Broadcaster, Producer, Director and Columnist Jasmine Dotiwala is visiting Greenford to give a talk on Friday 16 December at 11am.
Jasmine grew up in this area before going on to work across a variety of media roles in a 25-year career. The Speakers for Schools website introduction for Jasmine says the following:
"Jasmine Dotiwala has over 25 years of experience as a Head of department, manager, broadcaster, producer, director and columnist at brands like Netflix UK, Media Trust, Channel 4 News, MTV and more. In 2020 she moved into a role working with the Netflix UK Editorial & Publishing team. She continues to support Media Trust programmes.
"As a multi-media reporter and producer as well as a reputed D&I specialist, Jasmine developed the industry lauded, ground-breaking Media Trust broadcast trainee programme London360, whose (over 400 to date) diverse alumni have since taken up senior positions all across TV broadcasters and the creative industries in the UK. As Head of Youth Media at Media Trust Jasmine oversaw media training programming from TV Production, to radio podcasting, to vlogging and more, with thousands of young people all across the UK Nations & Regions. She leaves a legacy of diverse talent across the creative industries."
This is a brilliant opportunity for Media students to hear from and question a key media personality - and also ask about diversity in the cultural industries. Think about David Hesmondhalgh's work in this area and what impact a lack of diversity in the media can have on society.
This Twitter thread from Jasmine is a brilliant example of what we can expect:
Think about what my industry was like before diversity was a focus. I grew up never seeing people of different races, genders & sexualities on TV. I never saw disabled people on TV & ads. Look what happens when we empower women to play football...Paralympic athletes....Pride..
We're encouraging all Post-16 Media students to attend the talk but if you have another lesson at that time you will need to discuss this with your teacher in advance to ensure they are happy for you to attend. You will also need to catch up with any missed work.
Your January A Level Media mock exams are the real deal - the opportunity to put everything you have learned to the test. Students typically do better in the summer exams than the last set of mocks - but usually only by around a grade. This means you need to make sure you are fully prepared for these exams with the aim of achieving your target grade or just off it. The following will help you plan your revision: Media Paper 1 Section A will always focus on Media Language and Representations. This means the following CSPs could come up: Advertising & Marketing Score & Maybelline That Boss Life - Advertising index is here Music Video Letter to the Free & Ghost Town - Music Video index is here
Section B will always focus on Media Audiences and Industries. This means the following CSPs could come up:
Newspapers (not in January mock exam - we haven't covered this yet)
The Daily Mail and The i
Unseen question
The first question in Media Paper 1 Section A will always be an unseen media product.
The second question will also relate to the unseen while also bringing in a CSP. This means it is likely the unseen product will link to advertising and marketing or music promotion.
20-mark essays
There will be TWO 20-mark essays in Paper 1 – at the end of each section. AQA states for your extended response questions:
“You will be rewarded for your ability to construct and develop a sustained line of reasoning which is coherent, relevant, substantiated and logically structured.” This means you need to write an essay that constructs an argument that answers the question you have been given. You can look through this AQA Specimen Paper 1 paper to familiarise yourself with the structure of the paper.
Media Paper 2
The first question in Media Paper 2 will always be a 9-mark question on an unseen media product.
Aside from Q1, Media Paper 2 tests your in-depth topic areas:
Tomb Raider Anniversary, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes & The Sims FreePlay - index is here.
Indeed, the majority of Paper 2 will be THREE 25-mark essays on your in-depth topics. AQA states for your extended response questions:
“You will be rewarded for your ability to construct and develop a sustained line of reasoning which is coherent, relevant, substantiated and logically structured.” This means plan and write an essay with a clear and convincing argument!
The structure for the 25-mark questions in Paper 2 tends to be as follows:
Q2: evaluation of theory question
Q3: contexts question (e.g. social and cultural contexts)
Q4: synoptic question
Q4: Synoptic question
The final question in Paper 2 will always be the synoptic question – which requires you to demonstrate knowledge of the whole two-year course of study. AQA states:
“Question 4 is a synoptic question in which you will be rewarded for your ability to draw together different areas of knowledge and understanding from across the full course of study.”
How do we do this? Answer: Key concepts and CSPs. Try and answer the question by linking it to other key concepts (Language/Industries/ Audiences/Representations) and by mentioning other relevant CSPs that link to the question. This will demonstrate your knowledge of the whole course - but make sure you do stay focused the question! You can look through this AQA Specimen Paper 2 paper to familiarise yourself with the structure of the paper.
How to revise
Revision is a very personal thing and everyone has different techniques. Here's a video on YouTube with top tips for A* A Level revision:
Personally, I strongly recommend using flash cards (they are often called record cards if you are trying to buy them online or in WHSmiths). The simple act of distilling topics into a few key words or phrases to put on the card will seriously help in remembering the key information in the final exams. I have spare flash cards in DF07 if you'd like some.
Revision example and useful resources - thank you Assia!
One of our former Year 13 Media students, Assia, very kindly shared some of her revision resources with us when she left Greenford. These are notes on CSPs which you may find useful but I'd also recommend creating your own similar resources for the CSPs to help you remember the key details. By the way, this is what an A grade student looks like! You'll need your Greenford Google login to access these:
How to plan and answer A Level Media exam questions
One of the key skills you need to practice with the mock exams is exam technique. In order to help you, these 'walk and talk' videos go through a range of different A Level Media exam questions and cover the number of marks, how long to spend on the answer and what structure or points you could make in your answer. Not all of these question types or CSPs will come up in your mock exams (some CSPs have changed) but the videos will help with exam technique and revision regardless.
Paper 1 Section A - 9 mark question on Advertising and Marketing:
Paper 1 Section A - 20 mark question on Music Video:
Paper 1 Section B - 6 mark question on Film Industry (note: different CSP to ours):
Paper 1 Section B - 9 mark question on Film Industry (note: different CSP to ours):
Paper 2 - 25 mark TV question:
Finally, revise EVERYTHING you have learned over the last 18 months for A Level Media in preparing for these exams - terminology, theory and CSPs. Good luck!
Our final videogames CSP is The Sims FreePlay (2011). This is another in-depth CSP so will require significant work and research across three blogposts to complete your case study. Background: mobile gaming
The videogames industry has changed massively since the emergence of the smart phone and app store distribution model.
Mobile gaming has changed the audience demographics for gaming and brought the industry into the mainstream.
The app store model means tech giants such as Apple and Google are making significant sums from mobile gaming but mobile hits can still earn developers millions.
Angry Birds made developer Rovio $200m in 2012 and broke 2 billion downloads in 2014.
The Sims FreePlay
The Sims FreePlay is a spin-off from the hugely successful Sims franchise first published by Electronic Arts (EA) in 2000.
The game is a strategic life simulation game (also known as the sandbox genre).
The Sims FreePlay takes the game on to phones and tablets and uses the ‘freemium’ model that makes money via in-app purchases.
The game has seen more than 200 million downloads since 2011 – remarkable success.
The Sims FreePlay: Audience
The Sims franchise has demonstrated there is a strong and lucrative market in female gamers.
When The Sims was first pitched by creator Will Wright he described it as a ‘doll house’.
The development company Maxis weren’t keen because ‘doll houses were for girls, and girls didn’t play videogames’. EA then bought Maxis, saw potential in the idea and one of the most successful ever videogame franchises was born.
Expansion packs available for The Sims FreePlay reinforce the view that the target audience is predominantly female.
Participatory culture
The Sims franchise is one of the best examples of Henry Jenkins’ concept of participatory culture.
Since the very first game in the franchise, online communities have created, suggested and shared content for the game.
‘Modding’ – short for modifications – is a huge part of the appeal of the game. Modding changes aspects of the gameplay – anything from the strength of coffee to incorporating ghosts or even sexual content.
The Sims FreePlay - Language & Audience blog tasks
Create a new blogpost called 'The Sims FreePlay case study part 1 - Language & Audience' and complete the following in-depth tasks.
Language / Gameplay analysis
Watch The Sims: FreePlay trailer and answer the following
questions:
1) What elements of gameplay are shown?
2) What audience is the trailer targeting?
3) What audience pleasures are suggested by the trailer?
Now watch this walk-through of the beginning of The Sims FreePlay and answer the following
questions:
2) Why does James Paul Gee see The Sims as an important
game?
3) What does the designer of The Sims, Will Wright, want players
to do with the game?
4) Do you agree with the view that The Sims is not a game –
but something else entirely?
5) How do you see the future of gaming? Do you agree with James
Paul Gee that all games in the future will have the flexibility and
interactivity of The Sims?
Complete for homework - due date on Google Classroom.
Henry Jenkins is a key audience theorist – an expert in fandom and participatory culture. We need to apply Jenkins's ideas to our videogame CSPs but also think back to where his ideas are relevant with other media texts we have studied. His work on participatory culture links with Clay Shirky in places and the concept of fandom is important to many media texts - from TV drama to magazines. Notes Henry Jenkins is an expert in fandom and participatory culture. Key to this idea is the concept of the ‘prosumer’ – audiences that create as well as consume media. This culture has revolutionised fan communities with the opportunity to create and share content. It also links to Clay Shirky’s work on ‘mass amateurisation’. Fandom is now big business – with Comic-Con events making millions. More importantly, the internet has demonstrated the size of fan communities so it is no longer a minority of ‘geek’ stereotypes but mainstream popular culture (such as Marvel, Harry Potter or Doctor Who). Jenkins defends fan cultures and argues that fans are often stereotyped negatively in the media because they value popular culture (e.g. films or games) over traditional cultural capital (high brow culture or knowledge). The irony is fan culture is often dominated by middle class, educated audiences. Jenkins discusses ‘textual poaching’ – when fans take texts and re-edit or develop their meanings, a process called semiotic productivity. Fan communities are also quick to criticise if they feel a text or character is developing in a way they don’t support. EU copyright law: a threat to participatory culture? A new copyright law currently moving through the European Parliament has been described as a potential 'meme-ban'. It would place the responsibility for the distribution of copyrighted material with the platform rather than the user or copyright holder - and therefore could lead to huge amounts of content being removed. If implemented in full, it could end textual poaching, fan-made texts and re-edits and many more examples of fandom and participatory culture. You can read more on the potential implications in this Wired feature.
Henry Jenkins - fandom blog tasks The following tasks will give you an excellent introduction to fandom and also allow you to start exploring degree-level insight into audience studies. Work through the following: Factsheet #107 - Fandom Read Media Factsheet #107 on Fandom. Use our Media Factsheet archive on the M: drive Media Shared (M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets) or log into your Greenford Google account to access the link. Read the whole of Factsheet and answer the following questions:
1) What is the definition of a fan? 2) What the different types of fan identified in the factsheet? 3) What makes a ‘fandom’? 4) What is Bordieu’s argument regarding the ‘cultural capital’ of fandom? 5) What examples of fandom are provided on pages 2 and 3 of the factsheet? 6) Why is imaginative extension and text creation a vital part of digital fandom?
1) What types of content are on offer in this fansite?
2) What does the number of links and content suggest about the size of the online fan community for Tomb Raider and Lara Croft? Pick out some examples from this site that you find interesting.
1) Look at the Community Spotlight page. What does this suggest about the types of people who enjoy and participate in fan culture?
2) There is a specific feature on Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. What do the questions from fans tell you about the level of engagement and interest in the game and franchise from the fan community?
A/A* optional extension: Henry Jenkins - degree-level reading
Read the final chapter of ‘Fandom’ – written by Henry Jenkins (note: link may be blocked in school - try this Google Drive link if you need it.) This will give you an excellent introduction to the level of reading required for seminars and essays at university as well as degree-level insight into our current work on fandom and participatory culture. Answer the following questions:
1) There is an important quote on the first page: “It’s not an audience, it’s a community”. What does this mean?
2) Jenkins quotes Clay Shirky in the second page of the chapter. Pick out a single sentence of the extended quote that you think is particularly relevant to our work on participatory culture and the ‘end of audience’ (clue – look towards the end!)
3) What are the different names Jenkins discusses for these active consumers that are replacing the traditional audience?
4) On the third page of the chapter, what does Wired editor Chris Anderson suggest regarding the economic argument in favour of fan communities?
5) What examples does Jenkins provide to argue that fan culture has gone mainstream?
6) Look at the quote from Andrew Blau in which he discusses the importance of grassroots creativity. Pick out a sentence from the longer quote and decide whether you agree that audiences will ‘reshape the media landscape from the bottom up’.
7) What does Jenkins suggest the new ideal consumer is?
8) Why is fandom 'the future'?
9) What does it mean when Jenkins says we shouldn’t celebrate ‘a process that commodifies fan cultural production’?
10) Read through to the end of the chapter. What do you think the future of fandom is? Are we all fans now? Is fandom mainstream or are real fan communities still an example of a niche media audience?
Optional extension: EU copyright law - is a meme ban really being considered? Read this Wired feature on the upcoming EU copyright law(Article 13 and Article 11) and discuss the potential implications for participatory culture and fandom. How might this impact on fans' 'textual poaching'?
There is plenty of work here but you will have the Christmas holiday to complete it. Exploring Jenkins will also give you a high-level academic theorist to employ in your upcoming mock exams.
