Sunday, December 12, 2010

MEST 4 Xmas Task #3

The following needs to be done by all Year 13s and completed by the day we return after the holiday: 4th January 2010...


HISTORICAL TEXT ANALYSIS & RESEARCH

Research a historical text that you can use to compare with your contemporary one (that is the main focus of your investigation). By 'historical' it is meant anything pre-2000 but the 40s, 50s, 60s or even 70s might be more fruitful because they pre-date many of the important changes that have occurred more recently (such as the gains for women as a result of feminism; or greater equality for ethnic minorities now that we are - arguably - a more inclusive and multi-cultural society; or the ground-breaking developments in new media/digital technology). The purpose here is to be able to demonstrate...
  • how society has changed over the years and how these changes are reflected in different media texts, or - to put it another way...
  • how popular culture reflects the 'spirit of the age' or zeitgeist
Ideally, you will watch at least one film/TV programme/video game/music video from the past, make notes on it and research it in Media/Film Studies textbooks and on the internet. The best option is to watch/play the whole text on DVD/online or otherwise you might be able to see extracts on YouTube.
  • How is it similar/different to your text?
  • How does this show how the genre/society has changed?
A highly recommended text here (if you're focussing on film) is 'The Cinema Book', edited by Pam Cook and Mieke Bernink and available in the school library. If you follow the link here you can read the contents page and index online and this will be useful.

Through this you will become aware of developments in the genre you are researching - look for a range of titles (at least five) that you can refer to in your essay - and you should be able to link them to the wider contexts that were present at the time. It's also worth noting that you will be rewarded for considering your topic across different platforms.

If you can't get hold of the text it's not the end of the world - you are stuck with doing just secondary research instead of this and primary research. Just make sure you do plenty of it.

List your media texts, research, analysis and links/bibliography in a detailed blog post.

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