You'll answer 3 questions overall in the exam.
Section A has 2 questions, both are related to your coursework.
Question 1a asks you to reflect upon how you have developed your skills in a particular area (or 2 areas) of your practical work.
Question 1b asks you to pick just 1 piece of practical work and apply one of the key concepts of Media Studies to it. So, the question could focus on:
Genre
or
Representation
or
Audience
or
Narrative
or
Media Language
In Section B you have 2 questions on Postmodern Media but you only have to choose one of them to answer.
I'm covering this here because we're combining some aspects of 1b with our work on Postmodern Media.
Monday 28 February 2011
Wednesday 23 February 2011
The small print
This is what the OCR A Level Specification says about the unit:
Section B: Contemporary Media Issues
One question to be answered from a choice of six topic areas offered by OCR. There will be two questions from each topic area.
The topic areas require understanding of contemporary media texts, industries, audiences and debates.
Candidates must choose one of the following topic areas, in advance of the examination and, through specific case studies, texts, debates and research of the candidates’ choice, prepare to demonstrate understanding of the contemporary issue. This understanding must combine knowledge of at least two media and a range of texts, industries, audiences and debates, but these are to be selected by the centre / candidate. The assessment of the response will be generic, allowing for the broadest possible range of responses within the topic area chosen. Each topic is accompanied by four prompt questions, and candidates must be prepared to answer an exam question that relates to one or more of these four prompts. There should be emphasis on the historical, the contemporary and the future in relation to the chosen topic, with most attention on the present. Centres are thus advised to ensure that study materials for this unit are up to date and relevant.
Post-modern Media
What are the different versions of post-modernism (historical period, style, theoretical approach)?
What are the arguments for and against understanding some forms of media as post-modern?
How do post-modern media texts challenge traditional text-reader relations and the concept of representation?
In what ways do media audiences and industries operate differently in a post-modern world?
Candidates might explore combinations of:
How post-modern media relate to genre and narrative across two media, computer / video games and new forms of representation, post-modern cinema, interactive media, reality TV, music video, advertising, post-modern audience theories, aspects of globalisation, parody and pastiche in media texts or a range of other applications of post-modern media theory.
Section B: Contemporary Media Issues
One question to be answered from a choice of six topic areas offered by OCR. There will be two questions from each topic area.
The topic areas require understanding of contemporary media texts, industries, audiences and debates.
Candidates must choose one of the following topic areas, in advance of the examination and, through specific case studies, texts, debates and research of the candidates’ choice, prepare to demonstrate understanding of the contemporary issue. This understanding must combine knowledge of at least two media and a range of texts, industries, audiences and debates, but these are to be selected by the centre / candidate. The assessment of the response will be generic, allowing for the broadest possible range of responses within the topic area chosen. Each topic is accompanied by four prompt questions, and candidates must be prepared to answer an exam question that relates to one or more of these four prompts. There should be emphasis on the historical, the contemporary and the future in relation to the chosen topic, with most attention on the present. Centres are thus advised to ensure that study materials for this unit are up to date and relevant.
Post-modern Media
What are the different versions of post-modernism (historical period, style, theoretical approach)?
What are the arguments for and against understanding some forms of media as post-modern?
How do post-modern media texts challenge traditional text-reader relations and the concept of representation?
In what ways do media audiences and industries operate differently in a post-modern world?
Candidates might explore combinations of:
How post-modern media relate to genre and narrative across two media, computer / video games and new forms of representation, post-modern cinema, interactive media, reality TV, music video, advertising, post-modern audience theories, aspects of globalisation, parody and pastiche in media texts or a range of other applications of post-modern media theory.
Postmodern Media or Postmodernism?
The title of the unit is Postmodern Media - not Postmodernism.
This is quite an important distinction to make as they are not the same thing. It's also great for us because postmodernism is hard to define, so much so that there isn't really a single definition that is widely agreed. Postmodernism means different things in different contexts. We'll do some work on agreeing a useful definition of postmodernism for our purposes later on in the unit.
Postmodern Media is easier to define. A literal definition would be methods of communication (i.e. media) that are postmodern. Or, texts (films, tv programmes, adverts etc.) that use postmodern features. Once we understand what are the postmodern features (or techniques) that are used things get much easier.
So, we are going to mostly study postmodern cinema and postmodern television but with some postmodern video gaming and some postmodern advertising to back things up. We'll look at some examples from other mediums too, like music videos.
How exciting!
This is quite an important distinction to make as they are not the same thing. It's also great for us because postmodernism is hard to define, so much so that there isn't really a single definition that is widely agreed. Postmodernism means different things in different contexts. We'll do some work on agreeing a useful definition of postmodernism for our purposes later on in the unit.
Postmodern Media is easier to define. A literal definition would be methods of communication (i.e. media) that are postmodern. Or, texts (films, tv programmes, adverts etc.) that use postmodern features. Once we understand what are the postmodern features (or techniques) that are used things get much easier.
So, we are going to mostly study postmodern cinema and postmodern television but with some postmodern video gaming and some postmodern advertising to back things up. We'll look at some examples from other mediums too, like music videos.
How exciting!
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