Media Studies OCR Exam Blog - Kate Ovington

WHY DO WE NEED THE PRESS? (REFERENCE USES + GRATS) // Newspapers inform readers about events, providing them with facts and opinions which help them make their own judgement. However, the stories featured in different papers will reflect the opinion of the editor and, in turn, the owner of the paper. // Along with information, papers have an entertainment function such as celebrity/pop culture, sports, TV, puzzles, and readers' letters (e.g dear Deidre) //We need to be informed of opinions and views that aren't our own - news media provides a forum for this debate. If we just listened to our twitter feed for example, we would get a very one-sided perception of the world. // The press are sometimes called the fourth estate - to reflect their important role in society (after the church, the state, the nobility and the commoners). HOW MANY ADULTS DO NEWSBRANDS (UK NEWSPAPERS AND THEIR DIGITAL VERSIONS) REACH IN THE UK? // Newsbrands reach 47.5 million adults in t...

EXAM QUESTIONS: CONTENT: WHAT IS THE SUCCESS CRITERIA FOR PAPER 1, SECTION A? REPRESENTATION: // How newsbrands portray events, issues, individuals and social groups - including through selection and combination and use of media language. // How newsbrands construct versions of reality. // How do newsbrands choose to represent events, issues. individuals and social groups. // How and why stereotypes can be used positively and negatively. // How and why particular social groups in a national and global context, may be under-represented or misrepresented. // How media representations convey values, attitudes and beliefs about the world and how these may be systematically reinforces across a wide range of media representations. // How audiences respond to and interpret media representations. // Theories of representation: Hall, Van Zoonen, Gilroy. // Patriarchal narrative of gender. // The othering of social groups, e.g. immigrants, the poor, women etc. AUDIENCES: ...

KEY TERMS: //Production -  planning, developing and making a product. //Distribution -  All the processes linked to delivering the product to the audience. //Circulation -  The number of copies that are sold. //Consumption -  The way products are used by the audience/consumer. //Conglomerate Ownership -  Ownership by a company that owns numerous other companies. //Vertical Integration -  The merging together of two businesses that are at different stages of production - for example, a food manufacturer and a chain of supermarkets. //Diversification -  the process of a company enlarging or varying its range of products or field of operation. //technological Integration -  When a piece of hardware takes on the functions of others, an ‘all-in-one’ device. HOW IS THE PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, AND CIRCULATION OD MINECRAFT AFFECTED BY IT BEING PART OF A SPECIALISED AND NICHE INDUSTRY? // The technological world is fast-moving and develop...

KEY INFO: // Minecraft is a sandbox game. // It was developed by the Swedish based Mojang Studios // There are two game modes - creative and survival. // It was created by MArkus 'Notch' Persson. HISTORY OF MINECRAFT: // He started creating it in May 2009 . // It was initially seen as a niche product for players with expert knowledge of computers and programming. // Without the commercial advertising of a mainstream publisher, and no money spent on advertising, the game relied on word of mouth between gamers. // By April 2011 , Persson estimated that $33 million of revenue had been made. // In November 2011 , prior to the game's official release, Minecraft had over 16 million registered users and 4 million purchases. // In 2011 , Minecraft was released across multiple platforms. Pocket Edition was released for mobile devices at roughly the same time. // By 2012 , it was available on Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. // It was created originally using Java, which ...

WHAT IS THIS MODULE ABOUT? // This tests two areas of the course (INDUSTRY AND AUDIENCE)  along with your understanding of economic and social contexts. // It is an EXPLAIN question. You will be asked to explain how Minecraft operated and operates as a part of the gaming industry. // You do not need to have played the game and there is no analysis of it. You do need a lot of information though. HOW IS IT ASSESSED: // 15 marks // Paper 2, Question 2 // Part of a trio of Industry and Audience texts, the other two being Radio and Film. // Two out of three will be chosen by OCR in the exam. WHAT DO I NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL? // You need to have KNOWLEDGE  about the video game industry's processes of production, distribution and circulation, always using Minecraft as an example. // You need to have KNOWLEDGE about the video game audience and how they are targeted and reached and how they respond, always using Minecraft as an example. AUDIENCES CRITERIA: INDUSTRY CR...

KEY IDEAS: // We live in  a patriarchal society. // Women's bodies are presented ad objects, male bodies are represented as a spectacle. // Often, women's bodies are presented as their most powerful and only tool. // Gender is performative  - our ideas of femininity and masculinity are constructed in our performances of these roles. // Gender is contextual - it's meaning changes with cultural and historical contexts. // Van-Zoonen disagrees with arguments that the internet, being based on collaboration , is a technology that is true and close to women and femininity. // These views are too simple and based on the idea of an essential femininity, whereas there is a rich diversity of ways that gender is articulated on the internet.

KEY IDEAS: // If your reality is permeated by HYPER-REAL images, your reality becomes distorted. // You them will live in a HYPER-REALITY  where the unreal is more real than reality.  

KEY IDEAS: // Media representations define a 'NORM'  which they encourage the audience to identify with and portray those outside this norm as 'OTHER' , lesser and alien. // It builds an US VS THEM  ideology and emphasizes difference. // These are known as BINARY OPPOSITES . (SEE LEVI STRAUSS)

KEY IDEAS: //REPRESENTATION  is not about whether media reflects or distorts reality, as this implies that there can be one ' TRUE ' meaning, but there are MANY MEANINGS  a representation can generate.  // Meaning is constituted by representation, by what is PRESENT , what is ABSENT , and what is DIFFERENT . Thus, meaning can be contested. // A representation implicates the audience in creating it's meaning. Power - through ideology or by stereotyping - tries to fix the meaning of representation in a' PREFERRED MEANING '. // To create deliberate ANTI-STEREOTYPES is still to attempt to fix the meaning. // A more effective strategy is to go inside the stereotype and open it up within, to DECONSTRUCT  the work of representation.

KEY IDEAS: // You have control over what you watch. // People use the media to satisfy their needs as an active audience. WHAT WE SEARCH OUT MEDIA FOR: I DENTITY E NTERTAINMENT E DUCATION + I NFORMATION E SCAPISM S OCIAL I NTERACTION + I NTEGRATION

KEY IDEAS: // The media can directly influence audiences. When we watch media products, we will learn behaviour from them.  // Human value, conduct and judgement can be altered directly by the media. // They control the passive audience by injecting their minds with messages, causing them to think in a particular way. // Believes that the media can have a direct influence on the values and behaviours of audience members. The media can also have an indirect influence through social networks. // Audiences may intimidate behaviours they see represented in the media. However, in a controlled environment, this experiment doesn't necessarily reflect real life, when kids are placed in a room with adults, they will often try to please the adult and follow what they think they should do. Also, dolls aren't people, kids play with dolls all the time, whether they do this with people is a different matter.

KEY IDEAS: // People can take different readings over a text as an active audience. they are no longer passive. // If you want to understand society, avoid the news. producers embed ideologies into texts for audiences to consume. We need to deconstruct this in order to understand society. // The media shape our perceptions and Ideologies about groups. DIFFERENT READINGS: //Dominant - You fully accept the dominant ideology in the text. //Negotiated - You don't fully agree with, but can justify the dominant ideology in the text. //Oppositional - You completely reject the dominant ideology in the text. //Abhorrent - You do not understand the ideologies in the text. //Preferred -   You accept the reading the producer intended.

KEY IDEAS: // There is no such thing as passive audiences anymore. We are more active audiences now because of technology. // Technological developments have changed the relationship between media producers and audiences, changed our expectations of interaction with products. // Industries have to make their products interactive in order to maintain engagement among audiences.  // In the past media producers created content for audiences, now content can be created by audiences. // Prosumers have different motivations to professional media producers. // This can create cognitive surplus, where potentially large numbers of people give their time and expertise to create something (e.g. Wikipedia). // Audiences can no longer be seen as a singular mass of people. Audiences engage differently with media products across different platforms, with some audience members now creating or adapting media products themselves.  // Audiences like to 'speak back' to the producers of media.

//Representation: How the media portrays events, issues, individuals and social groups. A stereotype is a characterisation of an individual or group that has certain features. They work as symbolic codes and signs. They can be positive or negative but are often generalised and inaccurate. They are usually accepted in society due to the frequency they are used. It is a widely held but fixed idea about a person or group before knowing anything about them personally or first hand. However, a countertype is a positive stereotype, used to emphasize the positive features of a person, group or thing. An archetype is a very typical example of a person/thing. Barthes, the creator of semiotics, suggests that the values created through stereotyping are not true, but myths. REPRESENTATIONS ARE MADE THROUGH: C LASS A GE G ENDER E THNICITY D ISABILITY //ASA: Advertising Standards Agency //Ideology: A set of beliefs that someone holds. //Hegemony: The dominant ideology. //Polysemic - Lo...

//Target Audience(TA): The intended audience of a product. CLASSIFYING AUDIENCES: C LASS A GE G ENDER E THNICITY O CCUPATION // O THER //ABC1 -  higher class //C2DE -  lower class PSYCHOMETRIC PROFILES: //Aspirer - seeks status;   wants status brands that show their place in society. they are happy to invest in luxury goods, often using credit. they consider themselves stylish and on trend and may be persuaded by celebrity endorsement. //Explorer - seeks discovery; like to discover new things and are attracted to new and innovative brands, products and experiences. //Mainstreamer - seeks security; make up 40% of the population. They like tried and trusted brands that are value for money. they like to think they are part of a larger group of like-minded people and are less likely to take risks. //Reformer - seeks enlightenment; defined by self-esteem and self-improvement.They are not influenced or impressed by status and they are not materialistic. The...

HOW DOES ARMANI USE LANGUAGE TO CONVEY MESSAGES TO IT'S AUDIENCE? Armani has used codes and conventions of male ideologies within this print text in order to appeal to the male gaze of their heterosexual male ABC1 audience. The main image in the text indicates a focus on a male protagonist for the advertisement, targeted at the same target audience in order for them to feel a sense of identity to the product upon viewing. They can envision themselves as him because they are the same age and want to feel escapism, to be a part of the advertised world instead of their own. The attraction of his lifestyle is furthered by his eye-contact with the camera at eye level. His Bond-esque style creates an idealistic envision of what it is to be a man, and how they need that product to achieve that goal. Furthermore, the background image and city skyline continue the secretive tones through the text, indicating the man's power and dominance as he looks over the city. This also en...

What MODE  is being used? What TOOLS  are being used? What MEANINGS AND EFFECTS are conveyed? The study of media language is called... SEMIOLOGY   The study of signs and symbols and their uses and                 interpretations . //Denotation - What you can see. //Connotation - What they convey CAMERA ANGLES: //H igh Angle  - makes the subject seem small, insignificant or vulnerable. //Low Angle - makes the subject seem powerful, threatening or dominant. //Bird's Eye View - an unnatural angle which can make objects seem strange. Also puts the viewer in a God-like position looking down at the action. //Canted Angle - an off kilter shot which often suggests confusion, disorientation or drunkenness, sleepiness etc. //Eye-level - neutral shot, gives the impression we are watching the action unfold and immerses us into the scene. MISE-EN-SCENE: What is in the frame or scene. // Positioning/body langua...

USING THE ARTICLE, CONSIDER HOW DISNEY UTILISES IT'S ASSETS TO  PROMOTE, DISTRIBUTE AND EXCHANGE THEIR FILMS. Disney's development of vertical integration within the industry as a global entertainment conglomerate has enabled a high level of control over it's media outputs to mass audiences worldwide. This level of control and oversight ever the Hollywood industry has led, in recent, to the acquisition of Fox entertainment, gaining more outputs for Disney products into mainstream media. This new acquisition has now seemingly catalysed a new era of the conglomerate - streaming. Disney's synergy with other film studios across multiple platforms has easily proved its worth in reaching a more widespread age range of their audience, with the convergence of social media along with it's 30% shares in Hulu, accessing viewers at home in order to break the convenience element that comes with a diverse viewership. This clear success within its experiments in Hulu and the...

The Walt Disney company is an American-borne multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate crated by Walt Disney. DISNEY OWN : // 20th Century Fox // ABC // ESPN // Marvel // Pixar // LucasFilm // Hollywood Records // Touchstone Pictures // Core Publishing // Hulu (30%) Disney has a market capitalism of $170.7 billion (Feb 2019) Avengers: Endgame is the highest grossing film of all time, recently surpassing Avatar, which Disney also owns, but did not produce. Frozen is it's highest grossing original animated film from Walt Disney Animation Studios. Tangled had the largest budget of any animated Disney film at $260 billion. The next big movie from Disney Animation will be Raya and the Lost Dragon in November 2020. The next Pixar film is Onward in March 2020.

The  Daily Mail  is a British daily  middle-market  newspaper published in London in a  tabloid format .  Founded in 1896, it is the United Kingdom's third-biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun and Metro. It reflects the concerns, hopes and lifestyles of middle England. COVER HOUSE STYLE  -  OWNERS  - Daily Mail and General Trust, Jonathan Harmsworth. CIRCULATION  - 1,181,023 (May 2019) ONLINE FORMAT  - The Daily Mail Online GENRE  - Tabloid AUDIENCE  - C2DE, 40-50, Unisex, British, Right-winged. 

The Jungle Book is a 2016 American fantasy adventure film that was released on the 15th of April in 2016 and was one of the first Disney animated films to be remade as live-action. BUDGET  - $177 million  MARKETING POSTER  -  MAIN CAST - Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong'o, Scarlett Johansson, Christopher Walken RUNNING TIME - 106 Minutes STAR APPEAL - Scarlett Johansson, Idris Elba, Christopher Walken COUNTRY OF ORIGIN  - United States, United Kingdom. SET IN - Central Provinces of India DIRECTOR  - John Favreau PRODUCERS  - John Favreau, Brigham Taylor SCREENPLAY BY  - Justin Marks CONVERGENCE  - Rivers of Light Show in Disney World, Disney Stores merch, the Motion Picture Jungle Book soundtrack by John Debney. SYNERGY  - Walt Disney Studios and Fairview Entertainment. AUDIENCE  - ABC1, 12-22, Unisex, Worldwide, Disney lover, fan of the original movie. ...

Stranger things is an American science-fiction web horror television series set in the 1980's (1983 in series 1) that premiered on Netflix on the 15th of July 2016. BUDGET  - $6 million per episode MARKETING POSTER - MAIN CAST - Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Gated Matarazzo, Caleb McGlaughlin, Millie Bobby Brown, Noah Schnapp, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery EPISODES  - eight 40-60 minute long episodes STAR APPEAL - Winona Ryder COUNTRY OF ORIGIN - United States SET IN - 1980's Hawkins Indiana CREATED BY  - The Duffer Brothers PRODUCTION TEAM  - The Duffer Brothers, Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen SYNERGY  - Netflix and 21 laps Entertainment Massacre CONVERGENCE  - Small clips posted to Instagram to tease the premier of the show along with digital posters using Netflix house style. Trailers on Netflix and YouTube so to be accessible to all. Stranger Things Soundtrack with classic 80's hits. AUDIENCE  - ABC1, 15-...

My name is Kate Ovington and I am a year 12 media student. I have moved to Whitley Bay High from Marden, where i have already done my GCSE media course.  My favourite film either is The Hunger Games series or the Darkest Minds because I enjoy Dystopia and I loved the books. My favourite TV series' are Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Good Place along with Stranger things. I prefer TV to film because the story is ongoing and I can grow personally with the characters as the show goes on. My favourite music video is P!nk's What about us and I am most likely to read the Guardian Newspaper.