Media Studies OCR Exam Blog - Kate Ovington

MAIN SEQUENCE OF EVENTS: // Nanna runs away from a pursuer. // Sarah Lund moves out of her office. // Pernille calls Theis to fix a dishwasher. // Politician Troels Hartmann visits the grave of his dead wife. // Lisa texts Nanna. // Theis shows Vagn his new house. // The body of Nanna is discovered in the boot of a car. GENRE IN THE KILLING: Nordic Noir, Thriller, Detective Nordic noir is a genre of crime fiction from scandinavia, usually from a police perspective. It is straightforward, transparent and literal without metaphor and hidden meanings. It shows the contrast of a bland society with the darkness happening in it. SOCIAL CONTEXT: The episode reflects socially-contested gender and racial/ethnic relations: the police management and sparring politicians are male, reinforcing patriarchal power, but the narrative follows the agency of a female protagonist, whose professionalism and efficacy is foregrounded by her male colleague's boyishness and willingness to give ...

MESSAGES + VALUES: // Editorial content is often critical of big businesses and banking. // Champions the political cause, and the role of the individual in society. // Often focuses on personal and social issues in their representations of celebrities. // Front covers tend to convey more left wing beliefs in their representations of ideologies. // It could be argued that the Big Issue privileges a white male perspective owing to an under-representation of people of colour and women on covers where an individual is the focus. // However, ethnic minorities and women are represented positively when featured - countertypes often used. // The Big Issue challenges stereotypes in it's representation of excluded groups in society, e.g. featuring homeless people and vendors in a positive and often celebratory way. "We've focused on stories and voices that really tell an outsider story, important voices that are rarely properly heard in the media. Hitting 25th anniversary ...

TARGET AUDIENCE:  // 72% of readers are ABC1 // 43% are AB // Psychographics - reformers, explorers To appeal to this TA who have a large cultural capital, they use intertextual references that they will easily understand (easter eggs). These are not dissimilar to the hidden meanings in Radiohead Burn the Witch. THE BIG ISSUE AND POLITICS: Fundamentally, the big issue are continuously critical of politicians, big businesses, banks and their inability to tackle the big issues. The Big Issue holds all politicians to account with a target mission to dismantle poverty and fight for social inclusion. They offer business solutions to social problems (ethical capitalism) by: // Offering vendors a hand up to set up their own micro-business // Campaigning for social inclusion and holding the powerful to account via their coverage of issues. THE BIG ISSUE AND BIG ISSUES: It's target mission is to dismantle poverty by creating opportunity, through self-help, social trad...

The house style of the Big Issue is not followed that strictly in terms of typography and imaging, however there is a consistent masthead which usually will be in the top-left corner of the cover. sometimes, it will appear smaller or in different places along the top of the cover. Yet, consistently over 2019, bar their Christmas issue where it was much smaller, it was in the top-left. The Masthead is usually black and white, but often the black can change to a red or translucent color. There is no barcode on the front of the Big Issue because it is not sold in shops. The general styles of each cover vary depending on the articles and how they suit it, but all remain consistently bright, colorful and chaotically organised, yet still uncluttered and modernized. There is a consistent bright yellow color acting as an accent through most of their copies, but the house style isn't strict and artistic liberties are changed and shaped depending on the issue's messages. It's o...

MARKET REACH OF MAGAZINES: // 75% coverage of the UK 15+ population (40m People) //Reach by platform:  - 40% Print  - 51% Phone  - 18% Desktop  - 12% Tablet WHAT IS  THE BIG ISSUE? A street newspaper. WHO SET IT UP? THEIR INFLUENCES/REASONS? Baron John Bird and Gordon Roddick were influenced by Street News NY to help homeless people earn an income. WHEN WAS IT FIRST PUBLISHED? BY WHO? September 1991 by Dennis Publishing WHAT IS IT'S CIRCULATION? IN WHICH COUNTRIES? The Big Issue has a circulation of 83,073 per week. It was originally a monthly magazine but in 1993 was published weekly. It is in the UK, Australia, Ireland, South Korea, Japan, Nambia, South Africa, Malawi and Taiwan. HOW IS IT FINANCED? Magazine sales and advertising revenue. HOW IS IT DIFFERENT TO OTHER NEWSPAPERS/MAGAZINES: It is a Not For Profit social business and is sold by NFA individuals. They buy them for £1.25 and sell them for £2.50, £3 at Christmas. HOW WOULD ...

WHEN LOOKING AT LUCOZADE, REMEMBER: // Classic conventions of a sports drink advert // Unconventional/Subversive elements of this advert // Intertextual References // Who is the advert aimed at // Celebrity endorsement? Aspirational? Challenge? Sex Appeal? // Use of colour // Typography CONTEXT: // Lucozade is an embedded historical, but originally british brand (1927) // Owned by multinational conglomerate GlaxoSmithKline, sold to global Japanese manufacturer and distributor Suntory in 2013 just after the campaign... // Lucozade is famous for rebranding it's product over the years - in the 60s and 70s as a drink that would help with 'sickness', as the preferred drink in the early days of the rave scene in the 80s and as a sports drink. // 'I Believe' campaign was part of a £4mil campaign across digital and press platforms to position lucozade again as  sports drink to help performance. // Footballers Gareth Bale and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain used as po...