The Brief:

Candidates must write an evaluative essay of around 1000 words. This critical reflection of their work should be guided by the following compulsory questions:

1. How do your products represent social groups or issues?
2. How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
3. How do your products engage with the audience?
4. How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

This critical reflection must be completed individually, even if candidates had collaborated in the creation of their products.

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Task: Initial Brainstorm

You have already done a huge amount of research, planning & design as you made you multi media marketing package for the release of an album

As a whole class we complete round robin and you are going to think about how you would answer these questions using specific products:

1. How did you try to brand your star?
2. How did your research inform your music video and the way it uses or challenge generic conventions?
3. How does your digipack represent the star and the issues they are concerned about?
4. How does your social media page engage with the audience?

Media Theory & Key Concepts

From now on we are going to be explicitly teaching media theory. Previously we have been teaching this implicitly (without naming specific theory or theorists (except Blumler, Katz & Dyer)) however from now on and in all your exams there is an expectation that you will recognise that Media Studies draws on a range of theorists’ ideas and that you must name them and use some of the terms they used to explain the key concepts in Media Studies, which are:

• Language
• Representation
• Industry
• Audience

This is also true for the Critical Reflection:

Here is a table which illustrates which theorist / theory you should try and apply to each of the Critical Reflection questions:

The Media Theory Bible

Here is a detailed description of each of the key theorists ideas you need in your exam.

Here is a link to the booklet as a work in progress, but presents a little better.

Please be aware that this includes some theorists that you do no need for the Critical Reflection, but will be used in the component 4 exam (Postmodernism, Media Regulation & Media Ecology). You should also note that this is a work in progress and will develop over the next few months.

Application of Questions to Products

We are aiming for an essay of 1,000 – 1,200 words. You do not have time (300 words max) to elaborate on the details of all your products in each section and so we will be applying specific questions to specific products. See below for details: