Critical Investigation Task #4

Essay plan

Produce a detailed essay plan for your critical investigation, covering everything that you hope to include in your submission. Break your ideas and research down into sections and paragraphs with headings, summaries and a list of references that you hope to include at each step. You may also want to plan a rough word count for each section, remembering you are aiming for 2,000 words (not including quotes). You can see some excellent examples from previous years by clicking on Navneet's from last year or, going back further, Sonam or Jaleesa from 2012.

Make sure that you label each point you hope to include by linking it to Key Concepts (MIGRAIN) and Wider Contexts (SHEP). (You could just include the initial letter in brackets). This way you can see whether you have covered everything that you need to in an even way. Also, ensure that you think about where you will include theories/theorists, issues/debates and media keywords. (Keep the 'Essential Word Dictionary' handy). You may find that the tasks we have completed recently help you to plan certain sections too.

This will make writing your essay MUCH easier. However, it is a big task as it requires you to read through all your research very carefully and plan what you should include and what isn't relevant. This is the key academic skill that universities teach - expect it to be difficult and take time! You could also browse through each other's blogs as there may be some overlapping areas of research you could share with each other.

You may want to produce this plan as a straightforward series of bullet points or as a more complex mindmap. If it's the latter you may have to do it by hand and then scan it in before posting it up on your blog. Or you may want to try out an online mind-mapping tool like bubbl.

Deadline: For your tutorial / Friday 12 December

Note: You must get your essay plan approved by your teacher before Christmas so you are able to write the draft over the holidays.

Critical Investigation Task #3

Historical text analysis and research

Research a historical text that you can use to compare with your contemporary one (that is the main focus of your investigation). By 'historical' we mean anything pre-2000 but the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s or even 80s might be more fruitful because they pre-date many of the important changes that have occurred more recently (such as the gains for women as a result of feminism; or greater equality for ethnic minorities now that we are - arguably - a more inclusive and multi-cultural society; or the ground-breaking developments in new media/digital technology). 

The purpose here is to be able to demonstrate...

• how society and the issue you are investigating has changed over the years and how these changes are reflected in different media texts, or - to put it another way...
• how popular culture reflects the 'spirit of the age' or zeitgeist

Ideally, you will watch at least one film/TV programme/video game/music video from the past, make notes on it and research it in Media/Film Studies textbooks and on the internet. The best option is to watch/play the whole text on DVD/online or otherwise you might be able to see extracts on YouTube. Answer the following questions:

• How is it similar/different to your main text?
• How does this show how the genre/society/issue has changed?

Through this you will become aware of developments in the genre you are researching. This task is designed to make sure you have a range of texts to refer to in your critical investigation essay (you'll need at least five including your main text and the historical text you analyse in this task). Remember: you should be able to link them to the wider contexts that were/are present at the time. It's also worth noting that you will be rewarded for considering your topic across different platforms.

If you can't get hold of an original copy of the text it's not the end of the world - you will be stuck doing secondary research. Just make sure you do plenty of it and find out information from a few different sources.

As ever, list your historical text(s), research, textual analysis and links/bibliography in a detailed blog post (or simply add to your ongoing Notes and Quotes post).

Due: Friday 12 December

13D: Alain de Botton on the News

We are currently midway through some fascinating discussions on the News and Marxism and Pluralism.

Next week, we'll be looking at how to turn these ideas and approaches into top-level paragraphs to ensure we are fully prepared for the Section B essay in the MEST3 exam.

In the meantime, you have some homework on Alain de Botton's views on News.

Here are the two videos we watched in class - you may want to watch them again (particularly the first one).




Now watch this lecture by Alain de Botton presenting his views on the News:



Answer the following questions on your blog:

1) To what extent do you agree with Alain de Botton's views on the News?

2) How can you link Marxism and Hegemony to de Botton's criticisms of the News?

3) How could you use Pluralism and new technology to challenge de Botton's views on the News?

4) Choose two news stories from the last six months - one that supports de Botton's views and one that challenges his belief that the News is used for social control. 

Due: Next Wednesday 3 December

BFI Library trip - Monday 1 December

Don't forget the key details about our trip to the BFI Library:

Date: Monday 1 December

Meeting time: 10.00am

Location: BFI Southbank

Full address details, a map and further information is available on our trip briefing handout - including what to do if you are lost or delayed.

You need to bring a pen, pencil, notepad and USB to the Library in order to make notes and capture scans to read at home later.

Planning your research

The Library staff will put together a pack of suggested reading made up of books and articles but you'll get even more out of the visit if you look through the BFI collection and find a few books that fit your critical investigation. The whole BFI Library catalogue is available online here - click 'Search' and then look for books that fit your topic.

Bring your list of potential books and journal articles with you to the BFI and you'll get even more out of the visit.

Critical Investigation Task #2

Academic research and bibliography

As you know, a detailed bibliography is crucial to reach the top grades in your coursework. Refer to our Essential Reading List which contains titles of 45 of the most important books for the Critical Investigation, most of which are either in the school library or media suite. We also have some excellent new books in DF07 that have been added in the last 12 months. If you haven't used any of these yet, make sure you take advantage of these excellent resources this week.

Those underlined on the list are the twenty most important or useful in previous years but, obviously, not all of the texts on this list will be directly relevant for you...you'll need to spend a fair amount of time searching through them (especially the contents and indexes) to find the key quotes and ideas that will impress the examiners.

You must include references to quite a few of these books if you want an A or B so borrow them from the library, look at them in lesson or make a note of them for the trip to the BFI Library. If the book belongs to the Media department, you will have to do your research in class or in DF06 during a free period - the books can't leave school unfortunately.

Task #2 is to pull this information together in an updated blog posting of all your notes and quotes so far INCLUDING a complete bibliography of your research so far. Make sure you include the following:

• Author-Year-Title-Place-Publisher info;
• Quotes (+ Page References) from the book that can be linked to your study;
• A short explanation of each one explaining how it is relevant to you/your topic.
• Finally, post up on your blog a Complete Bibliography (so far) to include ALL the books you currently have quotes from. It MUST contain at least TEN different academic books or journals as well as all your online and Media Magazine sources.

Most people find formatting a bibliography very difficult the first time - there are quite specific rules that you need to follow and universities are very fussy about how it is presented. Use this 'Guide to writing bibliographies' to help or try this really useful bibliography formatting and creation tool: 'BibMe'.

Deadline: Friday 5 December

Year 13 cover work: Mr Halsey 21/11/14

Apologies - I'm out on a course on GCSE Media. Cover work is as follows:

13E: 21/11/14 P4
Students are to continue with their Critical Investigation research - either using online sources such as Media Magazine or working on Task #1 (set on Wednesday) which is textual analysis.

Remember, Task #1 is due next Friday and new tasks will be set next week.


13D: 21/11/14 P5
Continue with Wednesday's work on Marxism, Pluralism and Hegemony - answering the question we discussed in class on your blog.

If you finish that, you can get ahead on your NDM stories - remember you need TWO each week, one of which is about the impact of new and digital media on news or journalism. The next two will be due on Wednesday - they should be #15 and #16 on your index.

13D: Marxism and Pluralism - To what extent...

NDM Question

Developments in new/digital media mean that audiences can now have access to a greater variety of views and values.  To what extent are audiences empowered by these developments?

Sample answer: Audiences are empowered by being able to access a wide variety of news and opinion using a single device such as their phone or tablet. The ease with which someone can check the Guardian website and Mail Online – both for free – means that they can access a wide variety of views before forming their own opinions on the news.

Blog task

You should have a variety of arguments that agree AND disagree with the idea audiences are empowered by new and digital media - thanks to your group task in the lesson. You now need to answer the question on your blog in essay format. Minimum word count: 500 words.

You will have Friday's lesson to continue this but if you don't finish it on Friday then you'll need to finish for homework - due next Wednesday.

Don't forget your ongoing homework - two NDM stories on your blog, one involving news or journalism.

Critical Investigation Task #1

Before you know it, you'll be needing to write your Critical Investigation essay - which means we need to step up our preparations to make sure we have everything in place. We have designed a series of tasks to help you do this that you will need to complete over the next month. 

Final Deadline
All the preparatory tasks need to be finished before Christmas: Friday 19 December. You will then have the Christmas holidays to write the first draft of your 2,000 word essay.

TASK #1 TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
TASK #1 DEADLINE: FRIDAY 28 NOVEMBER

Carry out close textual analyses of at least TWO chosen scenes/extracts/clips from your PRIMARY text and post them up on your blog. 

The extracts should be able to exemplify some of the key points you wish to make in your Critical Investigation and link with some of the following key areas raised by your text...

Issues and debates 
Representation and stereotyping; Media effects; Reality TV; News Values; Moral Panics; Post 9/11 and the media; Ownership and control; Regulation and censorship; Media technology and the digital revolution – changing technologies in the 21st century; The effect of globalisation on the media.

Theories
Semiotics; Structuralism and post-structuralism; Postmodernism and its critiques; Gender and ethnicity; Marxism and hegemony; Liberal Pluralism; Colonialism and Post-colonialism; Audience theories; Genre theories.

Make sure it is an extract you haven't analysed before and embed the YouTube link in your posting if you can.

Think of each analysis as like a MEST 3 exam analysis but with one text instead of two - so you need to cover MIGRAIN and SHEP and you are advised to watch the extract several times and to make detailed notes before embarking on the write-up, which should be in essay format (NOT in note form). 

Use our Key Concepts Glossary to help you think about terminology to use. You should be including as many of these keywords and ideas as possible in your analysis (where relevant...this won't always be the case). You should also include ideas from the essential Media Keywords A-Z - another fantastic resource you should be reading religiously.

Good luck!

13D Cover Work/Homework: Mon. 17/11/14, p3/4

Remember the basic rules first:

• Arrive on time - make sure you register with the cover teacher/Mr Halsey;
• Stay in the classroom until the end of the lesson;
• Work responsibly on the tasks set.

A. Complete this task for Parents' evening on Thursday 20/11:

Review your Tutorial Targets you received (most of you had TEN things you had to do).

Create a new blog post entitled 'Tutorial Targets Review' and paste the targets into it. For each one, state your progress, either... 

• GREEN (completed) - please provide a link to where this can be found on your blog;
• AMBER (ongoing) - again, provide a link to what you've done so far;
• RED (not started) - explain WHY!

We will discuss this at Parents' Evening so make sure it's done!

B. Complete this task for Friday 21/11, p3:

Continue with your Media Magazine research, aiming for 1000 words on this part of your research.

Remember that by Friday you should have a minimum of 2500 words overall on your 'Notes and Quotes' document, posted up on your blog.

13E Cover Work/Homework: Mon. 17/11/14, p5/6

Remember the basic rules first:

• Arrive on time - make sure you register with the cover teacher/Mr Halsey/Mr Qureshi;
• Stay in the classroom until the end of the lesson;
• Work responsibly on the tasks set.

Complete the following for Parents' Evening: Thursday 22/10:

A. 

Make sure you have all 24 NDM stories posted up on your blog (with summaries, your own opinion, etc.).

Also, ensure you have updated your index - with hyperlinks - of all 24 stories and that this is the most recent post on your blog as we will be reviewing this at Parents' Evening!

B. 

1) Read this article: Build The Wall, which is a passionate defence of the newspaper industry as it tries to compete with NDM.

2) Create a blogpost on your MEST3 Exam Blog called 'Build The Wall analysis'. 

3) Summarise each section in one sentence:

• Section 1 (To all of the bystanders reading this…)
• Section 2 (Truth is, a halting movement toward...)
• Section 3 (Beyond Mr. Sulzberger and Ms. Weymouth…)
• Section 4 (For the industry, it is later than it should be…)

4) Summarise David Simon’s overall argument in 250 words.

5) Choose three comments from below the article, copy them in to your blogpost and explain whether they agree or disagree with David Simon’s argument and why.

6) Finally, what is your own opinion? Do you agree that newspapers need to put online content behind a paywall in order for the journalism industry to survive? Would you be willing to pay for news online? 

Please make sure that anything not finished in the lesson is done for homework!

13D: Marxism, Pluralism and Hegemony

Starter

I've got some reading to get you started. There is a reference to hegemony in a Guardian article about the Hunger Games that could also be linked to feminism - read this article on the Hunger Games and at least 15 comments below.

Main task

Read the Media Magazine article ‘Web 2.0: Participation or Hegemony?'. Go to our archive of Media Magazine issues and click on MM39 - the article you need is on page 58. Answer the following questions:

1) Research the Ian Tomlinson case. What would the traditional, hegemonic view of the police be in a case like this? How did new and digital media create a different story? What does the police officer's subsequent aquittal suggest about the power of new and digital media?

2) What does the author argue regarding whether hegemony is being challenged by Web 2.0? 

3) In your opinion, does new and digital media reinforce dominant hegemonic views or give the audience a platform to challenge them?

Complete for homework - due Wednesday 19 November.

Critical Investigation research: Media Magazine

Media Magazine archive

By now, you should have over 1,500 words in your Notes and Quotes document and probably still have a huge amount to read and watch. Today, we’re going to focus on another brilliant resource for our research: the Media Magazine archive.

We have the last 20 issues of Media Magazine in pdf format and – thanks to all of you in the summer – a Word document with the contents for each issue. This means it will be easy to go through all 20 issues and identify articles that could help with your topic.

Once you’ve identified the articles, you can access the pdfs online here or using the school VLE (go to Media > Shared Documents > Media Magazine).  Then, add to your Notes and Quotes document as normal – this should easily get you to upwards of 2,000 words.



Media Edu

Another online resource that contains a large number of case studies and articles on key media issues is mediaedu.

Click on the top right box 'Login' and use our exclusive Greenford Media log-in:

Username: greenford
P/W: greenfordedu


e-Jump Cut online media journal

Jump Cut is an online contemporary Media journal with an archive dating back 40 years. It is published every year and each issue offers around 50 articles on aspects of film and media, often looking at controversial or niche topics. The current issue is available here and the archive can be found here.

It's definitely worth searching the e-Jump Cut archive for articles on your chosen topic – there are hundreds to choose from. Note, you don't need a log-in for Jump Cut, the material is available for free online.


If you have a problem with any of the links or log-ins then please let me know.

Good luck!

Mr Halsey

13D: Folder check and NDM story summary

Before we move on to our next aspect of New and Digital Media and News, we need to set up a couple of pieces of homework and complete an index of our NDM stories so far.

Folder check
On Friday you need to bring an up-to-date folder to the lesson to show you are organising all of your notes, work, test papers and more. Specifically, we will be checking you've got the following:

• Ring binder folder or equivalent
• Dividers - section for each teacher
• Course outline/ print from spec
• Notes in chronological order/title/date
• Quality of note taking
• Blog print-out - to end of last half-term
• Marked NDM assessment
• Homework completed/quality

Due: Friday

NDM stories

Now we've covered half of the NDM News unit, we need to develop our collection of the NDM stories. Your ongoing, weekly homework from now on is as follows:

TWO New/Digital news stories on your blog EVERY week (including holidays). ONE can be general NDM (technology, social networking etc.) but you need AT LEAST ONE story every week that relates to news, journalism and New/Digital Media. Great examples of stories that fit this criteria have appeared in just the last few days:

Spain moves to protect domestic media with new 'Google tax'

High sales. Big profits. Rising user numbers. So why the turmoil at the Telegraph?

Due: EVERY week on Wednesday

Task for today

Compile an index of ALL of your NDM stories from the first half term. We started off with three and have had eight weeks since so with this week's story you need a minimum of 12 stories listed.

Your index should have the story number (starting with your first story back in September as #1), the headline and a link to your blog post for that story

If you want to see an example, check out this blog post from one of our students last year - you need this level of quality and detail in your story index too.

13E: Notes and Quotes

I'll be checking blogs today to make sure we've met the initial, exceedingly low target for our Notes and Quotes document of 750 words.

Your next target is to get that word count up to 1,500 by next Wednesday.

I'm confident you've all got loads of research to be reading, annotating and taking quotes from so you'll be able to reach 1,500 words easily. Next week, we'll add Media Magazine research to our list to give us another set of brilliant sources to look at.