Y12 Media exam: Paper 1: Learner response

1) Type up your feedback in full (you do not need to write mark/grade if you do not wish to). 

WWW: Sanjivani, a very good performance overall for this paper. Your Q1 was very detailed and demonstrates strong ability to analyse an unseen text.

EBI: Not enough development for Q2 - you need to respond more to key words in the question. Some gaps in knowledge with media terminology e.g. Q5. 

Mark: 29

Grade: B

2) Read the mark scheme for this exam carefully (posted on your exam teacher's Google Classroom), paying particular attention to the 'indicative content' for each question. This is some of the best analysis you can do as it gives you an idea of what the exam board are expecting. For your LR blogpost, identify ONE point you could have added for the first three questions in Section A:

Q1 (unseen text) additional point/theory:

• this advertisement makes heavy use of what Neale describes as ‘instances of repetition’, where familiar tropes and imagery are used to engage with audience expectations around media products. The advert works by explicitly connecting the watch to these well-worn ideas with the notion of ‘difference’ perhaps coming from the unusual foregrounding of the watch in the image which is
presumably a new model for the audience to desire.

Q2 (unseen text and CSP) additional point/theory/CSP reference:

• both products can be seen as simulated versions of reality featuring self-consciously stylised hyper-masculine constructions, presenting the audience (to a greater or lesser extent) with role models -Bandura 

Q3 (music video) additional point/theory/CSP reference:

• the car is filled with young men who appear to be on some kind of all-night ‘urban safari’ culminating in the images of them throwing stones into a river near a run-down industrial setting; conforming to the negative stereotype that youth ‘lack direction and purpose’

3) Now focus on Section B. Section B began with two questions testing your knowledge of industry terminology. Make sure you know the answers to these (get the answers from the mark scheme if you have to):

Benefits of horizontal integration: Vertical integration is a form of conglomerate ownership where the parent company owns subsidiaries in the same chain of production. 

Definition of vertical integration: When a company merges or purchases other companies to increase market share and decrease competition.

These both help reduce the risk of a business failing in the media industry (Hemondhalgh) and are key traits of a conglomerate.

4) The Section B CSP focus was on Blinded By The Light. Look at the mark scheme and write a definition of traditional marketing with examples.

• cross-promotion techniques were used throughout the campaign emphasising the trusted brands (brand synergy) - synergy with book, music and the movie itself

• theatrical trailers of varying lengths were also released with a PG certificate to make them widely available to a range of potential audiences globally

• the UK theatrical film trailer took up costly advertising slots in cinemas and on terrestrial TV, and focused heavily on the nostalgic elements of the film (80s soundtrack and mise en scène styling) to grab the audience’s attention

5) Finally, identify three things you plan to revise before your next Media assessment or mock exam (e.g. terminology, particular theories or CSPs etc.)

- Genre and how it may relate to the question - flash cards on genre, exam questions and mind maps which focus on genre relates to the CSPs

- Exam practice related to developing points - exam questions or creating detailed plans with developments on points

- Recap on key terminology that I should add in my answers - flash cards, mind maps and blurting key knowledge and terminology that I could use in exam questions 

- My wording in questions - complete exam questions in timed conditions so I can practice improving my wording during timed conditions where I might rush