This document provides guidance for a media evaluation assignment. It outlines 6 sections to be addressed in the evaluation: 1) analysis of conventions used in the media product, 2) reflection on preliminary and main products, 3) use of new technologies, 4) feedback from audience testing, 5) relevant media institutions, and 6) representation of social groups. For each section, it provides detailed questions and sub-points to be discussed, and emphasizes using evidence and examples from the student's own work. The evaluation should demonstrate an excellent understanding of audience, industry, technologies, and representations in relation to the student's media product.

1. Y12 EVALUATION
Your work has to be evaluated electronically, incorporating all evaluative
work and audience feedback. It could be a documentary or chat show if you
wish.
The questions that must be addressed in the evaluation are:
 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
 How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Ethnicity, age
 What kind of media institution might distribute your media product
and why? What have I learnt about British films, how my magazine
might be made
 Who would be the audience for your media product?
 How did you attract/address your audience? What would I change,
how could I have done things differently – good or bad
 What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product? What I have learnt to do? What I have
learnt about technology in music magazines?
 Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have
learnt in the progression from it to the full product? What have I
learnt to start with? What are my differences from the beginning
crop, remove backgrounds, colour, and apply special effects.
 I will break this down into headings:
1) Video Conventions
Refer to textual analysis and planning artifacts
Look at your textual analyses and isolate the typical features. The key is to
use technical language but apply it to the textual analyses you have
completed. Make sure you have completed separate analysis of title and
opening sequences.
Cinematography
angle

2. distance
lighting
focus
colour
camera movement
Mise-en Scene
facial expression
gesture/posture
make-up
hair
objects
furniture
buildings
background
colour
Editing
continuity
montage
transitions
ASL (average shot length)
Sound
Dialogue
Voiceover
Music

3. Sound FX
Natural sound
Text
Style
Size
Colour
Movement
Once you have done this you can use a similar list to explain your planning
ideas. Please relate it to real planning artefacts, for example, scripts or
storyboards. Explain your ideas with examples of your thinking.
This should be the equivalent of 2 sides long but be incredibly tight media
writing.
2) Preliminary and Main Product
For this you need to complete a piece of writing in which you reflect on
these two pieces of practical work. Follow these stages for a focused piece
of media writing.
1.What media skills did you start the course with?
2.What technical skills did you start the course with?
3.What did you learn from constructing your preliminary product?
4.What are the strengths of your product?
5.What are the weaknesses?
6.How did you identify what you needed to improve for the final product?
7.What have you learnt in the progression from preliminary to main product

4. 3) New Technologies
Explain how you have used media technology in your research. Examples
might include Excel for manipulating data and presenting graphs or Google
Advanced Search for web research. It is vital that you provide examples as
evidence. It is not enough just to say you used Goggle, explain what you
search and include URLs and other details as evidence. You might have used
a video program to help analyse a sequence for textual analysis or You Tube
for examples.
Explain how you have used media technology in your planning. Examples
might include mocking up in InDesign or Photoshop, cropping or
manipulating images in Photoshop, downloading fonts to use. It might be
using a word processer to help write the article. For video it might be test
shooting, experimenting with transitions, learning to use Garageband and
designing titles in Live Type. Again it is vital to provide the evidence that all
this learning took place.
Explain how you have used media technology in your production. Make a list
of all the hardware (iMac, camera, tripod etc) and software (Final Cut,
Photoshop, Live Type etc) you have used. Explain some of the features you
have learnt, once again provide the evidence.
Explain how you have used media technology in your post-production. This
involves exporting and/or printing. Putting it in a form for a focus group for
testing and then acting upon the comments.
4) Audience Feedback
This is an important component. It is vital to explain that you have
completed some quantitative research (which is in your research folder and
commented on in the research part of the evaluation). This section is a
piece of qualitative research.
Qualitative research is completed once a text is in a finished form. It is then
tested on members of the target audience. Unlike quantitative research
which offers breadth, qualitative research offers depth. Qualitative research
uses ‘open’ questions and are ‘semi structured’. It is very important that

5. you use these methodological rules in constructing your qualitative
research. You have to be clear in being to explain why you have chosen the
sample you have and where and when you did the research. It is very
difficult to conduct research and remember what everyone said, hence the
need to record the focus group or interview. You can then transcribe what
was said, possibly going through the stage of codifying before presenting
your results. From this identify the main 3-5 findings
Examples of qualitative research include: focus groups, one-to-one
interviews, online forum
There is a clear methodology to completing qualitative research:
What is the aim of the research?
8.Identify sample
9.Define place/time
10.List of outline open questions
11.Prepare stimulus material/recording facilities
12.Complete focus group/interview/forum
13.Transcribe
14.Results
15.Findings
You can now decide what are the strengths and weakness of your project.
You may decide to make the necessary changes and then do the research
again…or you might not!
5) Institutions
Here you need to research all the different organisations who would relate
to the real-world production, distribution and exhibition of your media
product.

6. For the film industry you need to find out which would be the most
appropriate production company, film distributor and exhibition outlet (s).
You will to research the film industry in some detail to look at the issues you
would face if the text was made.
The same goes for the print option but here you are going to need to find
out about the state of the UK publishing industry with case studies on the
major publishers and distributors of magazines.
•Find out about the key issues facing the UK magazine or film industries
•Explain which institutions would be involved with your text with a very
clear rationale as to why.
6) Representation
This is a key concept in media studies but at this level you might want to
look at how your text relates to existing stereotypes of age, gender, class,
ethnicity, region and sexuality. To what extent have you reinforced existing
stereotypes (hegemony) or reflected perceived reality with a range of
representation of social groups (pluralism)
Mark Scheme - The marks for the top grade area for the evaluation are as
follows:
•Excellent understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology,
representation, forms and conventions in relation to production.
•Excellent ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes.
•Excellent understanding of their development from preliminary to full task.
•Excellent ability to communicate.
•Excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation