Critical Investigation: Deadline

For both 13A and 13C...

You will be each be receiving a crucial one-to-one coursework tutorial during January 2013. However, you must have completed all the December blog tasks to be eligible for this so these need to be done by the date we return after Christmas (Monday 07-01-13). 

A reminder of the December tasks:

• Task 1: TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
• Task 2: ACADEMIC RESEARCH AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Task 3: HISTORICAL TEXT ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH
• Task 4: UP-TO-THE-MINUTE ADDITIONAL WEB RESEARCH
• Task 5: ESSAY PLAN
• Task 6: INTRODUCTION & FIRST/SECOND PARAGRAPHS

Finally, the deadline for the completed first draft of the Critical Investigation is...

• Wednesday 30th January '13 (13C)
• Thursday 31st January '13 (13A)

This means that if you have a tutorial towards the end of the January exam period you will only have a few days to get all 2000 words done (with footnotes and a full bibliography for it to be accepted) so the advice would be to get in early for a tutorial so you can start the essay as soon as possible

Y13 Critical Investigation: December task #6

INTRODUCTION & FIRST/SECOND PARAGRAPHS

Type out the full title of your Critical Investigation, highlighting what you consider to be the keywords in a different colour.

Then write out the first/second paragraphs and post them on your blog. This is usually the hardest part in any essay (along with the last one!) Obviously, it must be a clear introduction that makes reference to the keywords in the title and outlines the various areas that you will be exploring in the course of the essay. It may introduce a hypothesis (something that you will seek to test/prove during the next 2000 words). For example, you may be arguing that your contemporary textual examples demonstrate a change in the representation of a particular social group. It's a bit like a debate in this sense - you are putting forward a proposition and making points that will back it up (although you will also be given credit here for considering both sides of the argument too).

Then, write the next paragraph and post it on your blog. Remember that you're looking to include at least one quote/reference per paragraph and often considerably more. It may help to look at some of the best essays from this year, from 2011, from 2010, from 2009, from 2008, from 2007, and from 2006 (all top grades, although all those from 2009 and earlier are from a different specification, don't forget) to get an idea of the style and format required. But take care - plagiarism will always be found out so don't even consider copying from others...best to look on a day when you won't be writing as other people's work can sometimes be a bit disabling.

Good luck with everything here - yes, you're going to be very busy but you want to get the top grades and get into top universities so this is what's required!

If anyone needs help over the holiday then please email us and we'll try to get back to you asap.

Y13 Critical Investigation: December task #5

ESSAY PLAN

Produce a detailed essay plan for your independent study, covering everything that you hope to include in your submission. Break your ideas and research down into sections and paragraphs with headings, summaries and a list of references that you hope to include at each step. You can see some decent ones from previous years by clicking on Sonam or Jaleesa or Manjoth or Jatinder or Avneet or Madenah.

Make sure that you label each point you hope to include by linking it to Key Concepts (MIGRAIN) and Wider Contexts(SHEP). (You could just include the initial letter in brackets). This way you can see whether you have covered everything that you need to in an even way. Also, ensure that you think about where you will include theories/theorists, issues/debates and media keywords. (Keep the 'Essential Word Dictionary' handy).

This will make writing your essay so much easier. However, it is a big task as it requires you to read through all your research very carefully and browse through each other's blogs as there may be some overlapping areas of research you could share with each other. If you can't remember who's doing what then look at the lists of CIs/LPs for both classes.

You may want to produce this plan as a straightforward series of bullet points or as a more complex mindmap. If it's the latter you may have to do it by hand and then scan it in before posting it up on your blog. Or you may want to try out an online mind-mapping tool like bubbl.us.

13C Cover Work 19/12/12

Stay in DF07/DF06. Mr Babu will register/supervise you.

Read the following four articles that all appeared in the last few days. Summarise the key points on your blogs (in your own words) and write a paragraph after each one outlining your view on the story...

The Daily closes shop: why the news app was doomed from thestart: I would have loved to see it work, but Rupert Murdoch's iPad-only venture neglected key lessons of subscription news

Print in 2013: Newspapers cut costs and seek tablets ofsalvation: Alexander Lebedev needs an investor, there's a new boss at Pearson, and the regional press faces further advertising woe

BBC and ITV apologise to Lord McAlpine for sex abuseallegations: Lawyers for broadcasters express remorse and withdraw allegations after already agreeing to pay damages

Twitter active users pass 200 million: Number of Twitterati has shot up from 140 million in May, but majority of 500 million registered users prefer not to tweet

Complete this for homework, please.

Also, make sure you've completed all your homework from last week: 

• a media story you've found (posted on your blog); 
• last week's cover work; 
• copy the link to every one of the NewsCorp presentations to your blog (there will be about 8/9 of them); for each one write 3-5  bullet points on what you've learned from it.

Over the Xmas holiday, your priorities are to work on your Critical Investigations and (for those re-sitting) to revise, practice and revise for your MEST1 exam.

But please make sure you read MediaGuardian on a daily basis and post up at least one story/week - so there need to be TWO additional stories on your blog on our first lesson back, summarised in your own words, with your opinion on them.

I'll check all of this in tutorials on the first lesson back in 2013!

Y13 Critical Investigation: December task #4

Up-to-the-minute additional web research


Although books carry more authority, the internet is an excellent resource and you should be searching regularly to identify additional ideas and references related to your Critical Investigation.

In particular, you will find up-to-the-minute, current information and opinion about your topic and this always scores highly with the examiners so it's important to continue online research all the way through until you hand in your final essay. A crucial platform that you really ought to cover - New Media and Digital Technology is always changing, for instance. Key places to keep track of this are...

• A Level Media Studies subscription sites - we have paid for you to have free access to both the MediaMagazine (search the archive or browse through past copies), and MediaEdu (spend time, in particular, looking at the theory, new media and key concepts resources)...both are excellent and contain information pitched just right at your level of understanding. Passwords are here: MediaEdu and MediaMagazine. 
• broadsheet newspaper sites, especially MediaGuardian (it's essential you get into the habit of reading this every week, preferably on a Monday), and the Independent Media;
• media education sites - the biggest and best is MCS; but there's also Media Literacy, Film Education, Screen Online...
• film review sites like IMDb (use the 'external reviews' link on the sidebar whenever you're on a chosen film) and Rotten Tomatoes;
• film magazines online like Sight & Sound, GuardianFilm, Empire, and Senses of Cinema;
• Wikipedia, naturally: a useful starting point for any web search, but make sure you avoid referencing this directly...it makes you look like a beginner. Provides, however, a good overview and, essentially, a list of 'References' and 'External Links' at the end of each entry;
• the best student essays from 2012, from 2011, from 2010, from 2009, from 2008, and from 2007: in particular, look at their quotes (usually highlighted by a footnote number) and bibliographies (at the end of each essay) as they will have often identified some of the best quotes for your topic. But, as ever, be wary of the temptation to plagiarise - you should only 'borrow' a few quotes from each person's essay! It is incredibly easy to tell when an essay takes a sentence or paragraph from another writer.

Over the holiday, continue with your internet research, using the Google Search Tips you've been shown to help you refine your searches and, of course, the Google academic search engine: Google Scholar.

Post up AT LEAST 20 additional quotes, with full article titles (and hyperlinked web addresses) and a brief explanation about each one saying how it's linked to your study.

13A Tasks 13/12/12

Stay in the DF06/7: Mr Babu will register/supervise you throughout p3/4. DO NOT LEAVE EARLY or you will stay late after school tomorrow!

Please start working on the following two Critical Investigation tasks, to be completed (for homework) by next Thursday (20/12)...

• Y13 Critical Investigation: December task #2

• Y13 Critical Investigation: December task #3

Failure to meet this deadline will mean you will have to come in to school on Friday 21/12 when everyone else has the day off!

Don't forget that Y13 Critical Investigation: December task #1 was due today. I will check this in tutorials p6 tomorrow.

Y13 Critical Investigation: December task #3

Historical text analysis and 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' we mean anything pre-2000 but the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s or even 80s 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 and the issue you are investigating 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. Answer the following questions:

• How is it similar/different to your main text?
• How does this show how the genre/society/issue has changed?

Through this you will become aware of developments in the genre you are researching. This task is designed to make sure you have a range of texts to refer to in your critical investigation essay (you'll need at least five including your main text and the historical text you analyse in this task). Remember: you should be able to link them to the wider contexts that were/are 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 an original copy of the text it's not the end of the world - you will be stuck doing secondary research. Just make sure you do plenty of it and find out information from a few different sources.

As ever, list your historical text(s), research, textual analysis and links/bibliography in a detailed blog post.

Due: Tasks 1-3 are due BEFORE the Christmas holidays

13C Cover Work 12/12/12

Stay in DF07/DF06. Mr Babu will register/supervise you.

Read the following four articles that all appeared in the last few days. Summarise the key points on your blogs (in your own words) and write a paragraph after each one outlining your view on the story...

News Corp's publishing arm to focus on losses at Times and Sunday Times: More integration of titles difficult under terms that Rupert Murdoch agreed for Times Newspapers in 1981

Sunday Times's circulation falls below 900,000 for the first time: Circulation at News International's newspaper down by just under 1% as all Sunday titles record a drop in sales

UK newspaper advertising facing bleak forecast for 2013: National titles to record 9% decline with display revenue falling below £1bn for the first time

The ups, downs and ups of BBC News online: It's 15 years since the BBC News website launched. At the time, in 1997, there were fewer than eight million people online in the UK, a figure which has mushroomed to more than 50 million today

Complete this for homework, please.

Also, make sure you've completed all your homework from last week: NewsCorp Research and a media story.

Remember to embed your PowerPoints to your blogs. Go to Google Drive for this (you'll need to sign in with your Gmail/Blogger account): Upload your presentation to Google Drive; Click on the PowerPoint once done; Click 'share' (top right); Change who has access to 'anyone on the internet'; Click 'file' and then copy the 'embed link'; Paste this link in a blog posting, entitled 'NewsCorp Research'

For the assessed presentations you'll be doing on Friday, please try to include some of the information from the articles you've read today - you get more marks in the exam for up-to-date examples.

Y13 Critical Investigation: December task #2

Academic research and bibliography

As you know, a detailed bibliography is crucial for the top grades in the coursework. Please refer to the Essential Reading List which contains titles of 45 of the most important books for the Critical Investigation, most of which are either in the school library or media suite. If you haven't used any of these yet, make sure you take advantage of these excellent resources this week.

Those underlined are the twenty most important but, obviously, not all of the texts on this list will be directly relevant for you...you'll need to spend a fair amount of time searching through them (especially the contents and indexes) to find the key quotes and ideas that will impress the examiners.

You must include references to quite a few of these books if you want an A or B so borrow/buy these books and read them this week or over Christmas. If the book belongs to the Media department, you will have to do your research in class or in DF06 during a free period - the books can't leave school unfortunately.

Task #2 is to pull this information together in an updated blog posting of all your notes and quotes so far, making sure you include the following:

• Author-Year-Title-Place-Publisher info;
• Quotes (+ Page References) from the book that can be linked to your study;
• A short explanation of each one explaining how it is relevant to you.
• Finally, post up on your blog a Complete Bibliography (So Far) to include ALL the books you currently have quotes from. It MUST contain at least TEN different books.

Use this 'Guide to writing bibliographies' to help or try this really useful bibliography creator: 'BibMe'

Media Conference reply slips

URGENT: we need your reply slips and £20 payment for Thursday's Media conference - otherwise it may not be possible to run the trip.

Hand in to Mr Halsey or Mr Bush on TUESDAY.

13A homework: Content analysis blogpost

Write a 500 word blogpost on the opening of Top Boy using your content analysis.

Refer to Gerbner’s cultivation theory and suggest what meanings, ideas and beliefs viewers might form in the opening 10 minutes.

Reminder

You need to be revising for your timed essay on our case study next Monday. Try and include as much as possible from the case study on the representation of young people in London as well as the theory and debates we have covered.

In Friday's lesson, we will also be doing a folder check to find out the best way to file notes for Y13 Media so please bring in your folders and all your notes to the lesson.

13C Homework: NewsCorp Research

1. Research this week's media story and post up a summary/your view on your blog.

2. Exam Question Presentation

NewsCorp. is the world's third-largest media conglomerate.

 

It operates in the UK under two subsidiary companies (News International and BSKYB), and its news interests include The Times, The Sunday Times, and The Sun (and their online versions) in addition to Sky News & Sky Sports News (making it a cross-platform, multi-media company).

Using NewsCorp as an example/case study research (in pairs) and respond to the following question:

                ‘Why and with what success are traditional media institutions adapting to the challenge posed by new/digital media?’

This must be a multimedia PowerPoint presentation addressing the above question and must include relevant examples, theories, issues & debates and wider contexts (SHEP) as applicable.

Please upload the PowerPoint to your blogs.

Include the following in your response:

• ·         Online subscriptions
• ·         Price promotions for newspapers
• ·         Content and its appeal
• ·         Paid subscriptions for TV content
• ·         Audience figures vs. Competition
• ·         Impact of changes on both the audience and the institution

You will be presenting back on Wednesday 12/12.

If you missed the lesson on Friday 7/12 then please complete this individually.

Y13 Critical Investigation: December task #1

Before you know it, you'll be needing to write your Critical Investigation essay - which means we need to step up our preparations to make sure we have everything in place. We have designed a series of tasks to help you do this that you will need to complete over the next month. 

Final Deadline
All the preparatory tasks need to be finished by the time you come back after Christmas: Monday 7 January. You will then have the month of January to plan and write your 2,000 word essay.

TASK #1 TEXTUAL ANALYSIS
TASK #1 DEADLINE: WEDNESDAY 12 DECEMBER

Carry out close textual analyses of at least TWO chosen scenes/extracts/clips from your main text and post it up on your blog. 

The extracts should be able to exemplify some of the key points you wish to make in your Critical Investigation and link with some of the following key areas raised by your text...

Issues and debates 
Representation and stereotyping; Media effects; Reality TV; News Values; Moral Panics; Post 9/11 and the media; Ownership and control; Regulation and censorship; Media technology and the digital revolution – changing technologies in the 21st century; The effect of globalisation on the media.

Theories
Semiotics; Structuralism and post-structuralism; Postmodernism and its critiques; Gender and ethnicity; Marxism and hegemony; Liberal Pluralism; Colonialism and Post-colonialism; Audience theories; Genre theories.

Make sure it is an extract you haven't analysed before and embed the YouTube link in your posting if you can.

Think of each analysis as like a MEST 3 exam analysis but with one text instead of two - so you need to cover MIGRAIN and SHEP and you are advised to watch the extract several times and to make detailed notes before embarking on the write-up, which should be in essay format (NOT in note form). 

Use our Key Concepts Glossary to help you think about terminology to use. You should be including as many of these keywords and ideas as possible in your analysis (where relevant...this won't always be the case). You should also include ideas from the essential Media Keywords A-Z - another fantastic resource you should be reading religiously.

Good luck!

13C MEST4 CIs/LPs

Mr Bush has put all of 13A's Critical Investigation questions and linked production pieces in an online document here. I've now done the same with 13C - available here.

These are brilliant resources for you: there will be areas of overlap on many of the Critical Investigations and I guarantee everyone will be able to take a piece of advice, a link, an idea or some research from another Y13 Media student. This kind of collaboration raises the achievement of everyone in the class - and entirely fits in with the fantastic atmosphere we have in Media here.

Click on the links, start a conversation and add to your research - easy!

AS revision class cancelled

Apologies to Year 13 students - I'm not feeling well today so will have to cancel this afternoon's AS revision session. I will either try to reschedule for later this week or run an extended session next Monday to make up for lost time.

I have marked your papers from last week and there were some excellent answers. However, there was also plenty for us to work on: time management, notetaking, detailed and specific reference to clips etc. I'll get those back to you when I next see you and we'll work from there.

Mr Halsey

13A cover work - Monday 3 December

Firstly, please accept my apologies for not being in - I've been ill all weekend and still don't have much of a voice today. I hate missing lessons, particularly our double lesson for the week, so please make the most of this time. The cover work is to continue what we've been working on in terms of our case study on the representation of young people in London - except this time to apply it to British TV.

I'd like you to watch a couple of 'webisodes' of the EastEnders spin-off E20, which is aimed specifically at a younger audience. You can find the programme website here which has plenty of episodes available to watch. I'd then like you to answer the following questions on a blogpost on your MEST3 exam blog:

1. What representations of young people can be found in E20? This should be an extended answer with textual analysis and examples from what you have watched.
2. Why might producers and audiences be more interested in negative stereotypes of young people?
3. What other examples of representations of young people can you find from British television? Can you think of any positive or unexpected representations of young people?

One other quick reminder: the Media Magazine conference is next week and we need permission slips and money in by Friday. Mr Bush has very kindly agreed to run the trip, the conference will be extremely helpful for both exams and coursework and particularly so if you are planning to go to university next year. 

Mr Halsey