Radio: Radio 1 Launch - Tony Blackburn and Kiss Breakfast on Kiss FM - link to Radio index here.
Music Video: BLACKPINK - How You Like That and Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor - Music Video final index here.
Media 2 mock exam: Wednesday 5 March P1&2
Section A: Television
The questions in the first section on TV will be on the screened extract from one of our TV close-study products with 2, 8 and 12 mark questions about the clip. The clip will be from one of the episodes we have studied - Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child or His Dark Materials: The City of Magpies.
Section B: Newspapers or Online, Social and Participatory Media
TWO 20-mark essays on Newspapers (the Daily Mirror and The Times) or OSP (Marcus Rashford and Kim Kardashian) - these could focus on any of the four key concepts: Language, Industries, Audiences, Representations.
For Newspapers, you will need to be able to refer to the CSP pages provided by AQA.
Important: the final question in Media Two is the synoptic question where you need to demonstrate your knowledge of the whole course of study. The best way to do this is to try and use all FOUR key concepts in your answer: Language, Representations, Audiences, Industries. Alternatively, you can mention an additional CSP that relates to the question you are given.
Revision is the key
It's important that you revise properly for these exams and give yourself the best possible chance of success. It's fine to make mistakes - that's what mock exams are for - but there's no excuse for not knowing some key information about the CSPs we have studied.
We suggest creating revision cards or knowledge organisers using the following topics:
Media language E.g. Denotation and Connotation, Camerawork, Mise-en-scene, Intertextuality, Key conventions etc.
Media theories E.g. Narrative theories (Todorov, Propp, Barthes), Reception theory, Uses & Gratifications theory etc.
CSPs All 16 CSPs we have studied so far in the course. See links above to original blogposts. We recommend one revision card for each key concept you need to study for each CSP. E.g.:
Tatler - Language and Representations - 2 revision cards
Doctor Who - Language, Industries, Audiences, Representations - 4 revision cards
Media language: Glossary and terminology
We have been focusing on GLoW words throughout the course - the key words you need to know for GCSE Media. Here are two links to help with your Media language revision:
You'll need your Greenford Google login to open these.
Revision cards
If you would like some revision cards to revise with feel free to pop in to DF07 and I'll happily provide you with them for free - I strongly recommend creating revision cards for all the exam CSPs and also for media terminology and theory (e.g. Mise-en-scene, Reception theory, Uses & Gratifications theory etc.)
The better you know the terminology, theory and CSPs, the better you'll do in the exams... Good luck!
Remember, this is an in-depth CSP and needs to be studied with reference to all four key concepts: Language, Representation, Industries and Audience.
Daily Mirror notes
Background
The Daily Mirror was first published in 1903 as a newspaper for women ‘to act as a mirror on feminine life’.
Sales for this demographic were limiting, so the newspaper was re-designed to appeal to a broader audience. Initially to middle-class but later during WW2 changed to target C1-C2-DE skilled and semi-skilled working classes who were affiliated with the Labour party.
It was hugely popular in the 1990s and sold millions every day. However, it has now significantly declined and now sells around 200,000 copies a day.
Language
AQA has selected the following pages as our Daily Mirror CSP pages:
Analyse these pages and look at which stories have been selected for the newspaper and how they are constructed for their audience.
Representations
The Daily Mirror supports the Labour Party and is against the Conservative Party. Generally, the newspaper will act as a voice for normal people (hence the old slogan 'Fighting For You') and go against the rich and powerful (like the Conservative Party in their row with Gary Lineker).
Here's a graph of the most left-wing and right-wing newspapers:
You need to study the selected CSP pages for the Daily Mirror to see how the newspaper represents different people, groups, issues and events. Remember: CAGE - class, age, gender, ethnicity.
Blog tasks: Daily Mirror case study
Work through the following questions to cover the Language and Representations key concepts for the Daily Mirror. Language 1) Write the definition of the following key language for newspaper front pages (you may want to add an example for each from our Daily Mirror CSP): Masthead: Pug: Splash Head: Slogan: Dateline: Byline: Standfirst: 2) What is the main story on the CSP edition of the Daily Mirror (see above)? Make sure you learn the headline and what the story is about. 3) What is the 'pug' or smaller celebrity story on the front cover? Why might it appeal to Daily Mirror readers?
4) Why is the choice of news stories, content and page design on the Mirror CSP front page typical of a tabloid newspaper? 5) What is the balance on the Daily Mirror front page between images, headlines and text? Representations 1) What political party does the Daily Mirror support? Is there any evidence to support this in the CSP pages we have studied? 2) How does the Daily Mirror represent Gary Lineker in the CSP pages? Why do you think they present him in this way? 3) How is the BBC Chairman Richard Sharp represented in the Daily Mirror CSP pages? Look particularly at the use of images on the front cover and the section on Sharp on the inside page. Give detailed answers with evidence from the CSP pages.
4) How are the Conservative Party represented in the Daily Mirror? Again, provide evidence from the CSP pages to support your answers.
5) Read the main articles on the inside pages. How are different people, groups and organisations represented in the Daily Mirror? Does this reinforce or subvert the stereotypes we usually see in the media?
Grade 8/9 extension tasks Read this Guardian column on the Mirror's struggles with covering Brexit. How did the Mirror suggest people vote in the EU referendum and how did many of its working class audience actually vote? What does this tell us about social class in Britain in recent years?
You will get some lesson time to work on this case study but will need to complete it at home if it isn't finished - due date on Google Classroom.
Remember, as an in-depth CSP this needs to be studied with reference to all four key concepts: Language, Representation, Industries and Audience. Introduction to newspapers - notes
GLow Words
Left-wing (Socialist): in favour of social equality and reform. The Labour Party is considered left-wing and the Daily Mirror generally supports Labour and left-wing causes.
Right-wing (Conservative): prefer the traditional way things are and in favour of low taxes. The Conservative Party is considered right-wing and the Times generally supports the Conservatives and right-wing causes.
Agenda: issues brought to the attention of the people through news.
Elitist: for the good of a few people, usually the upper classes or most educated.
Political Bias: when an industry or media product supports a certain political view.
Hard news: information on topics like business, politics and international affairs.
Soft news: blurs line between information and entertainment so may be centred more on gossip, celebrities or lifestyle issues.
Tabloid: smaller, popular and tends to focus on sensational stories and softer news.
Broadsheet: larger, more niche and tends to focus on serious, harder news.
Historical, social and cultural context
The ‘Press’ is a collective term for the newspaper industry. The name comes from printing presses. Newspapers are still popular media products for audiences to get their news, be entertained and informed. There are a range of national (Daily Mail), regional (Birmingham Mail) and specialist newspapers (The Racing Post).
Whilst still popular, since the 1950s, there has been a gradual decline in newspaper sales due to the rise of TV ownership (and news programmes) and, more recently, the growth of digital news through websites and social media. The importance of a free press A free press implies that journalists (those that write for newspapers) and newspaper editors can edit content free of intervention from Government influence. More than a third of the world’s population live in countries where there is no press freedom. Journalists are often imprisoned if they disagree with the Government, social media channels are not allowed, non-democratic countries often control access to information and employ state-run news organizations.
Recently, democracy has been challenged by the decline in trusted news sources and the rise of 'fake news' or misinformation. Here's a good video highlighting the dangers of a 'post-truth' society:
Tabloids and broadsheets
There are generally two classifications of newspapers – tabloids and broadsheets.
Tabloids tend to be easier to read, feature shorter articles and include more photographs. They report on major news, but also include a lot of showbiz gossip, entertainment and sport. They tend to be the better sellers. Examples include The Sun and the Daily Mirror.
Broadsheet newspapers traditionally used to be larger (printed on ‘broad sheets’) although most are the same size as tabloids now. They tend to be more serious, have smaller fonts, more advanced use of language and less photography (although they have included more over the last 20 years to be more popular). They tend to have lower circulation figures than tabloids. Examples include the Times and the Daily Telegraph.
Introduction to Newspapers: blog task
Create a new blogpost called 'Introduction to Newspapers' and answer the following questions:
1) What type of news can you typically find in a tabloid newspaper?
2) What type of news can you typically find in a broadsheet newspaper?
3) If someone is left-wing, which political party in the UK are they likely to support? Which newspaper would they be likely to read?
4) If someone is right-wing, which political party in the UK are they likely to support? Which newspaper would they be likely to read?
5) Why has there been a decline in newspaper sales in the last 25 years?
6) Why is a free press important in a democracy like the UK?
The December mock was an excellent opportunity to test our knowledge of the CSPs in a full 90-minute exam. Your overall grade for the December mock exam may or may not be something you're happy with but the main thing is that we learn from the process and make sure we put it into practice in the upcoming February/March full mock exams. We'll work through the paper question-by-question in class but you also need to complete the learner response tasks below. December mock exam: Learner Response blog tasks
Create a blogpost called 'December mock exam: Learner Response'. Then work through the following tasks:
1) Type up any feedback on your paper (you don't need to write the mark and grade if you want to keep this confidential). If you only have marks and a grade on the paper, write a WWW/EBI yourself based on your scores.
3) Next, identify three points you could have made in Q1.3 - camerawork and the extract. Look for the indicative content in the mark scheme - these are the suggested answers from AQA.
4) Now look at Q1.4 in the mark scheme - pick out two points from the mark scheme that you could have included in your answer. 5) Focus on Q2 - the 20-mark essay on representations of age and social and cultural contexts. Pick out three points from the mark scheme that you didn't include in your answer.
6) Turning your attention to Section B, write a definition and example of user-generated content - use the mark scheme to check it.
7) Look at Q4 - the 20-mark essay on the power of influencers. Pick out three points from the mark scheme that you didn't include in your own answer.
8) Now look at Q5 - the 20-mark essay on regulation and the internet. Again, pick out three points from the mark scheme that you didn't include in your own answer.
9) On a scale of 1-10 (1 = low, 10 = high), how much revision and preparation did you do for your Media mock exam? Be honest here - it's a good chance to think about how to approach the next set of mock exams.
10) List three key things you want to revise before the next mock exams in February (e.g. particular CSPs, terminology, exam technique etc.)
Complete for homework if you don't finish this in the lesson - due date on Google Classroom.
The second part of our OSP CSP work is on the Audience and Industry contexts for Marcus Rashford and Kim Kardashian.
This will focus more on how technology, the internet and social media have changed society and culture for audiences and industries.
Audience
Target audience: demographics and psychographics
What is the target audience for two CSPs?
Demographics: CAGE?
Psychographics?
Audience engagement
Instagram engagement rate is a measure of how much audiences engage with posts (e.g. likes, comments). An engagement rate of 1-3% is considered good and anything 6%+ is extremely high.
Marcus Rashford’s power as an influencer is shown by his engagement rate of 6% (although recently this has dropped to 3.2% due to increasing his follower count and focusing more on football rather than his brand development).
Kim Kardashian's engagement rate is lower at 0.33% but she has over 350 million followers so can still reach and engage with huge audiences.
Celebrity influences: appeal to audiences
What is the appeal of Marcus Rashford and Kim Kardashian to audiences? Think about their campaigns, use of social media and brand associations. Also, consider their appeal to different audiences.
Use Blumler and Katz Uses and Gratifications theory:
Diversion
Personal Identity
Personal Relationships
Surveillance/information
Industries
Marcus Rashford net worth
Marcus Rashford’s net worth has been estimated at around £16m (source: Sunday Times rich list). This includes:
£300,000 per week from Manchester United (£15.6m a year)
£2m endorsement deal with Nike
Additional deals with Burberry, Jaguar Land Rover, Coca-Cola and others
He is also the youngest person to top the Sunday Times Giving List for raising £20m for good causes.
Kim Kardashian net worth
Kim Kardashian’s net worth has been estimated at $1.7 BILLION. This is from:
The Kardashians TV show on Hulu is a $100m deal
Her brands SKIMS, KKW Beauty and many more
Celebrity commercial partners & products
Watch the following videos of Marcus Rashford and Kim Kardashian to get an understanding of their brands and commercial partners.
What do the companies get from an association with Rashford or Kardashian?
Thinking about media language, how do these adverts create an emotional connection between the brand and audience?
How do the clips help Rashford or Kardashian control or build their own brand?
Marcus Rashford: Black History Month
Marcus Rashford: Nike - New Normal
Marcus Rashford: Coca-Cola
Kim Kardashian: Meat alternative
Kim Kardashian Hollywood mobile game
Industries: ownership, control and regulation
Marcus Rashford and Kim Kardashian’s online presence is partly driven by their excellent use of social media.
But who owns Twitter/X? Who owns Instagram? How much money do they make? How are they regulated?
These are key questions for GCSE Media students.
Twitter/X
Twitter was started by Jack Dorsey in 2006. It has over 500 million active users worldwide.
Twitter’s revenue is around $3 billion.
Twitter makes most of its money through advertising – promoted tweets or ‘trend takeovers’.
Marcus Rashford has 7m X followers, Kim Kardashian 75m.
In 2022 Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 BILLION and has since added controversial new features and renamed it X.
Instagram
Instagram is an image and video sharing site launched in 2010.
In 2012 it was bought by Facebook for $1 billion. Facebook and Instagram’s parent company is now called Meta – a global conglomerate.
Instagram has over a billion active users worldwide and more than 25 million users in the UK alone.
Instagram revenue in 2023 was $61 BILLION.
Marcus Rashford has over 17m Instagram followers, Kim Kardashian 350m.
Instagram: a danger to teenagers?
Over 40% of Instagram users are aged under 23.
Research suggests that Instagram is damaging to mental health – particularly for teenage girls.
Facebook’s own research suggested this – but they allegedly kept this secret.
The research suggested one in three girls felt bad about their bodies and Instagram made this worse. It is also linked to increased anxiety and depression.
Media regulation: how do you regulate the internet and social media?
The government is introducing the Online Safety bill to try and add regulation of the internet to Ofcom’s role as media regulator. This includes:
Sending threatening posts being punishable by jail sentences.
Platforms like X and Instagram having to actively prevent users seeing harmful material – or risk being fined by Ofcom.
Platforms paying Ofcom to regulate their content.
Critics of the law have suggested social media is impossible to regulate – there is too much content – or users’ freedom of speech will be compromised.
Internet regulation: key questions
The internet is very difficult to regulate because it is global but governments are national. Also, corporations like Amazon or Facebook are now more powerful than some governments.
Media theorist Clay Shirky describes the change with digital media as going from: “Filter then publish to publish then filter”.
Anyone can publish almost anything instantly and the audience then has to filter the content they engage with.
Here's Clay Shirky talking about how the internet is changing communication - watch the first three minutes:
Finally, here is Marcus Rashford talking to Sky Sports News about what should be done about online abuse:
OSP: Audience and Industries blog tasks
Work through the following tasks to complete our OSP work:
Audience
1) Who are the potential target audiences for Marcus Rashford and Kim Kardashian's online content? Try and cover both demographics and psychographics.
2) Marcus Rashford’s online presence is partly driven by his excellent use of social media. How does he use social media to engage with his fans and make them feel part of his brand?
3) What is Instagram engagement rate and what engagement rates do Marcus Rashford and Kim Kardashian have?
4) Go to Marcus Rashford and Kim Kardashian's X or Instagram account. Find and screenshot/link three posts that show the different aspects of their brand e.g. Relatable person (normal, down to earth), Campaigner (interested in politics), Celebrity (e.g. awards ceremony or fashion), Brand promotion (e.g. selling a product).
6) Applying Stuart Hall's Reception theory, what would a preferred and oppositional reading of Marcus Rashford and Kim Kardashian's online presence be?
Preferred reading (people who support Rashford/Kardashian):
Oppositional reading (people who criticise Rashford/Kardashian):
Industries
1) What is Marcus Rashford and Kim Kardashian's net worth and how does their online presence help them to make money?
2) What companies/brands are Rashford and Kardashian associated with? Why might they want to be linked to those celebrities?
3) Research Twitter/X and Instagram. Who owns the companies, how do they make money and how much profit did they make last year?
4) What are the worries about Instagram’s negative effects?
5) How do social media platforms manage online abuse on their platforms and why has Marcus Rashford drawn attention to this? How might this change in the future?
6) What happened by law in 2022 that changed the way the internet is regulated? Write three changes that this new law may bring in and explain why it is difficult to regulate the internet.
Due date: on Google Classroom
Grade 8/9 extension tasks
Look at this Marcus Rashford tweet. How does this help Rashford create a positive representation of himself and also control the media narrative?
Your December mock exam is a great opportunity to practice a full 90-minute exam and revise some of the CSPs we have studied so far.
Your December exam will be one full Paper 2 (Television and Online, Social and Participatory Media). Below is a full guide to what you need to revise for each section of the exam.
Know your exam
One of the most important aspects of preparing for examinations is knowing exactly what topics could come up and where. For your December exam, this is what will come up:
December mock exam - Wednesday 18 December
Section A: Television
Short extract from either Doctor Who – An Unearthly Child (1963) or His Dark Materials – The City of Magpies (2020).
The extract will be shown twice and you can make notes. There will then be three questions on the extract (2 marks, 8 marks, 12 marks).
The final question is a 20-mark essay on BOTH of your TV Close-Study Products.
Your real Paper 2 in the summer may have questions on Newspapers in Section B. However, these will not appear in your December mock exam as we have not studied the topic yet.
How to revise
Revision is a very personal thing and everyone has different techniques. Personally, I strongly recommend using flash cards (they are often called record cards if you are trying to buy them online or in WHSmiths). The simple act of distilling topics into a few key words or phrases to put on the card will seriously help in remembering the key information in the final exams. I have spare flash cards in DF07 if you'd like some. Media students in the past have created three sets of revision cards:
Media terminology
Media theory
CSPs
The two topics you need to focus on particularly in December are:
Television
OSP - Influencers, Rashford and Kardashian
Good luck with your revision and give this mock exam your best shot!
Our OSP CSPs are the online presence of Manchester Utd and England footballer Marcus Rashford and celebrity influencer Kim Kardashian.
This is an in-depth CSP so we need to study all four areas of the theoretical framework: Language, Representation, Audience and Industry. This first case study will focus on Language and Representation.
Marcus Rashford
Marcus Rashford is a Manchester Utd and England footballer who has used social media and the internet to create a strong brand. He has been praised for his high-profile campaigns on food poverty (putting pressure on the government to provide free school meals in holidays during Covid-19) as well as homelessness and books for children.
We need to study his website, social media and how he has created his Marcus Rashford brand.
Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian is one of the most successful social media influencers of all time. She uses her social media presence to promote herself and her brands to her 350 million followers. Kardashian is highly sought after as a brand ambassador and is paid millions of dollars by companies to promote their products.
With Kim Kardashian, we need to study the influence of celebrities and how she has managed to build a billion dollar empire using social media and celebrity.
Language analysis
GLOW glossary words
Convergence: When two or more media forms can be accessed in one place or one device e.g Marcus Rashford’s website also links to his books, social media feeds and video content.
Online engagement/dialogue: Communication online e.g between a celebrity and a fan.
Endorsement: When a celebrity or influential figure recommends something to the public.
Website conventions
Website key conventions include:
Logo/brand identity
Navigation – menus
Central image
Multimedia features – e.g. video
Social media links / integration
Social media conventions
Social media key conventions include:
Logo/brand identity
Bio (personal details/information)
Profile image
Background/banner image
Images and video
Online engagement/audience interaction
Media Language: Genre and narrative
Marcus Rashford has created a strong personal brand that merges different genres – footballer, campaigner / activist, influencer, celebrity.
His online presence emphasises his working class background and how hard his mum worked as a single parent. This creates a narrative of success against the odds. He then uses this to drive his campaigning work on food poverty and reading.
Kardashian, in contrast, is far more focused on fashion, wealth and celebrity. She herself said she wanted to be famous more than anything.
Marcus Rashford story:
MOTD Mural:
Real reason behind Kim Kardashian's fame:
Representations
Marcus Rashford’s online presence offers a real mix of representations – some reinforcing stereotypes of masculinity, footballers and race/ethnicity but others subverting them. He also looks to challenge stereotypes regarding poverty, benefits and social class.
Kim Kardashian could be viewed as an empowering businesswoman – building a billion dollar empire. But she also reinforces negative stereotypes regarding female appearance and the importance of celebrity.
Use Daniel Chandler’s representation theory of CAGE to analyse representations in the media. Here's an example for Marcus Rashford’s online presence:
C – Class (social class – working class people)
A – Age (youth)
G – Gender (masculinity)
E – Ethnicity (black British)
OSP: Language and Representation blog tasks
Work through the following tasks to cover the Language and Representation key concepts for our OSP CSPs:
Language
1) Make two lists - one of website conventions used on Marcus Rashford and Kim Kardashian's official website and one of social media conventions found on their Instagram pages.
2) How does Marcus Rashford's website and social media promote his brand? Give at least three examples of different pages / posts / images from his website or social media.
3) How does Kim Kardashian's website and social media promote her brand? Give at least three examples of different pages / posts / images from her brand websites or social media.
4) How does Marcus Rashford's online presence use the narrative of his childhood upbringing to create a positive brand identity?
5) How does Kim Kardashian's website and social media promote other media products or websites using the Kardashian brand (e.g. Keeping Up With The Kardashians TV show)?
Representations
1) How does Marcus Rashford use different aspects of mise-en-scene (e.g. clothes/costume/ settings/locations) to create representations of himself on his website and social media?
2) What examples can you find of website pages, social media posts or aspects of his brand that create a positive representation of Marcus Rashford? You may wish to comment on his discussion of family or his campaigns - his page on the FareShare campaign website may help with this question.
3) How does Marcus Rashford's online presence challenge stereotypes? Think about gender (masculinity), race/ethnicity, social class or football here.
4) What representation of celebrity is created by Kim Kardashian's website and social media? How are audience encouraged to view celebrity?
5) What gender stereotypes are reinforced or challenged in Kim Kardashian's online presence?
Due date: on Google Classroom
Grade 8/9 extension tasks
Look at this Marcus Rashford tweet. How does this help Rashford create a positive representation of himself and also control the media narrative?
