Please note that this session assumes you have completed all five lessons currently published on the videogame industry.
Update - click here for a full-on video explaining how to answer any question in the exam, including planning, writing an introduction, structuring a paragraph and writing a conclusion!
Media studies and 'the hidden curriculum'
Like many subjects, the introduction in a media studies response is perhaps the most important paragraph of all! In an introduction, you set out your main argument, and then you stick to this argument for the duration of your exam response. Additionally, an exam response isn't just a shopping list demonstrating to the examiner that you 'know some stuff'. While you definitely will get marks for knowledge and understanding, you really want to be communicating to the examiner your opinions and ability to construct a convincing argument.
So on the outside, media studies is all about TV shows and videogames and cinematography and sales figures. And it is absolutely about all of this. But media studies, like any subject, is also preparing you for life beyond the subject. It is specifically preparing you to think logically, to question the world around you, and to calmly and rationally present an argument. These are skills which can be used in any job, and any social situation. Teachers sometimes refer to this as 'the hidden curriculum'. This term is often used negatively; for example bell hooks is critical of the ways in which mainstream teaching reinforce hegemonic structures in society, particularly among BME students. However, by flipping this on its head, we can see how media studies in particular offers students an opportunity to question the world around them, and to develop verbal and communication skills in the process.
Rant over!
Introduction practice
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| This is the most important bit for now... |
Read through this post on how to structure the perfect exam response, paying special attention to the section on introductions.
^^^This post explains everything you need to know about answering an exam question! You'll find all the answers here!^^^
Task: In today's session, you are going to be writing the introductory paragraph to one of the following questions:
How have digital technologies shaped the ways in which videogames are produced and distributed? Make reference to the Assassin's Creed franchise
To what extent is the regulation of the videogame industry effective? Make reference to the Assassin's Creed franchise
How do videogames attract and maintain audiences both locally and globally? Make reference to the Assassin's Creed franchise
Exemplar DAC introductions
Here are some examples of DAC introductions that I have written over the years. Please note that none of them answer the above questions! But they will give you an indication of how to use DAC. Also please note that while I tend to say 'DAC' because it sounds funny, the definition, argument and context could come in any order in your introduction.
1
British newspapers incorporate a wide variety of ideological perspectives to their audiences to a wide variety of reasons. This may be for the purpose of constructing target audiences, the process of narrativisation, and potentially for the purpose of manipulating the ideology of the audience. In each case, ideological perspectives are encoded through a range of media language. In order to explore this aspect of ideological dissemination, I shall be drawing on the examples of The Daily Mirror, The Times, an a few other subsidiary examples. I shall conclude that ultimately, ideological perspectives are encoded for the express purpose of targeting and manipulating audiences.
2
The producers of newspapers typically incorporate a range of ideological perspectives when creating newspapers. This is for several reasons, including commercial, ideological, and audience related. Ideology itself refers to the beliefs and viewpoints of the producer. Through media language, audiences are invited to explore and negotiate a range of responses. However, typically producers will attempt to anchor these responses through techniques such as captioning. In order to explore how newspapers incorporate viewpoints and ideologies, I shall be exploring the examples of The Daily Mirror, a British tabloid newspaper catering to a working class left wing audience, and the Times, a broadsheet targeting a middle class, right wing audience. I shall also be supplementing these examples with material from The Mail Online, a particularly popular online branch of the right-wing Daily Mail that primarily targets a working-class female audience.
3
The theatrical poster for Wonder Woman presents a complex set of representations to it's target audience. Most importantly, the central image presents a midshot of Wonder Woman and her sidekick facing stage right and ready for battle. The composition of this image is important. Wonder Woman is in the foreground, and occupies significantly more space than her male sidekick. Together they form a definite binary opposition, reinforcing the differences between their archetypal roles. This challenges stereotypical representations of gender, by presenting the female Wonder Woman as the protagonist of the narrative.
3
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 it leads to vastly different interpretations from different audiences. However, there is much potential for the producer to manipulate their target audiences through ideology. In order to explore identity, I shall use the examples of Zoella, a once popular online fashion and lifestyle vlogger who primarily shares her videos via YouTube, and Attitude Online, the online version of the long established gay lifestyle magazine. I shall conclude that both Attitude and Zoella manipulate their target audience using reductive and simple representations for the sole purpose of making a profit.
4
Every media product will, to a significant extent, reflect the ideologies and the beliefs of the producer. This is encoded through media language, and allows the producer to not only demonstrate their ideological perspective, but also potentially to manipulate the ideology of the audience. All media products exist primarily for financial gain, and must make a profit in order to continue to be produced. The newspaper industry is no different, and in order to maintain their financial stability, newspapers must demonstrate a clear and easily identifiable ideological perspective. In order to explore this idea, I shall look at how the representations of women and a particular event are constructed in The Times and The Daily Mirror. The Times is a UK broadsheet newspaper with a right of centre ideology. It is owned by News UK, a subsidiary of News International, themselves owned by the influential Murdoch family. The Daily Mirror is a UK tabloid with a left leaning ideological perspective. It is broadly critical of the conservative party, and therefore constructs a radically different perspective of reality and representation for its working class, British target audience.
5
Identity refers not only to the ways in which audiences can identify with representations in media products, but also the way in which said identities are encoded by the media producer. As Gauntlet states, these once stereotypical identities have shifted over time, and have been replaced with far more complicated, and often atypical representations of men and women, in order to appeal specifically to a range of niche audiences. In order to explore this idea, I shall be referring to Humans, a Channel 4 sci-fi/drama first broadcast in 2015 and a remake of the Swedish Real Humans, and the French horror/drama hybrid Les Revenants, first broadcast in France on Canal+ and created by Fabrice Gobert.
6
Jean Baudrillard was a postmodern media theorist, who argued that the modern world was far too confusing to make any sense of, and therefore that we were now living in a world without any meaning. This alarming statement is best summed up by his notion of hyperreality. Simply put, given that we are bombarded with so many ‘fake’ and highly constructed representations of reality, we are as a society unable to differentiate between reality and fiction. Ultimately, we choose instead to embrace the hyperreal, and to forget the confusing real which has been erased. I shall argue that we do indeed live in a world where there is more information than ever, and that media products have developed their ideological perspectives in order to reflect this confusing reality. In order to explore this thesis, I shall explore Human, a sci-fi TV show first broadcast by Channel 4 in 2005, itself a remake of the Swedish show Real Humans, and Les Revenants, a highly atypical horror show first broadcast in France by canal+ in 2012, once more a remake of a film of the same name.