A level Media Coursework Blog

BBC Sounds BBC SoundsRead this Guardian feature on the launch of BBC Sounds and answer the following questions: 1) Why does the article suggest that ‘on the face of it, BBC Radio is in rude health’? On the face of it, BBC Radio is in rude health. It has half the national market, with dozens of stations reaching more than 34 million people a week. Radio 2 alone reaches 15 million listeners a week and for all the criticism of the Today programme (“editorially I think it’s in brilliant shape,” says Purnell), one in nine Britons still tune in to hear John Humphrys and his co-presenters harangue politicians every week. 2) According to the article, what percentage of under-35s used the BBC iPlayer catch-up radio app? Relying on pensioners to provide the audience is not sustainable for an organisation that relies on convincing the vast majority of the public to pay for its services. Although millions of young Britons continue to tune in to traditional BBC radio stations, Purnell says just 3%...

Media Magazine Theory Drop - Postmodernism Read ‘The Theory Drop: Postmodernism’ in MM66  (p26). You'll find our Media Magazine archive here - remember you'll need your Greenford Google login to access. Answer the following questions: 1) How does the article define postmodernism in the first page of the article? If modernism is beginning to question authority, then postmodernism is making fun of authority to its face. Postmodernism takes this concept of questioning traditional structures, representations and expectations and pushes things a step further. 2) What did media theorist and Semiotician Roland Barthes suggest in his essay 'The Death of the Author'? In it, he challenged tradition when he said that a writer’s opinions, intentions or interpretation of their own work are no more valid than anyone else’s. 3) What is metatextuality? Metatextuality is where a text draws attention to the fact that it is a text. It points to the process of its own creation. Metatextua...

 1) Music Video: Introduction - factsheet questions 2) Music Video: Old Town Road CSP 3) Music Video: Postcolonial theory 4) Music Video: Ghost Town CSP 5) Music Video: Postmodernism and music video

 1) Type up your feedback in full (you don't need to write the mark and grade if you want to keep this confidential). WWW: Q1 is superb ! Top level and close to full marks. now we just need to match that in the longer essay questions. EBI: Revise left wing socialist and right wing capitalist ! Q2 needs much sharper question focus and organisation to push towards the top levels. See the exemplar answer for more on this.  2) Read the whole mark scheme for this assessment carefully. Identify at least one potential point that you missed out on for each question in the assessment (even if you got full marks for the question). Q1:  The increasingly blurred nature of film genres in the contemporary media landscape. Sequels and parodies often offer intertextual references and audience pleasures linked to recognition of other films, franchises, genres or stars. Possible theories: Steve Neale – similarity and difference; Schatz – genres are dynamic and go through cycles. Kingsman: ...

The Specials - Ghost Town: Blog tasks Background and historical contexts Read this excellent analysis from The Conversation website of the impact Ghost Town had both musically and visually. Answer the following questions 1) Why does the writer link the song to cinematic soundtracks and music hall tradition? Starting with a Hammond organ’s six ascending notes before a mournful flute solo, it paints a bleak aural and lyrical landscape. Written in E♭, more attuned to “mood music”, with nods to cinematic soundtracks and music hall tradition, it reflects and engenders anxiety. 2) What subcultures did 2 Tone emerge from in the late 1970s? 2 Tone had emerged stylistically from the Mod and Punk subcultures and its musical roots and the people in it, audiences and bands, were both black and white. Ska and the related Jamaican Rocksteady were its musical foundations, sharpened further by punk attitude and anger. It was this anger that Dammers articulated in “Ghost Town”, galvanised both what he...

 Wider reading on race and Old Town Road Read thi s W Magazine deep dive on the Yeehaw agenda and answer the following questions:  1) What are the visual cues the article lists as linked to the western genre?  The visual cues associated with what could be classified as western—cowboy hats, cow prints, rhinestones, and fringed suede jackets, to name a few—are certainly not limited to the likes of Kacey Musgraves or John Wayne.  2) How did the Yeehaw agenda come about?  In September 2018, the trend of black pop-culture figures wearing cowboy garb was dubbed the “Yeehaw Agenda” by Bri Malandro, a Texas-based pop-culture archivist. Her Instagram account, also called @theyeehawagenda, functions as both an archive and celebration of black cowboy aesthetics in popular culture. It’s 3) Why has it been suggested that the black cowboy has been 'erased from American culture'?  The imagery associated with Americana has been overwhelmingly white, so much so that the St...