Yr 11 NEWS: USES & GRATIFICATIONS

PREP Two questions. Post answers on your blog.
1. Explain one of the uses and gratifications of online news using Blumler and Katz's theory.
Use the online version of The Observer (below) as an example in your answer.

2. Below the online version is The Observer paper version Sunday 8 December 2019.
In 5 bullet points, pick out examples of 'tabloidization' as well as examples that show that The Observer is still a 'quality broadsheet'.

Yr 10 NEWSPAPERS

PREP Read Media Studies text book from page 101 Convergence to page 104 Active and Passive audiences.

In this lesson, our discussions started with you introducing a media topic that we relate it to an aspect of our exams: one of you had seen a film this week so we watch its trailer - a trailer is a marketing tool to sell the film - and we pick out how this trailer advertises the film. 

For instance: 

• through famous talent (like Lego movie using voice actors of famous people that the target audience loves and admires: Chris Pratt, Morgan Freeman Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrell; the ad break uses famous actors like Lenny Henry, Vinny Jones)
• through humour (the Lego movie ad break parodies several familiar TV adverts "Warner Bros jumps on trend of remaking famous scenes with bricks by recreating ads for Premier Inn, BT and Confused.com" writes The Guardian.
• through references to other films made by the same director ("from the director of...")

We look at a1960s edition of The Observer, one of our set texts and complete our viewing of the Aberfan disaster clip on Netflix's The Crown (S3, E3). 

We draw attention to some of the camerawork and the ways in which people are represented in addition to following the narrative 

• the use of CU to show characters' feelings and reactions 
• the use of high angle shots to emphasise the sheer volume of tiny coffins)
• the use of the Queen's profile and the immobility of her face to suggest her distance

We compare the 1960s The Observer with a print edition from this week:

• the skybox with soft news, celebrities and popular culture exemplifies its 'tabloidization'
• its massive pictures with bright colours contrasts with the  monochrome
• we also note the serif / sans-serif fonts of the masthead title

Examining an online version of The Observer offers examples of interactivity. How many can you recall?
Two key terms today: convergence, conglomerate

Yr 11 NEWS WEBSITE

PREP Write your first draft of your news article. Publish on your blog.

Yr 11: NEWSPAPERS - MEDIA LANGUAGE

You have revised newspaper terminology and are ready for your test.

Yr 11 03 CREATING MEDIA

PREP Start planning on your blog what your news website will feature:

• start with the ideas that you had for your documentary. What 45 seconds of filming would you pick to feature as a news story? 
• what would the 200 words of 'copy' be about the video report? Or would your 'copy' be about a second news item?
• research what 10-13 year olds might be concerned about: testing? social media? knife crime? local amenities? a film event?

Here is the tutorial that we watched in class.

Yr 10 MUSIC VIDEO

We have started studying our two set texts in class.
Wheatus Teenage Dirtbag

Avril Lavigne Sk8ter Boi

This is where you can see what we study in music videos on our blog.

PREP Watch the two videos again, looking in particular at differences in representation, camerawork and editing.
Your prep is to identify how the two videos differ in their representation, camerawork and editing. Pick only one example of each.

Yr 10 MUSIC MAGAZINES

PREP Start to familiarise yourself with music genres that you don't know, by first picking a music magazine, either popular or classical music.

Explore the genre (say, Reggae, punk, rap, rock, prog rock, pop, urban, heavy metal, R&B, soul, country & western, orchestral, ...)

Post all of this writing as well as your chosen magazine cover on your blog with your comments underneath.

THE OBSERVER 30 OCTOBER 1966

PREP Test on Friday 29 November on newspaper terms which you can find here on the blog and also here on The Guardian / Observer. NB 'skybox' is another name for 'skyline'.

CLASSWORK : Going over aspects of Paper 1.

1. Watch the clip from The Crown that covers the Aberfan disaster (Inpoint 5.58).

2. Jane Asher : My face and I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fadZ3SUBD6A
In what way does this title reflect how women tended to be represented in 1960s media?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fadZ3SUBD6A : 

3. George Blake: The Yard suspects Blake used two-way radio
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/dec/08/cell-mates-a-good-traitor-the-extraordinary-life-of-george-blake-the-spy-who-went-into-the-cold

MUSIC MAGAZINES: REPRESENTATION

PREP How does Country Music create representations? 
To answer, copy this magazine to your blog and add the bullet points underneath.

• What kind of music is the magazine about? What kind of cover style would you and country music fans expect? You could listen to their music as well as look them up.
• Identify the central splash and describe how they are presented (what they are wearing, how they are lit, the expressions on their faces, how these fit with the type of music)
• Comment on the use of typography in The Shires coverline.
• Looking at the cover as a whole, what can you say about the layout?

THE OBSERVER: GENRE CONVENTIONS

PREP In today's lesson we analysed the media language of a quality broadsheet newspaper.
Identify as many genre conventions of a quality broadsheet as you can from The Observer below. Copy /paste this cover onto your blog and write below it. You can find the terminology HERE that we learned. 

REPRESENTATION: CUFFS

PREP How does Cuffs represent changing attitudes towards masculinity and femininity? 
Pick two examples.

Read pages 37-39 for help.

BBC: INDUSTRY & AUDIENCE

Describe what is meant by Public Service Broadcasting (PSB). Use the BBC as an example in your answer.
Text book pages 18 - 21

PREP

HOW TO EMBED PINTEREST

1. Copy the url of your Pinterest board such as https://www.pinterest.com/jennymmann/music-magazines/
2. Open a new tab and find Pinterest Developer Widget Builder. Select BOARD.
Scroll down and copy the html and then open your blog and paste it in. Don't forget to include pinit.js once per page, right before the closing </BODY> tag.

For example:

CUFFS

In this question, you will be rewarded for drawing together elements from your full course of study, including different areas of the theoretical framework and media contexts.

How far does Cuffs adapt genre conventions to fit its family audience at 8pm on BBC1?

In your answer you must:

• analyse the extract's use of genre conventions
• make judgements and draw conclusions about how far the extract adapts the conventions of police drama to fit its scheduling and audience.

Yr 11 MOJO REVISION

Exam questions on MOJO and music magazines may ask you to analyse REPRESENTATION on the front cover, that is, how musicians are depicted in order to make connections with (appeal to) the magazine's target audience.

Exam questions may also ask you to compare / contrast the media language of the front covers. You have been asked in the past:

• analyse the media language of the front covers of MOJO and one other magazine (which will be on the handout)
• make judgements and draw conclusions about how far the media language is used differently in both extracts to fit different kinds of music.

By 'media language' they mean what it LOOKS LIKE: positioning of the main star, the centre of visual interest, layout including cover lines, typography, other photos of people, colour, images and so on, such as how cluttered or streamlined each is.

Revise magazine audience and industry pages 81-83 including 

• where magazines receive revenue
• what are quality magazines
• magazine audiences
• MOJO readers
• how to use theory (uses and gratifications)

PREP Test yourself

1. How are UK magazines globalised
2. How Bauer Media is diversified
3. State 2 ways in which a print magazine gains revenue
4. Who is the MOJO audience
5. 4 ways in which a music magazine might offer uses and gratifications to audiences

Yr 11 MUSIC VIDEO REVISION

MEDIA LANGUAGE IN MUSIC VIDEOS.
Your exam questions may require you to analyse specific aspects of media language (the forms and conventions of the music video)  in TD (Teenage Dirtbag) and SB (Sk8er Boi).
See the notes on page 75-6: generic conventions.
78: comparison and contrast.

REPRESENTATION is about analysing people, places and ideas.
Your exam questions may require you to compare and contrast representations in TD (Teenage Dirtbag) and SB (Sk8er Boi).
See the notes on page 80

Yr 11 LEGO REVISION

PREP Watch the Lego Movie Video Game walk-through and identify what pleasures it offers audiences using Blumler and Katz's theoretical framework: audiences use media to gratify their needs.

Classwork revision:
Semiotics: denote, connote
Language of advertising: driving revenue
We study the poster campaign and identify the different ways in which the ensemble poster and all the individual posters target specific audiences

• promise of action / adventure pleasures through the depiction of chase, thrill, danger
• bright primary colours which are upbeat and which appeal to children
• the recognisable Lego brand, a prestige brand loved the world over by adults and children alike
• the 3D effect of the Lego logo
• the humour of 'Assembling' 
• the appeal of Emmet the underdog, the unstereotypical hero to children as the 'nobody who saved everybody'
• each individual poster makes a specific appeal by identifying the famous actors voicing characters such as Elizabeth Banks as Wyldstyle, Chris Pratt as Emmet, Morgan Freeman as Vitruvius, Will Ferrell as Lord Business.

We watch the Lego Movie Ad Break and the 'making of the Lego Movie Ad Break' video.

We view part of the Lego Movie Video Game walk-through and identify what pleasures it offers audiences using Blumler and Katz's theoretical framework: audiences use media to gratify their needs.

Yr 10 LEGO MOVIE MARKETING

Yr 10 LEGO MOVIE MARKETING
We study the poster campaign and identify the different ways in which the ensemble poster and all the individual posters target specific audiences

• promise of action / adventure pleasures through the depiction of chase, thrill, danger
• bright primary colours which are upbeat and which appeal to children
• the recognisable Lego brand, a prestige brand loved the world over by adults and children alike
• the 3D effect of the Lego logo
• the humour of 'Assembling' 
• the appeal of Emmet the underdog, the unstereotypical hero to children as the 'nobody who saved everybody'
• each individual poster makes a specific appeal by identifying the famous actors voicing characters such as Elizabeth Banks as Wyldstyle, Chris Pratt as Emmet, Morgan Freeman as Vitruvius, Will Ferrell as Lord Business.

We watch the Lego Movie Ad Break and the 'making of the Lego Movie Ad Break' video.

• Who are the 4 companies involved?
• What were the financial benefits of Warner making the ad break?
• Who was its target audience?
• Is the tone warm, friendly and humorous?
• How does the ad break use famous names?
• The ad break is built entirely of Lego. How does this theme link to the Lego Movie?
• How does Warner use vertical integration in its marketing?

We view part of the Lego Movie Video Game walk-through and identify what pleasures it offers audiences using Blumler and Katz's theoretical framework: audiences use media to gratify their needs.

PREP Watch the ad break again and write up a post that explains how the ad break works. What is its purpose? How does it appeal to audiences? Was it successful?

MOCK REVISION GUIDE

MEDIA STUDIES (Specification OCR J200)

You will have two examination papers.

Read your downloaded OCR green fact sheets: they are important for understanding TV, promoting media, radio and newspapers.

OCR also provide extremely useful candidate exemplar answers and previous exam papers, but remember that they may ask slightly different questions next time. Use your own last marked exam paper for revision of exam technique.

Look back through the class blog which has every question for both papers. Read your own marked answers on your own blog.

Your two exams:

Paper 1 Television and Promoting Media (I hour 45 minutes including 30 minutes viewing time)
 OCR pdf guide to Television : Industry and Audience here

Paper 1 will have questions on:

·      Cuffs and The Avengers. (Use Clickview to revise Cuffs and The Avengers).

·      The Lego Movie poster advertising campaign (all 5 posters) and UK TV trailer.

·      The Lego Movie ad break.

·      The Lego Movie videogame.

Q1 - Cuffs Revise media language (technical codes of camerawork, editing, mise-en-scène, sound) [5 marks].

Q2 - How representations are created and how audiences relate to characters and events [10 marks].

Q3 - asks you to analyse and evaluate aspects of Cuffs, such as viewpoint [15 marks].

Q4 - revise PSB [5 marks].

Q5 – Revise The Avengers using the OCR booklet Television: Industry and Audiences as you must show how the programme reflects the society in which it was produced and that of its target audience, including its cultural, political and historical context [10 marks].

Q6 [1 mark] and Q7 [4 marks] - revise PEGI and why Lego released the Lego Movie Video Game.

Q8 and Q9 - Lego in-depth questions that ask you to show understanding of audience pleasures as well as genre codes and conventions. Revise the Uses and Gratifications theoretical framework [each 10 marks]. Revise the Lego Movie Ad break, the media language of the poster campaign and the audience pleasures of the video game.
OCR pdf guide to the Lego Movie: industry here
OCR pdf guide to the Lego movie video game: industry and audience here

1.       The main poster featuring an ensemble cast, running from danger

http://www.impawards.com/2014/lego_movie_ver9.html)

2.       Character poster of Vitruvius in close-up

(http://www.impawards.com/2014/lego_movie_ver3.html)

3.       Character poster of Emmet in close-up

(http://www.impawards.com/2014/lego_movie_ver8.html)

4.       Character poster of Lord Business in close-up

(http://www.impawards.com/2014/lego_movie_ver5.html)

5.       Character poster of Wyldstyle in close-up

http://www.impawards.com/2014/lego_movie_ver7.html)

 

Paper 2 Music and News (1 hour 15 minutes)

Paper 2 will have questions on:

Q1 - media regulation [1 mark].

Q2 - music videos: Wheatus – Teenage Dirtbag; Avril Lavigne – Sk8ter Boi (including genre codes and conventions). Read the music booklet pages 14,15 and 18 [4 marks].

Q3 -The Live Lounge, BBC Radio 1 [10 marks]. Read the music booklet pages 25-27.
OCR pdf Radio: Industry and Audience fact sheet here

Q4 - revise MOJO magazine (including genre terms like masthead, coverline, standfirst, central splash etc) [5 marks]. Read the music booklet pages 5, 6 and 7.

Q5 - revise The Observer/Guardian newspaper website and social media; two contemporary front covers of The Observer; the front covers of The Observer dated 30 October 1966, 6 November 1966 and 20 October 1968; and one complete contemporary print edition of The Observer [15 marks].

(In order to revise the online and print press, you should re-read the OCR fact sheet News: Industry and Audiences).

Q6, 7 - revise press regulation [1 mark] and newspaper funding [4 marks].

Q8 - revise textual analysis of The Observer online [5 marks].

Q9 - revise how The Observer’s values and beliefs are evident in their pages [15 marks].

Q10 - revise how broadsheet newspapers reflect social and historical contexts [10 marks].

Yr 11: TV CUFFS

How did changing attitudes towards gender roles in 2015 influence Cuffs, Episode 1?

Year 11: TV THE AVENGERS

PREP Revise the following:

• How did changing attitudes towards gender roles in 1965 influence The Town of No Return? pages 32-33.
• How did changing attitudes towards sexuality in 1965 influence The Town of No Return? page 33.
• How did changing attitudes towards class in 1965 influence The Town of No Return? page 34.
• How did changing attitudes towards age in 1965 influence The Town of No Return? page 34-5.
• How did changing attitudes towards ethnicity in 1965 influence The Town of No Return? page 35.
• Exam practice Question 5 page 35. Read the pages following this!

Year 11 TV: THE AVENGERS

Starter Activities

Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications framework, applied to a YouTube clip of Jessye Norman singing Amazing Grace.

Main Activity

Today we are revising TV: The Avengers using your handout.

• Social and cultural contexts of the mid 1960s - pages 29-30
• How did concerns over the Cold War and spying influence The Town of No Return? pages 30-31
• How did changing attitudes towards gender roles in 1965 influence The Town of No Return? pages 32-33.

We watch clips of relevant TV and film such as Went The Day Well?, Goldfinger, The Man from UNCLE, The Dambusters to illustrate contemporary concern with espionage and The Cold War. Equally, we watch clips featuring Ursula Andress from Dr No (1962) to see the objectification of women in action. We note from Hale Berry's beach scene in Die Another Day (2002) how little has changed.
You will highlight key terms and points in your handout.

PREP Read carefully the revision notes on The Observer pages 124, 125, 126, 127.
In your exam, there will be at least one question one of the three front covers of The Observer from 1966 - 1968. You have bigger copies on the OCR website (link here) and probably in your media folder on your desktop.
Answer Now Test Yourself on your blog, questions 1 - 4.

Yr 11 NEWS

Start in class and complete for PREP on your blog. Total 20 marks.
Copy / paste these questions into your blog and write your answer on your blog after each question.
You need your green guide News (print and online): Industry and Audience

1. 

What can you tell me about how The Observer / Guardian is owned that guarantees its "independent investigative journalism"? (2 marks)

2. Which of these funding models apply to The Guardian / Observer ? (3 marks)

• over-the-counter sales
• membership / subscription
• print and online advertising
• sponsored content
• sales of holidays or books linked to travel sections or book reviews
  
  
  

3.  What is meant by the term 'sponsored content? ( 1 mark)

https://www.theguardian.com/info/2016/jan/25/content-funding