In the most recent mock, you didn't get an industry question! Maybe that was a good thing. Or a very bad thing. The reason for this is that industry questions are all about facts. As long as you remember facts and place them in your response (and actually answer the question) you get marks.
For this task, you will be making notes based on several resources, many of them released by the exam board!
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| The exam board has many excellent resources, and now is an excellent time to find them and to start using them! |
Task 0 - familiarise yourself with some useful resources
Do this - Check out all the resources for A-level media studies! There's lots of helpful stuff here, so spend at least ten minutes right now clicking around and making sure you know what's available to you!
Task 1 - Black Mirror and aspects of industry
Do this - Click here to access the Black Mirror fact sheet. Go to page 5, find the heading 'PART 3: STARTING POINTS – Media industries' and make extensive notes about the industrial context surrounding Black Mirror, and in particular series 3.
Task 2 - disputing the facts
There's an eye-opening paragraph in the fact sheet that I take exception to:
"In contrast to [Hesmondhalgh's assertion that media industries are structured to minimise risk and to maximise profit], Netflix (and other web-based streaming services) invest vast sums of money in their productions, and yet leave almost all creative control to the showrunners. This has led to a diverse range of products, unafraid to take risks and ‘push the envelope’ of what makes successful TV".
This argument falls apart when we realise that Netflix typically only aquires exisiting series that are already successful and have a pre-sold, pre-exising audience (like... Black Mirror!), and that Netflix are notoriously ruthless at cancelling and even delisting shows that do not meet their sales expectations.
Do this - find three examples of shows acquired (purchased) by Netflix that were already wildly popular already, and three examples of shows cancelled by Netflix even though they were popular with fans. These examples can be used to support both Hesmondhalgh and Curran and Seaton's arguments that media industries are solely motivated by power and profit.
Task 3 - researching Les Revenants and industry
Sometimes I need to admit defeat. Because there is an absolutely amazing set of resources for Les Revenants and industry just sitting on the Eduqas website. And your task is to read through this document, click on the links, and make notes. Because there's everything you need here to answer industry questions in the exam.