Feedback for this mock can broadly be boiled down to 'you need more examples and/or theory. For each question, there is a vast amount of content to include. This is a reductive way of putting it, but C1b is not an analytical part of the media exams. It is a place to prove you know as much as possible in the shorted possible time
This means accepting some very blunt guidance. You MUST include the name of the producer, be it Ubisoft or Marvel Studios. You must list revenue, production context (brief!), regulatory facts and designations. And you must include blunt, incisive examples
This feedback post is extremely blunt. It is simply telling you what you could have written about. If you do not demonstrate knowledge and understanding, you will not get marks.
This will involve building fact files surrounding every industry. The same facts can be used regardless of the question set. The same theories can be twisted and contorted to provide validation. It's a brutal and cynical process. And you all need to realise this.
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| You did alright at this bit |
31 Briefly explain what is meant by horizontal integration. [2]
- "The process by which businesses buy up other businesses in the same industry or sector, usually resulting in less competition for audiences and audience time" (Hesmondhalgh, 2007:311).
32 Name one horizontally integrated media organisation. [1]
- Just write Disney...
33 Explain how the impact of economic contexts shapes the video game industry. Refer to the Assassin’s Creed franchise to support your points. [10]
Suggested theories:
- Curran and Seaton - power and profit
- David Hesmondhalgh - the cultural industries
- Livingstone - Regulatory frameworks
Suggested examples:
- High production values e.g. draw distance and NPC models
- The structure of the videogame industry
- AAA game development
- Ubisoft's financial issues
- Shadows hype reel/pre-release trailer
- Music e.g. Teke;Teke
- Re-releases and cross platform releases
- Regulation e.g. PEGI 18
- Digital distribution methods
- How many Assassin's Creed games?
- Mirage and appealing to core fandoms
- Ubisoft specialise in AAA games… but also casual games such as Just Dance and Monopoly
- Ubisoft have diversified into film production, and an AC was released
- Ubisoft: typical AAA studio with a range of specialised workers, from concept artists to programmers
- Typically digitally distributed, through platforms such as Steam, Epic, GOG, Estore, PlayStation store, or physically distributed
- Original grossed more than 50 million… but subsequent games have done far better!
- Franchise developed and published by Ubisoft, a vertically and horizontally integrated multinational conglomerate
- Video Games in the UK are regulated by the BBFC… sometimes! And other times by PEGI, a European regulator. However, online platforms such as Steam circumvent these regulation… The regulation of video game sin the UK is HIGHLY ineffective!
- Some entries such as Valhalla have played with the genre, and have not been appreciated by fans as a result
- Ubisoft is a major corporation specialising in producing AAA games
- The AC franchise is known for its high production, including high fidelity graphics, a clear and complex narrative, many features and gameplay modes, including history modes, extremely high budget marketing, multiple languages, multi platform releases, and the high render/draw distance
- French conglomerate, with studios in the US, Canada, South Africa, Valencia… and so on!
- Established pre-sold audience, 30ish games released
- Ubisoft established a film studio, an example of diversification, and minimising risk and maximising profit
34 Explain how digitally convergent technology has changed how film producers ensure financial success. Refer to Black Panther to support your answer [12] (SYNOPTIC QUESTION)
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| Lots of missed opportunities here :( |
Suggested theories:
- Curran and Seaton - power and profit
- David Hesmondhalgh - the cultural industries
- Livingstone - Regulatory frameworks
But also since this is synoptic, representation theories such as Van Zoonen, audience theory such as Jenkins and media language theory such as Neale would help here.
Suggested examples:
- Production values
- Casting
- The contextual history of making Black Panther
- Disney as vertically and horizontally integrated organisation
- Marketing techniques eg trailer distributed on Youtube
- Regulation eg coveted BBFC 12A
- Fight scene
- Content of trailer
- Use of postproduction CGI
- Facts and figures
- Wakanda Forever
- Black Lives Matter
- Audience and fandom
- Genre fluidity
- Market saturation
- Complex, intersectional representations
- Livingstone and Lunt argue that the regulation of media is largely ineffective
- Digitally convergent technologies allows for easy and largely unregulated access to films, through the use of pirate unregulated streaming services, and also through the almost completely unregulated Disney+ service
- High production values
- Extensive use of CGI
- Fantasy/superhero/action/adventure/sci fi
- Hybrid genre
- Studio production
- Costumes - conventional superhero
- Chadwick Boseman and Michael B Jordan - established star appeal
- Part of an established franchise - the MCU
- A classical Hollywood narrative: narrative closure, but part of a series
- A mainstream, mass, global audience
- Marvel Studios, subsidiary of Disney
- Budget $200 million
- Total revenue: 1 billion dollars
- Advertised in high profile traditional means. Superbowl ad, online ads, billboards, TV interviews, magazine preview features and teaser trailers
- A range of accents and settings across the world
- A mainstream Hollywood blockbuster
41 Explain how media producers position audiences. Refer to Have You Heard George’s Podcast? to support your points [8]
Suggested theories:
- Stuart Hall - Reception theory (always)
- David Gauntlet - theories of identity
- Henry Jenkins - Textual poaching
- Clay Shirky - end of audience
Suggested examples:
- Production values: George as audience/producer
- Radio as legacy media: intimacy
- Availability of radio
- BBC as a worldwide brand
- Direct mode of address
- "As a Ugandan..."
- "Some of these children will end up dead..."
- BBC Sounds web portal
- Accessibility
- Common Ground
- Active and passive audiences
- Ideology
- Niche
- Social media
- Stereotypes positioning audiences
- Pick and mix theory
- Criticising government
- Criticising prison system
- Emotional mode of address
- Left wing ideological bias
- Rap and hip hip
- Low fi production values
- Interacting with music/music recommendations
- Funded by BBC
- PBS
- Accessible anywhere, either through streaming through the app or direct download
- A range of different topics appeals to a range of niche audiences, plurality, a pluralistic approach!
42 Explain how sociohistorical context can affect audience interpretation. Refer to the Kiss of the Vampire theatrical poster to support your points. [12]
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| I'll try and set something that'll actually come up next time |
I completely messed up here, which is hilarious considering I have burned the structure of the exam into my brain. Simply put, Kiss of the Vampire cannot come up for audience. However, this is still a good opportunity to discuss audience theory, and examples from the text of how audiences can interpret the messages and values of the poster...
Suggested theories:
- Stuart Hall - Reception theory (always)
- David Gauntlet - theories of identity
- Henry Jenkins - Textual poaching
Suggested examples:
- Preferred reading from a contemporary perspective
- Textual poaching: how can contemporary women see this as emancipatory?
- Genre conventions: bats, ex
- Representation of the other
- Audience negotiation
- Oppositional responses
- Audience identity
- British identity