Taylor Swift: Audience and Industries blog tasks

The final part of our Taylor Swift case study explores Audience and Industry contexts.

The exam could focus on anything from the changing nature of digital audiences to the regulation and financial power of social media giants.

Notes from the lesson: Audience

There is a lot of interesting demographic data regarding Taylor Swift's fans from American polling company Morning Consult found that:

• Some 53% of U.S. adults said they were fans of Swift, and 16% identified themselves as “avid” fans of the star.
• Of avid fans, just 44% identified themselves as “Swifties,” the name given to members of Swift’s fanbase. Among avid fans, 74% are white, compared to 13% who are Black, 9% who are Asian and 4% who are members of other races.
• Some 45% of avid fans are millennials, people between the ages of 27 and 42, while 23% are baby boomers, 21% are Gen Xers and just 11% are members of Gen Z—those 26 and under.
• A slim majority, 55%, of avid Swift fans are Democrats, compared to 23% who are politically independent and 23% who are Republicans.
• Her fanbase is evenly split across genders: 48% is male, and 52% is female, according to the survey.
• 73%. That’s how many avid fans said that Swift’s music is a driving force of their support of her, compared to 50% who cited her performances and music videos and 42% who cited her relatability.
• Avid fans and U.S. adults agree that 1989 is Swift’s best album. Some 15% of avid fans picked this work, more than any other album, compared to 7% of U.S. adults who did. Another 7% of U.S. adults said Fearless was her best album.

A YouGov poll (from the UK) found:

• a pretty equal gender split  53% female, 47% male 
• YouGov also found Swifties like Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande, Coldplay and Cher
• Swifties pay attention to ads more than the average (56% versus 38% general population)
• 42% of Taylor Swift fans enjoy celebrity-endorsed ads
• 40% of Taylor Swift fans are willing to pay for Vinyl records
• 54% of Taylor Swift fans say music it's important for a music artist to have a vision
• 40% of Taylor Swift fans like 80s music

Swift's fanbase also skews very close to the overall demographics of the US population which shows what a mainstream sensation she has become. Overall American population demographics (2020 figures): 

• Men 49.2%
• Women 50.8%
• White alone: 57.8%
• Black or African American alone: 12.4%
• Asian alone: 6.0%
• Some other race alone: 0.9%
• Generation Z: Approximately 23% of the US population (roughly half of which are legal adults)
• Millennials: Approximately 24% of the US population
• Generation X: Approximately 21% of the US population
• Baby Boomers: Approximately 28% of the US population
• About 29% of US households had an income of $100,000 or more per year in 2020.
• About 28% of US households had an income between $50,000 and $99,999 per year in 2020.

Sources: 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/03/14/more-than-half-of-us-adults-say-theyre-taylor-swift-fans-survey-finds/

https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/48989-7-data-driven-insights-on-taylor-swifts-british-fan-base

How Taylor Swift uses social media to connect with her audience - parasocial relationships: 

 

Taylor Swift: Voice of the Millennials or Generation Z?

Generations:

• Generation X: Born between 1965 – 1980
• Millennials / Generation Y: Born between 1981 – 1995
• Generation Z (or iGen): Born 1996 – 2010

Taylor Swift is a Millennial but most of her fans are Generation Z. Which generation does she best reflect? 

Industries

It was eventually resolved via a new deal but this nonetheless demonstrates the power social media companies now have across different types of media - including the music industry.

2023 Online Safety Bill

The 2023 Online Safety Bill is attempting to regulate the internet – but has been heavily amended and criticised as it makes its way through Parliament. 

Watch this BBC News interview on the topic: 

Watch: Channel 4 debate on regulation

Watch this Channel 4 News debate featuring the President of messaging service Signal on end-to-end encryption.

Where do you stand on this debate? 

Create a new blogpost called 'Taylor Swift: Audience and Industries blog tasks' and work through the following to complete your case study.

Audience

Background and audience wider reading

Read this Guardian feature on stan accounts and fandom. Answer the following questions:

1) What examples of fandom and celebrities are provided in the article?

2) Why did Taylor Swift run into trouble with her fanbase? 

3) Do stan accounts reflect Clay Shirky's ideas regarding the 'end of audience'? How? 

Read this Conversation feature on the economics of Taylor Swift fandom. Answer the following questions: 

1) What do Taylor Swift fans spend their money on? 

2) How does Swift build the connection with her fans? Give examples from the article.

3) What have Swifties done to try and get Taylor Swift's attention online? 

4) Why is fandom described as a 'hierarchy'? 

5) What does the article suggest is Swift's 'business model'? 

Taylor Swift: audience questions and theories

Work through the following questions to apply media debates and theories to the Taylor Swift CSP. You may want to go back to your previous blogpost or your A3 annotated booklet for examples. 

1) Is Taylor Swift's website and social media constructed to appeal to a particular gender or audience?

2) What opportunities are there for audience interaction in Taylor Swift's online presence and how controlled are these? 

3) How does Taylor Swift's online presence reflect Clay Shirky’s ‘End of Audience’ theories? 

4) What effects might Taylor Swift's online presence have on audiences? Is it designed to influence the audience’s views on social or political issues or is this largely a vehicle to promote Swift's work? 

5) Applying Hall’s Reception theory, what might be a preferred and oppositional reading of Taylor Swift's online presence? 

Industries

How social media companies make money

Read this analysis of how social media companies make money and answer the following questions:

1) How many users do the major social media sites boast?

2) What is the main way social media sites make money? 

3) What does ARPU stand for and why is it important for social media companies? 

4) Why has Meta spent huge money acquiring other brands like Instagram and WhatsApp? 

5) What other methods do social media sites have to generate income e.g. Twitter Blue? 

Regulation of social media

Read this BBC News article on a report recommending social media regulation. Answer the following questions:

1) What suggestions does the report make? Pick out three you think are particularly interesting. 

2) Who is Christopher Wylie? 

3) What does Wylie say about the debate between media regulation and free speech? 

4) What is ‘disinformation’ and do you agree that there are things that are objectively true or false? 

5) Why does Wylie compare Facebook to an oil company? 

6) What does it suggest a consequence of regulating the big social networks might be? 

7) What has Instagram been criticised for?

8) Can we apply any of these criticisms or suggestions to Taylor Swift? For example, should Taylor Swift have to explicitly make clear when she is being paid to promote a company or cause? 

A/A* extension tasks

Read Deconstructing Taylor in Media Magazine MM51 which covers representations, postmodernism and the relationship between Swift and her fans. You can find this in our Media Magazine archive.

Read Media Factsheets Taylor Swift Online Part 1 (282) and 2 (291) which covers her online presence the construction of brand identity, her communication with audiences and how she uses online media as a marketing tool. You can find this in our Media Factsheets archive.

Read this Guardian article on teenagers and phone addiction. Do you recognise what it is discussing?

Read this Guardian article on the Online Harms Bill. What does it suggest regarding regulation of social media companies?

This Guardian article also explores the mental health implications of social media. Do you think that strict regulation of social media should happen?

Complete for homework - due date on Show my Homework.

Year 13 Baseline assessment: Learner response

Well done on completing your Year 13 Media baseline assessment - it's an important first step towards success in the exams next June.

This also gave us the opportunity to revise two key topics that are likely to come up in those exams - Magazines and Radio. It's the nature of the two-year linear course that we will be assessed on topics that we may have originally studied over a year ago. As a result, it's vital that we build in revision activities and assessments across all nine types of media as we progress through Year 13. 

The first part of your baseline assessment learner response is to look carefully at your mark, grade and comments from your teacher. Next, read the assessment mark scheme which can be found on Satchel One and note in particular the anticipated content for each question. 

Baseline assessment learner response

Create a new blog post called 'Year 13 baseline assessment learner response' and complete the following tasks:

1) Type up your feedback in full (you don't need to write the mark and grade if you want to keep this confidential).

2) Focusing on the BBC Newsbeat question, write three ways it helps to fulfil the BBC's mission statement that you didn't include in your original assessment answer. Use the mark scheme for ideas.

3) Question two asked you how useful media effects theories are in understanding the audience response to War of the Worlds. Complete the following:

• Gerbner's Cultivation theory: useful or not useful? Why?
• Frankfurt School's Hypodermic Needle model: useful or not useful? Why?
• Stuart Hall's Reception theory: useful or not useful? Why?

4) Write a full essay plan for the 25-mark Magazines question. The mark scheme contains plenty of ideas you can use here. Your plan should include notes/bullet points addressing the following:

• Introduction: one sentence answering the original question and laying out your argument clearly.
• Paragraph 1 content/ideas:
• Paragraph 2 content/ideas:
• Paragraph 3 content/ideas:
• Paragraph 4 content/ideas:
• Conclusion: sum up your argument a final time in one sentence

5) Finally, identify three key skills/topics you want to work on in A Level Media this year before the final exams in the summer.

Deadline on Satchel One.

Coursework: Preliminary exercise feedback and LR

The preliminary exercise is a brilliant opportunity to learn or refresh the basics of filmmaking before creating your actual coursework project.

After the screening of the preliminary exercises in class, you need to create a blogpost called 'Preliminary exercise learner response' and embed your video from YouTube. Then, complete the following tasks as your feedback and learner response:

1) Type up your teacher's feedback in full plus a summary of the comments you received from other students in the class.

2) Using a combination of your own reflection on the preliminary exercise and the feedback you were given, write three WWW bullet points and three EBI bullet points for your work.

3) How effectively did you complete the objective you laid out in your mini preliminary exercise statement of intent?

4) What have you learned from the preliminary exercise that will help you in the actual coursework project?

5) Now you have completed the preliminary exercise, will you change anything about your actual coursework video plan? This could include your concept, cast/actors or technical elements such as mise-en-scene, camerawork or editing.

The deadline for these feedback and learner response tasks will be set on Satchel One.

OSP: Taylor Swift CSP - Language and Representations

 Our first Online, Social and Participatory CSP is global pop sensation Taylor Swift and her use of online media.

The study will focus on the website and social media presence of Taylor Swift and how she constructs her online persona to influence 'Swifties' the world over.

Notes from the lesson

Taylor Swift: introduction

Taylor Swift is one of the most commercially successful figures in the global music industry, having been a star from a young age and working in a range of genres including country, pop and rock. The media company Bloomberg has estimated her wealth at just over $1billion. She was the most played artist on Spotify in 2024 pulling in on over 26.6 billion streams and was Time magazine’s Person of the Year (2023) and was Time magazine’s Person of the Year (2023). The financial magazine Forbes ranked her as the fifth most powerful woman in the world (the women above her in the list were all politicians).

Taylor Swift is a millennial artist (born 1989) whose (often very devoted) fans, known as ‘swifties’, range from young teens, Gens X and Z, millennials as well as the baby-boomer generation (‘senior swifties’). The persona she constructs across online and social media reflects the need to address these different target audiences. Swift is also a very influential figure in an industry context, credited with shifting the power relationships between the music industry and individual artists.

Source: AQA CSP booklet. 

Taylor Swift: websites

You can check out Taylor Swift's main website here and her tour microsite here.

Taylor Swift: social media

Taylor Swift uses social media very deliberately to create impact. In 2018 she wiped all her social media before returning to platforms a couple of days later with a snake video that was designed to kick off an album announcement. 

Taylor Swift: representations 

Taylor Swift is the perfect example of a modern celebrity – fully in control of her persona and able to skilfully construct her representations across multiple media platforms and through her live performance. She has also highlighted the representation of women in the media and music industry.

Taylor Swift: Language and Representations blog tasks

Narrative

Go to our Media Magazine archive (issue MM79) and read the feature All Too Well on Taylor Swift and how she controls her own narrative. Answer the following questions: 

1) Why is Taylor Swift re-recording her earlier albums? 

2) Why did Taylor Swift choose to make the short film 'All Too Well'? 

3) What other examples are provided in the article of Taylor Swift using media to construct her own image? 

Taylor Swift textual analysis

Work through the following tasks to complete your textual analysis of Taylor Swift's website and social media. 

1) Go to Taylor Swift's website. What do you notice about the media language choices - text, font, images, page design, links?

2) Now visit her Eras tour microsite. What do you notice about the construction of this site in terms of images and website conventions? 

3) Visit Taylor Swift's Twitter feed. Analyse her use of tweets/posts - are they promoting her music, her tour, or something else? Can you find any that are socially or politically oriented? 

4) Look at Taylor Swift's Instagram account. What do you notice about the selection and construction of images, reels and posts?  

5) Research Taylor Swift across any other social media accounts - e.g. Facebook. Do you notice any differences in how she represents herself on different platforms? Comment on text, images or tone/content.  

A/A* extension tasks

Read this academic history of celebrity culture and social contexts. How much can we find that is relevant to the kind of celebrity persona Taylor Swift has created? 

Read Written and Directed by Taylor Swift in Media Magazine MM84 - a feature on Swift's music videos including how she is using her Instagram channel to position herself as an up-and-coming director as well as music star. You can find this in our Media Magazine archive here.

Finally, consider this question: How does the construction of Taylor Swift's online presence reflect the social and cultural changes of the last 10 years? 

You will have some lesson time on this but will need to complete for homework. Due date on Show My Homework.

OSP: Influencers and celebrity culture

Social media and influencers have added a whole new dimension to celebrity culture in the last 15 years.

As part of our study of online, social and participatory media - and before we start studying Taylor Swift - we need to explore the rise of influencers and the way celebrity culture has changed. This also builds on last week's work on Clay Shirky and his End of Audience theories. 

User-generated content

Influencers exist because of changes in technology and the internet. This created social media sites like YouTube and Facebook and led to the rise in user-generated content.

User-generated content (UGC) is any content—text, videos, images, reviews, etc.—created by audiences, rather than brands or professional producers.

This links to Shirky’s work on audiences as producers – we create and share media as well as viewing it.

The rise of influencers: changing culture

The rise of social media influencers and online celebrity culture has fundamentally changed the relationship between brands, stars and audiences. 

Some argue that YouTube has democratised the contemporary media landscape – anyone can become the next star and audiences can choose who to follow. Others suggest that social media has blurred the boundaries between advertising and entertainment – and that young audiences are being exploited.

Influencers and their impact on media and culture

What impact are influencers having on society, media and culture? You need to be able to form your own opinion on this question. To help you, watch this BBC Panorama programme on influencers. Here's a brief summary:

Here's the extended 28-minute Panorama if you'd like to see more:

Bad Influencer: Belle Gibson & The Great Insta Con

The danger with user-generated content is whether we can trust what we see on social media. Belle Gibson was one of the first lifestyle influencers but ended up in a controversy over faking cancer diagnoses to promote her posts. This is a preview of a BBC3 documentary on Belle Gibson and the Great Insta Con:

Influencers and celebrity culture: blog tasks

1) Media Magazine reading

Media Magazine 72 has a feature linking YouTube influencers to A Level media theories. Go to our Media Magazine archive, click on MM72 and scroll to page 60 to read the article ‘The theory of everything - using YouTubers to understand media theory’. Answer the following questions:

1) How has YouTube "democratised media creativity"?

2) How does YouTube and social media culture act as a form of cultural imperialism or 'Americanisation'? 

3) How do influencers reinforce capitalist ideologies? 

4) How can YouTube and social media celebrity content be read as postmodern, an example of hyperreality? 

5) What are the arguments for and against regulating online content such as YouTube?

6) How can Hesmondhalgh and Curran & Seaton's ideas be linked to online media debates? 

7) How can Gauntlett's ideas around identity and audience be applied to YouTube and influencer content?

8) What is YOUR opinion on celebrity influencers? Are they a positive, democratic addition to the contemporary media landscape or a highly constructed product promoting hegemonic capitalist ideologies?   

2) How to build a social media brand: case study

Read this excellent case study on how to build a celebrity social media brand and answer the following questions: 

1) What are the different ways celebrities manage their social media accounts? Give examples. 

2) Why is 'voice' important in celebrity social media content and what examples are provided? 

3) What different goals may celebrities have for their social media accounts? 

4) What types of content can be found from celebrity social media posts? 

5) How does social media allow influencers to interact with fans? Give examples.  

3) Guardian article: Social media harming young people

Finally, read this Guardian article reporting that social media and celebrity culture is harming young people. Answer the following questions:

1) What did the YMCA's report suggest about social media content and celebrity culture?  

2) What examples are provided of how this can have a damaging effect on young people? 

3) What is YOUR opinion on this topic? Do you feel social media is dangerous to young people? Should age restrictions be enforced? Explain your answer. 

A/A* extension tasks

Read this excellent, academic article on the history of celebrity culture recommended by exam board AQA. Has digital culture changed the nature of celebrity or have things always been like this?  

Read this Forbes article on how covid and TikTok have changed the influencer market in the last couple of years. What does this tell us about society and media culture - are we becoming more creative and independent or is this just another way to sell more products to more people?

Due date on Show my Homework.

Coursework: Preliminary exercise 2026

We are starting our coursework with a preliminary exercise: a chance for you to refresh your technical production skills prior to creating your actual production.

This is a vital element of the overall coursework as it gives you the opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them without it impacting on your grade. However, we also strongly advise you to create a preliminary exercise that is linked to your real coursework concept - this may give you additional material to edit into your production later on.

Preliminary exercise: TikTok Music video

Task: Plan, film and edit a 45-60 second TikTok music video 

Length: 45-60 seconds

Equipment: Your own camera / smartphone as this will make it easier to video in vertical mode and follow conventions of TikTok music video. You can borrow and sign out a phone tripod holder from our technician Mr Ray in DF06.

Groups: None. You MUST work individually. However, other people will need to be involved - perhaps as a performer, actor or part of your production team (camera operator etc.) This is fine as long as they are directed by the candidate submitting the work. Keep a note of who you use and how you directed them as you'll need to send this to the exam board at Easter.

What your music video extract needs to include

Content: Your preliminary exercise must include the following:

• An artist logo/brand identity that appears on screen at the beginning of the music video.
• A range of different camera shots and angles which fit the codes and conventions form of TikTok.
• Either a narrative or performance element (or both).
• Editing appropriate to the content and song.

Camerawork: Your camerawork must be appropriate for your genre, artist and song and careful consideration of TikTok music video conventions. It is likely you will want to include a significant number of close-ups, particularly on the artist/performer based on the industrial context of production.

Editing: You must edit your TikTok music video appropriately for the song and/or narrative. 

Sound: For this exercise, you can simply use the sound from the song you are using. However, if you wish to include an element in your music video that contains narrative and diegetic sound this is acceptable.

Mise-en-scene: iconography to establish genre of your band/artist - think carefully on setting, costume, make-up props, lighting etc.

Graphics on screen: Create a brand identity for your original artist (e.g. font/typography, colour, logo etc.) that appears on screen at the beginning (or end) of your preliminary exercise. 

Deadlines

Planning deadline: Next week (from when this blog was posted)

Filming & editing deadline: Week after (from when this blog was posted)

Final deadline: See Show my Homework for specific day - total time available for project is two weeks.


Research and planning blog tasks

Create a blogpost called 'Preliminary exercise: Research and planning' and complete the tasks below. First, watch this clip on the mistakes beginner filmmakers make - it will help you identify the errors to avoid when planning and shooting your video (this clip is about narrative filmmaking but many of the same points apply to any video project).



This is a great video discussing five mistakes to avoid when making a music video - but you'll also find loads of great ideas here too:

And here's another one with some specific tips on making a music video - for example, there's some great stuff on composition (leading lines) and lighting here:

There are also loads more tips and tutorials from Darius Britt (D4Darius on YouTube) that we would recommend watching as part of your research and planning. These include:

• Mastering Composition + Cinematography
• Nine things to check before pressing the record button

Now complete the following tasks:

1) State the song you have chosen for your preliminary exercise.

2) Choose at least three music videos similar to your concept and watch a clip or more from each. Make bullet-point notes on everything you watch, commenting on camerawork, editing and mise-en-scene.

3) Write a short music video treatment for your extract (this is basically a script for your TikTok music video). You can find an example of a treatment here. If you are making your real coursework then feel free to use the treatment from your summer project.

4) Write a shot list containing EVERY shot you plan to film AND additional shots to create flexibility when editing (in a music video you will find you need FAR more shots than you think, particularly close-ups). These additional shots can be close-ups, alternative angles or something more creative. I advise using a simple table on Microsoft Word/Google Docs to set out your shot list - you can find an example here (this is from narrative filmmaking but the same format can be used for any video project). 

5) Plan your mise-en-scene: what iconography are you including to ensure your audience understands the genre and style of your artist? Plan your settings, costume, make-up, props and lighting. 

6) Plan a shooting schedule that will ensure everything is filmed by the deadline. Include when, where, who is required, planned equipment and any other aspects you need to arrange. 

Research and planning deadline: on Satchel One

Coursework: Ignite presentation learner response

There have been some excellent Ignite presentations with some brilliantly creative responses to the coursework brief. 

Hopefully, the presentations and Q&A sessions that followed have highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of your coursework proposal and may indeed have prompted re-drafts of your statement of intent. 

Your learner response is as follows and will take some time to do properly:

Create a new blogpost called 'Ignite presentation learner response'

1) Type up your feedback in full including the ratings out of five for each of the categories. 

2) Use this feedback, comments from peers and your own reflection on your presentation to self-assess and write your own detailed WWW and EBI for your coursework concept and presentation as a whole.

3) Write a paragraph discussing how your presentation will lead into your actual coursework production. Do you need to update your statement of intent? Does your concept offer enough clarity? Is it appropriate for the audience specified in the brief? Is it achievable to film with the resources you have available? Can you add media terminology or theory to your statement of intent now you have reflected on your presentation and seen others? 

REMINDER: You also need to ensure that ALL your research and planning from over the summer - including your current statement of intent - is posted to your Media 2 coursework blog.

Due date: See Satchel One

Re-cap: Summer Project 2026

The summer project is a vital element of your coursework - an opportunity to plan three outstanding TikTok videos and three web pages to promote the artist's own branded new soft drink and then present it to class in September.

Your summer project contains compulsory and optional elements; everybody will be researching TikTok videos, creating a concept, writing a first draft Statement of Intent and presenting this to class as an Ignite presentation in September. However, you may wish to also plan and film elements of your production over the summer while you have time available - this is up to you.

Your AQA coursework brief is here: NEA Student Booklet - Brief 4. 

Summer project tasks

Complete the following tasks on a blogpost on your coursework blog called 'Summer Project: coursework planning': 

1) Research: TikTok videos

You need to write a 150-word close-textual analysis of SIX TikTok videos that will inform your production work. The TikTok videos you analyse are up to you but focus on a different aspect of media language for each one (see guidance below).  

TikTok videos

TikTok Video 1: Narrative
How is narrative used in the TikTok video and what impact does this have on the audience? Can you apply any narrative theories to the story in the TikTok video?

TikTok Video 2: Camerawork (shots, angles, movement)
Look for particular camera shots and movement - remember that movement is a critical convention of most music videos and performances and camerawork can contribute to this. 

TikTok Video 3: Mise-en-scene
What do you notice about the use of mise-en-scene to create meanings for the audience? Use CLAMPS to help you here and think in particular about how mise-en-scene is used to communicate the genre of music and the personality or brand identity of the band/artist.

TikTok  Video 4: Editing

For editing, analyse pace, transitions, the number of shots and juxtaposition. How does the video create pace and excitement - or does it create a different effect for the audience?  

TikTok  Video 5: Music Video Conventions

Think back to our Introduction to Music Video and our work on Andrew Goodwin's theory on music video conventions as part of the Ghost Town CSP. How many key conventions of music video can you find in your fifth TikTok example?

TikTok 6: Visual effects, intertextuality or product placement

Choose a TikTok video that has interesting visual effects or intertextuality and analyse the effect this creates and how it is constructed. Alternatively, you could look at product placement here and see how a band or artist has incorporated a brand or product into their video. 

You can start adding TikTok links to this shared document that should help with research and, of course, or you are free to select videos of your choice. You may wish to write more about one video than another but as long as you have 800+ words of TikTok video research in total you will be fine. Feel free to use bullet points if this is helpful.

2) Planning: THREE TikTok video treatments

A treatment is like a script for a TikTok video - it tells the artist exactly what will happen in the video and the kind of style or effect the video will have. You'll need choose what songs you are going to use at this point - remember, you can use an existing artist's work but it needs to be appropriate for the brief. 

For this aspect of your summer project, write a basic treatment that gives your reader a good idea of what each of your three TikTok video will look like. The most important thing is to keep in mind the brief - the TikTok video can feature any of the following:

• personal information from the artist
• replication of a social media trend (eg ‘bees
• in a trap’ video, ice-bucket challenge) extracts
• from podcasts, press conferences, red carpet
• appearances and/or promotional interviews
• clips from a music video
• any other content you feel is appropriate.

Start each of your THREE treatments with the following key details: 

1) Artist and song(s) you will use for video.

2) Original name for artist you have created - MUST be completely original

For example, Ed Sheeran - Shape of You is the artist and song you plan to use but your original name for your artist will be John Smith - Shape of You.


3) Statement of Intent

Write the first draft for your genuine 500-word Statement of Intent. This will be submitted to the exam board alongside your media products and is worth 10 marks of the overall 60 marks available.

It should explain:

• the ways in which you will apply knowledge and understanding of media language and media representation to your products
• how your products will target the intended audience
• the industry context they are created for
• how you will exploit the opportunities for digital convergence between the products

We also strongly recommend you look at our Statement of Intent questions to consider document too (you'll need to log in with your Greenford Google account to read this). 

This is just your first draft of the statement so try and keep it under 500 words if you can. That will leave a bit of room to add later when you do your next draft.

4) Ignite presentation

Prepare a 5-minute, 20-slide presentation using the Ignite format in which you present your coursework project. In effect, this is your statement of intent in presentation format. You must cover:

• Your TikTok videos and web pages concept: your new original artist, genre, song and TikTok video treatments. Then, your print brief: website name, title, logo, name of artist's new soft drink etc.
• Media language: how you will use TikTok video conventions and website conventions - e.g. camerawork, editing and mise-en-scene to create meanings for your audience. 
• Media representations: how you will use or subvert stereotypes in your TikTok video and web pages; applications of representation theory; social and cultural contexts - how your coursework will reflect contemporary media culture and society.
• Media audiences: your target audience demographics and psychographics; audience pleasures - why they would enjoy your TikTok video and webpages; audience theory if relevant.
• Media industries and digital convergence: the potential record company that would promote your artist; the website; the brand identity for your artist; how fans would engage with your products etc.

Ignite presentations have very specific rules: you must create exactly 20 slides with each slide set to 15-second auto-advance. This means your presentation will be exactly five minutes followed by questions and comments from the class. You will deliver your presentation on your coursework planning in the first week back in September.

Your Ignite presentation will be marked out of 30 on the following criteria (each worth a possible 5 marks):

1) Research (through the presentation AND your blog - make sure it is posted before you present) 
2) Coursework concept
3) Language: terminology and theory
4) Representations / social and cultural contexts
5) Audience and Industry / digital convergence
6) Presentation delivery

You can find more information about Ignite presentations - including examples - in this Ignite presentation blogpost here. 

Summer project deadline: all tasks above due in first lesson back in September

Summer project: optional extensions

Pre-production tasks

Some students in previous years expressed an interest in filming their video production over the summer break. This makes a huge amount of sense - far more availability of actors, much more time to schedule filming etc. If you do want to film over the summer, make sure you complete the following pre-production tasks here:

TikTok video planning and treatment
This is effectively your script for your TikTok video. There is guidance/links above on how to write a great TikTok video treatment.

Storyboard 
Sketch out a selection of critical shots from your TikTok video, take a photo of the storyboard and upload it to your blogpost. What visual style are you trying to create? Storyboard sheets can be downloaded from here.

Shot list
Write a shot list containing EVERY shot you plan to film for the TikTok video AND additional shots to create flexibility when editing. These additional shots are often close-ups, cutaways, alternative angles or similar. I advise using a simple table on Microsoft Word to set out your shot list - you can find a film example here. It makes sense to organise your shot list by scene or location rather than a huge list of every shot in the TikTok video in chronological order. 

Mise-en-scene
What iconography are you including to ensure your audience understands the genre you are working in? Plan your cast, costume, make-up, props, lighting and setting. This can be simply completed using your blog or Microsoft Word - the key aspect is to have planned all the critical details. 

Shooting schedule 
Plan a shooting schedule for your filming over the summer. Include when, where, who is required and what shots you will complete at each time/location. Again, this can be on Word or Excel or you could simply use your blog. The most important thing is that you've planned it! 

Non-assessed participants
You will need to provide a written record of all non-assessed participants in your production work (both video and print). Keep a record of everyone involved - actors, camerawork, sound etc. You will also need a keep a record of any non-original sound and note it on the Candidate Record Form - so this means the song for your music video. Keep these on your blog for easy reference when submitting your work in Year 13.

Production: Filming and photography

Once you have completed your pre-production tasks, you can film or carry out photoshoots as you wish.

Good luck!