Guidance for the OCR A2 Media exam Q1a

1. How many
solutions can
you create for
a problem like
this?
LO: To evaluate and summarise our own creative activities,
linked to key concepts.

2. Creativity is…..?
• Thinking outside of the box! Thinking of different
approaches and ways of tackling a task.
• Not conforming to the expectations (conventions?)
• Taking an idea and creating a tangible product.
Responding to a brief.
• Playful; different approaches to a problem.
• Adventurous; taking a risk.
• Producing something that is new to you.
• Drawing on your personal experience to create an idea.
• Expressive; emotional; argumentative.
• Using influences to make something new.
• Taking risks
LO: To evaluate and summarise our own creative activities,
linked to key concepts.

3. “A media product is primarily created a the stage of
editing”. In your own experience detail how far the
meaning of your product was constructed at the stage
of post production.
“Creativity is something that is inherent and cannot be
learned”. In your experience detail how your use of
real media products developed your creative skills.
“Consumers are now media producers”. In your
experience detail how far the production of your work
was enabled by the digital technology available to you.
Choice of 3 questions...notice they start with a
statement as below for you to ultimately answer
as part of your response.

4. What is creativity?
“The making of the new and the rearranging
of the old” (Bentley, 1997).
• A work in progress – skills development and future
projects?
• A sense of future direction for other projects?
• Sense of stylish and artistic development?
• Challenging conventions or replicating / furthering
knowledge of them?
• How does your work provide evidence for Bentley’s
definition?
LO: To evaluate and summarise our own creative activities,
linked to key concepts.

5. • Creativity involves thinking or behaving imaginatively.
• The imaginative activity is purposeful – set against a
meaningful objective.
• The processes must generate something original
• What about media language - mediation: how you
communicated a preferred meaning?
LO: To evaluate and summarise our own creative activities,
linked to key concepts.
Relate this to your own coursework?
The creation of bringing something new into
existence – “this particular understanding of
creativity involves the physical making of
something, leading to some form of communication,
expression or revelation”. (David Gauntlett)

6. Creativity and Your Coursework
Creativity is often prescribed within social
boundaries – is it instrumental? Is it
controversial? Who is judging the creativity? Is
there an agenda? What is the ideology embedded
within this creativity?
In Media Studies your coursework is often
influenced by your social/ cultural/ environmental/
biographical background and ideas – so how have
you tried to expand the boundaries of the social
norm?
LO: To evaluate and summarise our own creative activities,
linked to key concepts.

7. For your coursework you could look at your work’s:
• Composition and Framing (and all other micro elements)
• Abstract natures of communications and representations
and identities
• Narrative
• Language and Rhetoric
• Layout
You must also take into account the technology you have
used and how this has afforded you the opportunities of
being ‘creative’ in some of the above areas:
LO: To evaluate and summarise our own creative activities,
linked to key concepts.
“If creativity is not inherent in human mental powers and
is, in fact, social and situational, then technological
developments may well be linked to advances in the
creativity of individual users” (Banaji, Burn and
Buckingham, 2006).

8. In terms of your work is it a
‘knowledge object’ or an ‘art object’
– what is its purpose and how have
you communicated this?
LO: To evaluate and summarise our own creative activities,
linked to key concepts.
“There is no absolute judgement.
All judgements are comparisons of
one thing with another.” (Donald
Laming)

9. • Do you think you were creative (in terms of discussion on
ppt) or not throughout your coursework?
• Did the technology enhance your creativity or not?
• What ideas did you communicate and what stylistic
techniques did you use? How did it relate to your
interests/vision of identity?
• Was your product influenced by your social
environmental?
• Was this original or did you add something extra to an
original media text?
• Would you take any creative skills into future projects
or have you been influenced to engage these skills in any
other projects?
LO: To evaluate and summarise our own creative activities,
linked to key concepts.

10. How have you developed creative
approaches to the following:
• Communicating narrative
• Representing people, places, objects
and themes
• Responding to genre conventions
• Appealing to an audience
LO: To evaluate and summarise our own creative activities,
linked to key concepts.
Linking to the key concepts – grade
boosting.