G325 skills and theory

Question 1a – Skills and Processes

Conventions of real media texts
Explain how you have used, developed
or challenged conventions of real media
products.
Evaluate how you creatively drew upon
and/ or developed conventions of real
media products.
 In what ways have your productions
used or developed conventions adopted
from real media products?
 In what ways have your productions
challenged or played with conventions
adopted from real media products?
 In other words, is your work generic, or
experimental – or both?
 Some media producers adopt a style
of working that is quite distinctive –
explore how your own favourite
producers/ directors/ designers/
publishers may have influenced work you
have produced. Do you have a ‘style’?
Are you an auteur?

Post-Production
Discuss the decisions you made during
post-production of all 4 media products

Research and Planning
How did your Research and Planning
inform your production? (GDS)

Discuss the ways in which you have
exercised creativity during postproduction?

Describe how you developed research
and planning skills for media production
and evaluate how these skills contributed
to creative decision-making. Refer to a
range of examples in your answer to
show how these skills developed over
time. (Jan10)

What did you do @ POST
PRODUCTION that you are particularly
proud of and how did you do it?
What was the impact/outcome on the
quality of media texts produced?
How specifically and to what extent
did your skills develop @ AS & A2?
If and how did a lack of access to PP
soft/hardware or of PP skills, impact
your work

 How did your research into genre
contribute to your production work?
 How did your research into audience
contribute to your production work?
 How did your research into institutions
responsible for the production and
regulation of the media influence your
production work?
 What pre-production planning
techniques did you employ (scripting,
storyboarding, shot-listing, flat-planning
etc.)? How effective was your planning –
how did it help you in the production
phase?
 What did you learn from planning
your first production that helped you
to improve your planning for the
second?
 How did you use audience feedback to
influence your production work while it
was in progress?

Digital Technology
How has digital technology aided your
creativity to during your coursework
productions? (GDS)
“Digital technology turns media
consumers into media producers”. In your
own experience, how has your creativity
developed through using digital
technology to complete your coursework
productions? (Exam board example)

 How has digital technology helped you
to capture your ideas?
 What benefits do digital technologies
offer over analogue? Are there any
disadvantages?
 How did digital technology influence
your work in pre-production, production,
and post-production?
 How have your skills with digital
technology developed, and how has
this influenced your productions?
 What role might digital technology plan
in the distribution of your work?
 How is digital technology changing
media production?

 How much of your text was ‘created’ in
post-production?
 What technologies did you use to
modify your raw material? How did this
 What do you consider to be the
change the meaning of your work?
impact of having learnt and applied
 What transitions/ effects did you apply
typical conventions AND why your
ability to apply this understanding has during post-production? How did you
manipulate narrative/ colours/ lighting/
improved over the course.
contrast/ brightness/ sound etc during
the edit?
 What would Andrew Goodwin say
 How much of your footage ended up
about your work?
‘on the cutting room floor’ (unused) and
why?
Creativity
You will not get a question on creativity on its own. Creativity is ONLY used in conjunction with one of the other key areas.
 What features of your work would you say are original to you?
 Which media texts and producers have influenced your creative decisions?
 How successfully does your work engage its audience and provoke its interest?
 Consider some of the creative choices you had to make during the course of your production – how to use cameras, lighting, dialogue, colour etc. How did you make these
decisions, and how did these contribute to the final production?
 How did digital technology/ real media texts/ research and planning/ post-production give you an opportunity to express and stretch your creativity?

Question 1b – Concepts
Media Language
“Media is communication.” Discuss the ways that you
have used media language to create meanings in one of
your media products.

 ‘Media language’ means the language of the medium
you are working within. For example, there is a
language of film which is different to the language of
music video/ television drama etc. This is different to
genre: genre can cut across media (e.g. a sci-fi film/ TV
programme/ music video (!)).
 How are you using the language of the medium?
 How have you used the language of music videos/
film openings/ digipaks/ magazine adverts?
 What would Andrew Goodwin say about your music
video?

Genre
“Media texts rely on audience knowledge of generic
codes and conventions in order for them to create
meaning.” Explain how you have used or subverted
generic conventions in one of your production pieces.
• How useful is the concept of genre in understanding
your work?
• How can genre be used to understand music videos,
and how is this different to genre and (thriller) films?
• How is your work intertextual? How does it fit in with
other music videos?
• How is your production conventional of the genre?
• Why is genre useful to you as a media producer/
useful to audiences?
• Genre theorists you have quotes from: Gunther
Kress, Denis McQuail, Nicholas Abercrombie, Christine
Gledhill, Katie Wales, John Fiske. Jacques Derrida: “A
text cannot belong to no genre, it cannot be without... a
genre. Every text participates in one or several genres,
there is no genreless text.”
• How could you use the theories to discuss genre and
understand your production?
• What would Andrew Goodwin say about your work in
terms of genre?
• Genres change and evolve (see Christian Metz and
David Buckingham). How is your production using/
developing the genre?

Narrative
“Media texts rely on cultural experiences in order for audiences to easily make sense
of narratives”. Explain how you used conventional and / or experimental narrative
approaches in one of your production pieces. (Exam Board Example)
• How useful is the concept of narrative in understanding your work?
• How is narrative and music videos different to narrative and film?
• How is your narrative structured? (convergent/ parallel/ circular/ linear/ non-linear/
interweaving/ fragmented/ impressionist…?) How did you use chapters/phases?
• What pleasure(s) does your narrative offer the audience?
• How do you use characters in your narrative? How have you used protagonists/
antagonists? Is Vladimir Propp useful to understand your production?
• Some theorists and theories you may be able to apply: Story versus plot; Tzetvan
Todorov (equilibrium etc); Claude Levi-Strauss (binary opposition); Roland Barthes
(Enigma code; Action code. Also, Open and Closed texts); Pam Cook; Noam
Chomsky (narrative is fundamental to human understanding)
• How does the narrative structure/ ending shape the meaning of your production?

Audience
“Media texts will never be successful unless they are
carefully constructed to target established audience
needs or desires.” Evaluate the ways that you
constructed your media text to target a specific
audience.

• How useful is the concept of audience in
understanding your work?
• Who is your target audience? How did you develop
your target audience? How does your production appeal
to your target audience?
• How useful are various segmentation models to
describe your target audience? Demographics?
Psychographics? Findyourtribe?
• Consider theorists and theories such as: Stuart Hall:
Encoding and Decoding; Preferred/ negotiated/
oppositional readings; Denis McQuail – (Uses and
Gratification theory); Ien Ang - “Audiencehood is
becoming an even more multifaceted, fragmented and
diversified repertoire of practices and experiences.”;
Hypodermic Needle Theory

Representation
Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions. (Jan10)
“Representations in media texts are often simplistic and reinforce dominant ideologies
so that audiences can make sense of them.” Evaluate the ways that you have used/
challenged simplistic representations in one of the media products you have
produced.
 How does your video represent different social groups/ people/ places/ lifestyles?
What values/ ideologies are you representing/ promoting?
 Does your production create a hegemonic representation/ does it represent and
reinforce the dominant ideology?
 What positive/ negative/ stereotypical connotations and representations are you
constructing/ using/ challenging?
 How are the representations in your production the products of your own cultural
experience/ background/ ideology/ values?
 What would Laura Mulvey say about your production?

Section B: Media and Collective identity
There are four areas you need to understand in preparing for the exam:
1. How do the contemporary media represent nations, regions and ethnic / social / collective groups
of people in different ways?
a. How are young people/ males/ females/ gay people/ Northerners/ any social group represented?
Discuss how the representations use stereotypes; are the representations hegemonic/ reinforcing
dominant ideologies; do they challenge hegemony; are they represented as heterogenous/
homogenous; how could terms and phrases like Female solidarity/ teen solidarity/ male solidarity,
Constructed certitude, Consciously cultivated (fe)male bond/ teen bond, Socialisation, Binary,
Plurality, Femininities/ masculinities be useful in discussing the representations?; Who are these
representations aimed at, and how does this affect the way the group are represented?; Who is
creating these representations?; How are different social groups represented in the media industry, as
well as by the media?; What is the purpose of these representations?; How does the media construct
representations of groups of people?; How is collective identity constructed?
2. How does contemporary representation compare to previous time periods?
a. Compare recent texts (last 4 years) to past texts in terms of the ideas in question 1. What differences/
similarities are there?;
3. What are the social implications of different media representations of groups of people?
a. What impact does the media have on audiences’ sense of identity?; How do audiences respond to/
use media representations?; To what extent are audiences active in constructing their own sense of
identity?; How useful are Uses and Gratification theory/ Hypodermic Needle Theory/ Cultivation
theory in understanding audiences’ responses to media representations?; Does the media reflect or
shape our sense of who we are?
4. To what extent is human identity increasingly ‘mediated’?
a. Does the media reflect or shape our sense of who we are?; Is the media increasingly important in how
we shape our identity?; How powerful is the media in shaping/ helping us to shape who we are?
In the exam you:
b. have a choice of two questions
c. have 60 minutes to answer the ‘Collective identity’ question
d. MUST write about two media (e.g. film and magazines. It doesn’t need to be even between the two
media, so could be 90% on one and 10% on the other)
e. Must include theory or theorists and apply them to your case studies
f. Should be able to discuss past, present and future
We have looked at collective identity in terms of teen/ youth and gender. Other schools will have looked at all
sorts (e.g. Africans; Muslims; Northerners; the working class…). The exam question will be broad enough so
that you can write about whatever area you have studied.
_______________________________________________________________
These are the kind of questions you will be asked.
1. Discuss the contemporary representation of a nation, region or social group in the media, using specific
textual examples from at least two media to support your answer. (Exam Board Sample)
2. How far does the representation of a particular social group change over time? Refer to at least two
media in your answer. (Exam Board Sample)
3. Looking at two media, describe the ways in which a particular group of people are collectively
represented or provided for, using specific examples to support your response. (Textbook)
4. Analyse the ways in which the media represent one group of people that you have studied. (Jan 2010)
5. “The media do not construct collective identity; they merely reflect it”. Discuss. (Jan 2010)
A couple of bonus ideas:
6. To what extent do audiences use media to construct their own sense of collective identity?
7. “The media has replaced family, society and religion as the main source of collective identity.” Discuss.

G325 Critical Perspective in Media – Information from the Exam Board
The purpose of this unit is to assess candidates’ knowledge and understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical debates, through their understanding of
one contemporary media issue and their ability to evaluate their own practical work in reflective and theoretical ways.
The examination is two hours. Candidates are required to answer two compulsory questions, on their own production work, and one question from a choice of six
topic areas. The unit is marked out of a total of 100, with the two questions on production work marked out of 25 each, and the media theory question marked out
of 50.
There are two sections to this paper:
Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production (50 marks)
Section B: Contemporary Media Issues (50 marks)
Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production
Candidates answer two compulsory questions. The first requires them to
describe and evaluate their skills development over the course of their
production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio. The second
asks them to identify one production and evaluate it in relation to one theoretical
concept.
Question 1(a) requires candidates to describe and evaluate their skills
development over the course of their production work, from Foundation Portfolio
to Advanced Portfolio. The focus of this evaluation must be on skills
development, and the question will require them to adapt this to one or two
specific production practices. The list of practices to which questions will relate
is as follows:
 Digital Technology
 Research and planning
 Post-production
 Using conventions from real media texts
 Creativity (will only be asked alongside one of the other categories)
Questions will be posed using one or two of these categories.
Where candidates have produced relevant work outside the context of their A
Level media course, they are free to additionally refer to this experience.
Question 1(b) requires candidates to select one production and evaluate it in
relation to a media concept. The list of concepts to which questions will relate is
as follows:
 Genre
 Narrative
 Representation
 Audience
 Media language
In the examination, questions will be set using one of these concepts only.
In some circumstances, candidates will be expected to select the production
that appears to relate most effectively to the specific concept that arises in the
exam question. However, the requirement for candidates to evaluate one of

their productions in relation to a concept does not assume that the concept will
necessarily always fit easily and in an orthodox way. Thus in some cases
candidates will be describing their productions in terms of them not relating
straightforwardly to the concept. For example, a candidate producing three
websites over their two portfolios might describe ways in which websites cannot
be understood easily through applying conventional narrative theory. Whether
the candidate applies the concept to the product or uses the production to
challenge the concept, it is essential that candidates are sufficiently
knowledgeable about the concept for either approach. Candidates may choose
to write about work undertaken at AS or A2, main task or preliminary/ancillary.
Section B: Contemporary Media Issues
One question to be answered from a choice of six topic areas offered by OCR.
There will be two questions from each topic area.
The topic areas require understanding of contemporary media texts, industries,
audiences and debates.
Candidates must choose one of the following topic areas, in advance of the
examination and, through specific case studies, texts, debates and research of
the candidates’ choice, prepare to demonstrate understanding of the
contemporary issue. This understanding must combine knowledge of at least
two media and a range of texts, industries, audiences and debates, but these
are to be selected by the centre / candidate. The assessment of the response
will be generic, allowing for the broadest possible range of responses within the
topic area chosen. Each topic is accompanied by four prompt questions, and
candidates must be prepared to answer an exam question that relates to one or
more of these four prompts. There should be emphasis on the historical, the
contemporary and the future in relation to the chosen topic, with most attention
on the present. The categories of contemporary media issues are:







Contemporary Media Regulation
Global Media
Media and Collective Identity
Media in the Online Age
Post-modern Media
‘We Media’ and Democracy

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