Love + Hate Trip

To All Year 13 students: URGENT...

Read the letter below, then copy and paste the text into a word document and print off for your parents to sign. Ideally, I would like you to bring in the confirmation slips on Tuesday 1st November. (The first day back after the holiday).

Check out this link to the film - it's going to be very useful for considering the representation of Asians, which is what you study for Module 4. Mariam should be especially pleased because it fits in with her independent study about the representaton of Muslims (see her blog).

Please inform everyone you know on the course about the trip - get on your mobile phones and MSN! It's compulsory and you need to be outside the school gates on Wednesday 2nd November at 8am. (Yes, that early!)

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21st October 2005

Dear Parent/Guardian,

To coincide with ‘The London Film Festival’, The English & Media Studies Department at Greenford High School has been offered free complimentary tickets to a special educational screening of the new British film Love + Hate (certificate 15). We are reserving these tickets for A2 Media Studies students, who will go on to study the film for their forthcoming Module 4 exam on Representation/Genre in June, so it is essential that they attend. After the movie, there will be a special Q&A Session with the director, Dominic Savage.

The event takes place at the Genesis Cinema in Mile End, London E1, on Wednesday 2nd November. The school, because of the educational value of the visit, will pay for the cost of the coach that will take us to and from the venue. Students will be required to meet at the school gates at 8am. We cannot wait for latecomers as we must arrive on time at the cinema. We expect to be back at Greenford High School by the time school usually finishes at 3.25pm.

Students will be expected to make contact with their subject teachers during the week of the trip to inform them about it and to find out what work they will need to do to catch up because of what they will miss.

If you would like your son/daughter to attend, then please fill in the slip below and ask them to return it to Mr. Bush by Wednesday 2nd November. As ever, your support is greatly appreciated.

Yours sincerely,


Mr. A. P. Bush
Head of English & Media Studies

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I would like my son/daughter*___________________________(insert name) to attend the special educational screening of the film Love + Hate and the subsequent Q&A Session on Wednesday 2nd November ’05 at the Genesis Cinema in Mile End, London E1.

Signed__________________________ Phone Number___________________

*Please delete as appropriate

Independent Study Tasks for H T

For 13C students…

TASK THREE
Blog Tasks that need to be done by Friday (21-10-05):

• Ensure that previous homework is up to date (see previous posting, October 26th).


• Add a separate post for each of the Wider Contexts (Social, Historical, Economic, Political) explaining how they link with your text/topic.


• Create a post for Theory. Here you need to cover three relevant theories/theorists that you intend to use in your study. Explain why you will use each of them and include an internet link for each of them (nothing too advanced!!).

TASK FOUR
Blog Tasks that need to be done by Tuesday (01-11-05):

• Do the ‘Key Concepts – Questions’ (see previous posting, October 27th).

• Respond to each of the comments that have been made to you (by Macguffin or other students) about your first postings (question/overview and the key concepts). Do this by adding to each of your posts.
  

• DO NOT REMOVE OR CHANGE anything you've done so far, simply add the additional elements required (go to 'Edit posts') IN A DIFFERENT FONT COLOUR and use this colour for all future additions made in response to comments.
  

• Comment on ten 13C blog entries that are relevant to your own. The comments should this time be on either Wider Contexts or Theory and must include at least five other students.


• Create a post called ‘Comments This Week’ and include links to each of your comments.

Issues & Debates Tasks for H T

For 13D students...

The following needs to be done by our next lesson (02-11-05):

• Complete all the tasks listed in the posting of October 12th.
• Post up an Institution Case Study on your blog...

1. This will be similar to the one that you produced on paper for your presentations.
2. Cover the same media institution and use the same guidelines that you've already been given on paper.
   
3. Re-draft your material if necessary, adding extra research if it's not detailed enough (use Sonia's 'Channel 4' one as a guide).
4. Add five internet links that are relevant, with a one sentence description alongside each one.
5. Upload the institution's logo onto your posting.

• Post two more key media issues and debates stories, with weblinks, summaries and an image for each one. DO NOT JUST COPY & PASTE - summarise in your own words!

Key Concepts Questions

For 13C students...

Below are the Key Concept questions that need to be answered for your chosen text/topic for the Independent Study. Make sure that you start a new post for each Key Concept and that you try to answer the questions in order, as thoroughly as possible. It would be a good idea to bullet point each answer, too, or at least start a new paragraph for each question. That way it will be easy for me to see what the gaps in your knowledge are and so know what I need to do to help you.

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?

Issues & Debates - Setting Up

For 13D students…

A reminder of the homework that is due for next Wednesday (19-10-05):

• Set up your own blog. Call it “Media Issues & Debates” but give it a personalised address with all or some of your first name in it and GHS.

• Make your first posting. Answer the following question as fully as possible:

Does the launch of highbrow digital TV channel ‘More4’ signal that the moral panic about ‘dumbing down’ in the media is no longer appropriate or does it prove that the debate is still relevant?

• Include the media keywords that were discussed in the lesson and make sure you have checked spelling and punctuation - this ain’t MSN.

• Refer to the articles we looked at:

• In the digital future, less means More4
• C4 to grab a slice of Freeview audience

• Include at least three different weblinks from different sources on the topic.
  

• Upload a relevant image – to do with More4 – from the internet.

• Send the link of your blog to my email address. Then I can put this link to your blog on the sidebar on Macguffin.

• Vote in the Macguffin Poll about More4 (see the sidebar on the left).
  

• Over the course of the week, post two more key media issues and debates stories, with weblinks, summaries and an image for each one.

• Get on with it! You may well encounter a few problems to start with but be persistent. Speak to me asap if you need any help. There will be credits for the best blogs!

Independent Study - Setting Up

For 13C students...

Here is the full list of the tasks that need to be completed by next lesson (18-10-05):

TASK ONE
(This first section was last week's homework - please check that you have done it all)

• Set up your blog and email me the address

• Post a first entry that includes the working title of your essay

• This should also contain a fairly succinct overview/summary of your planned investigation

• Upload an image that is relevant for your study (to demonstrate you've mastered Blogger)

• Post five useful internet links that you have discovered through your research

• Outline each separate link with a one or two sentence summary

TASK TWO
(This second section is the latest homework)

• Make any changes or improvements based on my first comments posted about your blog so far

• Visit all the 13C blogs listed in the links section to the left of this message

• Identify the five that are most clearly linked to your own study

• For each one of these, post a comment to include three instances of positive feedback for each criticism

• Make seven separate new posts on your blog - one for each of the Key Concepts (MIGRAIN)

• Explain in these posts how each Key Concept is linked to your text/topic

• Make one final post that lists the student blogs you have commented on with a hyperlink to each comment. (Just copy each url from the address bar on your browser and paste them into the post)

There will be credits for the best work, as usual.

Do let me know if you are having any problems.

And don't forget - this is research towards your exam coursework. It's worth 40% of this year so it has to be good!! Put in the effort now and writing the thing is guaranteed to be easier.

Next week - Wider Contexts!