First year media studies - making your blog

The first thing you'll do as an A-level media student (after meeting the rest of your class) is create your own A-level Media Studies blog.

This blog has several uses:

• A way of completing tasks set in class
• A way of completing and submitting homework
• A way of taking notes in class, which will eventually lead to
• A comprehensive and personalised revision guide
• A portfolio to show to employers
• And maintaining a blog is a valuable skill with many applications in marketing, journalism and related media industries

Follow these steps to create your own blog

1 - Create a new gmail account

It doesn't matter if you have one already. You need a completely fresh one for Media Studies. Make sure to keep this email professional. Try a variation on your name.

2 - Go to blogger.com and create a new blog

3 - Give your blog a professional and memorable name and url. 

It must include the word 'media' and cannot include your full name. You may have to try several before you get an available name. 

While you're here you can select a template, but don't worry about this too much at the moment. You'll be personalising your blog in just a minute. 

4 - Click 'new post'

5 - On your new post, click 'labels'

Labels are a way of organising your blog, both for you when looking for important information, and for your teacher when they need to mark your work. It is essential that we all use the same labels.

6 - Copy the text below, and paste it into the 'labels' box

Advertising and Marketing, Audience, Component 1, Component 2, Component 3, Context, Film Industry, Genre, Magazines, Media Industries, Media Language, Music Industry, Music Video, Narrative, Newspapers, Online Media, Radio, Representation, Television, Textual Analysis, Theory, TV, Videogames

Note - we just found out there's a limit to how many labels you can include in one post, so paste this instead: 

Advertising and Marketing, Audience, Context, Film Industry, Genre, Magazines, Media Industries, Music Industry, Music Video, Newspapers, Online Media, Radio, Television, TV, Videogames

7 - Create your first blog post

Your first blog post is a pen portrait of yourself. You cannot include any personal information, but you will detail your favourite media products.

Here are some suggestions of headings, lists and sections. It's up to you which bits you complete, but the more you do, the more you will be thinking about media studies, and the more your classmates and teacher can get to know you.

Here are the suggested headings:

Top five films

Top five TV shows

Top five bands

Best albums of [year/decade]

Best actors

Best music videos

Style icons

Best videogames

Top directors

Top five film posters

Best radio presenters

Top bloggers/vloggers

Best Youtube channels

Top record labels

Best moments in [favourite TV show]

Best TV opening theme tunes

Anything else? As long as it's media related, it can go in here

8 - Make it look really good

It's a matter of preference whether you format your post as you complete it, or after you've finished the raw text. Regardless, play around with the formatting tools, and find images from the internet to illustrate your post. Save the image to Downloads, and then click the photo icon in the formatting bar to insert the photos.

9 - Personalise your blog

There's lots of ways to do this, so you're on your own here. Please remember to keep it professional and readable. You'll probably have to finish this off later.

10 - Email your teacher your blog url

You will not be able to leave until you have emailed your teacher!

EXTENSION TASK - Introduction to cinematography

Create a NEW BLOG POST with the tags

Component 1, Component 2, Media Language

and follow the instructions below:

A2 Media - the first half term

Welcome back second year Media Students! We were delighted by your results, and we hope you're ready to get stuck into the next big coursework assignment; the music video production.

There are three things you cover over the next half term.

1 - Research investigation buffer

The first two weeks will be spent responding to your teacher's feedback and polishing up your research investigation to receive the highest possible grade. Some of you will have a lot more to complete than others, so during the second week, you may move on to preproduction tasks for the music video

2 - Introduction to the music industry

In order to make a music video, you're going to have to learn about the music industry itself. These three weeks will look at many key concepts behind the music industry, and will also allow you to brush up on the most important aspects of A2 - genre, narrative, representation, audience and industry.

3 - Music video pre-production

After forming a group of two and selecting a song from the shortlist, he final two weeks of this half term will be spent completing pre-production work, which will vary wildly depending on who you are working with and what song you choose.

Important note - production of the A2 music video will commence the week starting Monday 30th October. All aspects of your music video, including costume, setting, performers, lighting, props, rehearsals and so on need to be completed before this date, as the expectation is that you will be filming from this session. Deadlines for the production itself will be published before the half-term.

Week by week planner for the next half term. Click to see full size. 

Research investigation feedback

Here is a list of feedback objectives to help you put the finishing touches to your research investigation. Your teacher will give you a series of letters, so simply match the letters given to you with the goals below. 

Once your investigation is completely finished, there's plenty to be getting on with with preproduction for your music video, so please make sure to speak to your teacher!

A - When redrafting, ensure that your investigation consistently refers back to your title. You will be focussing on either genre, representation, narrative, or a combination

B - Make sure your primary research makes detailed use of textual analysis, including a range of terms from the textual analysis toolkit

C - Find and cite three new sources, all of which have to be from textbooks, journals, essays, or respected academic websites

D - Remove all references to Wikipedia, Slideshare and Prezzi from your investigation, and replace them with examples from textbooks, journals, essays, or respected academic websites

E - Apply your secondary research when analysing your primary research to support your conclusions

F - End your essay with a clear and explicit conclusion that you can work in to your production

G - Your essay focusses too much on the historical and needs more focus on the textual analysis. Try to trim some of the history/background and replace it with a more detailed textual analysis

H - You do not have enough references. Find some more, cite them and include them in your bibliography!

I - Your analysis is too descriptive. Swap it out for explicit textual analysis. How does the music video you are analysing

J - Include a range (or a wider range) of visually engaging screenshots that emphasise your textual analysis

K - Include a range of subheadings that breaks down your essay in to specific, easily identifiable points

L - Your essay needs extensive proof reading. Please read your essay aloud, all the way through, and correct grammar and punctuation as needed

M - There are a number of spelling mistakes. Run the spell check!

Moving to A2: Summer reading

The A2 year is a lot more straightforward that the AS year, as we only look in specific detail at three industries;

• the film industry,
• the music industry and
• the television industry

However, we explore all three of these industries in far more detail than anything we studied last year. Your own contextual knowledge of similar films, bands and TV shows becomes essential for the exam, as you will need to demonstrate a wide range of critical debates in order to justify the highest marks.

If you are aiming to get a B or an A grade in your Media A-level, the following task will help you to do so. Simply choose an industry, watch the suggested texts, and read the suggested readings which accompany them.

Each text here is closely related to key texts you will study for MS4.

The film industry

Suggested films

Goldfinger (1964)

A View To A Kill (1985)

Goldeneye (1995)

Casino Royale (2006)

The Selfish Giant (2012)

Kes (1969)

Sweet Sixteen (2002)

Cinderella (1950)

Sleeping Beauty (1959)

The Little Mermaid (1989)

Suggested readings

'Live and Let Die' and the Birth of the Classic Bond Narrative

Umberto Eco - Narrative Structures in Fleming - the definitive essay on narrative and the Bond film. A .PDF file can be downloaded here.

The music industry

Suggested music videos

Bjork - 'All Is Full Of Love' (Cunningham, 1999)

Fatboy Slim - 'Weapon of Choice' (Jonze, 2001)

Girl's Generation - 'Lion Heart' (S.M Entertainment, 2005)

My Bloody Valentine - 'To Here Knows When (Creation, 1992)

Pulp - 'Babies' (Island Universal, 1993)

Suggested readings

Theodor Adorno - On Popular Music - Excellent essay from the grumpiest man who ever lived 

What Makes a Text Postmodern? - primer on postmodernism from this very blog!

Walter Benjamin - The Work Of Art In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction - Michael's favourite essay ever(!)

The television industry

Suggested television programmes

Game of Thrones (2011)

Silicon Valley (2014)

Westworld (2016)

Snog, Marry, Avoid? (2008)

Love Island  (2015)

The Blue Planet (2001)

Life on Earth (1979)

Research investigation - deadlines and last minute tips

Deadlines

Your deadline depends on which block you are in. Your essay needs to be handed in at the end of your last Media lesson of the year. Just as a quick reminder, this works out as:

P block - Friday 14th July at 12:20pm (end of lesson)

R block - Thursday 13th July at 10:30am (end of lesson)

U block - Thursday 13th July at 12:20am (end of lesson)

Last minute tips

In order to get the highest grade, your investigation needs to demonstrate the following:

"Research will be excellent, covering a wide range of sources. These will be analysed and applied in a sophisticated way and presented a logical and coherent manner, supported by a range of sophisticated points. Quality of written communication will be sophisticated. A high degree of accuracy. Sophisticated ability to structure ideas effectively."

What the translates to is

• Research
• Lots of research
• Lots of different research
• Great points
• Looks good and makes sense

Therefore, if you want to maximise your grade, you must prioritise research above all else. You can find excellent sources online, on Google Books, or the LRC.

If you do not have at least 15 correctly cited sources, this should be completed right now, before your final session. If you need help on formatting, you'll find loads of links and tips here.

Remember, your research investigation is 22.5% of your A2 grade, and 45% of your second year coursework. So make sure you submit something of the highest possible quality before the end of the year!