If you are reading this in 2023 or beyond, hold your horses! This information ONLY applies to the May 2022 version of the component 2 exam! Check out elsewhere for information, because this will just confuse you!
General
- Your first exam is on
Friday morning
- It is called component
one
- There are two sections
in this exam, section A (media language and representation, UNSEEN), and
section B (industry and audience)
- You should spend 90
minutes on section A and 45 minutes on section B
- Each question is on a
different aspect of media (media language, representation, industry and
audience). You should make sure you are talking about the right thing in
the right question. ALWAYS LINK EVERYTHING BACK TO THE QUESTION
- Underline the key terms
in each question
- Do a plan for question
one and question two (music video and film poster), and put it on your
answer paper. You get marks for the plan
Section A
Question 1
- You will be shown a
music video you have never seen before, twice.
- This will link to a
media language question.
- This question will be 15
marks and you should spend 30 minutes on it
- Good theorists to use
here are Roland Barthes and Claude Levi-Strauss
Question 2
- You will be given a film
poster you have never seen before.
- You will be asked to
write about it and also the poster to Kiss Of The Vampire.
- You will not be given
the Kiss Of The Vampire Poster
- This question will be a
representation question, but you will also have to talk about media
language (analysis)
- This question will be 30
marks, and you should spend 60 minutes on it
- Good theorists to use
here are Liesbet Van Zoonen, Stuart Hall (representation), Gilroy and
hooks
Top tips
- if the exam starts on
time, then you should move on to section B no later than 10:30 am (10:50
if you have extra time)
- Don’t worry if you get
through section A more quickly than 90 minutes, but don’t spend too little
time on it. The examiner is expecting to see a LOT of writing!
Section B
Question 3
- This question is split
in to lots of sub questions
- The questions will add
up to 25 marks
- It will be on the
newspaper industry
- You should spend 25
minutes on the newspaper industry
- The questions will be
about industry
- You should spend one
minute per mark
- You will be expected to
talk about the newspapers we studied during revision (the ‘Nazanin
papers’)
- You will also be
expected to talk about the websites for both the Mirror and The Times
- A good way to revise for
this question is to make flashcards for all the industry terms, to re-read
the ‘Nazanin papers’, and to check out the websites for the Mirror and The
Times (you can use any stories you want to back up your answers)
- Good theorists to use
here are Livingstone and Lunt, Curran and Seaton and Hesmondhalgh
Question 4
- This question is also
split in to sub questions, probably two
- The questions will add
up to 20 marks
- You should spend 20
minutes on this question
- This question/s will
focus on WaterAid and audience
- A good way to revise
this question is to watch the WaterAid advert 10000000 times and make
notes on how it appeals to it’s audiences and how audiences can respond to
it
- Good theorists to use
here are Stuart Hall (reception) and David Gauntlet (identity)
- If you talk about
representations here, good! But Always link them back to audience,
otherwise you won’t be answering the question
Top tips
- Be strict with timings
in section B
- Don’t worry if you don’t
write quite as much. The examiner is expecting to see ten minutes of work
for a ten mark question