence of these skills within your coursework from AS to A2.
- mention where these creative skills derived from example: after studying and analysing real media texts such as A, B, C I chose to incorporate x and y to form my own creative style of this work.
- explain how your ideas were developed and any audience feedback you were given, how that helped you to develop your ideas.
- mention any transferable skills you developed from other subjects (graphics, drama, English etc)

Hopefully that helps!
Reply 5
Hi,

I'm really glad you've started this thread, I joined with the sole purpose of gaining more information on the exam. I found the AS exam a breeze however I'm struggling much more with this year's exam.

As a previous poster said, section B is the part I'm most worried about as I've hardly been taught anything about it and I'm completely clueless.
We're doing the Collective Identity question and I was wondering if you had any tips on this/how to answer these questions?

Thank you!
Original post by CGrace98
Hi,

I'm really glad you've started this thread, I joined with the sole purpose of gaining more information on the exam. I found the AS exam a breeze however I'm struggling much more with this year's exam.

As a previous poster said, section B is the part I'm most worried about as I've hardly been taught anything about it and I'm completely clueless.
We're doing the Collective Identity question and I was wondering if you had any tips on this/how to answer these questions?

Thank you!
:

Hey,

What groups of people are you studying?
Reply 7
Original post by tylerneedsanA
:

Hey,

What groups of people are you studying?


We're studying youth :smile:
Original post by CGrace98
We're studying youth :smile:


Hmm, well as I'm studying British Muslim's and Asians certain things I'd talk about would differ so I'll mention theories you should mention.

So firstly I'd definitely suggest talking about Stan Cohen on folk devils, moral panic and self fulfilling prophecy, perhaps on how the identity of youth are mediated or represented in a certain way through the media (if it relates to the question) and how this representation affects(?) the public, like if it creates a moral panic.

Stuart Hall on encoding/decoding (and how the audience have active role with establishing meaning) and his different readings: oppositional, negotiated and dominant. Identity and how the identity of individuals aren't "fixed" but rather fluid, with media texts you've studies you can give examples of this.

Media texts such as newspapers, films, TV shows - reflect on how youth are portrayed among these texts.

Web 2.0 - Gauntlett suggests it's a "shift from a sit back and be told culture to a making and doing culture" - how youth take it upon themselves to portray their own truth rather than having Big Media's monopoly on the news. Monopolistic dominance and we the media by Dan Gilmour, how they oppose each other, the benefits and flaws of web 2.0.

Mention studies which prove that youth are deemed in certain ways.

Also reflect on how media use to portray youth and how it portrays youth now in the 21st century.

I'm not too educated on the study of youth yet I hope this helps.
Reply 9
Original post by tylerneedsanA
Hmm, well as I'm studying British Muslim's and Asians certain things I'd talk about would differ so I'll mention theories you should mention.

So firstly I'd definitely suggest talking about Stan Cohen on folk devils, moral panic and self fulfilling prophecy, perhaps on how the identity of youth are mediated or represented in a certain way through the media (if it relates to the question) and how this representation affects(?) the public, like if it creates a moral panic.

Stuart Hall on encoding/decoding (and how the audience have active role with establishing meaning) and his different readings: oppositional, negotiated and dominant. Identity and how the identity of individuals aren't "fixed" but rather fluid, with media texts you've studies you can give examples of this.

Media texts such as newspapers, films, TV shows - reflect on how youth are portrayed among these texts.

Web 2.0 - Gauntlett suggests it's a "shift from a sit back and be told culture to a making and doing culture" - how youth take it upon themselves to portray their own truth rather than having Big Media's monopoly on the news. Monopolistic dominance and we the media by Dan Gilmour, how they oppose each other, the benefits and flaws of web 2.0.

Mention studies which prove that youth are deemed in certain ways.

Also reflect on how media use to portray youth and how it portrays youth now in the 21st century.

I'm not too educated on the study of youth yet I hope this helps.


This is a massive help, thank you so much and good luck with the exam!
x
Original post by CGrace98
This is a massive help, thank you so much and good luck with the exam!
x


You're welcome, thank you and good luck to you to you too!
Hi, does anyone have any tips for digital technology on Q1A? It's the only one I haven't really worked on
Original post by GGuerrilla
Hi, does anyone have any tips for digital technology on Q1A? It's the only one I haven't really worked on


Hi, as (I'm assuming) you've worked on the others could you share tips for those except for post-production as I haven't really worked on them as much? Please and thanks. And I'll give the tips I have for digital technology.

Digital technology:
Hardware - MacBook, Canon, USB
Software - Photoshop (different tools you used), VSCO, final cut pro, imovie, any editing softwares you used
Web 2.0/the internet - YouTube, google, blogger

Talk about how these helped you to construct your different works, how you used them, how your skills with them developed from AS to A2. If you did resubmitted work for AS write about the skills you had from the beginning of AS to resubmitting your AS work.

Mention what the technologies allowed you to achieve, and if the technologies were limiting - explain how.

How your use of digital technology compares to the production of real media texts.

Mention if you used any convergence technology and why.

Finally the basics of how you'd improve your work, what you would've done differently etc.

Hopefully that helps in some ways, if there's software and hardware you used which I forgot to mention make sure to mention them. Also commonly give examples of how the technology was used in your work e.g. I made use of my developed knowledge of software in A2 through working with Photoshop; which is evident within my magazine front cover as I made use of the X tool, and Y tool to construct a more concise and professional media text, which in appearance differs from my initial work from AS.

Good luck! Sorry for errors.
Section A is easy enough. It is Section B that I am quite unsure about. I am doing Media and Collective identity on Britain and youth. Any help?
Original post by GGuerrilla
Hi, does anyone have any tips for digital technology on Q1A? It's the only one I haven't really worked on


I would say you could use some of the examples that you plan to use for post production. I am differentiating it by also planning to talk about how my use of cameras and microphones, possibly some technology used for planning like social media sites such as pinterest for moodboards as well and how it has developed as well as things such as premier pro, after effects and photoshop. Hope this is helpful good luck :smile:
Original post by CGrace98
We're studying youth :smile:


So am I, do you have any notes on this?
Reply 16
Original post by carlosisgreat12
So am I, do you have any notes on this?


I don't sorry, I missed a lot of the lessons. Tyler's post in reply to mine was very helpful in terms of structure and theories.
Possibly look at the representation of youth in films such as The Clockwork Orange, A Hard Day's Night, Angus Thongs and Perfect snogging etc and then look at how the representation has changed and see if you can relate any theories to the representations.

Hope that's of some help:smile:
Reply 17
Thanks for all the help Tyler. Does anyone have any tips for postmodernism? I really don't understand the structure and have no idea how many examples to give
Reply 18
Original post by nvchxl
Thanks for all the help Tyler. Does anyone have any tips for postmodernism? I really don't understand the structure and have no idea how many examples to give


P1
Our teacher has told us to define postmodernism and modernity then show it through 3 stages of art (romanticism, modern then postmodern)
P2
Social media , Facebook, Twitter, Instagram talk about them and how they relate
P3
Films so ours is Matrix, Team America and Videodrome
P4
Games, GTA or Cod
P5
Conclusion. ft - real life examples like Brexit
Reply 19
Thanks! This is a dumb question but how does Brexit relate to postmodernism?

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