Module 6 Revision+Preparation

Your revision/preparation for Module 6 should be...

• Read through all Module 6 notes, handouts and past essays/practices.

• Read and revise all the Issues & Debates/Media Theory revision sheets...

1. Effects Theory (hypodermic needle model...passive audience, cultivation theory + desensitisation, two-step flow),
2. Reception Theory (context of consumption + David Morley...dominant/negotiated/oppositional readings)
3. Uses & Gratifications Theory (Blumer & Katz, Denis McQuail...active audience)
4. Narrative Theory (Propp, Levi-Strauss, Barthes, Todorov)
5. News Values (Galtung & Ruge)
6. Audience Profiling (demographics, psychographics, the four Cs)
7. Advertising (covert advertising, product placement, sponsorship, plugs, viral advertising)
8. Postmodernism (pastiche, parody, irony, playfulness, reflexivity, ambiguity, intertextuality, bricolage, hybridity, Baudrillard...hyperreality, simulacra)
9. Marxism (Althusser...ISAs, interpellation, Gramsci...hegemony)
10. Pluralism (media literacy, audience choice, media as fourth estate)
11. Ownership (vertical/horizontal integration, synergy)
12. Globalisation (digital revolution, new technology/new media, cultural imperialism, the 'global village')
    

• Revise everything you've ever covered in Media Studies this year and last year as this is the synoptic unit...

1. Genre, especially genre theory (Altman, Neale, Maltby, Phillips etc.)
2. Representation, especially feminist theory (Mulvey, Clover, Gauntlett, Gunther, Tuchman, Elasmar, Miles, Cortese, etc.) & post-colonialism (Hall, Nandy, Spivak, Bhahba etc.)
   
3. Documentary (mediation, construction, Direct Cinema, Cinema Verite, reality TV)
4. Film & Broadcast Fiction, especially film language (cinematography, editing, mise-en-scene, sound)
5. Module 1 MIGRAIN keywords/glossary
   

• Keep reading the 'Media Keywords A-Z' handout (the big one) and test yourself on media terminology.
  

• Re-read the online guide to wider contexts.

• Read through the Med 6 Issues & Debates blogs (see links on the sidebar) as they are full of information about everything already mentioned above and more besides. In particular, make sure you check out those by Baldip, Neelema and Zainab because they have links to lots of the key media stories over the past year which you may well need to know about in the exam.
  

• Revise your wider contexts timelines.
  

• Keep up-to-date with media developments right up to the exam. Log on to Media Guardian every day and keep posting summaries and links to them on your blogs!
  

• Do timed practice - carry out comparisons of a range of two-minute (or less) moving image sequences with 2-3 page print texts (or less)...

So analyse and compare...

1. extracts, title sequences and opening sequences from any genre of TV programme, film (soap, sitcom, documentary, news, gangster, thriller, etc.).
2. TV adverts and film trailers.
3. video games, music videos and internet viral videos.

with...

1. newspapers and magazines (front pages, contents pages, back pages, both tabloid and broadsheet, etc.).
2. adverts (from the above).
3. DVD, CD or video game covers.
4. billboards and posters (especially for films).
5. book covers (really!).
   

Remember, the question is always..."Using the comparison of these two texts as your starting point, explore the media issues and debates which they raise."

It is vital that you practice under exam conditions - spend 30 minutes note-taking/annotating/planning (and watch the extract three times during this period) and then one hour writing your answer.

If you are short for time then you can always just do the 30-minute note-taking exercise on some days but try to do this as often as possible (every day?). Remember to use two sides of A4 paper (one for Text 1, one for Text 2) and include the following sections going down the page...

1. form & function
2. similarities & differences
3. key concepts (MIGRAIN)
4. theory
5. issues & debates
6. wider contexts (SHEP)
7. other texts
   

Please record the practice you have done as a comment after this posting - it will be useful for people to share ideas about what texts are good to try and an opportunity to ask Macguffin any questions about any of the theories, issues & debates and wider contexts.

Also, please post comparison notes and finished essays on your blogs for others to see and learn from. The best ones will be highlighted on this page as links.

And don't forget - you can bring any timed essays in over the next month to show to your teachers before the exam on Thursday June 12th at 1.30pm in the Hall. ARRIVE at least 15 MINUTES EARLY!!