Tuesday 24 May 2022

Everything you need to know about the component one exam in 2022

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