Second year mock analysis

The mock

Key assessment six – January 2019 – total time allowed: 120 minutes – please answer all questions

Component one section a

Question one is based on the Lucky Strike: Thanksgiving (1950) print advert (which can be found overleaf)  and the Tide’s Got What Women Want (1950’s) advert you have studied. Please spend 30 minutes on this question.

1)  How does media language incorporate viewpoints and ideologies in the Lucky Strike: Thanksgiving (1950) print advert and the Tide’s Got What Women Want (1950’s) advert you have studied? (15)

Component one section b

Please spend 40 minutes in total on the questions in Component one section b.

2a) How have recent technological changes had an impact on the production and distribution in the film industry? (8)

2b) To what extent is the regulation of the newspaper industry effective? Make reference to The Daily Mirror (12)

3a) How do media producers  meet the needs of audiences? Refer to Assassin’s Creed III – Liberation (2012) to make your points (12)

3b) Explore how national and global audiences can be targeted through different technologies and platforms. Refer to Assassin’s Creed III – Liberation (2012) to make your points (8)

Component two

Please spend 50 minutes answering the question in Component 2.

Television in the global age

1) Explore the ways in which gender is represented through the use of media language in Humans and The Returned (30)

The mark scheme

The mark scheme has been simplified, partly to make it easier to mark for teachers (!) and partly to make it straightforward for you to understand the decisions that have been made. The same mark scheme has been used for each question, which is a little unorthodox, but it's very similar to the available mark schemes. 

The marks awarded and the grade boundaries were reached through analysing the grade boundaries set for an AS Media Studies exam, and are therefore speculative. Remember, the grade boundaries change every year, and the grade boundaries used for this mock may be harsh, or generous!

The analysis (AKA: what you could have wrote...)

First of all, this exam was almost completely randomly generated. The questions that came up were not trying to predict anything that may come up in the final exam, and they were not selected to be especially challenging or straightforward. The wording was either lifted and slightly adapted from past papers available from the blog, They are what they are.

Secondly, this exam differs from the final exam in a number of ways. It's a combination of component one and component two. It's shorter than either of your two real exams. C1a is much shorter than it should be (there will be another unseen comparison in the final exam, with the other question being worth 30 marks). C1b has no short answer questions, but it probably will do in the final. Component 2 only has one question, but in the final component 2, all three C2 industries and texts (magazines, TV and online) will definitely feature.

Below you will find a list of things you COULD mention for each question. It's not exhaustive, and on the other hand, it's not indicative (you don't need to cover EVERY bullet point!). But if you found yourself coming up short in a particular question, take a look at the bullet points below and don't get caught out next time!

BIG TIP:

For component one section b, there is less emphasis on textual analysis and more emphasis on cold, hard fact. For each and every industry, you MUST know as a bare minimum the publisher, production company, distributor, circulation figures, production costs, the body that regulates the industry, and a range of other key facts. These are generally easy to find and if you do not have them in your notes, you can crib all this information for every media product with about an hour of half-hearted internet research.

MEDIA LANGUAGE: How does media language incorporate viewpoints and ideologies in the Lucky Strike: Thanksgiving (1950) print advert and the Tide’s Got What Women Want (1950’s) advert you have studied? (15)

• Normally, you would have a longer component one section a. One section had to be longer than the other to fit in the exam, and it was randomly decided that it was industry and audience that won out. 
• A singular, stereotypical representation of women that reflects the socio-historical context of when it was released
• Cluttered layout, with dense walls of text suggests female target audience has the time to read it
• Aspirational images of working class housewives reinforces patriarchal hegemonic perspectives
• Both adverts use explicit American iconography for an American audience
• Lucky Strike may subvert representations of women, through depicting them smoking, though only for economic reasons
• Hand-painted fonts demonstrate gentle and casual mode of address, reinforcing the target audience
• Both adverts are from the early 1950's, before widespread protests by the women's liberation movement
• Use of intertextuality: the romance genre in Tide, the comedy genre in Lucky Strike
• Reinforces dominant. hegemonically enforced images about female beauty, for example the ubiquity of wearing make-up
• The ideological implications of the term 'mild' which markets a carcinogenic product towards women 
• The use of binary oppositions for comedic or dramatic purpose
• The use of symbolic, proairetic and hermeneutic codes, particularly the symbolism of the love hearts and the thanks giving turkey. 
• The use of anchorage

INDUSTRY: How have recent technological changes had an impact on the production and distribution in the film industry? (8)

• THIS ANSWER MUST MAKE REFERENCE TO THE CASE STUDY FILMS STUDIED IN CLASS
• A move towards digital distribution, though both Compton and Blake where theatrically distributed
• Blake was exhibited in a range of unusual situations, for example at community centres and village halls, demonstrating it's non-mainstream ideology
• Both films had extensive marketing campaigns, with many examples to include, which could be a way of ensuring profit in a digital age
• Marketing campaigns for both films made heavy use of digital technology, for example trailers 
• distributed and hosted on streaming platforms
• Digital distribution allow producers to bypass restrictions enforced by BBFC ratings
• Daniel's use of social media and hashtags, as well as publicity stunts
• Compton's iconography (the parental advisory sticker) became a meme, and a successful example of viral marketing
• Students may also briefly refer to historically important examples of digital technology in production and distribution, such as The Blair Witch Project and it's multimedia advertising and marketing campaign leading to previously unheard of exposure for a micro-budget horror

INDUSTRY: To what extent is the regulation of the newspaper industry effective? Make reference to The Daily Mirror (12)

• Published by Reach PLC since 2016
• Newspapers under extreme pressure since the phone hacking scandal
• As a left Wing newspaper, Mirror tends to avoid ethnically inflammatory language, for example in the toddler hammer death story
• Mirror is part of IPSO, a self regularly body that monitors press standards
• Online media and digitally convergent technologies now means regulation of newspapers is often largely ineffective
• Livingstone and Lunt to back up the idea of digital technologies rendering regulation ineffective
• The Mail Online frequently breaks laws, for example child protection laws in order to aggressively market it's website to middle aged women (sidebar of shame)
• The relationship between audience desires ('if it bleeds it leads') and journalistic impartiality (being balanced)
• Mirror takes a broadly left wing and potentially biased political perspective, and is largely critical of Donald Trump and Theresa May. 'Trump on The Gropes' a good example of an exploitative and ideologically invested headline.

AUDIENCE: How do media producers  meet the needs of audiences? Refer to Assassin’s Creed III – Liberation (2012) to make your points (12)

• The balance between targeting a specialised and generalised audience
• The subversive and challenging representation of a black female protagonist
• A 'triple A' game with extremely high production values
• Yet another Assassin's Creed game with a range of generic conventions allows Ubisoft to target existing 'core' fans
• Jenkins and fandom: a range of participatory experiences available through merchandise, online forums and conventions
• Initially released on PS4 Vita, a handheld console that provides audiences with a private, immersive experience... 
• ...or not. In Western territories, handheld consoles are far less popular around adult consumers, and it was necessary to re-release the game on home consoles instead. 
• PEGI 18 rating may limit it's distribution to younger audiences, yet emphasises it's 'hardcore' status
• Language and mode of address similar to a big budget Hollywood film, attracting a generalised audience
• Intertextual references to films and other media
• Other examples from other games, for example Death Stranding's highly participatory marketing campaign, Dark Souls III providing a hardcore experience that encourages audience interaction and creation of fan videos (Shirky) and Fallout 4 as a triple A game providing audiences the pleasure of interacting and negotiating (Hall)

AUDIENCE: Explore how national and global audiences can be targeted through different technologies and platforms. Refer to Assassin’s Creed III – Liberation (2012) to make your points (8)

• Released on a variety of platforms, and re-released twice
• Ubisoft a French company, yet present a generalised experience for a global audience
• Trailer: widely viewed and shared on social media, and a potential example of word of mouth or even viral advertising
• The differences between handheld and console gaming
• Easily distributed globally, through Steam, PS Store and so on, as well as physical media
• Louisiana, bayou setting may especially appeal to US audiences 
• Reception theory, and different audience responses
• References to other games, for example The Silver Case being released initial on mobile phones, then re-released to an extremely niche international audience through limited physical and digital release

REPRESENTATION: Explore the ways in which gender is represented through the use of media language in Humans and The Returned (30)

• This is a broad question with many possible responses
• In order to access the higher marks, students MUST take an explicit point of view and present a strong argument, for example Humans and Les Revenants depict a diverse range of subversive representations which allow the producer to explore and to challenge dominant ideological perspectives.
• Examples of arguments could include a diverse range of representations, or a limited range of representations, the use of female sexualisation for allegorical reasons, or many, many more
• Responses should focus on an analysis of key scenes, making reference to a broad range of media language and discussing how and why gender is encoded,
• The best responses will explore the impact of stereotypical gendered representations on the target audience and in society, and may consider how the set texts subvert this
• The best responses may consider how dominant ideological perspectives are constructed for hegemonic purposes 

Humans

• Examples of key scenes could include the ending montage, Anita being purchased, and the mother returning home and being introduced to Anita for the first time
• Humans as an allegory, using sexualised representations of women to explore sexism in modern society
• Challenging range of female representation
• Binary opposition formed between the mother and Anita, and the roles that they serve
• Emotional and sexual labour
• Leo as an active stereotypically male protagonist, confirming Van-Zoonens notion of gender being constructed through media language
• Anita constructed through mise-en-scene, bought from a shop, and an exciting present for the daughter, and a sexual object for the son
• Intertextual reference to films such as Blade Runner reinforces themes of gender inequality
• Bell Hooks: Anita's status as female is emphasised by her status as East Asian, reinforcing themes of sexual exploitation, ad post colonialism 
• Critical of sexual labour and prostitution
• A broad representation of gender roles, and also ethnicities
• Anita as a stereotypical housewife, constructed through setting and mise en scene
• Comparison to the Swedish version, with more emphasis on sex and sexuality, yet also a wider range of well developed female characters from the start. Scene of Odi's new maid being smacked in the face, and scenes of domestic violence missing from the British version
• Hyperreality: representations of representations. Anita is a simulation and idealised representation of a male fantasy
• Anita through her construction functions as a sex object, mother, cleaner, nanny, and sexual rival
• "I hope she's pretty. Can we change her if she's not pretty?" reinforces the notion that women are purely to be looked and, and valued only visually

Les Revenants

• Examples of key scenes could include Camille returning home, Julie returning home, and Lena and Simon walking home
• Allegory of sexuality and sexual awakening
•  range of traditional and subversive representations of gender
• Frank and explicit representations of teenage sexuality that make the show difficult to market to a mainstream international audience
• Julie confirm and rejecting gender stéréotypes. Dressed in conservative and unrevealing jumper, with unflatterng spectacles, and signs of either self-harm or scars of another nature demonstrates a non-sexualised and complicated representation of women
• However, Julie is forced by circumstance in to a maternal role
• Focuses representation on white, middle class people
• Patriarcal hegemonic représentations: a lone woman is murdered in a subway, and women are often positioned in threatening situation
• David Gauntlet, and varied representations of male and female identité, that allow for a wider number of target and secondary audiences
• Lena as a responsible teenager with a job at the pub, who assertively calls Simon a 'dickhead' (connard) 
• As a cult sow, Les Revenants can explore a wider and more diverse range of représentations than a show with a mainstream audience