Paper 1 Mock - Learner Response

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

Go to your Media teacher's Google Classroom and find the mark scheme and examiner's report uploaded. This is vital as the paper was an official exam paper and therefore the mark scheme tells us a lot about what AQA are expecting us to produce.

2) Write a question-by-question analysis of your performance. For each question, write how many marks you got from the number available and identify and points that you missed by carefully studying the AQA indicative content in the mark scheme:

Q1: 

Using Roland Barthes’ theory of semiotics, the National Trust advert “What will take your breath away?” can be analysed through denotation, connotation and myth. Denotatively, the advert shows images of British landscapes and historic sites. Connotatively, these suggest peace, escape and emotional fulfilment, reinforced by the slogan which implies awe and inspiration. This creates a myth that British nature and heritage are naturally restorative and meaningful, promoting the ideology that visiting National Trust sites is an essential and valuable experience.

Q2: 

The political contexts are largely determined by the ‘Town and Country’ dichotomy (which is in itself a set of stereotypes): here is urban and rural life juxtaposed to reflect certain kinds of poverty and abundance. The historical contexts are even more contradictory as the music video is historical (but not a limiting idea of ‘History’) and Figure 1 is both contemporary and yet timeless.

Q3: 

Intertextuality refers to the act of making references to other texts and popular culture artefacts as part of the signification process. To create meaning, intertextuality relies on audiences recognising and understanding intertextual references

Q4:

the essence of Butler’s approach (as addressed at this level) is that gender is performative but also that there is no original/blueprint against which to perform so every gendered performance is discrete and potentially challenging. Butler argues that not only is gender culturally constructed but that this also colours our understanding of sex (biological difference).

Q5:

The coming together of technologies and institutions. Convergence creates new platforms, new product or media experience

Q6:

Newsbeat has an auditory style all of its own which works through distinctive musical imaging. Newsbeat offers opportunities for audience interaction, participation and self-representation.

Q7: 

Blinded by the Light is a co-production between independent production companies and a major Hollywood conglomerate; co-productions between media companies are a typical way of minimising risk. The participation of Warner Bros, a powerful media conglomerate with diverse cross-media elements including facilities for media production, distribution and circulation (vertical integration) means they have the structures and the financial capability to reach large mainstream audiences, thus minimising risk and maximising profit

3) Look at Question 4 - a 20-mark essay evaluating Judith Butler's gender is a performance theory. Write an essay plan for this question using the indicative content in the mark scheme and with enough content to meet the criteria for Level 4 (top level). This will be somewhere between 3-4 well-developed paragraphs plus an introduction answering the question planned in some detail.

Score acts as a useful reference point however it is read. It was ‘written’ at the epicentre of a period of social upheaval particularly for women predicated on sexual liberation (a permissive society ‘on the pill’). It can be read as advocating traditional gender roles (or modernised versions of old stereotypes), the women are displayed as things to be looked at by men, serving the superior sex (and he is in a number of senses ‘on top’ and that’s how it should be). Of course this isn’t the only reading and could be seen as simplistic and ‘tongue-in-cheek’: it might be read as a playful postmodern indication that patriarchy is a bit of a joke and all bets are now off. References to these themes are delivered through costume and props with the ‘hero’ carried shoulder high but in a cartoonish way through an unconvincing jungle: this is a performance short on validation while the short skirts reference what was going on in the streets in 1967 (the mini-skirt became a much more important symbol of a freedom hitherto unenjoyed). This ad was selected for its obvious sexism which is only partly historical, but it does engage in a conversation between the context of its production (1967) and of its current reception.

4) Based on the whole of your Paper 1 learner response, plan FIVE topics / concepts / CSPs / theories that you will prioritise in your summer exam Media revision timetable.

-definitions
-key words
-theories
-radio
-a bit of film