Media Awards 2019: The Nominations

The nominations are in for the Media Awards 2019!

It's one week until the Media Awards and we've had an incredibly difficult job narrowing down some amazing work to finalise the nominations for 2019. This year, we'll be awarding prizes for last year's GCSE music videos as well as this year's GCSE and A Level coursework. The quality level at both GCSE and A Level is just remarkable and there has been a lot of very good work that hasn't made the cut.

If you haven't been before, the Media Awards is our Oscars-style ceremony where we award trophies for the best Media coursework at GCSE and A Level. It's a major event in the Greenford calendar and tickets have completely sold out for each of the last FIVE years. The details for this year's awards:

Date: Tuesday 26 March
Time: 6pm - 8pm
Tickets: £5

Tickets will go on sale on Tuesday 19 March (with exclusive presale for Media students on Monday 18 March).

Remember - you need to be quick. The event sold out in just four days last year!

A Level nominations

BEST A LEVEL SOUND DESIGN
Aranjit Panesar: Above and Beyond
Ricardo McCalla: No Civilians
Mariam Ahmadyar: Lola

BEST A LEVEL CINEMATOGRAPHY
Shivam Sorathia: Fear
Nickholi Drummond: Truth Be Told
Jagraj Sanghera: Impulsive

BEST A LEVEL PRODUCTION DESIGN
Gurpreet Hakim: High School Teen
Saira Abubacker: Emily
Shareen Rauf: Bookworm

BEST A LEVEL EDITING
Riki Verma: Rock and a Hard Place
Krissah Rolle: The Section
Areej Mehdi: A Sight For Sore Eyes

BEST A LEVEL COMING-OF-AGE DRAMA CONCEPT
Harkiran Dhaliwal
Riki Verma: Rock and a Hard Place
Natasha Bantleman: Deceit

BEST A LEVEL HORROR CONCEPT
Shivam Sorathia: Fear
Krissah Rolle: The Section
Areej Mehdi: A Sight For Sore Eyes


GCSE nominations

BEST GCSE MUSIC VIDEO CONCEPT
Anosha Usman: Scars To Your Beautiful
Tayvon St Louis: My Story
Rio Davis: Play That Funky Music
Kamarl McIntosh-Gordon: Changes 
Mandeep Gruvar: Sing Me To Sleep

BEST GCSE MUSIC VIDEO EDITING
Kyle McLeod: 1-800-277-8255
Daniel Dakoli: Revenge
Lakshana Susinthiran: BB
Hassan Barreh: Silence
Tharshana Manivannan: New Person, Same Old Mistakes

BEST GCSE MUSIC VIDEO PRODUCTION DESIGN
Dalia Kerim: Finders Keepers
Kian Upfold: Can’t Hold Us
Lud Daniel-Abrha: Where Is The Love?
Sajin Miah: Location
Sufyan Aziz: Sun Comes Up

BEST GCSE TV DRAMA CINEMATOGRAPHY
Ayham Shawish: Man on the Run
Silver Bholar-Harford: It’s Time
Taranpreet Dhaliwal: Hybrid
Cerys McNeil: Flashback
Barbara Chrzanowska: Blue Castle

BEST GCSE TV DRAMA ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Meer Rahim: Institutionalised
William Wagon-Horrix: The Strange Case of Professor Noble
Lola Heath: Girl of the Sun
Rhea Vargawal: Lifeless
Savannah Charles: Break the System

BEST GCSE TV DRAMA EDITING
Aishwarya Odedra: A5H
Jenny Ramos Silva:  Machina
Karan Juneja: Control
Mathusan Thevathasan: New Life
Aidan Kapasiawala: Experiment 101

BEST ACTOR 2019
Meer Rahim
Riki Verma
Karan Juneja
Cameron Nanco

BEST ACTRESS 2019
Lola Heath
Aishwarya Odedra
Areej Mehdi
Annya Ranshi

Congratulations to all our nominees and we look forward to seeing you at the Media Awards on Tuesday 26 March!

Revision: CSPs final index

It is a huge achievement to complete all the content for the new specification A Level Media Studies - well done!

We've covered 18 CSPs across nine different types of media in a little over 12 months - that's impressive! 

The task now is to revise and make links between the CSPs, media types, theories and debates we've studied over the whole course. This is what's coming up in the exams:

Media One: Targeted CSPs

Section A: Language & Representations

• Unseen text
• Advertising & Marketing; Music Video

Section B: Industries and Audiences

• Radio; Newspapers; Film Industry

Media Two: In-depth CSPs

• Unseen text
• Television; Magazines; Online, Social & Participatory media; Videogames

Blog task: CSPs final index

We now need to create a final index of all our indexes - one for each of the nine media types. This needs to link to YOUR index for each of these media types and means you can look over all your work for each topic.

1) Advertising & Marketing
2) Music Video
3) Radio
4) Newspapers
5) Film Industry
6) Television
7) Magazines
8) Online, Social and Participatory media
9) Videogames

Note: the index above is in order of where they come up in the exams, not the order we studied them.

You may also want to look over the two introductory units from the start of Year 12:

1) MIGRAIN Introduction to Media
2) Film & TV Language

Take this opportunity to look over your work from the last 18 months and make sure there is nothing incomplete or missing - that could really disadvantage you in the exam. You have your exam lessons this week to get this index done and revise the content - make the most of this time!

Videogames: Final index

We are now at the end of our final unit: Videogames.

You need to complete a final exam blog index to ensure you have completed all the work for our in-depth Videogame CSPs. 

This process is clearly excellent revision for the Media PPEs coming up in the next couple of weeks as well as the summer exams in June. It will highlight if you've missed anything through absence or trips and allow you to catch up if you have fallen behind with anything this half-term. 

Your Videogames index should include the following:

1) Videogames: Women in videogames
2) Videogames: Further feminist theory
3) Learner response: OSP assessment
4) Videogames: Tomb Raider Anniversary
5) Videogames - Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
6) Videogames: Henry Jenkins - fandom and participatory culture
7) Videogames: The Sims FreePlay part 1 - Language & Audience
8) Videogames: The Sims FreePlay part 2 - Industries
9) Videogames: The Sims FreePlay part 3 - Representations

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 PPEs or exams due to gaps in your knowledge.

Full Media PPEs: revise now!

Your Media PPEs are coming up in the next fortnight. Look out for other blogposts with exam content, revision tips and guidance.   

Index due date: Friday 15 March

Radio: Final index

We are now at the end of our final targeted CSPs unit: Radio. This means the content is complete!

You now need to complete a short Radio index to ensure you have completed the three tasks for this unit. 

As ever, this will highlight if you've missed anything through absence or trips and allow you to catch up if you have fallen behind with anything in the last fortnight. 

Your Radio index should include the following three tasks:

1) Radio: Introduction to Radio
2) Radio: The Surgery / Life Hacks
3) Radio: War of the Worlds

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 PPEs or exams due to gaps in your knowledge.

Full Media PPEs: revise now!

Your Media PPEs are coming up in the next fortnight. Look out for other blogposts with exam content, revision tips and guidance.   

Index due date: Friday 15 March

Radio: War of the Worlds (1938)

Our second CSP for radio is the 1938 CBS broadcast of War of the Worlds.

This is a famous broadcast of Orson Welles's radio play - an adaptation of HG Wells's science-fiction novel of the same name. It is a text of historical significance due to a long-running debate over the effect the broadcast had over audiences at the time.

Narrative and background

War of the Worlds, a science-fiction novel by author HG Wells, was first published in 1898. It is a story of alien invasion and war between mankind and an extra-terrestrial race from Mars.

The original 1938 Orson Welles broadcast is available here:

Hybrid genre

Orson Welles was initially reluctant to adapt War of the Worlds, describing it as 'boring'. He was persuaded by the prospect of using recent developments in radio news reporting to create a hybrid-form radio play designed to sound like a real breaking news story. The broadcast begins with a music performance that is increasingly interrupted by breaking news of martians invading New Jersey.


Historical context

In 1938, the world was on edge as Germany mobilised to invade Europe and populations feared gas attacks from another world war. In the weeks leading up to the 1938 broadcast, American radio stations had increasingly cut into scheduled programming to bring news updates from Europe on the chances of war. This meant Welles's use of radio news conventions had more of an impact on listeners who were unaware that it was a fictional radio play.

Media effects theories

The War of the Worlds radio play has become a much-studied text with regards to media effects theories. The initial reported reaction from audiences provided evidence for the Frankfurt School's Hypodermic Needle theory - that suggests people believe whatever they see or hear in the media. However, later studies suggest the audience reaction was exaggerated by the newspaper industry (under threat from radio at the time) and that audiences are more sophisticated consumers of media than first thought.

You can also apply Gerbner's Cultivation Theory, the two-step flow model and Stuart Hall's Reception Theory to Orson Welles's War of the Worlds broadcast.

Radiolab podcast on War of the Worlds

The American podcast Radiolab looked back on the significance of the 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds and later attempts to recreate the effect. It's a brilliant summary of the context and reaction from the audience alongside clips from the broadcast and transcripts from interviews at the time.

War of the Worlds: Blog tasks

Media Factsheet

Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet #176: CSP Radio - War of the Worlds. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets - you'll need to save the factsheet to USB or email it to yourself in order to complete this at home. Read the factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) What is the history and narrative behind War of the Worlds?

2) When was it first broadcast and what is the popular myth regarding the reaction from the audience?

3) How did the New York Times report the reaction the next day?

4) How did author Brad Schwartz describe the the broadcast and its reaction?

5) Why did Orson Welles use hybrid genres and pastiche and what effect might it have had on the audience?

6) How did world events in 1938 affect the way audiences interpreted the show?

7) Which company broadcast War of the Worlds in 1938?

8) Why might the newspaper industry have deliberately exaggerated the response to the broadcast?

9) Does War of the Worlds provide evidence to support the Frankfurt School's Hypodermic Needle theory?

10) How might Gerbner's cultivation theory be applied to the broadcast?

11) Applying Hall's Reception Theory, what could be the preferred and oppositional readings of the original broadcast?

12) Do media products still retain the ability to fool audiences as it is suggested War of the Worlds did in 1938? Has the digital media landscape changed this?


Analysis and opinion

1) Why do you think the 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds has become such a significant moment in media history?

2) War of the Worlds feels like a 1938 version of 'fake news'. But which is the greater example of fake news - Orson Welles's use of radio conventions to create realism or the newspapers exaggerating the audience reaction to discredit radio?

3) Do you agree with the Frankfurt School's Hypodermic Needle theory? If not, was there a point in history audiences were more susceptible to believing anything they saw or heard in the media?

4) Has the digital media age made the Hypodermic Needle model more or less relevant? Why?

5) Do you agree with George Gerbner's Cultivation theory - that suggests exposure to the media has a gradual but significant effect on audience's views and beliefs? Give examples to support your argument.

6) Is Gerbner's Cultivation theory more or less valid today than it would have been in 1938? Why?


Complete for homework - due for your first A Level Media PPE.

Videogames: The Sims FreePlay part 3 - Representation

The final aspect of our in-depth case study on The Sims FreePlay focuses on Representation.

There is a lot to explore with representation in the Sims FreePlay - everything from gender, race and ethnicity to capitalism, reality and postmodernism. 

Notes from the lesson

The Sims franchise offers range of representations on gender, age, race/ethnicity, sexuality, capitalism and even reality itself.


One aspect of The Sims is the values and ideologies that the game reinforces. Although it has been praised for its liberal values over, for example, LGBTQ+ representation, it could also be argued that the game reinforces dominant American capitalist ideologies.


Expansion pack trailers

A useful way to analyse representations in The Sims FreePlay is to study the trailers produced by EA to promote expansion pack DLC. For example:





Using these expansion pack trailers, we can study the representation of gender, age, race/ethnicity and much more.

The Sims and postmodernism

Watch this introduction to Baudrillard from 8-Bit Philosophy:




Baudrillard argued that our culture now perceives the ‘copy’ (media representation) as more real than the ‘original’ and stated that we live in a culture where the ‘fake’ is more readily accepted than the ‘real’ – therefore creating hyperreality. This blurs the line between fiction and reality.

The Sims franchise is a perfect study in hyperreality as it allows players to create an entirely constructed life through the game.

The Sims FreePlay social media channels also provide an example of simulacra – they are situated in the real world and interact with real players but feature entirely constructed fictional content from the game. Here, they also make intertextual references to real celebrities. Where is the line between fiction and reality?

The Sims FreePlay - Representation blog tasks

Create a new blogpost called 'The Sims FreePlay case study part 3 - Representations' and complete the following tasks.

Textual analysis

Re-watch some of the expansion pack trailers and answer the following questions:

1) How do the expansion pack (DLC) trailers reinforce or challenge dominant ideologies?

2) What stereotypes have you identified in The Sims FreePlay?

3) What media theories can you apply to representations in The Sims FreePlay?


Representation reading

Read this Forbes article on gender and racism in The Sims franchise and answer the following questions:

1) How realistic does The Sims intend to be?

2) How has The Sims tried to create more realistic representations of ethnicity?

3) How has The Sims responded to racism and sexism in society?

4) What is The Sims perspective on gender fluidity and identity?


5) How does The Sims reinforce the dominant capitalist ideologies of American culture?

Read this New Normative feature on LGBTQ representation in The Sims franchise and answer the following questions:

1) How did same-sex relationships unexpectedly help the original Sims game to be a success?

2) How is sexuality now represented in The Sims?

3) Why have fans praised the inclusion of LGBTQ relationships in The Sims franchise?

4) Why did the Sims run into regulatory difficulties with American regulator the ESRB? How did EA respond?

5) How is sexuality represented in the wider videogames industry today?

Reality, postmodernism and The Sims

Read this Paste Magazine feature on reality and The Sims franchise. Answer the following questions:

1) What does the article suggest about the representation of real life in The Sims 4?

2) What audience pleasures did the writer used to find in The Sims franchise?

3) Why the does the writer mention an example of a washer and dryer as additional DLC?

4) In your opinion, has The Sims made an error in trying to make the franchise too realistic?

5) How does this representation of reality link to Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality - the increasingly blurred line between real and constructed?


The Sims FreePlay social media analysis

Analyse The Sims FreePlay Facebook page and Twitter feed and answer the following questions:

1) What is the purpose of The Sims FreePlay social media channels?

2) Choose three posts (from either Twitter or Facebook) and make a note of what they are and how they encourage audience interaction or response.

3) Scroll down the Facebook feed briefly. How many requests for new content can you find from players? Why is this such as an important part of the appeal for The Sims FreePlay?

4) What tweets can you find in the Twitter feed that refer to additional content or other revenue streams for EA?

5) Linking to our work on postmodernism, how could The Sims FreePlay social media presence be an example of Baudrillard’s hyperreality and simulacra?


Extension: Postmodernism academic reading

If you're interested (or planning on studying Media or Cultural Studies at university), read this highly academic and challenging summary of hyperreality, implosion and postmodern theory from the University of Chicago. Consider how these approaches apply to the digital media landscape we’ve been studying and in particular the videogame industry and franchises like The Sims and Tomb Raider.

Complete for homework: due Monday 18 March.