A2 G325: Critical Perspectives in the Media (Section A)

1. A2 G325:
Critical Perspectives
in Media

2. A2 G325:
Critical Perspectives
in Media
The purpose of this unit is to assess
candidates’ knowledge and
understanding of media concepts,
contexts and critical debates,
through their understanding of one
contemporary media issue and their
ability to evaluate their own
practical work in reflective and
theoretical ways.
The A2 exam is worth 25% of your
final A-Level grade and is made
up of 2 separate sections. The
exam is 2 hours long
Section A: Theoretical Evaluation
of Production
2 compulsory questions worth 25
marks each = 50 marks in total
Section B: Contemporary Media
Issues
1 question from a choice of 2
worth 50 marks. There are a
selections of optional topics for
this section but we will study
‘Media and Collective Identity’ so
make sure you look for that on the
exam paper.

3. Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of
Production
• Two compulsory questions. Each question is
worth 25 marks and requires 30 minutes of
exam time. The first requires you to describe
and evaluate your skills development over the
course of your production work, from
Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio.
The second asks you to identify one
production and evaluate it in relation to one
theoretical concept.

4. Two compulsory questions
1a asks about the whole of your
practical work:
• Preliminary task at AS.
• Main task at AS.
• Main task at A2.
• Ancillary tasks at A2.
• Work completed outside the
course.
The question is all about skills and
development and will focus on one
or two of:
• Digital Technology
• Creativity
• Research and Planning
• Post-production
• Using conventions from real media
texts.
1b asks about only one of your
projects (again could be
something completed
outside the course). It will
ask you about any one of
the key concepts:
• Genre
• Narrative
• Representation
• Audience
• Media Language

5. Perfect Planning Prevents Poor
Performance
• For 1a, prepare responses for each of the possible
areas. If more than one comes up, you can combine
your points to answer effectively.
• For 1b, you may want to have a different production
focus depending on which concept comes up. For
example:
- AS Music Magazine would work well for
Representation.
- A2 Soap Opera Trailers would work well for Genre.
• For both questions your planning will be personal to
you and, if done thoroughly, will ensure exam
success!

6. Ten Commandments for Reflective
Writing
1. Focus on creative decisions informed by institutional knowledge (you did
what you did partly because of what you had learned about how the media
produce, distribute and share material)
2. Focus on creative decisions informed by theoretical understanding (you
know you did what you did because of having a point of view in relation to media
and meaning, and you can describe that in relation to media theories.)
3. Evaluate the process - don’t just describe it.
4. Relate your media to ‘real media’ at the micro level (give clear, specific
examples of how you used techniques and strategies to create intertextual
references to media you have been influenced by).
5. Try to deconstruct yourself (don’t think of your own tastes, decisions,
preferences, behaviour as just being ‘the ways things are’; instead, try to analyse
the reasons for these things - tough to do but worth the effort).

7. Ten Commandments for Reflective
Writing cont.
6. Choose clearly relevant micro examples to relate to macro reflective
themes (you can’t write about EVERYTHING you did, so be prepared with a
‘menu’ of examples to adapt to the needs of the reflective task).
7. Avoid binary oppositions (your media products will not either follow or
challenge existing conventions; they will probably do a bit of both).
8. Try to write about your broader media culture (don’t just limit your
writing to your media production pieces, but try to extend your response to
include other creative work or other media-related activities you have been
engaged in).
9. Adopt a metadiscourse (step outside of just describing your activities as a
media student to reflect, if possible, on the ‘conditions of possibility’ for the
subject and your role within it - what kind of activity is making a music video
for media studies, compared with making it as a self-employed media
producer?)
10. Quote, paraphrase, reference (reflective writing about production is still
academic writing so remain within the mode of address)

8. Question 1a: Reflecting on the
development of your skills
This question asks you to consider how you have developed
as a maker of media products across your work, including
relevant work completed in other subjects (Film,
Photography, Art for example) and anything made ‘for fun’
(videos on YouTube for example).
So, what is ‘your work’?
Make a Timeline of all relevant work completed over the past
2 years adding a brief description of each piece and noting
where it can be found for reference. Use arrows to show
connections between pieces.

9. 3 Essential Tips for 1a
1. Plan and prepare before the exam. There is a limit to what
can be asked and some combinations are more likely than
others (eg. Digital tech + any other or Creativity + any other).
You only have 30mins but have to talk about everything you
have done so make every word BRILLIANT!
2. Consider the mark scheme. There are 10 marks for
explanation, analysis and argument, 10 marks for examples and
5 marks for terminology.
3. Think about where you are at the end of the course and
what you have learnt in other areas of it. You’re not just giving
an account of what you did but sitting back and reflecting upon
it in the light of all your learning. It is GOOD to utilise things
you’ve learnt/are learning in other units.

10. Creativity
Whilst you’ve had to evaluate your work from the
perspective of the other four areas, you have not before
had to consider Creativity. Where does creativity come from
and what does it mean anyway? Let’s BRAINSTORM!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/creativity

11. Self-Evaluation: Creativity
How creative do you think you’ve been? Has a set menu
of tasks made it easier to be creative or would you have
preferred a free choice? Were you pinned down too much
by the tasks or did they free you up to be creative within
the boundaries of the task? What other factors affected
your creativity?
Look over your timeline and write 5 bullet points, with
explanations and examples, reflecting on your creativity
across the course. Remember to include media
terminology where appropriate.

12. Homework
Look again at all the work you have produced over the
past 2 years (referenced in your timeline) and ensure that
you have access to it all next lesson. Failure to do this will
mean your presence in the lesson next week be largely
POINTLESS.

13. Digital Technology
Digital technology you may have used includes:
• Web-based such as websites, downloads, YouTube
• Blogging
• Digital editing programs (iMovie/Final Cut Pro/music
editing)
• Photoshop
• Digital cameras/video cameras
• Digital sound recorders

14. One way of approaching this area might be to imagine
you DIDN’T have any of this technology available to you
and consider how this would have negatively affected
your production work.
Look for examples in your production work where your
use of each type of digital technology has been
particularly successful and/or interesting and/or has led
to or shown a development.
Try to focus your ideas on your development as a media
producer and try to trace a path across the two years.

15. Research and Planning
This is an area in which some of you have been
stronger than others across the past two years. The
examiner has no way of knowing what you actually
did, so some poetic license can be applied if this
area comes up in the exam.
What were the most useful Research and Planning
activities you undertook in each of your projects and
how did they inform the production?
Find 10 examples.

16. Post-production
AKA Editing. This may be video or still image editing
work.
Answer the following for still image AND video (AND
sound where relevant:
• How have your editing skills developed over the past
two years and what evidence is there of this in your
work (give examples)?
•What are the key skills that you have learnt in order to
be successful in editing work and when/how did you
learn them (give examples)?
• How important has post-production work been to each
of your projects?

17. Using Conventions from real Media
Texts
You should have some analysis of your use of codes
and conventions in your blog evaluations for each
production (for media studies projects at least), so use
these as a starting point. Find examples of times when
you:
• Followed a convention
• Developed a convention
• Deliberately ignored/contradicted a convention
For each example, explain HOW you did it and WHY.
Remember to ensure you have a range of examples
from across the course.

18. In your experience, how has your
creativity developed through using digital
technology to complete your production?
Introduction
Explain the tasks you have done across the 2 years,
including anything done outside the course that you intend to reference.
Main paragraphs
•Write about the technology you have used, with some reflections on
how you got to grips with it initially, and where you went from there. You
might discuss:

19. -iMovie/Final cut pro
-camera(s)
-blogger
-YouTube
-Photoshop
-etc.
•Make some observations about how easy it is to get used to technology these
days, particularly for young people who have access to it outside school. Refer
specifically to how you used the technology in particular tasks.
•Open up the question of creativity: what does it mean to you, and where have
your ideas about creativity come from? What do other people say about what
creativity might mean? (*Quote) How have the tasks themselves encouraged
creativity? Refer to examples from what you’ve done.

20. Conclusion
•Try to bring together these strands - creativity and technology - to answer the
question.
•Refer to ways in which the technology has also allowed you to develop other
skills - teamwork, organisation, planning, research, negotiation.
•Finish by opening up to a wider conclusion - that digital technology has given
media consumers the opportunity to become media producers too - particularly
via web distribution and that this, in turn, has allowed creative comment in wider
communities such as YouTube.

21. Question 1b: Writing analytically about
your production work
1b asks about only one of your
projects (again could be
something completed outside
the course).
It will ask you about any one
of the key concepts:
•Genre
•Narrative
•Representation
•Audience
•Media Language
When preparing for this question you may
want to pick different production pieces
for each of the key concepts.
The question will essentially be asking you
to analyse a piece of your own work in
terms of the application of one of these
concepts.

22. A key part of answering this question successfully is showing your
understanding and ability to apply media theory/critical
approaches. Which theory/approach is relevant will depend on
the key concept and on your own production so you will have to do
some research of your own.
To get you started, you are going to work in pairs to prepare a
presentation for the rest of the class on relevant critical theories for
each of the key concepts. Your presentation should include:
•An explanation (in words YOU understand) of the
theory/approach, who came up with it, when and how.
•A short quotation or two (with accreditations) that could be learnt
and used in the exam.
•An example of how you could apply it to your own work, using
one of your productions.
REMEMBER: It may be that your production goes AGAINST the
theory, or even disproves it. This is fine and makes for an
interesting critical analysis of your work.

23. Key Concepts and Possible
Theory/Critical Approaches
Audience
•Uses and gratifications theory
•Hypodermic needle theory
•Reception theory (Stuart Hall)
Representation
•Gender: Judith Butler, Laura Mulvey, Angela McRobbie, David Gauntlett
•Sexuality: Queer theory, Feminist theory
•Race: Stuart Hall, Edward Said
•Sub-cultures and youth: Dick Hebdidge

24. Narrative
•Tvzetan Todorov
•Vladimir Propp
•Claude Levi-Strauss
(binary oppositions)
•Roland Barthes
Media Languages/Codes & Conventions
•Semiotics (Roland Barthes)
•Claude Levi-Strauss
Soap Opera Specific:
•Christine Geraghty
•Robert C. Allen
•Dannielle Blumenthal
Music Video Specific:
•Andrew Goodwin
•Keith Negus
•Theodor Adorno
Genre
•Daniel Chandler
•Patrick Phillips
•Steve Neale
•Richard Maltby
•NOTE: It is not always possible to
categorise theories like this, so
you may find that something
you’re looking into overlaps into
another category. Mention this in
your presentation if so.