Identities: Feminist theory and blog task

A current debate in feminism is whether we are in a post-feminist state: is feminism still needed?

It's important to have your own opinion on this debate and, crucially, be able to support it with reference to feminist theory and current examples. 

Feminist theory: key notes

Judith Butler: gender roles

Butler believes traditional feminists are wrong to divide society into ‘men’ and ‘women’ and says gender is not biologically fixed.

By dividing men and women, feminists accidently reinforced the idea of differences between the two genders

Butler believes gender roles are ‘a performance’ and that male and female behaviour is socially constructed rather than the result of biology.

Butler and the media

If gender is a ‘performance’ rather than biological, we then need to think about what is influencing that ‘performance’.

And that’s where the media comes in. How might the media influence our behaviour in terms of gender roles?



Angela McRobbie: empowering women

McRobbie is a British cultural theorist known for her work analysing magazines aimed at women and teenage girls in the 80s and 90s.

McRobbie highlights the empowering nature of magazines such as Cosmopolitan and Glamour, taking a different perspective to traditional feminists.


This idea of ‘popular feminism’ fits into the idea of post-feminism and challenges the radical feminism of the 1970s.

Feminism: blog task

Watch the Beyonce video for ‘Why Don’t You Love Me?’ 

1) How might this video contribute to Butler’s idea that gender roles are a ‘performance’?

2) Would McRobbie view Beyonce as an empowering role model for women? Why?

3) What are your OWN views on this debate – does Beyonce empower women or reinforce the traditional ‘male gaze’ (Mulvey)?

Complete for homework if you don't finish this during the lesson - due next lesson.

Identities and the Media: Feminism

Discussing feminism and learning a range of feminist theory is an essential part of A2 Media Studies.

Are we living in a post-feminist state? Do you agree there is still a need for feminism? To what extent does the media contribute to the identity created for women in popular culture? These are some of the questions we need to consider in this next section of our Identities and the Media unit.

Complete the following tasks on your blog:

Media Magazine reading

1) Read Playing With The Past: Post-feminism and the Media (MM40, page 64 - our Media Magazine archive is here).

2) What are the two texts the article focuses on?

3) What examples are provided from the two texts of the 'male gaze' (Mulvey)?

4) Do texts such as these show there is no longer a need for feminism or are they simply sexism in a different form?

5) Choose three words/phrases from the glossary of the article and write their definitions on your blog.

No More Page 3

1) Research the No More Page 3 campaign. Who started it and why?

2) What reasons did the campaign give for why Page 3 had to go?

3) Read this debate in the Guardian regarding whether the campaign should be dropped. What are Barbara Ellen and Susan Boniface's contrasting opinions in the debate?

4) The main campaign website has now been replaced by a site called Sexist News, designed to highlight sexism in the media. Give an example of a recent story the website has highlighted. Do you agree with the view of the website?

5) How can the No More Page 3 campaign and Sexist News website be linked to the idea of post-feminism?

6) What are your OWN views on these campaigns? Do you agree with their aims? Is there still a need for these campaigns in the media?

7) Finally, do you agree that we are in a post-feminist state or is there still a need for feminism?

Complete for homework if you don't get it finished in the lesson - deadline confirmed in class.

Post-colonialism - bonus reading and tasks

The latest issue of Media Magazine has some extremely relevant articles to our recent work on identity and post-colonial theory.

Complete the following tasks - you may be given lesson time to do this but will need to finish for homework.

MM58: Social Media and Black Identity

Open up MM58 from our Media Magazine archive. Go to page 66 and read Social Media and Black Identity then complete the following tasks:

1) List three theorists discussed in the article and what they believe regarding black identity.

2) In your opinion, is social media a positive or negative force when it comes to issues of black identity? 

3) How could you apply the post-colonial theories we have learned in class to the issue of social media and black identity?


A Hustle for Life: Refugees in the Media

Now turn to page 6 and read A Hustle for Life: Refugees in the Media. When you have read the article, complete the following tasks:

1) What examples of different representations of refugees in the media are offered in the article?

2) In your opinion, is the documentary genre more or less biased than the news media? What examples can you provide from the article to support your view?

3) How could you apply the post-colonial theories we have learned in class to the representation of refugees in the media?


Media Magazine: Critical Investigation research

You'll soon be receiving back the first draft for your Critical Investigation. In some cases, a lack of research is holding people back. You may find several articles from MM58 useful for your second draft:

Pathetic Fallacy: Representing Brexit 
Jonathan Nunns looks back at the carnage provoked by the EU Referendum, and takes the media to task for their coverage of events and individuals.

The Power of the Media
Steph Hendry considers the power of the media in relation to the development of technologies and their impact on social change.

Internet Research for Film Studies
Any self-respecting film student knows that informed and critical online research is essential – but where do you start? Roy Stafford introduces some of the most useful film websites around.

The Witch: A Feminist Review
Owen Davey recommends a new horror film with a difference.

Remember: A* students need to develop an understanding of the media across platforms, genres, issues and debates. These Media Magazine articles will help you to do this even if you don't need them for your Critical Investigation. Good luck!

MEST4 Linked production: Research and planning

With your preliminary exercise completed, we now need to turn our attention to the actual Linked Production. Your initial task is to complete the research and planning for your production. Work through the following:

1) Confirm your production brief. You write this yourself but it's absolutely crucial this is clear, appropriate and achievable. You should have done this already - the original blogpost was here - but it may have changed as a result of your preliminary exercise.

2) Research: detailed notes on at least THREE texts similar to what you are creating. What are the key conventions? What can you learn/borrow from the examples you have looked at?

3) Project schedule: when will you shoot and edit this production? Make this a week-by-week schedule leading up to Easter. Key dates: we break up for Easter on Friday 31 March and the final deadline is Wednesday 19 April.

4) Script - see the BBC Writers' Room for advice/script formatting. If you're making a music video, you'll want to write a treatment instead. This is an example treatment that I provide for GCSE Media students studying this topic. For print productions, this means writing all the text for the cover, contents and feature articles. Write this in Microsoft Word so you can proofread and spellcheck the work before moving it into Photoshop.

5) Sketching and drafting - for video-based productions this means a storyboard - sheets available in DF07 or you can print out your own AQA storyboard sheet. For print productions, this means detailed sketches of all your pages.

6) Shot list - use Microsoft Word or a template like this to help you. Remember, you need a shot list whether you are filming or carrying out a print photoshoot - professional quality original images are essential if you want to reach the top level.

7) Mise-en-scene: casting/model details, costume and make-up, props, lighting, location scouting for video productions etc. Use photographs to document and plan your mise-en-scene - using your phone is acceptable for this.

All of the above needs to be posted to your MEST4 coursework blog.

Deadline: Wednesday 8 February

Post-colonialism: final blog tasks

To complete our work on post-colonial theory, work through the following tasks:

1) Summarise the three theorists we have looked at: Alvarado, Fanon and Said.

2) Watch the opening of Yasmin (2004) again. Does it offer a positive or negative view of British Muslims? To what extent does it reinforce or challenge Edward Said's theory of Orientalism - that the west is superior to the exotic or uncivilised east?




3) Finally, choose THREE clips for EACH of the theorists and explain how you could apply that theory to the clip. Pick a selection of clips on YouTube from TV, film, music video or advertising and embed them in your blog before writing your analysis under each clip. Note: this means you need NINE clips in total on this blogpost.

Complete for homework: due date set by your exam class teacher

MEST4 Preliminary exercise: evaluation

Well done to everyone who has managed to complete the preliminary exercise recreation task and post it to YouTube/blogs. 

This was a tight deadline and a very challenging task - it's the perfect training exercise for your crucial linked productions that follow. 

You will present your preliminary exercise in class with an explanation of what you did, how the project went and what you learned for the main production. Following the screening, answer the following questions on your blog:

1) Why did you choose this particular recreation and how does it link to your main production?

2) What difficulties did you face in producing this recreation?

3) What are the strengths of the production?

4) What aspects would you look to improve?

5) What lessons will you take from this process that will help you with your main production?

6) Now that you are ready to start your actual linked production, explain clearly what you will be creating and how confident you are in delivering this.

Once you have presented your work in class, you need to make sure the production is posted to your blog along with written answers to the above questions.

Finish for homework - deadline set in class.

Identities: Post-colonial theory & blog tasks

Post-colonial theory is an important part of our work on Identities in the Media.

Post-colonialism does not simply refer to the period after the colonial era. It can also be seen as a continuation of colonialism, albeit through different or new relationships concerning power and the control/production of knowledge. The notes sheet we read in class is available here.

We are interested in post-colonialism and identity in terms of the representation of non-white groups in British media.

Two key post-colonial theorists:

Alvarado (1987)

Four key themes in racial representations; often quoted in relation to the black community but can be applied to other non-white groups:

• Exotic (models; music artists; food)
• Dangerous (crime; gangs; socially dysfunctional)
• Humorous (comedians; sidekicks; quirky)
• Pitied (poverty)

Frantz Fanon: “Putting on the white mask”

Typically black stereotypes can:

• Infantilize - such as the 'cute' children of the Charity Poster or the 'simple-minded‘ 'Step ‘n’ fetch it‘ lazy comedian.
• Primitivize - The 'exotic & virile' tribal warriors or 'bare-breasted maidens' with a 'natural sense of rhythm‘. Sporting prowess.
• Decivilize - The 'Gangsta', 'Pimp' etc.
• Essentialize - Undifferentiated mass-'they all look the same to me'

Destiny Ekaragha

Destiny Ekaragha is a black filmmaker from South London who wrote the awarded winning play - and then film - of Gone Too Far! She has also produced acclaimed short films set in South London including Tight Jeans:

Post-colonialism: blog task

1) Read the excellent article exploring the different representations of black people in British film and TV from Media Magazine 42 (MM42 from our Media Magazine archive - page 51)

2) List FIVE films, FIVE TV programmes and FIVE online-only productions that are discussed in the article.

3) Watch Destiny Ekaragha's clips above (more of her work is available on her website, including the short film The Park). To what extent can we apply Alvarado's and Fanon's theories to these films? Do they reinforce or subvert typical black stereotypes in British film and TV? Refer to specific scenes and events in the clips in answering this question and aim for at least 350 words.

Complete for homework if you don't finish it in the lesson.

January assessment: Learner response

Your MEST3 Section B January assessment is a good opportunity to reflect on your progress so far in Year 13. Are you on track to reach your target grade in A2 Media? 

Complete the following tasks on your blog as your learner response:

1) Type up your feedback in full (you do not need to write mark/grade if you do not wish to).

2) Read through the mark scheme (go to the last two pages of the document - Section B New/digital media). Of the six different statements for each level (e.g. A sophisticated and comprehensive essay, showing very good critical autonomy.) write which level you think YOU are currently working at for each one. Explain WHY and, for any that are not Level 4, what you are going to do to improve in that area. 

3) Look at the Examiners' Report for this particular paper. Read page 10 - Section B New/digital media. How many of the good points or higher level answer examples did you include in your essay? What were they? What could you have added to improve your mark?

4) Read through these exemplar A grade essays from last year. What do these essays offer that yours does not? Identify THREE things you can take from these essays to improve your own responses in future.

5) Write ONE new paragraph for your January assessment essay. Ideally, this should be a section you did not cover in your original essay. This paragraph needs to be comprehensive and meet the criteria for Level 4 of the mark scheme.

Finish for homework if you don't complete it in the lesson. Due: Monday.

MEST4 Preliminary Exercise: Recreation examples

A shot-by-shot recreation is a an excellent test of your imagination, planning and technical skills. 

You need to choose an appropriate 30-second scene, plan out each shot carefully and then shoot and edit it exactly the same as the original. There are plenty of examples of shot-by-shot recreations on YouTube... here are a selection:

Fight Club 'Hit me' scene recreation:



Original scene (poor quality):




Friends opening titles recreation:



Original Friends titles:




Michael Jackson Thriller recreation:



Michael Jackson Thriller original:




You'll also find plenty of examples online of comedy or parody shot-by-shot recreations. It's unlikely your recreation will be a comedy (unless your Critical Investigation is on comedy or similar) but they are very entertaining and quite useful in terms of seeing how each shot is recreated faithfully.

Here's an excellent parody that followed someone losing a Fantasy Football bet. The screens are side-by-side to give you a great indication of how a shot-by-shot recreation needs to include perfect mise-en-scene - particularly location, props, costume and actor movement.

Sia – Chandelier recreation (lost bet parody):



There are also plenty of 'homemade' trailers and clips that also follow the shot-by-shot recreation model. These take big-budget Hollywood scenes or films and recreate them at home using puppets or budget costumes and locations. Again, it can be useful to see these to get an idea of how the framing of shots is the most important aspect of the recreation.

Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 homemade trailer:




And the original Hunger Games trailer:





Print recreation

If you are planning to use print for your linked production, you need to recreate one page of A4 from a professional media text that is similar to what you will be creating. You will need to arrange a photoshoot to produce the original photography and then design the page on Photoshop.

Recreation deadline: Friday 27 January

Identities and the Media: Reading the riots

The media coverage of the UK riots in 2011 provides a strong case study in the representation of young people and how identity is constructed in the media. 

There was an excellent extended analysis of the media coverage of the riots by media professor David Buckingham in Media Magazine - it's essential reading for any Media student. Complete the following tasks:

Read the Media Magazine extended feature on the media coverage of the UK riots (MM38 page 5)

Go to our Media Magazine archive, select MM38 and read the WHOLE eight-page feature. Answer the following questions on your blog with as many references to media theory and examples as possible. Refer to specific aspects of the Media Magazine article too:

1. How did the language and selection of images in the coverage create a particular representation of young people? 
2. Why does David Buckingham mention Owen Jones and his work Chavs: the demonisation of the working class?
3. What is the typical representation of young people – and teenage boys in particular? What did the 2005 IPSOS/MORI survey find?
4. How can Stanley Cohen’s work on Moral Panic be linked to the coverage of the riots?
5. What elements of the media and popular culture were blamed for the riots?
6. How was social media blamed for the riots? What was interesting about the discussion of social media when compared to the Arab Spring in 2011?
7. The riots generated a huge amount of comment and opinion - both in mainstream and social media. How can the two-step flow theory be linked to the coverage of the riots? 
8. Alternatively, how might media scholars like Henry Jenkins view the 'tsunami' of blogs, forums and social media comments? Do you agree that this shows the democratisation of the media?
9. What were the right-wing responses to the causes of the riots?
10. What were the left-wing responses to the causes of the riots?
11. What are your OWN views on the main causes of the riots?
12. How can capitalism be blamed for the riots? What media theory (from our new/digital media unit) can this be linked to?
13. Were people involved in the riots given a voice in the media to explain their participation?
14. In the Guardian website's investigation into the causes of the riots, they did interview rioters themselves. Read this Guardian article from their Reading the Riots academic research project - what causes are outlined by those involved in the disturbances?
15. What is your own opinion on the riots? Do you have sympathy with those involved or do you believe strong prison sentences are the right approach to prevent such events happening in future?

Complete for homework if you don't complete it during the lesson. Due date: set by exam teacher

Note: your TWO new/digital media stories (one news/journalism based) are STILL due every week on your MEST3 exam blogs. These will continue right up until the exam in June.

MEST4: Linked Production planning

For your Year 13 MEST4 coursework, 32 of the 80 marks are for a piece of production work that links with your Critical Investigation. Key details:

• You CAN work with others but the production MUST have some kind of link to ALL of your Critical Investigations. Group size limited to FOUR by AQA.
• Video work generally should be around 3 minutes long and no longer than 5 minutes. However, certain genres or texts will be shorter than this (e.g. 30-second advertisements or 2-minute film trailers).
• Print work must be a MINIMUM of three full A4 pages per candidate (e.g. if a pair work on print work the minimum is SIX full A4 pages).
• Found images/video (e.g. downloaded from the internet) are NOT permitted except as minor additional material (e.g. a small cut-out of a celebrity to use on a magazine cover).
• To achieve top marks, your work must comfortably sit alongside professional examples of the text and genre you have chosen.
• As with AS Level work, the key to professional production work is highly detailed research into the key conventions of your chosen text.

Important note: your Year 13 Linked Production CANNOT be the same as your Year 12 brief (three-minute extract from a 30-minute arthouse film) OR the other Y12 briefs (two-minute section/trailer for a TV lifestyle show; a two-minute music promotion introducing and showcasing a new music artist). 

A reminder of your Year 12 MEST2 brief: Create a three-minute extract from your proposed arthouse film.


Writing your own Linked Production brief

Complete the following and post it to your blog in a new blogpost called 'Linked Production brief'.

Your Critical Investigation topic: 


Your Linked Production brief: 


Length/size of production (e.g. 3 minutes, 5 pages etc.): 


Give an example of an existing media text this is similar to what you plan to produce: 


Give an example of an institution that would produce or distribute your planned production:


How would your production reach its audience?


Who do you plan to work with on this project?



Preliminary exercise: Recreation task

Your Year 13 Preliminary Exercise is to produce a 30-second shot-by-shot recreation of an existing text that is similar to the production you are planning to create. Complete the following in a blogpost called 'Recreation task planning':


Name of the text you plan to recreate:


Scene/section you will recreate:


Location you will use for your recreation:


Actors you will require for your recreation:


Props/costumes you will require for your recreation:


Equipment you plan to use:


Any other relevant information:



Recreation deadline: Two weeks

MEST4 Linked Production deadline: Easter

NDM assessment: additional revision

There are plenty of resources out there to help you prepare for your MEST3 Section B assessment next week.

You will obviously be looking over your two indexes of our News case study work AND all the NDM stories that you have collected over the last term. However, there is plenty more out there. Anything you read in our Media Magazine archive will help to give you a wider perspective on media debates and every issue has several articles with a new/digital media focus. We also have an archive of 150 A Level Media Studies Factsheets that we have subscribed to - in fact, these are brilliant for both critical investigations and the exam topic.

You'll find our Media Magazine archive here and the Media Factsheets are available on the M: Media Shared drive > Resources > A Level > Media Factsheets.

In particular, the following Factsheets will be useful for the exam:

050 'We-Media' and Democracy

053 Journalism in the New Media Age: The effect of online technology

071 Citizen Journalism: from Producer to Audience

076 News Values

088 The Impact of New Media on Politics

092 Globalisation and the Media

104 Audiences in the Digital Age

131 Social Media and the News Agenda

134 Press, Prominence and Persuasion – A Case Study in News and Social Media

There are plenty for you to look through for your Critical Investigation too - horror film, gender, post-9/11 Hollywood and more. Plus one that we could all use for both MEST3 Section B essays AND our critical investigations:

060 How to Write Academic Essays

Remember: these resources are all for you - the more you use them, the better you will do!

Happy new year!

Welcome back and happy new year for 2017!

We’ve got an incredibly important term coming up – it’s only 11 weeks to Easter and in that time we will be completing our critical investigations, producing our linked productions and covering the second MEST3 exam topic.

In your exam lessons, you will be focusing on Identities and the Media – the second MEST3 exam topic. This will explore representations of youth, post-colonial theory (largely the post-war representation of non-white people in Britain), Feminism and gender representation and constructing our own identities in the digital age. Before Easter, you’ll be returning to your New and Digital Media exam topic and researching your own independent case study on a media industry of your choice. Here, you’ll be applying everything you learned in the Autumn to a new industry, exploring the impact new and digital media has had on institutions and audiences in that field. 

In terms of coursework, this is the term when you will develop a final draft of your Critical Investigation as well as planning, writing, shooting and editing your linked production. There’s a lot of work to do and the time will fly by so make sure you’re organised, committed and as creative as you can be.

What can you do to maximise your grade in A2 Media Studies?

Now is the time to really step up your consumption of wider issues and debates in the media. If you want an A/A* grade, you need to be doing the following as a minimum:

Not only completing the minimum homework of two new/digital media stories but really finding excellent articles on the future of news and journalism from across the web. Make yourself an expert on the impact of new and digital technology on media industries.

• This will mean keeping up with the Media Guardian to find out the big stories in the media each week – particularly on a Monday. Look beyond digital media – you should have opinions on politics, economics, media ownership, censorship, data mining and online privacy. 

• Reading each issue of Media Magazine. Our archive is available here – the latest issue (MM548) has excellent features on Brexit, music streaming services and diversity in the media - all excellent, current issues. There may well be articles that are relevant to your critical investigations as well as exam preparation.

• Using our excellent archive of Media Factsheets on the M: drive Media Shared (M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets) to revise and increase your knowledge of wider media issues and debates. There are over 100 topics covered, many of them highly relevant to our exam preparation (particularly media theory and debates) and critical investigations. 

We made superb progress last term and have given ourselves the platform to achieve the very top grades in Media. Now, we need to go out and get them. Good luck!

New Media Magazine issue

The new issue of Media Magazine is out now - MM58.

This contains some superb articles for our ongoing work on critical investigations and new and digital media - including the music streaming, Brexit, Stranger Things, social media and black identity, screenwriting and media power.

Our Media Magazine reference guide is here - if you haven't searched this for your critical investigation topic then you are missing out on a brilliant resource. You can then find the article in our Media Magazine archive.

Take a look through and read any articles of interest - particularly if you want an A/A* in Media!

Critical Investigation Task #7

Critical Investigation - First Draft

The following needs to be completed by...

• Your first lesson back in January

• This is it: complete the first draft of your Critical Investigation.


• It must be a word processed 2,000 word essay (PLUS quotes - with a precise total word count including quotes but excluding bibliography at the end of the essay).


• Also, include correctly set out references, quotes and footnotes. Footnotes should take the following form - Author Surname, Author First Name Initial (Year of Publication), Page Number(s). e.g...Lacey, N. (2009). p. 122. They should not appear all together at the end of the essay but at the foot of the page where they appear.


• Where the next reference is from the same text and the same page use ibid. (in italics). This means 'in the same place' in Latin. If it's from the same text but a different page you include the new page reference too. e.g. ibid. p23.


• A full bibliography must be submitted at the end of the essay (this is NOT included in your word count). (See Critical Investigation Task #2 for help with this). Books should be listed in alphabetical order, by author's surname. If you're using the referencing system in Microsoft Word then all this will be done for you. Alternatively, you can use BibMe to help you do this correctly, using the APA format for books. e.g. Lacey, N. (2009). Image and Representation (2nd ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Here's a good example of a bibliography inspired by BibMe and this is an A* bibliography using Microsoft Word.


• Two copies are necessary. Hand in a hard copy (on paper) on the deadline day, and this needs to have 1.5 line spacing. Also paste it up (including footnotes and biblography) on your blog.

If you're in any doubt about what this all should look like then please check out some of the finished grade A/A* essays from 2016 (you can find top essays from 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012 on the blog too).

They will be helpful when thinking about how to write your essay (what to include in the introduction and conclusion, how to structure the work, how to set out quotes, the correct tone, and how much research to include - they each contain between 20 and 40 footnotes - you should aim for at least 30.)

But please ensure that all writing is done in your own words. Plagiarism is a very serious business and anyone found simply copying from other sources (either students or books/websites) will be in serious trouble. And you will be found out if you do! We're not stupid - we know how you write, and we know very well what was in the previous students' work (and there are numerous online checkers, or simply Google, that we can feed your work into to see if it has been plagiarised). 

Students guilty of plagiarism will be placed before the Greenford Plagiarism Panel made up of three senior teachers in the school - and students may be asked to leave the school.

This is the big one so no excuses and good luck!

NDM News: end of unit index

We have reached the end of our main new/digital case study on the news industry and need to update our indexes to ensure we have everything we need to revise.  

January assessment
Over Christmas, you will be revising for a MEST3 Section B assessment in January as well as working on your first draft of the critical investigation. It's therefore vital that you ensure that you are up-to-date with all your exam work NOW before the workload increases further. 

NDM News index

In today's lesson you need to update your index of all of your work so far for New/Digital Media and News. The quickest way to do this is to copy the HTML from your last index blogpost and simply update it for the latest tasks. 

Your index should include the following:

1) Institution: the impact of Google on the newspaper industry
2) Ofcom report: how news consumption has changed
3) The future of newspapers: Build The Wall analysis
4) The decline of newspapers: the effect of online technology
5) The future of journalism: John Oliver and Clay Shirky
6) The decline of newspapers: Media Magazine case studies
7) Citizen journalism and hyper-reality: Media Magazine article and questions
8) News Values: theory and updating them for digital media landcape
9) Marxism & Pluralism: Media Magazine article and questions
10) Alain de Botton on the News: lecture and questions
11) Full NDM essay including paragraphs on Marxism and Pluralism
12) Globalisation and news: cultural imperialism
13) Globalisation: taking it further (Google Glass case study and capitalism)
14) Fake news and globalisation - Guardian and New York Times articles
15) News on the Tweet

Important: For your index, the text should link to YOUR corresponding blogpost so you can access your work on each aspect of the case study quickly and easily. This also means you if you have missed anything you can catch up with the work and notes and won't underperform in the assessment due to gaps in your knowledge.

NDM story index

You also need to update your separate index of ALL of your NDM stories so far. This homework was originally set on Friday 9 September which means you should have a minimum of 28 stories in your new index. 

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 - guidance for the original index we created last month (with top-level examples from previous years) is here.

Having already done this once, you can simply copy the HTML over from your previous index and just update it for the last eight stories. Remember, every story you post needs to be on a separate blogpost and the link in the index should go to YOUR blog post on that story, not the original article itself.

Index tasks due date: must be updated in lesson.

NDM case study: News on the Tweet

Our case study on news has focused heavily on the decline of traditional brands and the rise of social media. But do these two competing platforms actually need each other to be successful?

News on the Tweet is a report from Newsworks (a marketing organisation representing newspapers) and Twitter designed to show the positive impact new and digital media can have on traditional media.

Read the report and answer the questions on your blog. Include the News on the Tweet infographic above in your blogpost.

1. Why are respected news brands good news for Twitter?
2. Why in turn is Twitter good for respected news brands?
3. The report suggests that old and new media “are not, in fact, in direct competition, but often work extremely well together to enhance both the media eco-system and the consumer experience”. What evidence do they provide to support this idea? Do you agree with it?
4. On page 24/25 of the report, the focus turns to 'gossip' or 'banter'. What example tweets from journalists are used to illustrate this? 
5. Do you think the increasing amount of 'gossip' or 'banter' is harming the reputation of news and journalists?
6. What does the report say about trust in Twitter and journalists (look at pages 34-39)?
7. Do you think new and digital media developments such as Twitter have had a positive or negative impact on traditional newspapers?
8. Finally, how can we link this report to the vital current debate regarding fake news and Facebook? Do traditional news brands need protecting to ensure there are sources we can trust?

Finish for homework if you don't get it finished in the lesson - due in the first lesson after Christmas.

NDM News: Globalisation and fake news

The growing problem with fake news is a great example of the crossover between globalisation and the news industry. 

It has been linked with a range of political events across the world - from Brexit here in the UK to Trump's election in the USA. Many European countries are now worried fake news will influence their upcoming elections in 2017. 

Fake news: blog tasks

The Guardian & the global problem of fake news

1) Read this Guardian feature - Fake news: an insidious trend that's fast becoming a global problem 

2) What similarities do you notice between the different countries outlined in the article and their problems with fake news?

3) Is fake news an inevitable consequence of the "culture of freedom and innovation" that the internet has brought with it? Is there a way to stop it?


New York Times and the creation of fake news

1) Read this New York Times feature - Inside a Fake News Sausage Factory: ‘This Is All About Income’

2) Which fake news stories were particularly successful for Beqa Latsabidze, the 22-year-old student in Tbilisi, Georgia, who tried to make money from web articles on Trump? 

3) How much can Facebook and Google be blamed for this global rise in fake news?


Complete for homework if you don't finish in the lesson - due in your final lesson next week.

Critical Investigation Task #6

Up-to-the-minute additional web research


Although books carry more authority, the internet is an excellent resource and you should be searching regularly to identify additional ideas and references related to your Critical Investigation.

In particular, you will find up-to-the-minute, current information and opinion about your topic and this always scores highly with AQA so it's important to continue online research all the way through until you hand in your final essay. Remember, one of the key media debates that you should look to cover at some point in your essay - New Media and Digital Technology - is constantly changing and you're already finding stories for that topic weekly for the exam too!

Remember, key places to keep track of this are...

• A Level Media Studies subscription sites - we have paid for you to have free access to Media Magazine (our online pdf archive is here), and MediaEdu (spend time, in particular, looking at the theory, new media and key concepts resources)...both are excellent and contain information pitched for Media students and teachers. Log in details for Media Edu are here.
• broadsheet newspaper sites, especially MediaGuardian (it's essential you get into the habit of reading this every week, preferably on a Monday), and the Independent Media;
• media education sites - the biggest and best is MCS; but there's also Media Literacy, Film Education, Screen Online...
• film review sites like IMDb (use the 'external reviews' link on the sidebar whenever you're on a chosen film) and Rotten Tomatoes;
• film magazines online like Sight & Sound, GuardianFilm, Empire, and Senses of Cinema;
• Wikipedia, naturally: a useful starting point for any web search, but make sure you avoid referencing this directly...it makes you look like a beginner. It provides, however, a good overview and, essentially, a list of 'References' and 'External Links' at the end of each entry;
• the best student essays from 2016, 2015, from 2014, from 2013, from 2012, from 2011, and from 2010: in particular, look at their quotes (usually highlighted by a footnote number) and bibliographies (at the end of each essay) as they will have often identified some of the best quotes for your topic. But, as ever, be wary of the temptation to plagiarise - you can only 'borrow' a key quote from another person's essay if you go and research the source yourself and make it part of your bibliography. Remember: it is incredibly easy to tell when an essay takes a sentence or paragraph from another writer and Greenford High School has a plagiarism committee made up of senior teachers in the school to deal with cases of deliberate cheating.

Continue your internet research over the holiday and into January using all the fantastic online resources outlined above.

Task: Post up AT LEAST 20 additional quotes, with full article titles (and hyperlinked web addresses) added to your Notes & Quotes document (AND bibliography) along with a brief explanation about which section of your essay plan it could fit into. 

Due: January.

Globalisation: taking it further

We have already explored globalisation with relation to news, cultural imperialism and the impact on audiences and institutions.

Now we need to explore some of the wider issues linked to globalisation and media - including capitalism, privacy, 'big data', and techno-panics. These are crucial issues that are likely to come up in Section A of your MEST3 exam - as well as being relevant to your independent case studies for Section B.


Media Magazine: Globalisation case study

Go to our Media Magazine archive and click on MM47 - the case study issue. You need to find page 31 and the Google Glass feature: a case study in Globalisation.

Read the article and answer the following questions:

1) Why was Google Glass controversial?

2) What are the positive elements to Globalisation that the article highlights?

3) What are potential negatives to Globalisation?

4) What is a techno-panic? How does it link to moral panics?

5) What is your opinion on the privacy debate and major corporations being able to access large quantities of personal data?


Media Factsheet: Globalisation and capitalism


Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet 92: Globalisation. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets

Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks:

1) Who coined the phrase 'a global village' and what multinational companies illustrate this?

2) What role does Slavoj Zizek suggest the media plays in global capitalism? How can you link this to our previous work on Marxism and Hegemony? 

3) What does 'capitalism with a conscience' mean? 

4) What is the (PRODUCT) RED campaign? 

5) Based on what you've read in the Factsheet, what is YOUR opinion of the (PRODUCT) RED brand? Is it a positive force helping to fight AIDS in Africa or a cynical attempt to make multinational companies look more ethical than they actually are? 

Finish for homework if you don't complete it during the lesson - due date set by your exam teacher.