13C Homework, due Wed 5/12

1. Complete your LR in the comments section of your essay posting.

2. Write summaries of the following articles on your MEST 3 blog (access using the MM login)...

In the age of media 2.0 - six questions about media and participation

Participation debates - media and democracy

...and be prepared to contribute to a seminar discussion.

3. Also post up your media story, with a summary and your own view on it - should be the Leveson Inquiry.

And another research resource!

I hope now you are really starting to access some high quality academic research material. Simply using the Media Magazine archive and mediaedu will provide plenty to work on, but I've stumbled across another online Media journal that you may wish to search. It's called eJumpCut and has articles on contemporary media texts in relation to class, race and gender dating back to 1974. Click on the archive and search for the key terms that link to your Critical Investigation. I'm sure you'll find something.

One other word of advice: be selective when making notes and pulling out quotes. If you copy 500 words over from a journal article then it will be pretty useless when it comes to writing the essay unless you've gone through it with a highlighter or just picked out the sentence that supports your argument.

More research opportunities!

Don't forget we have a paid subscription to mediaedu - an excellent online collection of Media resources that is useful for both coursework and exam. It covers all the exam boards and both GCSE and A Level so look for what is relevant for you. Details:

http://media.edusites.co.uk/
Username: greenford
P/W: greenfordedu

Good luck!

Academic journal research link

Your first task today is to make sure your 1,500 words of notes and quotes are up on your blog. Secondly, I want you to search for academic journal articles that link to your Critical Investigation. If you use the following link to Google Scholar...

http://scholar.google.co.uk/schhp?inst=9462349394008405749

... and search as normal, you should find some articles that have a link on the right hand side of the screen. Anything that says 'Full text from IoE' I should be able to get hold of for your research. Let me know!

13A homework - 26/11/12

I enjoyed our lesson today on verisimilitude and mediation. There were many good points made and I like the way our ideas are joining up whether we're talking about the riots, hegemony, Kidulthood or even Reece's favourite... Up The Junction (1968).

The homework, as you know, is to answer the four questions on your blog having watched the opening scene of Kidulthood. The questions:


What representation of young people in London do we see in the opening of Kidulthood? 

Is it a fair representation?

Is it a good example of verisimilitude (think of realism or being true-to-life)? 

Has a process of mediation taken place with the filmmakers concentrating on one aspect of youth culture? 

Due: next Monday - make sure it's on your blog before the lesson

13A MEST4 CIs/LPs

Some superb ideas - they are going to be brilliant...

13A MEST4 CIs/LPs

Read through - share/borrow research ideas from each other; and consider teaming up for a collaborative linked production if you're working on a similar topic.

Web 2.0: Participation or Hegemony?

13A: 

1. Read the following article...

Web 2.0: Participation or Hegemony? (login details here)

Summarise on your blog for Wed  28/11.

2. Write 300-500 words answering the following question discussed in class, using ideas from the article you've read:

Developments in new/digital media mean that audiences can now have access to a greater variety of views and values.  To what extent are audiences empowered by these developments?

13C Critical Investigation - homework

Having met most of you one-to-one, it looks like we're making solid progress on our notes and quotes documents for the Critical Investigation. We now need to up the rate of progress so your homework this week is as follows:

Make sure your notes and quotes document is a minimum of 1,500 words by next Tuesday 27 November.

We have now got access to an excellent resource you can use for your research - the English and Media Magazine and archive:

http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/index.html

You will need to log-in to our school account:

Username: mediamagazine10

Password: ly957mp

As ever, if you have any questions let me know.

Mr Halsey

Case study: Young people in London (19/11/12)

For today's lesson, you need to choose three cuttings from the press coverage of the London riots and analyse them on your blog. Make sure you publish the JPEG of the cutting to go with it. Make sure you cover the following:

• What kind of representation of young Londoners can you find?
• Can you link this to any media theory (e.g. Alvarado)?
• How could you refer to this text in an exam answer?

The jpegs are available on the school's VLE - go to Departments > Media Studies > Shared documents 

When you have analysed three cuttings, use your notes and examples to answer the following question:

A negative representation is better than no representation at all. Discuss this statement with reference to the group or place you have studied.

This was an actual question from the A2 exam a couple of years ago and is useful to make sure our notes are relevant to a representation essay.

Finish this question for homework and aim for an extended response (500+ words).

Critical investigation peer assessment

Pair up with the person next to you on the blog and talk each other through your critical investigation so far. You need to cover:

• Your title and angle/hypothesis
• The texts you have looked at (or plan to look at)
• The academic research you have looked at (or plan to look at) and any quotes collected so far
• Any articles, websites or other resources you will look at as part of your investigation
• Your linked practical production

When you have discussed both critical investigations, you need to swap computers so you are writing directly on to your partner's blog. Create a new post and comment on their work so far using the usual Greenford system:

• WWW - what impressed you
• EBI - what needs more work or isn't currently clear
• LR - ask a question that your partner needs to respond to

You then swap back and complete the learner response before continuing your research.

AS revision class - Monday 12 November

Today's AS revision class is looking at Section B - the case study. You'll need to revise or collect resources from last year (other students may be willing to help you with this) and ultimately you NEED to be able to answer the following questions:

• How much does the content of the texts change across different technologies?
• How important is the print media in your topic?
• How important is the role of the internet in the production and reception of your product?
• How far does the topic you have studied rely on broadcast or other moving image platforms?
• What are the likely future developments in your topic? Think about both producers and audiences.

This will equip you with the knowledge to answer exam questions such as the following:

Do the institutions in your case study have an equal presence on each media platform?

In your answer you should:

• provide a brief outline of your case study
• evaluate how and why media products from your case study have more of a presence on some platforms than others
• support your answer with reference to a range of examples from three media platforms. (32 marks)

Case study: Young people in London

As you know, our case study is the representation of young people in London.

Today's task:

Look through the newspaper cuttings from the week of the London riots in summer 2011. Make notes on the texts that you could refer to in the exam should you choose a question on representation. The following questions may help:

1. What kind of representations of young Londoners can you find?
2. Can you link them to any media theory?
3. How might you use these texts in an exam answer?

Think about how you could use these texts or notes to answer an example question such as the following:

A negative representation is better than no representation at all. Discuss this statement with reference to the group or place you have studied.

This was an actual question from the A2 exam a couple of years ago and is useful to make sure our notes are relevant to a representation essay.