Newspapers: The future of journalism

One of the factors we must consider when studying the decline of the newspaper industry is the importance of news and journalism to society and democracy. 

Technology moves on and industries evolve - but newspapers have traditionally played an important role in holding governments to account, exposing corruption and keeping the public informed about the world they live in. As media students, we need to consider the impact to society of news coverage being driven by 'clicks' and ending up with funny cat videos rather than hard-hitting investigative journalism. 

We've got some excellent video resources to work with on this topic. Both of our videos refer to the 2016 Best Picture winner at the Oscars - Spotlight. This is director Tom McCarthy's film based on the true story of Boston Globe reporters investigating widespread child abuse in the Catholic Church. We highly recommend you watch this film as part of your work on newspapers.

John Oliver on journalism

British comedian John Oliver presents a show called Last Week Tonight on HBO in America. In a previous episode, he put together a report on the decline of journalism in America and its replacement by 'clickbait' stories rather than real news. Watch it here:



Clay Shirky on news: don’t build a paywall around a public good

Clay Shirky is a professor at NYU (New York University) and a worldwide expert on digital and social media. As we know from our work on Online, Social and Participatory Media, Shirky is a named media theorist for A Level Media and he also makes a compelling argument for the role news plays in society. Interestingly, he argues against paywalls - the subscription model that some newspapers use to make money in the digital age - and says that news is a 'public good' that is vital in a healthy democracy. 

The Future of Journalism: Blog tasks

Part 1: Clay Shirky lecture

Go to the Nieman Lab webpage (part of Harvard university) and watch the video of Clay Shirky presenting to Harvard students. The video is also available on YouTube below but the Nieman Lab website has a written transcript of everything Shirky says. 



Play the clip AND read along with the transcript below to ensure you are following the argument. You need to watch from the beginning to 29.35 (the end of Shirky's presentation). Once you've watched and read the presentation and made notes (you may want to copy and paste key quotes from the transcript which is absolutely fine), answer the questions below:

1) Why does Clay Shirky argue that 'accountability journalism' is so important and what example does he give of this?

2) What does Shirky say about the relationship between newspapers and advertisers? Which websites does he mention as having replaced major revenue-generators for newspapers (e.g. jobs, personal ads etc.)?

3) Shirky talks about the 'unbundling of content'. This means people are reading newspapers in a different way. How does he suggest audiences are consuming news stories in the digital age?

4) Shirky also talks about the power of shareable media. How does he suggest the child abuse scandal with the Catholic Church may have been different if the internet had been widespread in 1992?

5) Why does Shirky argue against paywalls? 

6) What is a 'social good'? In what way might journalism be a 'social good'?

7) Shirky says newspapers are in terminal decline. How does he suggest we can replace the important role in society newspapers play? What is the short-term danger to this solution that he describes?

8) Look at the first question and answer regarding institutional power. Give us your own opinion: how important is it that major media brands such as the New York Times or the Guardian continue to stay in business and provide news?

Part 2: MM55 - Media, Publics, Protest and Power

Media Magazine 55 has an excellent feature on power and the media. Go to our Media Magazine archive, click on MM55 and scroll to page 38 to read the article Media, Publics, Protest and Power', a summary of Media academic Natalie Fenton’s talk to a previous Media Magazine conference. Answer the following questions:

1) What are the three overlapping fields that have an influence on the relationship between media and democracy?

2) What is ‘churnalism’ and what issues are there currently in journalism?

3) What statistics are provided by Fenton to demonstrate the corporate dominance of a small number of conglomerates? 

4) What is the 'climate of fear' that Fenton writes about in terms of politics and the media? 

5) Fenton finishes her article by discussing pluralism, the internet and power. What is your opinion on this crucial debate - has the internet empowered audiences and encouraged democracy or is power even more concentrated in the hands of a few corporate giants?

Complete for homework: due date on Google Classroom.

Newspapers: News Values

Galtung and Ruge defined a set of news values to explain how journalists and editors decide that certain stories and photographs were accepted as newsworthy, while others were not. 

The following list is adapted from their work:

Immediacy: has it happened recently?
Familiarity: is it culturally close to us in Britain?
Amplitude: is it a big event or one which involves large numbers of people?
Frequency: does the event happen fairly regularly? 
Unambiguity: is it clear and definite?
Predictability: did we expect it to happen?
Surprise: is it a rare or unexpected event?
Continuity: has this story already been defined as news?
Elite nations and people: which country has the event happened in? Does the story concern well-known people?
Personalisation: Is it a personal or human interest story?
Negativity: is it bad news?
Exclusivity: do any other newspapers have this story?
Visual impact: are there amazing pictures accompanying the story?
Balance: the story may be selected to balance other news, such as a human survival story to balance a number of stories concerning death.


News Values: Blog task

Read Media Factsheet 76: News Values and complete the following questions/tasks. 
Our Media Factsheet archive is available here - you'll need your Greenford Google login to access.

1) What example news story does the Factsheet use to illustrate Galtung and Ruge's News Values? Why is it an appropriate example of a news story likely to gain prominent coverage?

2) What is gatekeeping?

3) What are the six ways bias can be created in news?

4) How have online sources such as Twitter, bloggers or Wikileaks changed the way news is selected and published?

5) In your opinion, how has the digital age changed Galtung and Ruge’s news values? 

6) How would you update these news values for the digital age? Choose TWO of Galtung and Ruge's news values and say how they have been affected by the growth of digital technology.

E.g. Immediacy is more important than ever due to news breaking on social media or elsewhere online. However, this in turn changes the approach of other news sources such as newspapers as the news will probably already be broken so different angles might be required. Newspapers now contain more comment or opinion rather than the breaking story.  

Due date: on Google Classroom

Newspapers: The decline in print media

Our final topic is newspapers: an industry that has changed hugely in the last 25 years due to the impact of the internet.

This is the final set of targeted CSPs - we will be studying the Audience and Industry key concepts plus all relevant contexts for the Daily Mail and the Guardian newspapers. This means newspapers will come up in Paper 1, Section B of the exams. Here's one Daily Mail front page we may want to reference:

Notes from the lesson

In the lesson, we looked at the history of the newspaper and some key terminology we need to learn:


Newspapers: hard and soft news

Newspapers cover a range of stories that are generally divided into two categories:

Hard news: stories related to current affairs, politics, economics, wars and other serious news.

Soft news: stories related to entertainment, sport, celebrities, gossip, scandal and human interest/lifestyle topics.

Newspapers: tabloid and broadsheet

Newspapers were traditionally available in two sizes: tabloid and broadsheet. Today, most newspapers are in the smaller broadsheet size but the terms are still used to describe the style of paper:

Tabloid: focusing largely on soft news, famous examples include the Sun and the Mirror. Generally read by more working class audience. Mid-market tabloids are a middle ground between tabloid and broadsheet and include the Daily Mail. 

Broadsheet: serious newspapers that focus more on hard news. The Times, Guardian and Telegraph are all examples. 

Newspapers: sources of news

Newspapers tend to get their news content from two sources:

Journalists: newspapers employ reporters and photographers to attend events, interview people and write stories. 

News agencies: Reuters and Associated Press are examples of global news agencies that are independent institutions that employ journalists to write stories that newspapers and other media organisations can pay to use.

Increasingly in the digital age, newspapers are sourcing news from their audiences using citizen journalism. This is sometimes criticised as creating clickbait – an example of soft news aimed simply to attract online readers.

The decline of newspapers

In the last 20 years, the newspaper industry has faced a sharp decline due to the rise of the internet.

In 2003, almost 30 million newspapers were sold in the UK every day. By 2017 that was down to 12.4 million (source: Ofcom). 

Newspapers have traditionally made their money in two ways: through the cover price and by selling advertising. With so much news available for free online, audiences are not buying newspapers so both these sources of income have been decimated.

The Wall Street Journal produced a short video demonstrating how the industry has changed in the last 100 years:

Once you've learned the key terminology, watched the video and considered the decline in the industry, work through the blog tasks below.

Blog tasks: The decline in print media

Part 1: Ofcom report into news consumption

Read this Ofcom report on the consumption of news in the UK and answer the following questions (bullet points/short answers are fine):

1) Look at the headlines from the report on page 6. Pick three that you think are interesting and bullet point them here. Why did you pick those three in particular?  

2) Look at the overall summary for adults on pages 7-8. What are the key points on newspapers? 

3) Look at the statistics on page 13. What do you notice about newspapers and how has it changed in recent years?

4) Now look at the age demographics for news consumption on page 16. What age demographic groups are most and least likely to read newspapers and what are the percentages? 

5) Look at the newspaper-specific data on page 36. Which are the most popular newspaper titles? 

6) Now look at the total newspaper reach of print and online on page 39. How has this decreased over the last three years?


Part 2: Factsheet - The death of print media

Go to our Media Factsheet archive and open Factsheet 165: The death of print media. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets or you can find it online here - you'll need to log in using your Greenford Google login.

Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks (bullet points/short answers are fine):

1) What has happened to print media in the last 30 years?

2) Why is the Independent newspaper such a good case study for the decline in print media?

3) What was the Independent newspaper famous for?

4) What did the then-owner of the Independent, Evgeny Lebedev, say about the newspaper's digital-only future?

5) How do online newspapers make money?

6) What did the Independent's longest-serving editor Simon Kelner warn regarding the switch to digital?

7) What is the concern with fake news? What does 'post-truth' refer to?

8) What is your view on the decline in print media? Should news be free? Is it a concern that established media brands such as the Independent can no longer afford to exist as a printed newspaper?

Due date: on Google Classroom.

Newspapers: Weekly Media homework - news stories

For the Newspapers unit, you have an ongoing mini-homework every week: to find, read and post TWO news stories on your blog.

The very simple detail: every week you must find, read, and post two news stories from the websites of our two newspaper CSPs (one from Mail Online and one from The Guardian website):

Mail Online
The Guardian website 

This will help familiarise yourself with the two newspapers over several weeks so you can recognise how the news stories reflect the values, ideologies and ownership contexts of the two CSPs.

Newspaper news story research: blog task

Create ONE blogpost that you return to and update weekly. Call it 'Newspaper news story research'. Then, each week you need to visit the MailOnline website and the Guardian website and choose one story from each to summarise and share. 

Most importantly, you need to do the following on your blogpost for each story...

1. Copy the headline, date and link.
2. Briefly summarise the story in a sentence or two: is this is an example of hard news or soft news? Does it reflect the politics or ideological stance of that newspaper/website?
3. Explain in a sentence how or why this story appeals to the audience of that newspaper (use media terminology and theory if you can). Is it quality journalism or an example of clickbait?

We'll be sharing our stories as a starter each week and this will ensure you build up a range of stories from both CSPs to provide examples to use in exam questions and essays. 

Due: EVERY week for the next five weeks. Just update the same blogpost with additional stories each time! 

Coursework: Print draft deadline and final Statement of Intent

With one half-term left to complete our coursework, we need to work towards two deadlines in the next few weeks.

The final deadline for all coursework will be the Easter holidays so we now need to be getting our work up to professional standards and ready to submit to Mr Ray for final checking and collection.

Print draft deadline

You need to complete and submit all four draft pages in Photoshop/InDesign, save these as JPEGs and post to your blog. Specifically, this needs to be:

• Front cover for your own, original music magazine meeting the requirements of the brief
• Two-page inside feature on your music artist - 400 words minimum
• One additional page such as a contents page or tour advert for your artist

Remember to check the minimum requirements of the brief for these - such as a minimum of seven images across all the pages, including three on the front cover.

Deadline: week commencing Monday 3 March

Statement of Intent

For your Statement of Intent, you need to submit a final draft that covers BOTH the video and print aspects of the brief and that is as close as possible to the 500-word limit.

The mark scheme for the Statement of Intent can be found here. This is worth 10 of the 60 marks so is definitely worth getting right.

Submit your final Statement of Intent as a Word or Google document that can be printed and marked/moderated as well as posting on your blog. 

Deadline: week commencing Monday 10 March

Coursework: Print brief research and planning

The Print aspect to our coursework brief is as important as the video work have been focusing on so far. 

It is crucial that you research, plan and design print work that could comfortably hold its own alongside professional examples. You will also need to include a section regarding your print magazine work in your redrafted Statement of Intent. A reminder of our coursework brief is here, with the key tasks as follows:

Print

You should create four pages from a music magazine – specifically:

• a front cover featuring the artist/band promoted in Task One
• a two-page interview with the artist/band
• one page with content relevant to the magazine and the target audience.

The magazine targets a mainstream music audience.

The front cover and interview can use some images from the same photoshoot but other original images should also be used that offer some visual variety.

The interview should be used to promote the tour and the music track. It should also reinforce the brand image of the artist/band and integrate some reference to the footwear manufacturers who are sponsoring the band/artist.

What do you need to produce?

1) The front page (A4 portrait) for a new, original music magazine aimed at a mainstream audience that you have created:

• Title and masthead
• Selling line (slogan)
• Cover price
• Dateline
• Main cover image and at least two further smaller images related to the content of the magazine
• At least 5 cover lines

2) A double-page spread feature interview with your artist (A3 landscape - i.e. two A4 pages next to each other):

• Content that is appropriate to the conventions of the genre of magazine being created
• Original copy (at least 400 words)
• Each page to use original images as illustrations (the main cover image must not be repeated but can come from the same photoshoot)
• Internal pages should reflect the design codes and conventions of the genre of magazine being created

3) A single-page with content relevant to the magazine and the target audience (A4 portrait):

• This could be a contents page or alternatively a one-page tour poster advert for your original artist or band. 
• Make sure you have original photography here - NOT from the same photoshoot as the other pages. The contents page would help with this.

Print brief - overall minimum requirements

• A clear house style should be used in the presentation of all pages
• A minimum of 7 original images should be included in the submission.
• All copy should be original and a minimum of 400 words should be submitted. Absolutely no use of AI in any way at all is permitted for the written elements of the print brief.
• Work should be presented on pages that are an appropriate size or in proportion to the size of paper used by magazines

We recommend that all of the above should be A4 portrait page size (with the double-page spread doubling up to A3 landscape).

Research and planning blog tasks

Create a blogpost called 'Print brief research and planning' and complete the following tasks to plan and prepare your print work:

1) Find at least five music magazine front covers (either current or former magazines as many have stopped their print editions) aimed at a similar target audience to your project (mainstream music audience) and research music magazine key conventions. For each one, pick out one design idea, convention or image/text style that you could use in your own print work. A few examples to start you off:

2) Find at least five double-page spread features from music magazines on Google images. How are they designed? How are text and images displayed? What design tricks can you borrow from your examples?

3) Find at least five magazine contents pages - ideally from music magazines - from Google images. How are they designed? How are images used alongside text? How are page numbers displayed? 

4) Find at least five music artist tour posters from Google images. How are they designed? How are images used alongside text? Which UK venues would suit your artist or band? Some examples:   

5) Read at least three example music interview features from newspapers and magazines to learn the format, writing style and content for a music magazine interview. You may wish to use the following to help you:

'I'm an alchemist': Nova, the unknown MC with the Scottish album of the year (900 words)

Rapper SL: ‘When I was coming up, there was nobody else on my level’ (500 words)

Davido on his song ‘FEM’ becoming an #ENDSARS anthem: “It’s amazing to see” (1,500 words)

Tom Vek tells us about his surprise album ‘New Symbols’ (1,300 words)

Interview: 'There's something to scream about': Bring Me the Horizon's pandemic political awakening (1,600 words)

Planning and sketching

1) Plan the content and cover lines for your front cover:

• Title (must be NEW original mainstream music magazine you have invented):
• Slogan:
• Cover image: 
• Main cover story/main flash: 
• Additional cover lines:
• Additional two smaller cover images: 
• Font style / colour scheme, additional design aspects:

2) Plan the images you will use for the front cover - use the elements of mise-en-scene (CLAMPS). One main image and two smaller images required to meet the minimum content in the brief.

3) Plan the content for your inside page feature:

• Subject of feature: 
• Headline: 
• Subheading: 
• Main image: 
• Smaller images (need minimum of four across the three pages) 
• Font style / colour scheme, additional design aspects: 

4) Write the 400 word interview feature you will use for the inside page spread. This must be 100% original and written by you. It may help to use a Q&A approach to this interview.  

5) Plan and write the text for your contents page. This will need to include a range of features and interviews that are not related to your artist but that do fit your target audience and brief (mainstream music magazine). 

6) Research and select the font or typography you will use for your magazine. This is a critical element of your print work - the brief requires a consistent house style running through all of your pages. 

7) Produce an A4 sketch of your front cover design and scan it/upload a picture to your blog.

8) Produce A4 sketches of your inside page feature with clear layout of where headline, subheading, images and text will appear on the pages. Scan or upload a picture to your blog.

9) Produce an A4 sketch of your contents page design and scan it/upload a picture to your blog.

10) Finally, create the pages in Adobe Photoshop or InDesign so you have the documents ready to go in terms of adding your text and images. This will need to include:

• A4 portrait for front cover
• A4 portrait for contents page
• A3 landscape for double page feature

Photoshoot

1) Who do you need to photograph for your front cover and inside page images? Remember, you need seven original images across the whole print production. 

2) What camera shots do you need? Write a shot list or draw a storyboard for your photoshoots. Make sure you plan a variety of camera shots you will look to capture - medium shots, close-ups etc.

3) Plan the mise-en-scene. What costume, props or make-up will you require for your photoshoots?

4) Finally, note down the time and date for your photoshoots. This may be inside or outside school (or a combination of both). You will have Media lesson time for this after the mock exams.

Statement of Intent

1) Once you have completed your print research and planning, go back to your statement of intent and make sure you have included the print brief in your final draft. Then, submit the final draft statement of intent to your teacher. The due date for this will be confirmed by your coursework teacher.

Use your Media coursework lessons to complete these planning tasks - homework time should be exclusively to revise for mocks.

Due date for research and planning on Google Classroom.

January mock exams - final revision tips

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 finalise your revision and preparation:

Media Paper 1

Section A 

Section A will always focus on Media Language and Representations. This means the following CSPs could come up:

Advertising & Marketing
Score hair cream (1967) & Sephora Black Beauty Is Beauty - Advertising index is here

Music Video
Old Town Road & Ghost Town - Music Video index is here

Section B 

Section B will always focus on Media Audiences and Industries. This means the following CSPs could come up:

Film Industry

Blinded By The Light - Film Industry index is here

Radio

BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat and War of the Worlds - Radio index is here

Newspapers (not in January mock exam - we haven't covered this yet)

The Daily Mail and The Guardian

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.

For the unseen question, revise our work on Media codes and reading an image from Year 12. You may also want to look back at our work on Semiotics which contains a link to our document defining key semiotic terms.

20-mark essays

There will be TWO 20-mark essays in Paper 1 – at the end of each section (Q4 and Q7). 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.

Question 4 will be an evaluation of theory question so you need to know the named theorists on the specification and be able to offer an opinion or evaluation of their key ideas. 

You can look through this AQA Specimen Paper 1 paper to familiarise yourself with the structure of the paper. Note that several of the CSPs have changed since this specimen paper was produced. 

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:

TV

Capital and Deutschland 83 - TV index is here

Magazines

GQ and The Gentlewoman - Magazines index is here

Online, Social and Participatory

Taylor Swift and The Voice - OSP index is here

Videogames

The Sims FreePlay and Horizon Forbidden West - Videogames 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 is as follows:

• Q2: evaluation of theory question - you MUST focus on the theory and simply use CSPs for evidence
• Q3: contexts question (e.g. social and cultural contexts)
• Q4: synoptic question - more details below

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 - Language, Representations, Audience, Industries. In your answer make sure that you are addressing 2-3 of the key concepts in responding to the question. This will demonstrate your knowledge of the whole course - but make sure you do stay focused on the question!

You can look through this AQA Specimen Paper 2 paper to familiarise yourself with the structure of the paper. Note that several of the CSPs have changed since this specimen paper was produced. 

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. Try creating three sets of cards:

• Terminology/key words
• Theories
• CSPs

Lesson slides

As requested, you can find all of our original lesson slides in this folder on Google Drive. You'll need your Greenford Google login to access this obviously. 

Example questions

Use the example question booklets we gave you in class to test yourself against the kind of questions to expect in these exams. You can also find practice questions and exemplar plans and answers that we've used in class in this document here: Exemplar question notes from class.

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 and note that some of the CSPs have changed this year:

• Advertising - Score and Maybelline 
• Film - Blinded By The Light
• Radio - War of the Worlds and BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat

Additional revision resources

If you want to mix up your Media revision a little then you can always read around the subject or look through our Factsheet archive for topics you're struggling with. 

Anything you read in our Media Magazine archive will help to give you a wider perspective on media debates and every issue has several articles which focus on interesting examples, theories and debates that will help you in the Media exams. You'll find our Media Magazine archive here. 

Similarly, you have access to our whole Media Factsheet archive if there are any particular topics or theories you want to revise in more detail. Look at these for example: 

• How to revise for A Level Media exams
• Exploring theoretical perspectives to print magazines
• Channel 4: an overview and update
• Understanding digital convergence
• BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat
• Using theory
• The BBC: an overview and update

If you want to test your knowledge of the complete subject content, you can find it on the AQA website here. Look at the menu on the left-hand side - under media language, media representation etc. you'll find everything that could come up in exams: 

Remember, you need to 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!

Videogames: Final index

We have now finished our final in-depth topic - Videogames.

Your have done some superb work on women in videogames, Henry Jenkins, fandom and postmodernism. You now need to complete a Videogames blog index to ensure you have completed all the work for our in-depth Videogame CSPs. 

This process is clearly excellent revision for the mock exams approaching as there is a lot of theory in there that could be applied across the full range of CSPs in both exam papers.  

Your Videogames final index should include the following:

1) Videogames: Henry Jenkins - fandom and participatory culture

2) Videogames: The Sims FreePlay - Language & Representation
3) Videogames: The Sims FreePlay - Audience & Industries

4) Learner response: OSP assessment

5) Videogames: Women in videogames & Further feminist theory

6) Videogames: Horizon Forbidden West - Language & Representations

7) Videogames: Horizon Forbidden West - Audience & Industries

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 mock exams due to gaps in your knowledge.

Index due date: on Google Classroom 

Videogames: Horizon Forbidden West - Audience and Industry

The final part of our Horizon Forbidden West case study focuses on Audience and Industry.

This requires us to research the companies that produced the game and also consider how the videogames audience is changing. 

Audience

Target audience

Does Horizon Forbidden West really target a female audience? Or is the console gaming audience still male dominated? Research by YouGov in 2022 suggests that console gamers are still majority male:

 

YouGov show that the major console audience is still male dominated - 71% male for PS5 and 68% for Xbox. However, the Nintendo Switch demonstrates that the videogame market is changing and perhaps games like Horizon Forbidden West are also pushing that change.

Postmodern pleasures

Horizon Forbidden West is a good example of the blurring of 'high' and 'low' culture that Strinati identifies as a key convention of postmodernism. We can see this in the game where the character Tilda's vault contains real exhibits from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Henry Jenkins suggested videogames as the "art form for the 21st century". Is HFW the evidence of this? 

This collaboration is also a good example of Baudrillard's hyperreality - the increasing difficulty in telling what is real in a media-saturated world. The works of art in HFW are real - but the game is entirely constructed. Do audiences now enjoy greater pleasures from 'real' media products? 

Industries

Guerrilla Games is the result of a merger of three earlier companies (starting in 1993) which reflects gaming’s origins in small independent companies in contrast to its current status as a global, billion-dollar industry.

The structure of Guerrilla Games and its parent company (Sony) is an example of contemporary media practice in maintaining control of production, distribution and circulation. This is also a case study in vertical integration.

20 years of Guerrilla Games - Killzone and Horizon

Working at Guerrilla Games: behind the scenes

Does this behind the scenes video challenge Hesmondhalgh’s theory regarding the lack of diversity in the cultural industries? It also links to the global nature of the multibillion dollar videogames industry.

Horizon Forbidden West: Audience and Industry blog tasks

Create a blogpost called 'Horizon Forbidden West: Audience and Industry' and work through the following tasks.

Audience

Look at this YouGov blog on the console gaming audience and answer the following questions:

1) What statistics can you find for the number of male / female players for the major consoles?

2) What is the difference between 'hardcore' and 'casual' gamers - and which do you think would play Horizon Forbidden West?

3) What are the different reasons YouGov researched for why players play games? Which of these would apply to Horizon Forbidden West?

Look at the PlayStation website page for Horizon Forbidden West. Complete the following tasks: 

1) How is the game promoted to an audience?

2) What are the key features for the game listed on the site?

3) What information does the website offer players about the game world and characters? Give a few examples.

4) What spin-offs and additional content are available as part of the Horizon franchise?  

5) Applying Henry Jenkins's work on fandom, what aspects of the website (you may need to scroll down) encourage fan activity and engagement with online Horizon communities?  

Read this Wired feature on Horizon Forbidden West's open world design. Answer the following questions: 

1) Why did the writer enjoy Horizon Forbidden West?

2) How is Horizon Forbidden West structured for players when they first start the game?

3) Why does the writer feel HFW created a more successful open world game than The Witcher 3?

Industries

Industry research

1) Research Sony PlayStation Studios. 

2) What studios are part of Sony PlayStation Studios?

3) What notable games have they produced? 

4) Now research Guerrilla Games. Look at the 'Explore' page in particular. Who owns Guerrilla Games and how does it reflect the modern videogames industry? 

5) Choose one of the 'Guerrilla Spotlight' features and write three things you learn about the videogames industry and/or Guerrilla Games from the interview.

Read this USA Today feature on Guerrilla Games. Answer the following questions: 

1) Which three companies merged to become Guerrilla Games?

2) What other games and franchises were created by Guerrilla Games?

3) How did Guerrilla maximise the Killzone franchise? 

4) What did Sony sign with Guerrilla in 2004? 

5) How is Horizon Forbidden West described in the article and what is the next stage for the franchise?  


Regulation and PEGI

1) What is HFW's PEGI rating and what age rating do you feel would be appropriate? Why?

2) Why is regulating videogames difficult in the digital age?

3) Are attitudes towards media content and regulation changing as a result of the internet? Explain your answer.

A/A* extension tasks

Read this fantastic GQ feature on Horizon Forbidden West - it takes in the history of the franchise, audience pleasures and also gender appeal and videogames. This is the kind of article that will make you an expert on the CSP and help you form opinions on the big media theories and debates. GQ is also another one of our in-depth CSPs too! 

Read Factsheet 258 - Exploring the consumption of computer games. Look particularly at the application of media theory on the last two pages. You can find it in our Media Factsheet archive.

Due date: on Google Classroom

Videogames: Horizon Forbidden West - Language & Representations

Our second videogames CSP is Horizon Forbidden West (2022).

This is another in-depth CSP so will require two detailed blog tasks over the next couple of weeks. We'll start with an introduction alongside language and representation contexts.

Horizon Forbidden West: introduction

• Released in February 2022 as a sequel to the highly successful Horizon Zero Dawn (2017). 
• Available on PS4, PS5 and Windows platforms.
• Horizon Forbidden West sold over 8 million copies in its first year.
• Excellent reviews including 9/10 on IGN.
• Developed by studio Guerrilla Games which is based in Amsterdam and owned by Sony. 

 

Background and media language

• Genres: Action adventure / Action role playing / Sandbox / Open world
• Protagonist/avatar (character player controls): Aloy 
• Setting: Post-apocalyptic future version of USA following extinction event caused by a robot swarm. 
• Gameplay: Exploring open world, completing quests using weapons against hostile machine creatures.

Official release trailer: 

Official gameplay trailer: 

Representation: social and cultural contexts

Horizon Forbidden West has been both praised and criticised for the representations of different groups. Driven by a strong, independent female protagonist in Aloy, the game has been held up as an example of how gender in videogames is changing.

Horizon Forbidden West also has an LGBT storyline which can be seen as further evidence of Gauntlett’s view of the liberalising influence of the mass media, particularly in recent years.

However, the game has also been criticised for its representation of indigenous populations and Asian Americans with the accusation of lazy stereotypical tropes.

Key scene analysis

Watch the key scene where Aloy’s love interest storyline develops and think about how representations of gender and sexuality are constructed:

Edward Said: Orientalism 

Edward Said (1935-2003) was a Palestinian-American cultural theorist and academic best known for his 1978 book Orientalism.

In it, he argued that the west – particularly colonising Europe – constructed a meaning of the east that suggested it was exotic, dangerous and uncivilised.

East v West

Edward Said argues that the Europeans divided the world into two parts: the east and the west or the civilized and the uncivilized. This was a totally artificial boundary; and it was laid on the basis of the concept of ‘them and us’ or ‘theirs and ours’.

The Europeans defined themselves as the ‘superior race’ and they justified their colonisation by this concept. Media to this day contains particular tropes associated with these views.

Horizon Forbidden West & racial tropes

Videogames website Polygon has highlighted racial tropes in Horizon Forbidden West: 

“A plethora of racist tropes emerge within Forbidden West’s world. There’s a stereotypical angry Black woman named Regalla, for example, who leads a rebel army and would rather die than seek peace. There’s also constant belittling between tribes, who call each other “savage” or “uncivilized” — terms loaded with racial undertones. There’s also plenty of Orientalism.”

Horizon Forbidden West: Language and Representation blog tasks

Create a blogpost called 'Horizon Forbidden West: Language and Representation' and work through the following tasks.

Language

Introduction

Read this review of Horizon Forbidden West in the Financial Times (should be non-paywalled but you can read the text of article here if needed). Answer the following questions:

1) Why does Guerrilla Games have 'a serious case of bad timing'? 

2) What is the narrative for the original game Horizon Zero Dawn? 

3) How is the central character Aloy described? 

4) What is the narrative and setting for sequel Horizon Forbidden West?

5) What does the review say about animation and graphics?

6) What do we learn about the gameplay and activities in Horizon Forbidden West? 

Close textual analysis

Watch the trailer for Horizon Forbidden West:

Answer the following questions:

1) How is narrative, character and setting introduced in the trailer?

2) How is the game's open world / sandbox genre shown in the trailer? 

3) What representations can you find in the trailer? 

AQA recommends watching the following gameplay trailer in their CSP booklet:

Watch the gameplay video and answer the following questions:

1) How does the game use media language to communicate ideas about narrative and genre?

2) What representations of people, places or groups can you find in the gameplay video?

3) What audience pleasures are suggested by this gameplay trailer?

Narrative and genre

Read this excellent Den of Geek article that addresses elements of narrative and genre. You can find the article text here if the link is blocked. Answer the following questions: 

1) Read the opening to the article. How can we apply Steve Neale's genre theory to Horizon Forbidden West?

2) How many copies did the Horizon Zero Dawn sell and why did this influence the design of the sequel?

3) How does the article criticise the story in Horizon Forbidden West? 

4) What do we learn about the gameplay? 

5) What is the article's overall summary of the game?

Representations

Race representations in Horizon Forbidden West

Read this fascinating Polygon feature on why Horizon Forbidden West isn't post-racial and answer the following questions: 

1) How does Horizon Forbidden West use narrative to create a fully diverse cast of characters?

2) What is orientalism? 

3) How does the article suggest orientalism applies to Horizon Forbidden West? 

4) Who is the player encouraged to identify with in the game and how does this influence how representations are constructed?  

5) Finally, what did the writer of the article (an Asian American) feel when playing the game?

Gender and videogames

Focusing on Aloy and the representation of women in videogames, read this Forbes feature on the topic. Answer the following questions:

1) What is the debate regarding Aloy in Horizon Forbidden West? 

2) What examples are provided of other female characters and representations in videogames?

3) What are the issues facing the videogame industry in terms of gender?  

Due date: on Google Classroom

A/A* extension tasks

Read this interesting CBC article on indigenous representation in Horizon Forbidden West. How does it present issues regarding representations of Indigenous people both in terms of in-game and in the inudstry?