Med 5 Blog Task 10

TASK TEN
Book Research

Although you've been doing some excellent internet research, it's crucial if you want a top grade (i.e. an A or B) to include a wide range of book research as part of your study too. The internet has only been around as for a decade or so and absolutely anyone can publish on the web. This means that when it comes to academic investigations books still carry much more authority.

You'll need at least a dozen decent book references in your bibliography. By 'decent' we mean relevant academic works or textbooks that you actually quote or refer to in the main body of your essay. It won't be enough just to copy out a long list of related books - you have to have read at least part of each one and identified useful material that you can use from them. Use the contents page and index in each book to help you select that nugget of information that could be helpful.

Please carry out the following by the time you return after half term (31-10-06)...

• This week you must visit the school library which, quite frankly, has the best range of media books for miles (better than Ealing libraries for sure). As everyone in Year 13 is doing this task (nearly forty of you) it would be a bit selfish to borrow the books from the library because it stops anyone else from using them. Therefore, until Friday (20-10) please treat all media-related books as reference books and don't take them out. (But if you want to borrow them over the holiday then please do so from the last day before it starts).
  

• Check through all the media- and film-related books. Then photocopy some of the relevant pages and highlight and annotate the essential details you expect to include. Or you can make notes/copy out quotes that might be relevant for your essay

• Post up at least TEN books you've started researching in a posting entitled: 'Bibliography: Books'. For each one write a brief summary about how it will be useful - be specific! Make sure you include all the required information in the correct way (and this includes keeping a record of page references)...

Author Surname, Author First Name (year of publication): Title. Place of Publication: Publisher.
eg...Craig, Steve (1992) : Men, Masculinity and the Media. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

If you can add more now then please do - you'll have to in the future.

During the holiday it's also advisable to go to Ealing libraries (Greenford, Ealing Broadway, etc.) to see what they've got. Also, you could visit larger bookshops (e.g. Waterstones in Ealing, Borders in Brent Cross) and see what they have on offer.

Make sure that you bring all the photocopied/highlighted/annotated research to the lesson on the deadline day!

Blog Buddies

Here's the full listing of all the Blog Buddies decided last week. For some of you it was love at first sight; for others, one or both of you were playing hard to get. Most of you now have your Task 9 Proposals posted up on your blogs but if you haven't then you must get this done before Monday 15-10. Here are the beautiful new relationships (buddies from the other class in brackets)...

13C ('C' Groups)

• Ajay (Raspreet) + Pip (Puja)

• Navdeep (Sherish) + Avinash (Harveen)

• Alice (Harpreet) + Kelly (Harpreet)

• Nathan (Rajan) + Ashley (Mo)

• Alliaya (Balinder) + Shreena (Balinder)

• Priya (Bushara) + Sam (Furzana) + Ruby (Prascilla)

• Heena (Dinveer) + Kiranjit (Rishi)

• Kiran (Sawan) + Anika (Sawan) + Kalpan (Kavita)

• Jatinder (Ramneet) + Jaskeerat (Sonal)

13D ('D' Groups)

• Harpreet (Alice, Kelly) + Furzana (Sam)

• Harveen (Avinash) + Balinder (Shreena, Alliaya)

• Sonal (Jaskeerat) + Prascilla (Ruby)

• Dinveer (Heena) + Rishi (Kiranjit)

• Ramneet (Jatinder) + Mo (Ashley)

• Sherish (Navdeep) + Bushara (Priya)

• Raspreet (Ajay) + Puja (Pip)

• Rajan (Nathan) + Kavita (Kalpan)

• Sawan (Kiran) + Gurveer

Most of you now each belong to two different pairings (i.e. you have two different Blog Buddies: one from your class; one from the other class) and two different groups (which we'll call Blog Buddy Groups: one for where you are in the 'C' group listing; the other for where you are in the 'D' group listing). Your pairings are the same whichever way you look at it but the groups are usually different (except for those highlighted in blue) because your Blog Buddy from the other class will have selected a different Blog Buddy from their class to the one that your Blog Buddy from your class selected from the other class. (I think!?)

Confused? Don't worry about it! It just means that this process has thrown up some interesting combinations whereby you have identified a range of different links between your Med 5 studies. There will be various paired and group activities to come where you'll be supporting each other, collaborating on projects and critiquing each other's work, so what you should ensure is that you regularly check back on the progress of your Blog Buddies' and your Blog Buddy Groups' online work so that you're familiar with what they're doing for when the tasks are set. And, obviously, by doing this you're bound to get lots of ideas about how to progress with your own study. Feel free, of course, to start communicating with each other and sharing ideas before you're set any formal tasks...a bit of self-directed collaboration won't go amiss!!

Remember - ultimately, we're all Team GHS...we're working together to get the best results for all of us, not in petty competition with individuals when there are 10,000 other A2 Media students out there!

Med 5 Blog Task 9

TASK NINE
Find Your 'Blog Buddies'

You should know a lot about each other's blogs by now - through doing the comments task and through checking out each other's links in Task 7. Now you need to find the two blogs that share most in common with your own in terms of the texts/topics/issues/debates being studied.

The first needs to be from your class; the second needs to be from the other class, so you'll each have two 'Blog Buddies' by the end of this process.

When you've decided which ones are suitable you need to contact the other bloggers by leaving a comment on their most recent post explaining why you think you're similar. Think of it like a coursework dating game where your job is to pull the right blogger. Don't be shy or you'll get left out! Make the first move!

If you agree with each other then you need to put together a detailed joint proposal explaining why you should be 'Blog Buddies'. This must be posted up on both your blogs and should include the following...

• A short summary of each study

• Areas of overlap between each study (texts, topics, issues, debates)

• What you've each learned from looking at each other's study that might be useful

And remember, if you're not quick about it your ideal Blog Buddy will be snatched from you by someone else and you'll be left with one that may not be as good!

Med 5 Blog Task 8

TASK EIGHT
Self-Directed Research: Report

Some of you are going above and beyond the call of duty in your quest to create a great research blog that will really help you construct an excellent Independent Study. It's not enough simply to carry out the Tasks set each week - some of this is supposed to be 'independent' after all - so those of you who are adding posts when you've not even been told to do so are really entering into the right spirit of things. It's supposed to be on a topic you enjoy so it shouldn't be too painful.

We call this 'Self-Directed Research' and that's what we need to see more evidence of - stuff you find out for yourselves, either by using the del.ici.ous links or through your own searches.

Start a new post called 'Self-Directed Research' and provide a list with links of everything you've done in this area. And then do some more!

Med 5 Blog Task 7

TASK SEVEN
Keywords x10 (again!)

Using the Media Studies Essential Word Dictionary that everyone now has you need to identify TEN MORE keywords, ideas, theories or theorists that are relevant for your study. For each one, provide a definition of the term and then explain how it is useful or can be linked to your study.

If in doubt take a look at other people's blogs to see which key terms they find helpful.