Y13 Baseline assessment: Learner response

 Baseline assessment learner response

Create a new blog post called 'Y13 baseline assessment learner response' and complete the following tasks:

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- 

• Solid understanding of all CSPs in this assessment
• Able to reference relevant media theory carefully and correctly when analysing CSPs

EBI-

• Q2- revise media effect theories and link these more clearly with the War of the Worlds CSP
• Q3- Stay more focused and close to the question being asked- at times you were drifting towards focusing on representation rather than discussing how the magazines industries have impacted audiences with digital media

2) Focusing on the BBC Life Hacks question, write three ways it helps to fulfil the BBC's mission statement that you didn't include in your original assessment answer. Use the mark scheme for ideas.

• Either side of the advice segments, Life Hacks plays music from the Radio 1 playlist which provides entertainment for its audience. In addition, audiences may enjoy a sense of diversion and personal identity in listening to problems and advice that they can relate to.
• Life Hacks informs Radio 1 listeners about topics and issues they may be experiencing in their own lives such as managing debt, dealing with gender identity issues or relationship problems. The BBC’s remit demands that it offers informative content to all audience demographics and this helps fulfil its remit for reaching teenagers and young adults.
• Life Hacks offers educational content by addressing issues listeners may not know much about such as sexual health or mental illness. These are topics that listeners may not be willing to seek help with due to social stigma so the BBC helps fulfil its educational remit by allowing listeners to contact the show via text, phone or social media to share their problems. The use of a qualified doctor, Dr Radha Modgil, gives the advice authority and is in keeping with the BBC’s place as a trusted public service broadcaster.

3) Question two asked you how useful media effects theories are in understanding the audience response to War of the Worlds. Complete the following:

• Gerbner's Cultivation theory: useful or not useful? Why? In understanding how American radio's recent convention in the 1930s of 'breaking news' may have made audiences more likely to believe the fictional radio play was real.
• Frankfurt School's Hypodermic Needle model: useful or not useful? Why? The Frankfurt School’s hypodermic needle theory is arguably supported by the reported audience panic following the War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938. However, this theory has been widely discredited and considering a media audience as ‘empty vessels’ is overly simplistic and not useful.
• Stuart Hall's Reception theory: useful or not useful? Why?  Stuart Hall’s reception theory is arguably more useful than traditional effects theories in analysing audience reaction – some would have believed it (preferred reading?), other sections of the audiences would have challenged or rejected it entirely. Even then, was Welles’s intention to genuinely panic listeners (i.e. the preferred reading)? This is questionable.

4) Write a full essay plan for the 25-mark Magazines question. The mark scheme contains plenty of ideas you can use here. Your plan should include notes/bullet points addressing the following:

• Introduction: one sentence answering the original question and laying out your argument clearly. Print industries have been adapting to the rise of technology. Both Men's Health and Oh Comely have obtained online audience members 
• Paragraph 1 content: Decline in print due to rise in new/digital media: Men’s Health declined sharply, came back up slightly three years ago but has dropped again (around 150,000 circulation currently). Fair to question how successful magazine has been with rapidly declining circulation.
• Paragraph 2 content:  The internet has provided an opportunity for magazines like Oh Comely to find an audience (and contributors) and not need to rely on major institutions/publishers/distributors/retailers.
• Paragraph 3 content:  Vin Diesel a strong central image – pose very deliberate to emphasise body shape. Delivering what Men’s Health readers expect. Design emphasises value of offering – packed front cover suggests huge amount of content. Cover lines with ‘127’and ‘103’ also suggests a wealth of information inside.  Diversification has strengthened Men’s Health brand with move into home gym equipment and supplements.
• Paragraph 4 content: The Oh Comely target audience of ‘creative women who spend money on the things they love’ arguably values print (particularly the thick, quality ‘art book’ style of Oh Comely) and therefore the magazine has been less hit by rise in digital publications. Unlike Men’s Health, Oh Comely was launched in the digital age. 
• Paragraph 5 content:  Digital platforms offer a slightly different version of the brand to retain and expand audience – more ‘clickbait’ articles on sex and relationships plus motivational posts on Instagram. An attempt to bring in a younger audience?
• Conclusion: sum up your argument a final time in one sentence- Men's Health has done well digitally but Oh Comely, not so much.

5) Finally, identify three key skills/topics you want to work on in A Level Media this year before the final exams in June.

• Staying on topic 
• Writing about the more useful theories
• Timing