If you are viewing this post during the 2021 C19 pandemic, you can click here to view specific info and advice related to working in lockdown and alternatives to exams!
This information is not only vital for second years about to sit the final exams, but is also essential reading for first years about to take their end of year mock exam.
This post will be updated as more of you submit answers or ask questions, so bookmark this page and check back often! Some of these questions fit neatly in to every section, so I've tried to put them in the most logical place, but please just read through the entire thing. These are your questions so this is about as useful as it gets.
General advice
How long should I spend on each question?
This all depends on which exam (component one or two) and with section you're talking about. It's different for each section.
Component one section A - 2 minutes per mark - This means, for example, that for the 30 mark question you should spend precisely one hour answering it, and for the 15 mark question 30 minutes
Component one section B - 1 minute per mark - nice and straightforward! Spend 12 minutes on a 12 marker, 2 minutes on a 2 marker.
Component two - 50 minutes for each industry - So if there's a 30 mark question, you spend 50 minutes. If there are two 15 mark questions for an industry, then you spend 25 minutes on each
Wait, why do I spend so long on component one section A and so little time of component one section B when they're worth the same amount of marks?
Several reasons. Number one, because the exam paper will tell you to! Here's a quote from the front of the 2017 sample paper:
You are advised to spend approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes on section A, including studying the unseen resources, and approximately 45 minutes on Section B. You should use relevant theories and relevant subject-specific terminology where appropriate.Secondly, for C1A, you will be seeing unseen texts for the very first time. You will need time to gather your thoughts, and then to present a detailed and perceptive analysis. For C1B, it's much more about cold hard facts that you frankly either know or do not. Make sure you're not caught out!
How do I actually get marks in media? Where's the mark scheme?
Guess what? There's loads of ways you can get marks in media studies. Unlike other subjects (for example maths) where there is a right and wrong answer, media students are judged on the strength of their argument, their demonstration of knowledge and understanding, and their ability to textually analyse media products.
So here's a tip. Don't worry about the mark scheme. It's kind of useless for students. Instead, concentrate on strengthening your argument, and practice applying knowledge and understanding. You know, the kind of stuff we do in class every day!
Should I write an introduction?
Yes, for longer answer questions. As a rule of thumb, write an introduction for everything that's 15 marks or higher.
How do I structure an introduction, especially in component two?
Make sure that your introductions for component two always use the DAC structure. Start off by defining key terms (for example ‘it is essential for media industries to not only target audiences, but to construct them. The process of constructing an audience involves reinforcing a set of key ideologies, beliefs and brand choices over time, cultivating the ideology of a common and desirable lifestyle…”). Then demonstrate your argument (“I shall argue that Woman magazine was highly successful in constructing a target audience through the use of singular and sexist stereotypes, and the constant reinforcement of hegemonic patriarchal norms, in order to ensure financial success with a mass market generalised audience”), before then providing some context (“Woman magazine was in an excellent position to provide mass audience appeal, through being published by the horizontally integrated magazine conglomerate IPC, which ensured that Woman had a sizable market share of a very competitive genre”). After you have finished the introduction, move on to your first example. Try not to start analysing in the introduction. You should simply introduce your central argument. The analysis comes later!
How do I write an introduction and why should I bother?
Introductions allow you to address the context and background of what you are writing about, and, more importantly, it allows you to present your point of view/argument right from the start. For introductions, use DAC (definition, argument, context) to structure it. This can be done in any order. For example, for a question like “Explore how the set edition of Woman magazine constructs it's target audience”, you could write something like this:
(D) Audience refers to the individuals who read, buy and use media products. (A) In order to maximise profit and to maintain power, producers will seek to construct a specific audience to sell the product to. This will ensure a guaranteed and enthusiastic audience, who will not only buy the product, but will engage with it on a personal level. (C) In order to explore this idea, I will look at the 1964 edition of Woman magazine, a British women’s lifestyle magazine published by IPC media, that uses mainstream ideological perspectives to achieve a circulation of 3million copies a week.
This way, you don’t just jump straight in to the answer, and it comes across as far more sophisticated.
How do I actually start a paragraph?
Make sure to start every paragraph with a call back to the question. This is why you underline key terms from the question. For example, you can start a sentence with “a further way in which Humans is shaped through specialised production methods is through the use of digital special effects. An excellent example of this occurs in the opening scene of episode one, with the extreme close up of…”
How often should I refer back to the question?
All of the time. Every point of every paragraph. All of it. I should instantly know what the question is just from reading your answer. And I should never forget what the question is, because you keep rephrasing it and selecting examples and facts that specifically refer to it!
How can I talk about intertextuality?
When discussing intertextuality, I would like you to emphasise exactly how important and widely used it is right from the introduction. Intertextuality is used throughout the media industries for a variety of reasons, as we discussed in the recent workshop session. However I would argue the most widespread use of intertextuality is to reinforce the preferred reading of the product, and to clearly put across the ideology of the produce. Just do make sure that when discussing intertextuality, you are as clear and explicit as you can be. For example "one excellent example of how intertextuality and genre conventions can anchor audience expectations is demonstrated in the Times Newspaper. Illustrating the story of the death of a child in Finsbury Park, a low angled mid shot of a police officer has been selected by the editor. The choice of this image has clear ideological and referential significance. For the middle class target audience, the image is a clear intertextual reference to the popular crime drama genre, which in turn anchors the audiences expectations that the story will be both dramatic and will have an exciting conclusion. This highly manipulative mode of address has clear ethical issues..." etc etc!
How do I talk about how audiences are constructed?
Audience construction is an essential media concept. While many consider the idea of audience targeting a pre-existing audience, audience construction is where the producer of the product will use media language and leading ideological perspectives to reinforce and build an entirely new audience. An excellent example of this is woman magazine. If you tell an audience that, from a dominant ideological perspective that this is how women should behave and this is what women should buy, it allows the magazine to sell advertising space for a premium to traditionally 'feminine' industries such as cosmetics and homeware. This allows the magazine to maximise it's profit.
Stuart Hall’s reception theory would be perfect to use here, as you could write about the preferred reading (accepting the dominant hegemonic representation of women as mothers and generally being less important than men) . Finally, when talking about constructing audiences, you should discuss the idea that media institutions exist only for power and profit (Curran and Seaton), and that by building a dedicated audience by using stereotypical, hegemonically reinforced representations of women, the magazine can ensure that it’s readers will come back time and time again!
I'm lost. What can I do to revise?
The best place to start is by clicking here, picking out a question that looks unfamiliar and then answering it. Send it to your teacher, and then wait for feedback!
Want to revise but don't fancy writing an entire response? Click here and get lost in the many resources of the blog!
Finally, check out the revision guide, particularly the ticklist, to make sure you're ready for any possible question that might come up.
Component one section a
How is C1A structured?
There will be two questions in C1A. One will be on representation, the other on media language/textual analysis. One of these will be 30 marks (one hour!) and the other 15 marks (half an hour). You will not know which one the 'big' question is until you get to the exam.
What kind of stuff might come up if newspapers come up as an unseen text?
First of all, we don't know, for obvious reasons. But we can make some informed guesses.
If newspapers come up in component one section a as an unseen text, it is very likely that it will focus on a big event which is happening at the moment, and which bears a similarity to the US 2016 election results for the set newspapers. AS OF 2019, here are a few examples of events which are likely to be featured:
- Brexit
- Climate protests
- The European elections
- Something to do with the NHS
- Something to do with the representation of a specific group, for example working class teenagers, ethnic minorities, the elderly, etc
However, you will need to continue reading newspapers and online news media to order to get a handle on what's going on in the world.
What can I talk about beyond voyeurism and sexualisation when discussing representation in Riptide?
One really important thing to point out is that Riptide reinforces hegemonic and stereotypical representations of female beauty. Each and every woman in the video is blonde, tall and stereotypically attractive. Additionally, through being situated in positions of threat and through being represented as ‘damsels in distress’, the gender roles in Riptide are largely stereotypical. It is up to you to decide if Riptide is a criticism of these gender roles, or if it simply is a conventional music video using se and violence against women to sell its product to heterosexual men. Naturally, Van Zoonen’s suggestions about the representation of women would work particularly well here.
So Riptide is a postmodern video. But how? How does it break rules, and how does it criticise metanarratives?
It is essential in the exam that you point out the video for Riptide is postmodern. Postmodernism is a difficult subject to get your head around, but in a nutshell, it really just refers to a media product that deliberately breaks rules. This is usually done to confuse, upset and challenge the audience.
The video to Riptide breaks the rules and conventions of music videos in a few ways. Firstly, it doesn't feature the actual singer in the video at all, which arguably defeats the purpose of the music video! The biggest rule breaking scene is the master shot of the woman performing in the completely dark room. The consistent close up of her face is conventional of music videos and performance, however she is not the performer of the song! This is highly conventional, and deliberately confusing for the audience. Secondly, she is not looking directly at the camera, in a direct mode of address, but gazing to the side. At first she looks bored and disinterested. Again, unconventional. Most performers should look excited and energetic. Finally, and this is most important of all, her lip syncing does not match up with the words being sung. This is further anchored by the subtitles for these shots, which gradually become less and less accurate as the music video continues. This positions the audience in a particularly uncomfortable mode of address, where they begin to question their understanding of the music video. It's a very clever way to ensure that audiences will discuss and share a music video to what is arguably a standard and straightforward pop song.
In terms of breaking and challenging metanarratives: This is a little more tricky. Metanarratives are concepts and stories that help us make sense of the world, for example science, sport and religion. Criticising them and breaking these rules is often done to deliberately upset and confuse audiences. Once more this is something which is often done in postmodern media products. The metanarrative of religion is frequently challenged in riptide. The mise en scene of the ghostly scene in the graveyard, the mise en scene of the Ouija board, and (apologies for repeating myself) the mise en scene of the tarot cards all point towards alternative views of religion and a terrifying world that we do not understand. And once more, this constructs a creepy and upsetting ideological perspective for the audience to decode.
Ultimately, when talking about postmodernism in general and the video to Riptide in particular, it's definitely worth pointing out that its true nature is being weird for the sake of being weird, and creating a cool and strange video that will hopefully go viral on social media!
How can I write about black identity in Formation ?
Formation can be seen to be a celebration of black culture and subcultures through the various and varied ways it depicts Beyonce. Of course, since Beyonce is a pop star, it's highly conventional that she changes costume and hairstyle throughout the video, but here, unlike many music videos, the costumes have socio historical connotations. One of the most important symbols of black identity here is hair. Black people's hair is different to white people's hair, and it requires extensive and painful work to make it straight and kink-free. Yet there is an expectation and hegemonic assumption that black women in particular will conform to normative 'white' beauty standards, despite the pain, cost and time that this can take. Chris Rock made a really good documentary about it a while back, you can check out the trailer here.
In Formation, Beyonce appears as a stereotypical black 1970's working class woman (on top of the stairs) with kinky pulled back hair, a kind of cool braided priestess, and a laid back women spinning in her car and flicking her braids everywhere. In each case, these hairstyles represent a subversion of hegemonic expectations of black women, and a celebration of black identity for the audience. It also marks a radical departure for Beyonce: check out her hair when she was Destiny's Child!
What's the big hat Beyonce is wearing in the Formation video all about, then?
The video to Formation is filled with iconography referencing aspects of black culture. These include the weave shop, the Antebellum era house, and Beyonce's long flowing braids she sports when she's doing donuts in the parking lot.
There's one particularly striking aspect in Formation, with the enormous hat that she wears as she fervently nods her head, while surrounded with an entourage of elderly black men wearing caps. Once more, this aspect of mise-en-scene is an explicit reference to historical black culture. The hat is probably a symbol of black wealth and power from turn of the century black American culture. This article suggests some possible significations for this particular piece of iconography.
Incidentally, the hat used as a prop in this video sold for almost $30,000 in a charity auction in 2017. This key fact clearly demonstrates Beyonce's enormous star appeal.
How can I talk about Gilroy when studying Wateraid?
Gilroy’s theory is based around the idea of Postcolonialism. He argues that while the British have returned their former colonies to their rightful owners, there still exist hierarchies of race. For Gilroy, white people are much more likely to be the protagonist, while black people are typically the victim. The Water Aid ‘Claudia’ advert we studied does try to get away from this postcolonial stereotype, often referred to as the ‘white saviour’ stereotype. In charity adverts, black people are typically represented as weak, vulnerable, and in need of the help of white people in order to get out of trouble. In contrast, Claudia seems to be a positive representation of a strong, hardworking and happy Zambian girl.
However, Claudia is still represented as being other, or different from the target white British Audience. A binary opposition is created between rainy ’normal’ Britain and dry ‘exotic’ Africa. Claudia sings a British pop song in English, and, by walking through the empty plains with a water bucket on her head, reinforces a popular stereotype about rural Africans. Finally, while the village are shown to be happy and positive through the mise-en-scene of evening sunlight and the symbolic code of running water, the anchorage of the on screen lexis “give £3 to help more people like Claudia” reinforces that his was only possible through the charitable help of western viewers. For Gilroy, this only reinforces racial hierarchies, and for Hall, this reinforces racial stereotypes.
What kind of stuff can I talk about if genre comes up?
When discussing genre, ideally you should establish early on why genre is so important, right in the introduction. Just to recap, genre is useful for both producers and audiences as a
- Form of categorisation
- An easy way of marketing a similar experience
- A way for audiences to personally identify with a product and to help define themselves (Gauntlett)
- Etc
In order to take this further, reference to Steve Neale would be ideal. Using the WaterAid advert as an example, the advert uses much repetition of genre conventions, for example through the setting, the intertextuality of the establishing montage, the typical on screen graphics asking for money, and the MES of water flowing from a well. However, the Claudia advert subverts many expectations of the charity advert, providing the target audience with a subversive and different experience that is refreshing after the brutality and misery of conventional charity adverts. Examples of difference include the iconography of the British pop song, the subversive representation of rural central Africa as exotic and paradise-like, and the subversive representation of a young black African woman as being self-sufficient. Purely from an economic perspective, it is this difference that functions as a unique selling point, providing the audience with a range of gratifications which may encourage them to donate.
What's positioning, and how can I talk about how audiences are 'positioned by representations'?
Positioning is where the audience are 'placed' by the producer. A nice and straightforward way to think about positioning when viewing an unseen (or set) text is "where am I supposed to be? Am I supposed to like it here"? A good way for the producer to communicate that the audience should like the main character is by using a montage of close up and mid shot's to demonstrate their importance, personality and perhaps attractiveness.
Let's apply this to the Wateraid advert. In the initial establishing montage, the target audience are positioned in the familiar setting of a stereotypical British living room. This is further anchored through the mise-en-scene of rain pouring down the outside of a window, and a close up shot of a radio playing diegetic sound of a stereotypical British newscaster. The target audience are therefore initially positioned in a familiar, relatable yet perhaps slighting boring situation before a hard cut to an exterior, stereotypically African setting instantly establishes a binary opposition. The second establishing montage now positions the audience as a voyeuristic outsider, which reinforces the stereotype of central Africa as being different and other and stereotypically exotic.
Which one's which with diegetic sound?
The easy way to remember this is that 'diegesis' means 'in the world of the narrative'. Therefore if the sound is 'in the story' then it's diegetic. If it is not possible for anyone in the story to hear it, it is non-diegetic. Most sound is diegetic, though most scores or musical soundtracks are non-diegetic.
There's a few more kinds of sound, for example internal diegetic sound refers to a character's internal thoughts... but honestly this gets confusing pretty quickly.
By the way, diegesis doesn't just refer to sound. Visuals can be diegetic or non-diegetic also. For example, you might refer to the on screen titles in Les Revenants as being non-diegetic.
How and when should I refer to bell hooks?
The first thing to remember when referring to bell hooks is that she does not use capital letters for her names! hooks is a feminist theorist, but is just as interested in other aspects of identity, including ethnicity and social class. Therefore hooks is an intersectional feminist, and she considers the ways in which black women are represented in different ways than white women. For hooks, a black woman is more subject to discrimination and negative representation, and we should challenge this. The video to Formation by Beyonce is an excellent example of a black woman confirming and reinforcing black stereotypes (through costume, setting, gestures, dance routines etc) in a way that challenges these assumptions, 'owning' the representation and bringing attention to the very real issue of police brutality and discrimination.
hooks isn't all doom and gloom: she also positively asserts that feminism is for everyone. For hooks, sexism against women also affects men.
Component one b
When the question says "you will be rewarded for drawing together knowledge and understanding from across your full course of study, including different areas of the theoretical framework and media contexts", what does it actually mean?
So I need to talk about context. But what other examples did we study in class?
Here's a list! Keep in mind that this will vary depending on your teacher and depending on what year you are in. Also keep in mind this list only contains examples for the industries that might come up in the 'industry' section of component one section A.
Film
- The Blair Witch Project (Super low budget film with a ridiculously successful viral marketing campaign)
- Kes (Another Ken Loach film that we watched the trailer for. Stereotypically social realist)
- Twilight (Paranormal romance drama that used a huge digitally convergent marketing campaign, for example fake social media accounts for the main characters)
Newspapers
- We looked at lots of examples of newspapers, and your homework for this unit was to read a newspaper every day. This is why we got you to do that...
- The Mail Online (The most visited newspaper site in the world. Much more informal that the print Mail, and targets a working class female audience. Extremely sexualised representations of women)
- The Sun (we looked at a few front pages of this right wing working class paper)
Radio
- We got you to do a research task where you went through BBC sounds to find radio shows that reflected a range of demographic groups. You can refer to any of these BBC shows to demonstrate how the BBC offers a pluralistic experience for it's audiences.
Videogames
- Death Stranding (Kojima Productions. Highly atypical marketing strategy. Years from release yet already ridiculously popular through viral marketing)
- The 25th Ward: The Silver Case (Grasshopper Manufacture. Extremely niche genre and game targeting a niche but fanatical audience)
- Dark Souls III (From Software. Another niche game targeting it's specialised audience through extreme difficulty. Tagline: prepare to die!)
- Fallout 4 (Bethesda Softworks. Huge, AAA game that uses an immersive introduction to address both long term and new fans)
- Goat Simulator (Coffee Stain Studios. Tiny independent game that got extremely popular through word of mouth)
How explicit should my examples be for industry questions?
Make sure your examples are explicit. Rather than discussing in general about a newspaper having mass appeal, it would be excellent to make reference to an explicit story, for example How both The Times and The Daily Mirror covered the Finsbury Park murder story in order to appeal to a mass audience and therefore ensure high circulation. This could be further linked to digital technologies, as emotive stories like this are far more likely to be retweeted and commented on. Finally, the explicitly racist and xenophobic nature of the comments for this particular story are a clear example of how digital technologies can allows audiences to engage and to contribute to the production of a story… even if it ends up being very unethical!
What key words might I be asked to define for the industry questions?
Click here for a list of many of the key industry and related terms that you could be asked to define in component one section B.
What kind of stuff can I talk about for the marketing for Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation?
Rather than just talking vaguely about merchandise and costumes, it’s important to discuss one or two explicit examples of merchandise and explicitly how this might appeal to a niche audience. For example a backpack with the AC logo can provide the target core audience with the subcultural capital necessary to make friends and acquaintances within the fandom. However, most of all, I suggest discussing the front cover. For example, the use of mise-en-scene and the direct mode of address of the protagonist is both highly appealing to a core videogame audience, and given that it looks like every other AC cover, the game is clearly part of the AC franchise. Therefore it can be argued that ACIII:L’s appeal is based on it targeting a pre-sold and pre-existing audience!
What is diversification?
Diversification is where a company expands itself by trying out different businesses and industries. This can be achieved through acquisitions, mergers and conglomeration.
An excellent example of diversification is the newspaper industry. As physical sales of print newspapers have slumped, newspapers have responded by diversifying, for example through websites, apps, digital editions and so on. The Mirror online is a great example of this, and helps
How can I talk about demographics and psychographics?
First of all, we deliberately skirted over psychographics, though we did spend half a lesson on it. They are a way of identifying the ‘personality’ of the audience, and their brand choices. It’s a very old fashioned idea and no one in marketing has seriously touched psychographics in years. Demographics are a straightforward way of categorizing the audience, for example through their age, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, location etc. Your examples must be specific. For example, for Assassin’s Creed as a franchise, the target demographic could be male, heterosexual, white, aged 13-18, and working class. The secondary audience could be female, black, and aged 25-40. You would need to identify explicit reasons how and why this product targets these audiences, for example the mise-en-scene of weapons and the genre conventions of the action adventure genre effectively target the primary audience, while the black female playable character allows the game to attract less traditional secondary audiences .I’m sure you can pick out loads more examples from the game. You can (and should!) also make reference to audience theories here, such as Stuart Hall’s readings, Gauntlet’s theory of identity, and Shirky’s theory of fandom.
Component two
I can't remember anything about Les Revenants. What happened again?
You need to rewatch the episode! Maybe you and your friends could chip in and download the first episode for a couple of quid?
Either way, click here for excellent recap and analysis of four of the most important scenes, that you can use to answer any question that crops up.
I (Michael) also wrote a few example answers for Les Revs, and you (students) did too. Check them out by clicking here and wait for the memories to flood back.
I also wrote some notes on the WHOLE EPISODE, and you can click here to find it.
Who actually published Woman magazine in 1964?
Woman magazine was published by IPC in 1964. IPC is now known as TI Media, and still exists as a highly specialised and horizontally integrated publisher of broadly conservative mass market magazines.
What economic factors are important for the magazine industry?
First of all, for a question like this you will need to come to a conclusion as to how significant economic factors are for the magazine industry.
The most important thing to discuss when discussing economic factors and the two magazines we have studied is that Woman magazine is capitalist business venture that finds 30% of its total revenue through advertising, and that Adbusters is an anti-capitalist, not-for-profit magazine that features no advertising. All your examples should focus on the completely different economic ideological perspectives. For example, Adbusters deliberately chooses to subvert the idea of having a brand identity by having a different masthead with each edition, while woman magazine has a particularly clear brand identity so as not to alienate their 'mass market' (i.e basic) audience.
Secondly, Woman magazine uses stereotypical representations of women to construct a target audience, to reinforce hegemonic values, and then to sell this cliche to advertisers. However Adbusters targets its audience through presenting a subversive ideology that advertisers would not want to be associated with. This allows them complete artistic freedom to cover whatever controversial idea they want. However, arguably Adbusters is not really that controversial. If it genuinely was transgressive, no shop would ever stock it.
The other really important thing to point out, as your central argument, is that economic (as in financial) factors are just as important for both Woman and Adbusters! Both magazines have a brand identity, business model and clear ideological perspective, even if Adbusters tries to pretend otherwise. The Adbusters Media Foundation must rely on a high cover price to break even on their non-profit publication, but the magazine is also attractive, well designed, and presents a subversive and appealing ideology to the educated middle-class target audience. For both magazines you can back up these points by referring to adverts (paid for in Woman, and culture jammed in Adbusters) to demonstrate their completely different economic perspectives.
Finally, an industry question is always an opportunity to bring out the big guns: COLD HARD FACTS. For example, Woman magazine is/was owned by IPC, a horizontally integrated conglomerate that specialises in publishing broadly conservative mass market magazines. Woman is an example of standardisation: every issue is almost exactly the same (I have a few physical 60's copies of Woman and can confirm this).
How can I apply industry theory to Attitude Online?
Attitude, including the magazine, the website and the "Attitude brand" are all owned by Stream media. Stream media is a horizontally and multimedia integrated organisation that has two areas of specialisation. One is in-house and trade magazines. These kind of magazines are focused on a particular brand, for example Spar or Hertz Car Rental, and therefore target a very niche but often surprisingly large audience. By focussing on such a niche gap in the market, Stream can establish themselves as the market leader, without having to compete with frankly much larger publishers.
The other genre of Magazine that Stream seem to focus on is gay men's lifestyle magazines. Stream already owned the rights to the Dutch English language gay lifestyle magazine Winq. But then in 2016, they bought out Attitude. Why? Simply put, to eliminate the competition. Stream clearly have an area of expertise (trade magazines and gay lifestyle magazines). By sticking to what they know (a process known as 'specialisation'), Stream can ensure that they have monopolised (own all of) a comparatively niche but still lucrative (money making) genre.
By buying out the competition, Stream arguably limit creativity. The website would seem to back this up. Attitude online is very simple and straightford, using a straightforward lexis and mode of address to target a mass market audience. Additionally, the website only really exists to advertise the magazine and to sell advertising space, which is an example of cross-promotion. Therefore it can be argued that Stream, in purchasing Attitude are solely motivated by profit and power.
Finally, Attitude (and Stream) surrounds itself with popular and influential people. To quote the press release: "It has held those in power to account on matters of equality, supported all manner of campaigns and charities across the LGBT community and continuously scooped all-comers with exclusive cover interviews as varied as David Beckham, Madonna and Take That, as well as, most recently, Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge". This name dropping increases the recognisability of the magazine and boosts it's brand identity. We can argue (a little cynically) that these high profile big names have only been included to raise the profile and the the popularity of the magazine, and allows it to appeal to an audience who may previously not have bought it.
In summary, we can argue that Attitude is solely motivated by profit and power, and it achieves this by:
- Eliminating the competition
- Targeting a niche but dedicated audience
- Adopting a horizontally integrated business model
- Deliberately attracting high profile names to publicise the magazine to new and larger audiences, and
- Using straightforward language and lexis to appeal to a working class gay audience (website only)
How can I talk about theories of identity when exploring online media?
A fairly standard question that could come up is: "How far can aspects of identity be seen to affect the way in which audiences use online media? Discuss, with reference to Zoella and Attitude. [30]"
Identity refers not only to the identities being represented in the media products, but also how audiences use the media products to reflect their own identities. Just so we're on the same page, the identities depicted are young, working class white women in Zoella, and gay men in Attitude.
When you see the word 'identity' in a question, it's an excellent opportunity to use David Gauntlett's theory. David Gauntlett argues that audiences are not passive, but instead construct their identities through ‘picking and mixing’ the ideologies of the producer in whatever way they choose. Identity is an essential concept in media studies, as we as audiences will respond to texts in a lot of different ways. Through this interpretation there is a lot of potential for the producer to manipulate their target audiences through ideology.
Let's look at a few examples of how audiences can use the online media products we have studied in order to demonstrate their own identities.
In the Zoella Apartment video, Zoella provides the target working class female audience with a range of different identities and ideological perspectives to pick and mix. The best example of this is perhaps the scented candle. The candle, in particular its package, connotes femininity and an exciting lifestyle to the target audience, that can be achieved simply through buying the product! The importance of the candle to the stereotypical female identity constructed by Zoella is reinforced through the almost fetishistic close-ups of the candle and its packaging, reinforcing its status as commodity fetishism.
Therefore, we can see that identity is essential to Zoella's brand, and, more importantly to how audiences use it to construct their own identity.
For Attitude, identity is even more important. For many gay men, buying products and accessing online media might be the only way to truly express their own identity, for fear of being openly gay in public. Additionally, Attitude gives the gay audience a metanarrative or way of living, demonstrating the 'correct' way to by gay'. Gay identity is constructed and reinforced through the subject matter, mise-en-scene, and the repetition and reinforcement of gay stereotypes such as content on theatre, fashion, and the hypersexualised 'boys' section of the website.
However, we can also argue that gay audiences may reject certain aspects of the gay identity being represented in this website. For example, gay audiences may be offended by the hypersexualised representations of gay men, yet may take pleasure in the fact that gay identities and issues are getting visibility in the first place.
Identity is complex, and a good conclusion to reach here is that while audiences may never truly see themselves in the stereotypical representations of gender and gay identity offered by Zoella and Attitude respectively, they still have the power to pick and mix which ideological perspectives they choose to define themselves.
Component three - the coursework
Do we actually get marked for the pre-production PowerPoint, and if not, why bother doing it?
The good news is that you are technically not graded on the work book/PowerPoint. This itself is not submitted to the examiner. However, there is one slide that will be submitted; the ‘aims and intentions’ slide. This will not be submitted as a PowerPoint, but as part of the cover sheet when your coursework is finally submitted. You do not need to worry about this until we tell you.
However, the PowerPoint is super important for two reasons. Firstly, it will help you to write the Aims and Intentions essay. This is short (500 words), but it is worth a lot of marks, comparatively speaking. Again, I will give you more information when it becomes important.
The second reason we ask you to do this prep is because it will help you to make an excellent music video. You are marked on your camera work, editing skills, production values and so on, but you are also marked on your ability to incorporate intertextuality, representations of people and places, your use of appropriate genre conventions and how you put this together to create complex meanings. If you simply walk out of the door, you are unlikely to make something that looks and feels like an authentic music video, let alone a video that challenges conventions. The PowerPoint and the preparation involved in completing it will help you along the way.