KA4 is also known as the end of first year mock exam, for obvious reasons. It's a good opportunity to show off your hard work and ability to revise. This mock exam was marked exactly as a final exam would be marked. So while you will not get advanced notification of subjects or a focused pre-exam revision session, your marks, bands and overall grade will give you a pretty good indication of where you are up to at the moment. We will certainly improve on this grade for the final exam, as long as you respond to feedback and continue revising to a high standard.
The exam
1 – Advertising and representation – 30 marks/60m
2 – Newspaper audience – 10 marks/10m
3 – Film industry – 10 marks/10m
4 – magazine media language (woman magazine) – 15 marks/25m
TOTAL: 1h45m
Simplified mark scheme
This is a simplified, yet accurate version of the mark scheme that the examiner who marks your final exam. It's worth noting that examiners will never 'grade' your work. Grade boundaries change every year, and are decided after everything has been marked, based on a number of factors.
However, examiners DO allocate 'bands' . Bands never change: the description for what is a band 3 is the same as it was in 2019, and it will always be the same until the specification is updated. Most students tend to get an upper band 2, a band 3 or a lower band 4. Band 1 and band 5 allocations are comparatively rare.
Band 5 - Excellent response that goes significantly beyond what would normally be expected of an A-level media studies student. At this level there are sophisticated arguments, and it is clear that the student has extensively read around the subject, for example reading a newspaper every day and reading the work of theorists and products beyond the set texts. This student presents perceptive and insightful conclusions. Reference will be detailed and always accurate (unless it's a little mistake that doesn't matter). Band 5 responses will flow and will demonstrate an ability to link concepts in a sophisticated manner, eg "The thumbnail preview that invites audiences to engage with Sugg's most recent video is not only typical of vlogs as a genre; it also demonstrates the binary dichotomy that exists between the construct of her reality as a 'cosy' and approachable media influencer, and the naked capitalist principals that exist behind her industry. Audiences must negotiate this hyperreal simulacrum, and must ultimately hold two thoughts simultaneously in their heads; one where Sugg is a benevolent and relatable neo-housewife archetype, and one where she is a mercenary neoliberal businesswoman. This lack of a semblance of clear interpretation is key to understanding the concept of the collapse of meaning that lies at the heart of postmodern theory."
Q1 - 25-30/30
Q2 - 9-10/10
Q3 - 9-10/10
Q4 - 13-15/15
Band 4 - These are GOOD. These responses are accurate, with a clear knowledge and understanding, with a logical, clear analysis. Theories may well be accurately and logically applied. There will be a reasonably detailed knowledge of concepts such as representation that tend to go beyond the basics (eg ‘representations reflect deep seated prejudices that exist within our world, and always reflect the hegemonic norms that exist in society’). Additionally, the use of facts and examples will be clear, accurate and relevant, for example "as is typical of an independent feature film, I, Daniel Blake is funded by a number of different producers including Film 4, the BBC and The National Lottery".
Q1 - 19-24/30
Q2 - 7-8/10
Q3 - 7-8/10
Q4 - 10-11/15
Band 3 - Satisfactory! This one is bang in the middle and is the easiest to assign. Band 3 answers do everything right, but not particularly well. Theories may well be used, but in a fairly straightforward way, and may not always be appropriate to the question, for example using mainly industry theory in a representation response. Knowledge and understanding is generally accurate. Knowledge of concepts such as representation and industry are reasonable but straightforward. There will be some relevant reference to the set product, and it will be straightforward (eg the bright colours symbolically encode a bright and inviting atmosphere). For industry questions, facts will be woolly and more generalised, for example "I Daniel Blake is shot in Newcastle, which gives it a low budget feel"
Q1 - 13-18/30
Q2 - 5-6/10
Q3 - 5-6/10
Q4 - 7-9/15
Band 2 - Basic knowledge and understanding. Analysis is there but may be inaccurate, for example not knowing the difference between camera angles and shot types along with other significant and clear gaps in knowledge. Basic considerations of concepts such as representation with clearly little understanding. Arguments and judgements beginning to emerge but lack confidence and/or reference to explicit and relevant examples. For example "Woman magazine has a picture of a woman wearing makeup on the front, which some women might think is being sexist."
Q1 - 7-12/30
Q2 - 3-4/10
Q3 - 3-4/10
Q4 - 4-6/15
Band 1 - Absolutely minimal knowledge and understanding. Likely to focus on a single case study where more would be appropriate, lacking media language, and lacking any judgement, argument or conclusion
Q1 - 1-6/30
Q2 - 1-2/10
Q3 - 1-2/10
Q4 - 1-3/15
Band zero - Where a student hasn’t written anything or nearly enough to justify a mark. This also includes answers that are 100% incorrect, for example 'superhuman is a website about fashion' or something
Indicative content - or 'what you could have written'
General feedback
- Use the language of the question to get marks. The first question is a representation question regarding audience positioning. therefore, it would be advantageous (if a little inelegant) for each paragraph to start with something like "One striking representation that is used in the D&G advert is of hegemonically attractive women, which ultimately positions the audience as a heterosexual man..." or something similar
- Many answers lacked sustained reference to media language (usually abbreviated to ML on your feedback). This is, by and large the most simple way to get marks. Please make sure that every media language and representation question uses reference to shot types, camera angles, MES, editing, colour, diegesis, editing... whatever! If you are not using these words, you are probably not getting marks
Q1 - General
- The bit about 'relevant media contexts' may have stumped you. What this means is issues, events, problems and 'stuff going on' related to these adverts. This might include, but is definitely not limited to - sexism - racism - stereotyping - body image - class - high end fashion vs high street fashion - the purpose of advertising - audience manipulation - the UK government - the UK response to COVID - the Paralympics vs the Olympics - being disabled in the UK today
- The main crux of the question is related to audience positioning. Audience positioning is how the audience have been 'placed' by the producer. The example I always use is (literally) any James Bond Film. Bond runs around killing lots of people and generally being awful. But we know we are supposed to like him. This is because we have been expertly positioned with him. He is physically attractive, he is consistently in (almost) every scene, he is constructed through CUs and MSs, and he is diametrically opposed to the 'ugly' villains. We are also positioned AS HIM. We as an audience are positioned as a heterosexual, posh British man who solves problems through violence. Even if we are, for example a gay, disabled middle class Nigerian man, we are still positioned as a heterosexual, posh British man. This is important, as it helps the producer to (often aggressively) reinforce and communicate their dominant ideological perspective!
- Across these two adverts, some of the ways in which the audience have been positioned is as - a heterosexual man - British - an outsider - a voyeur - as disabled - as able bodied - as supportive - as sympathetic
Q1 - Super.Human
- You can find some good suggestions for analysis here and here.
- Audience positioning is complex and is facilitated through a diverse and challenging set of representations, and audiences are positioned in a highly relatable, yet also highly confrontational mode of address.
- Please remember the advert title is stylised as 'super.human', not superhuman, and certainly not superhumans. The full stop is there for a reason, presumably!
Q1 - D&G print advert
- A highly stereotypical representation of hegemonically attractive men and women is constructed through media language
- The mid shot and the intimidating status of the models could position the target audience in an uncomfortable and challenging mode of address. This is typical of the address of luxury brands such as D&G
- The use of conventionally hegemonically attractive women in the foreground also position the audience through the assumption that they are heterosexual men, which conforms to Van-Zoonen's male gaze theory
- This positioning is further anchored through the intradiegetic gaze of the (working class) male model's gazing in wonder at the female models in the foreground. This not only sexualises the female models, but also cultivates a heteronormative ideological perspective
- Furthermore exclusively white representation cultivates ethnocentric ideological perspective that positions the audience as a white person
- A stereotypical Italian representation is constructed through the symbolic codes of glamourous costumes and fresh local produce. This also constructs a binary opposition between tradition and modernity, old and new, which is fairly common in high end fashion adverts
- A binary opposition is constructed between representations of working class and upper middle class people, which the intradiegetic gaze being fixated on the middle class luxury
- Models are all able bodied and hegemonically attractive, which cultivates hegemonic expectations of beauty
Q1 - general
- A few students said things along the lines of 'a binary opposition is constructed between the two adverts'. This is not strictly true, in the the producers would likely be unaware of the other advert when producing their own. You can however point out that the two adverts are so different a binary opposition is constructed, or even that the advert to Super.Human seeks to diametrically oppose itself to the stereotypical representations seen in adverts like the Dolce and Gabbana one. This is a subtle criticism, I know, but I feel it is an important one!
- An introduction presenting a few facts about Super.Human really helped to open up band 4 right from the off
- A few students claimed that Super.Human was "realistic". This is wrong. No media product is realistic. The video is making claims about reality (great phrase to use), but it in no way resembles real life. My 40 minute bike ride in to college this morning was very exciting to me, but there was no mixed media, contrapuntal sound, rapid fire montage editing or anything. So, instead of saying "realistic", please say "constructs a relatable mode of address" or "constructs a reality where...". This point is REALLY REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT when accessing top grades in A-level media studies. As Baudrillard argues, nothing is real, not even reality. Especially not reality...
Q2
- Digital technology here means reference to the website, to social media accounts, and to ways that audiences can interact and be positioned and addressed by these 'new' technologies
- However, you must include reasonably clear and explicit examples to push beyond a band 2 or 3
- Some students were REALLY helped by theory here. This really confirms how important theory is for these small questions. Uses and gratifications, as well as classics like Gerbner and Hall were particularly useful. Shirky and Jenkins would also be useful in talking about active audience engagement and fandom.
- The responses to this question were not as good as the responses to Q1. Clearly we need to do some work on both audience and digital technologies!
Q3
- Much better responses than Q2. The best responses basically reeled off a list of facts about IDBs production and distribution, including production companies and distribution channels
- Examples here must be explicit. Yes, it is correct that IDB was produced and funded by many different production companies, but how many? (one estimate is 72!). Who are a few of them? Why is this important in terms of production and distribution?
Q4
- Historical context here would refer to contemporary 60's sexist attitudes to women's lives and roles, vs an emergent strand of second wave feminism that challenged this.
- However, Woman magazine in 1964 chooses to ignore not only the emergence of 2nd wave feminism, but also exciting developments in fashion, music, and sex.
- Arguably the producers of woman magazine present simple, straightforward and sexist representations to reinforce hegemonic ideological discourse and to reassert patriarchal values.
- Stronger answers will engage with this aspect using explicit examples from the set magazine pages in order to explore WHY representations of women are so reductive and simplistic
- The very best responses will consider how these constructions of reality not only present a manipulative force for the audience, but also how they would directly affect how women in the 1960s would have been treated
- Clearly there's a lot to consider here, and it's worth nothing that this is a component 2 question, which may explain why your mark is lower than you may have expected: expectations for this one are higher and there are more boxes to tick!