More resources! A Level Media Factsheets

We now have access to over 130 A Level Media Studies Factsheets that we have subscribed to - brilliant for both critical investigations and the exam topic.

You'll find our Media Factsheet archive here with a helpful guide as the first link.

Looking over them, the following will be useful for the exam:

050 'We-Media' and Democracy

053 Journalism in the New Media Age: The effect of online technology

071 Citizen Journalism: from Producer to Audience

076 News Values

088 The Impact of New Media on Politics

092 Globalisation and the Media

104 Audiences in the Digital Age

131 Social Media and the News Agenda

134 Press, Prominence and Persuasion – A Case Study in News and Social Media

There are plenty for you to look through for your Critical Investigation too - horror film, gender, post-9/11 Hollywood and more. One that all of you could use:

060 How to Write Academic Essays

Remember: these resources are all for you - the more you use them, the better you will do!

Critical investigation: academic writing

Having read quite a few opening paragraphs, I think some of us could use a little bit of help with formal academic writing.

This is a very different skill to other forms of written expression and will take time to master. Developing a strong, objective, critical style in Year 13 will prove invaluable when you go to university next year.

This brief powerpoint on academic writing will give you some useful tips as you write your Critical Investigation first drafts:



Good luck with your first drafts!

Critical Investigation Task #7

Critical Investigation - First Draft

The following needs to be completed by...

• Wednesday 6 January 2016

• Complete the first draft of your Critical Investigation.


• It must be a word processed 2,000 word essay (PLUS quotes - with a precise word count included at the end).


• Also, include correctly set out references, quotes and footnotes. Footnotes should take the following form - Author Surname, Author First Name Initial (Year of Publication), Page Number(s). e.g...Lacey, N. (2009). p. 122. They should not appear all together at the end of the essay but at the foot of the page where they appear.


• Where the next reference is from the same text and the same page use ibid. (in italics). This means 'in the same place' in Latin. If it's from the same text but a different page you include the new page reference too. e.g. ibid. p23.


• A full bibliography must be submitted at the end of the essay (this is NOT included in your word count). (See Critical Investigation Task #2 for help with this). Books should be listed in alphabetical order, by author's surname. If you're using the referencing system in Microsoft Word then all this will be done for you. Alternatively, you can use BibMe to help you do this correctly, using the APA format for books. e.g. Lacey, N. (2009). Image and Representation (2nd ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Here's a good example of a bibliography.


• Two copies are necessary. Hand in a hard copy (on paper) on the deadline day, and this needs to have 1.5 line spacing. Also paste it up (including footnotes and biblography) on your blog.

If you're in any doubt about what this all should look like then please check out some of the finished grade 'A' and 'B' essays from: (2015) (2014), (2013), (2012).

They will be helpful when thinking about how to write your essay (what to include in the introduction and conclusion, how to structure the work, how to set out quotes, the correct tone, and how much research to include - they each contain between 20 and 40 footnotes - you should aim for at least 30.)

But please ensure that all writing is done in your own words. Plagiarism is a very serious business and anyone found simply copying from other sources (either students or books/websites) will be in serious trouble. And you will be found out if you do! We're not stupid - we know how you write, and we know very well what was in the previous students' work (and there are numerous online checkers, or simply Google, that we can feed your work into to see if it has been plagiarised). 

Students guilty of plagiarism will be placed before the Greenford Plagiarism Panel made up of three senior teachers in the school - and students may be asked to leave the school.

This is the big one so no excuses and good luck!

NDM News: index

We have now completed our New and Digital Media unit focusing on the news industry. You now need to create an index to organise your revision for the upcoming assessment. 


January assessment

You will have a MEST3 Section B assessment in your first double lesson after Christmas. This will be an excellent opportunity to show the progress we are making towards our Media target grade and also develop the skills needed for the exam in June. You have a huge amount more to write about compared to the baseline assessment in September so we are expecting significant progress.

You need to revise everything you have covered in the Autumn term for New/Digital Media - including all of your weekly NDM stories.

Due: first Monday back

NDM News index

In today's lesson you need to create an index of all of your work this term for New/Digital Media and News. 

This process is an excellent start to your revision for the assessment and will also highlight if you've missed anything through absence or trips. Your index should include the following:

1) Institution: the impact of Google on the newspaper industry
2) Audience and Institution: how news consumption has changed
3) The future of newspapers: Build The Wall analysis
4) The decline of newspapers: the effect of online technology
5) Citizen journalism: Media Magazine article and questions
6) News Values: theory and updating them for digital media landcape
7) Marxism & Pluralism: Media Magazine article and questions
8) Media Conference: notes from speakers
9) Marxism and Pluralism: views and values question
10) NDM Section B essay on blog - consumption and production question
11) Marxism and Pluralism: Alain de Botton on the news - lecture and questions
12) Globalisation: questions and blog task
13) Globalisation: Media Magazine - Google Glass, techno-panics and data mining
14) News on the Tweet report and questions
15) Audience and Institution article and questions
16) Institution case study: NDM and News Corporation

For your index, the text should link to YOUR corresponding blogpost so you can access your work on each aspect of the case study quickly and easily. This also means you if you have missed anything you can catch up with the work and notes and won't underperform in the assessment due to gaps in your knowledge.


NDM story index

You also need to update your separate index of ALL of your NDM stories from the Autumn term. This homework was originally set on Friday 11 September which means you should have a minimum of 30 stories in your index this week. 

Your index should have the story number (starting with your first story back in September as #1), the headline and a link to your blog post for that story.

If you want to see an example of a top quality index, check out this blog post from one of our past students - you need this level of detail in your story index too. (Incidentally, she went on to a get an A in Media - and you can see why).


Important: your two exam indexes need to be completed during the lesson before working on the News Corp case study.

NDM institution case study: News Corporation

News Corp is one of the world's largest media conglomerates.  

In the UK (under two subsidiary companies, News International and BSKYB), its news interests include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun & The Sun on Sunday (plus their online versions) in addition to Sky News & Sky Sports News.

News Corp is a cross-platform, vertically integrated multi-media company.

Some of the ideas we have discussed in class regarding the impact of new and digital media on News Corp include:

• Online subscriptions/paywalls
• Price promotions for newspapers
• Impact on institution content and its appeal
• Paid subscriptions for TV content
• Quality of journalism
• User generated content
• Social media/online news providers (Huff Post, Ampp3d etc.)

Tasks

1) Research News Corporation’s response to the growth of new and digital media by listing each of the institution’s brands (Sky News, Times etc.) Have any closed, changed or been in the news in the last 10 years for any reason?

2) Develop examples of the impact that new and digital media has had on News Corp’s brands (paywalls, readership figures, audience share etc.)

3) Use what you have found out about News Corp to answer the following question:

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

Complete for homework if you don't finish it in the double lesson - due for first lesson back after Christmas (the day of your next assessment).

NDM: The key concepts of audience and institution

Much of our work for our NDM case study on the news industry has focused on audience and institution.

Media Magazine 52 has a good feature on the changing relationship between audiences and institutions in the digital age. Today you need to go to our Media Magazine archive, click on MM52 and scroll to page 9. Read the article and complete the following tasks:

1) What was the relationship between audience and institution in the pre-digital age?

2) The article gives a lot of examples of major media institutions. Choose three examples from the article and summarise what the writer is saying about each of them.

3) The article ends with a section on the digital age. Summarise this section in 50 words.

4) How do YOU see the relationship between audience and institution in the future? Will audiences gain increasing power or will the major global media institutions hold sway?

Complete for homework if you don't manage to finish this in the lesson - due Monday.

Critical Investigation Task #6

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. Remember, one of the key media debates that you should look to cover - New Media and Digital Technology - is constantly changing and you're already finding stories for that topic weekly for the exam too!

Remember, key places to keep track of this are...

• A Level Media Studies subscription sites - we have paid for you to have free access to Media Magazine (our online pdf archive is here), and MediaEdu (spend time, in particular, looking at the theory, new media and key concepts resources)...both are excellent and contain information pitched for Media students and teachers. Log in details for Media Edu are here.
• 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. It 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 2015, from 2014, from 2013, from 2012, from 2011, and from 2010: 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 can only 'borrow' a key quote from another person's essay if you go and research the source yourself and make it part of your bibliography. Remember: it is incredibly easy to tell when an essay takes a sentence or paragraph from another writer and Greenford High School has a plagiarism committee made up of senior teachers in the school to deal with cases of deliberate cheating.

Over the holiday and into January, continue with your internet research, using the Google Search Tips you've been shown and all the fantastic online resources outlined above.

Task: Post up AT LEAST 20 additional quotes, with full article titles (and hyperlinked web addresses) added to your bibliography along a brief explanation about which section of your essay plan it could fit into. 

Due: January.

NDM case study: News on the Tweet

News on the Tweet is a report from Newsworks (a marketing organisation representing newspapers) and Twitter designed to show the positive impact new and digital media can have on traditional media.

Read the report and answer the questions on your blog. Include the News on the Tweet infographic above in your blogpost.

1. Why are respected news brands good news for Twitter?
2. Why in turn is Twitter good for respected news brands?
3. The report suggests that old and new media “are not, in fact, in direct competition, but often work extremely well together to enhance both the media eco-system and the consumer experience”. What evidence do they provide to support this idea? Do you agree with it?
4. On page 24/25 of the report, the focus turns to 'gossip' or 'banter'. What example tweets from journalists are used to illustrate this? 
5. Do you think the increasing amount of 'gossip' or 'banter' is harming the reputation of news and journalists?
6. What does the report say about trust in Twitter and journalists (look at pages 34-39)?
7. Finally, do you think new and digital media developments such as Twitter have had a positive or negative impact on traditional newspapers?

Finish for homework if you don't get it finished in the lesson - due on Friday.

13C exam work: are you up-to-date?

13C: you should now have an email from me with feedback for your NDM essay on consumption and production. 

You need to complete your learner response on that today and finish for homework. In total, you need to make sure you have the following on your blog for Monday morning:

1. NDM essay: learner response completed
2. NDM weekly news stories: we're up to a total of 24 stories (with at least one per week now focusing on something to do with new and digital media and journalism/news)
3. Globalisation: today's work reading the MM47 Google Glass feature and answering the questions
4. Globalisation: last week's questions on globalisation and news (cultural imperialism etc.)
5. Alain de Botton: lecture summary and questions

Important: make sure all of this is on your blog for checking Monday morning.

Globalisation and the media: wider issues

We have already explored globalisation with relation to news, cultural imperialism and the impact on audiences and institutions.

Now we need to explore some of the wider issues linked to globalisation and media - including privacy, 'big data', and techno-panics. These are crucial issues that are likely to come up in Section A of your MEST3 exam - as well as being relevant to your case studies for Section B.

Go to our Media Magazine archive and click on MM47 - the case study issue. You need to find page 31 and the Google Glass feature: a case study in Globalisation.

Read the article and answer the following questions:

1) Why was Google Glass controversial?

2) What are the positive elements to Globalisation that the article highlights?

3) What are potential negatives to Globalisation?

4) What is a techno-panic? How does it link to moral panics?

5) What is your opinion on the privacy debate and major corporations being able to access large quantities of personal data?

Finish for homework if you don't complete it during the lesson - due next week.

Critical Investigation Task #5

Write the introduction to your Critical Investigation essay.

This should clearly introduce your primary text, the media issue or debate you are addressing and what angle your essay will use to approach the question. It needs to engage the reader, pose some questions and give a clear indication of what direction the essay will take. The word count will vary but you want to aim for around 200-250 words.

You may find this brief Powerpoint guide to academic writing useful in approaching this task and can certainly refer to it for the rest of your first draft over Christmas.

This is a strong example of an opening paragraph from a previous year:

Do recent Hollywood films such as the Wolf of Wall Street suggest that audiences are still being influenced by negative gender stereotypes?

Despite the gains made by feminism over the last 30 years, Hollywood films still offer too many negative gender stereotypes. This is particularly clear in Martin Scorsese’s highly successful biopic of Jordan Belfort, The Wolf of Wall Street (2012). In Scorsese’s film, women are presented as sex objects, prostitutes or housewives and there for the pleasure of the male characters (and arguably male audience). It is evident that negative gender stereotypes are still present in modern Hollywood films and it is hard to argue that audiences are not influenced by these representations. We can also see this in historical, successful Hollywood films such as Scarface, the original Wall Street and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Despite the fact that the gender gap between males and females has started to close – more so recently with respected activists such as Emma Watson speaking out publicly on behalf of the UN gender campaign – negative gender stereotypes in film show that the gap is still an issue in society. Hollywood films that are based around the idea of 'power' often portray negative stereotypes of women. The idea of power and riches appeals to a mass audience as Richard Havis explores in an interview with Scorsese about The Wolf Of Wall Street: "Look at young people and what the American Dream means to them. It's all about accumulating more, and doing what is best for you, in spite of how it affects anyone else.”  This essay will explore the negative gender stereotypes in Hollywood productions and the influence such films have on the audience.

Your introductory paragraph needs to be approved by your teacher along with your essay plan before you write your first draft. Due: Wednesday 9 December.