Video Peer Assessment

For 12C1...

Write a self-evaluation (on your blog) of your internet video, summarising the info on your feedback forms. Make explicit reference to the level descriptors (ACTUP) and WWW/EBI.

Create a links list in your sidebar (on your blog) for the New Media (MEST 3) blogs of everyone in Year 12 (use the links here).

Watch & compare all the videos produced by all Year 12 students.

Select the FIVE best and post links to the specific videos or embed them in a new posting (on your blog).

For each video you choose, award the student an ‘eCommendation’ in their comments section. Explain why (ACTUP) and thank them for their efforts.

12C2 Video H/W

TASK (individual or pairs) – By Wednesday 7th July

Set up a new individual blog called MEST3 Critical Perspectives

Post up the address in the comments section of ‘The internet: Everything you...’ before the deadline

On your blog, post up your written summary/response to: The internet: Everything you ever need to know

Create a ONE MINUTE video that consolidates your learning about the impact of new/digital media so far (you should use Premiere or Movie Maker); post it on YouTube (you may need to set up an account); and embed it into your blog

Include text (summarising some of the information you’ve learned + some new research); images (moving or still; shot yourself or found online); and an appropriate soundtrack

Answer the key questions - What is so special about the internet? What is wrong with the internet? How does the internet change audiences?

Use the original lesson slides to help...

MEST3 Internet Lessons 1-3

Summer Research Project

For all Year 12 students (who'll be Year 13 in September '10)...

The following needs to be completed by the first lesson you come back at the start of September..

• Start a new blog. Call it MEST 4: Research & Production
• Leave a comment with the address and your name in the relevant MEST4 section below so I can put up a link on this blog.
• Choose a film or television text that you are really interested in and that is less than five years old.
• Get hold of a copy of your text. Watch it at least once over the summer. While you are watching it make key concepts notes and post them up on your new blog, considering the following questions for each key concept...
  

Media Representations

Who is being represented?

• In what way?
• By whom?

Why is the subject being represented in this way?

• Is the representation fair and accurate?
• What opportunities exist for self-representation by the subject?

Media Languages and Forms

• What are the denotative and connotative levels of meaning?
• What is the significance of the text’s connotations?
• What are the non-verbal structures of meaning in the text (e.g. gesture, facial expression, positional communication, clothing, props etc)?
• What is the significance of mise-en-scene/sets/settings?
• What work is being done by the sound track/commentary/language of the text?
• What are the dominant images and iconography, and what is their relevance to the major themes of the text?
• What sound and visual techniques are used to convey meaning (e.g. camera positioning, editing; the ways that images and sounds are combined to convey meaning)?

Narrative

• How is the narrative organised and structured?
• How is the audience positioned in relation to the narrative?
• How are characters delineated? What is their narrative function? How are heroes and villains created?
• What techniques of identification and alienation are employed?
• What is the role of such features as sound, music, iconography, genre, mise-en-scene, editing etc within the narrative?
• What are the major themes of the narrative? What values/ideologies does it embody?

Genre

• To which genre does the text belong?
• What are the major generic conventions within the text?
• What are the major iconographic features of the text?
• What are the major generic themes?
• To what extent are the characters generically determined?
• To what extent are the audience’s generic expectations of the text fulfilled or cheated by the text? Does the text conform to the characteristics of the genre, or does it treat them playfully or ironically?
• Does the text feature a star, a director, a writer etc who is strongly associated with the genre? What meanings and associations do they have?

Media Institutions

• What is the institutional source of the text?
• In what ways has the text been influenced or shaped by the institution which produced it?
• Is the source a public service or commercial institution? What difference does this make to the text?
• Who owns and controls the institution concerned and does this matter?
• How has the text been distributed?

Media Values and Ideology

• What are the major values, ideologies and assumptions underpinning the text or naturalised within it?
• What criteria have been used for selecting the content presented?

Media Audiences

• To whom is the text addressed? What is the target audience?
• What assumptions about the audience’s characteristics are implicit within the text?
• What assumptions about the audience are implicit in the text’s scheduling or positioning?
• In what conditions is the audience likely to receive the text? Does this impact upon the formal characteristics of the text?
• What do you know or can you assume about the likely size and constituency of the audience?
• What are the probable and possible audience readings of the text?
• How do you, as an audience member, read and evaluate the text? To what extent is your reading and evaluation influenced by your age, gender, background etc?

Other Tasks to complete by the start of September...

• Research your text on the internet. Start by using the de.li.cio.us tags that are on the sidebar ('Macguffin Links') to guide your research. These links are some of the best sites for Media Studies.

• Post up all evidence of research on your blog. You are looking for the following: reviews, newspaper/magazine articles, useful book titles linked to your text, relevant theory, relevant media issues and debates, information about wider contexts, etc.

• Don't just cut and paste mindlessly - be selective, try to summarise the information, comment on it and explain why it is useful. Also, make sure that you include specific links to all the sites you find.

• Feel free to be as creative with your blogs as you can. Include pictures, clips, reflections, links, etc.

• Prepare a presentation to be given to the class during the first week you return. In this you will show everyone your blog and talk through the research you found. Also, you will need to put together a five-minute Powerpoint presentation that summarises what you've found out. Use the Significance, Structure, Simplicity, Rehearsal checklist on slide 58 of the guide about how to prevent Death by PowerPoint as this will help you produce a more interesting presentation.
  

Good luck. There is a lot to do here. Our advice is to work on this throughout the Summer rather than leaving it all to the last minute. It should be an enjoyable process - finding out about something that you're interested in. If you have any problems then please don't hesitate to email me.

And remember, the aim of this is to develop your key research skills that you'll be using when you do your coursework next year...and these are skills that are vital for any subject you do in Year 13 or at university.

Mest4 Blogs 12C1

Mest4 Blogs 12C2

Mest4 Blogs 12D1

The internet: Everything you ever need to know

Excellent Guardian article...

The internet: Everything you ever need to know

Free Online Media Textbook!

Download this...

Media and Cultural Theory

And, in particular, check the sections on...

• Marxism
• Neo Marxism
• Post Modernism
• Feminism
• Post Colonialism

13C2 & 13C1 homework for Tuesday May 11th

Answer the following MEST 3 questions on the texts below.

Compare and contrast the representation of teenagers in the two texts. (8 marks)

Consider the view that the current representation of teenagers is simply another 'moral panic'. You may also refer to other media texts to support your answer. (12 marks)

To what extent has new and digital media given younger audiences the opportunity to shape their own media representations?
You should also refer to other media texts to support your answer. (12 marks)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lA86kQcE1I (Skins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSq2q45ohB8&feature=related

13D1 Cover Work Tues 23rd March

Look at a sample paper for MEST 3, Section A using the following link

http://store.aqa.org.uk/qual/gce/pdf/AQA-MEST3-W-SQP-07.PDF

Now find two (contemporary) texts that deal with issues of representation and new media technologies. These could be any combintion of print texts (advertisements, film posters, newspaper stories, magazine articles), website (screen grabs from a website) or moving image (trailer, advertisement, opening sequence, news report etc).

You should try to find texts different to those of your other class members.

Firstly identify the media issues and debates that the two texts raise, (theories, wider contextual issues etc).

Using the framwork of the exemplar exam questions create your own set of questions for your two texts.

You will be presenting these texts in next week's lesson and you will take on the role of 'teacher' in leading the discussions about the issues and debates.

MEST 4 Peer Marking

MEST 4 Peer Marking

Weds 17th Cover 13D1 p3

Watch Panorama from Monday this week on bbc i-player ('Are the Net Police Coming For You?'). Take detailed notes and discuss with each other the key issues and debates this raises. Remember it is good practice to have detailed understanding of a number of case studies as this will give you more scope in the exam.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00rl4dl/Panorama_Are_the_Net_Police_Coming_for_You/

Remember you need to write up the essay from the two texts we discussed in class yesterday.

Yr 13 cover Weds (13d1) & Fri (13C1 & C2) Section A practice

Watch the T-Mobile 'Life's for Sharing' TV ad broadcast on a number of terrestrial and digital channels in Spring 2009.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM

Then view the Sony Ericsson c-905 mobile phone advertisement feature which appeared in FHM magazine. (You will need to zoom in to see the details)

http://www.mobileshop.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/sony-ericsson-c905-mobile-phone-ad-campaign-a-world-first.bmp

Identify the issues and debates and theories evident relating to matters of representation and new and digital technologies in the two texts (making reference to specific examples from BOTH texts).

Write up a comparison of the two texts, making detailed reference to these points (min 1,000 words typed) for next Tuesday's lesson. This work must be printed out BEFORE the lesson.

MEST 4 Research & Planning Pitch

For 13C1/13D1...

Prepare a production pitch (for your double lesson next week)where you would try to sell your MEST 4 idea to financial backers to get the project green-lighted.

Prepare a presentation in which you can make use of PowerPoint, video, multimedia (e.g. Moviemaker) etc. to include the following for your pitch:

• Overview of your idea

• Detailed outline of MEDIA LANGUAGE you expect to use

• INSTITUTIONAL research/background

• GENRE conventions

• How you intend to REPRESENT people/places/issues

• AUDIENCE demographics/psychographics

• Pre-production planning action plan

Ensure you incorporate as many media keywords as you can; to help you, refer to the key concepts (MIGRAIN) and media terminology.

Also, remember to use the guide about how to prevent Death by PowerPoint, especially the checklist on slide 58.

Coursework - 1st Draft

The following needs to be completed by Monday 1st February. (Tuesday 2nd for 13D1)

• Complete your first draft of your Critical Investigation.

• It must be a word processed 2000 word essay (with a precise word count included at the end).

• 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.

• 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. (See the Book Research Task for help with this) . The first section should be titled 'Works Cited' and will contain everything that you make direct reference to in your essay. Divide it into 'Books', 'Newspapers & Magazines', 'Internet' and 'Moving Image Texts'. The second section should be called 'Works Consulted' and will cover all the additional research you did but that didn't necessarily get directly quoted. This should have the same subheadings as the first section. 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.

• Two copies are necessary. Hand in a hard copy (on paper) on the deadline day, and this needs to have one and a half spacing. Also paste it up 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' and 'B' essays from (2009), (2008), (2007), (2006). But remember that these were for a different specification and had to be 3000 words, unlike yours (which should be 2000).

They will be helpful, though, 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 around 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 real 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 studies (and there are numerous online checkers that we can feed your work into to see if it has been plagiarised).

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

Back to Lessons!

For 13C1 and 13D1...

WE HAVE NORMAL LESSONS NEXT WEEK!! (From Monday 25th January onwards).

That means NO tutorials, NO lessons cancelled.

It also means YOU MUST come in (unless you have an exam that day or the next day). NO other time is allowed for revision.

Please ensure that you have completed all the additional targets you were set when you received feedback on Tasks 1-6 that you did over Xmas and that you have written at least 1000 words of your essay so you can get help on it during the lessons.

Yr13 Case Study class/homework

Following your initial mind-mapping, for your own choice of new/digital media case studies, you must now prepare a powerpoint / multi-media presentation. You need to include:

• How new/digital media has affected your chosen area (e.g. available on new platforms etc)
• Advantages for audiences- offering greater choice for audiences and issues of pluralism - audiences being able to construct and broadcast their own texts (UGC)
• Disadvantages to audiences - e.g. access issues
• Benefits to institutions - eg. engaging new or wider audiences
• Disadvantages to institutions
• Textual examples (specific media texts) to support the above points.

This is due on Tuesday 26th Jan

New Media Homework all yr13

Develop ideas for your own case study on new/ digital media. We brainstormed a number of possibles such as.... the impact of new/digital media on:

• advertising
• sport
• film industry
• TV programmes
• music
• gaming

Select a topic that is of interest to you (it doesn't have to be one of those above) and using the same brainstorming method we did in class for the impact of new/ digital media on news consider how has the technology / platforms changed for your chosen medium's distribution and reception. Then add in details of advantages/ disadvantages to audience and institutions. Be prepared to discuss and present these back next lesson.

NEW MEDIA LECTURE - University Taster Courses - IMPORTANT

David Gauntlett (much quoted already this year by me and Mr Bush no doubt with regards to representation theory and also someone who has developed a wide body of work regarding new and digital media/ web 2.0) is holding a taster lecture at the University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1 on 23rd March 2010 between 11.00am - 12.00 noon. (Nearest tube Oxford Circus on the Victoria and Central Lines)

The lecture is 'New Media and the Power of the Everyday Creativity' and examines media content, such as television and radio programmes, and published reporting and writing and its historical dominance by the big institutions. The lecture will explore the changing relationship between audiences and institutions and how, due to cheap production tools and easy to use online platforms we as an audience are all now able to make and share our own media. David Gauntlett will discuss the hype, controversy and reality surrounding this shift, and will argue that tools which help people to unlock their everyday creativity are valuable for society.

There are only 50 places available and this lecture will be a valuable tool in developing background information for your case studies to use in the exam in addition to gaining an insight into university style education. To book your place please contact Michele Raimondo via email on raimonm@westminster.ac.uk or call 0207 911 5000.

Please note that these sessions always book up very, very quickly.

MEST 4 Task - Revised essay planning

Using the exemplar critical investigation handout you were given a while back, break down and annotate into an essay plan examining the structure and flow of the argument, how and where theory is used, use of media language and wider contexts.

Now look at your own essay plan and revise using the knowledge gained from the above exercise. This must be complete to be used for discussion in Friday's lesson.