Learner response: OSP assessment

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 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- Good question 1 focus with analysis of the unseen product- knowledge of Hall's Reception theory is evidenced 

Timing is something we need to work on.

EBI- Work on timings

Consider an alternative viewpoint on how both magazines do not follow Hesmondhalgh's claims.


2) Read the whole mark scheme for this assessment carefully. Identify three specific aspects from Figure 1 (the Google Home advert) that you could have mentioned in your answer (e.g. selection of image, framing and focus, colour, text etc.)

  • Reinforces white, western, middle-class representation of family life to the exclusion of other backgrounds (race/ethnicity, sexuality, age, class).
  • Some audiences may reject the stereotypical gender roles with a mother playing with the two children and no father in shot (presumably at work).
  • Negotiated readings could include an acceptance of a warm picture of family life

3) Now use the mark scheme to identify three potential points that you could have made in your essay for Question 2 (Hesmondhalgh - narrow range of values and ideologies).

  • The ‘End of Audience’ that Clay Shirky writes of means that a wider, more diverse range of values and ideologies are now available to consumers. Teen Vogue illustrates this with a liberal agenda that promotes perspectives championed by digital feminists in the late 2000s (sometimes considered the fourth wave of feminism).
  • Alternatively, it could be argued that Teen Vogue is replicating many of the mainstream, hegemonic values and ideologies found across the cultural industries with regards to the representation of women and the fashion industry. Despite appearing to champion progressive causes, Teen Vogue in fact reinforces the expectations placed on women with regards to beauty and appearance.
  • Paul Gilroy has written extensively on the experience of black British people and his work on ‘double consciousness’ is worth exploring in relation to this question. The Voice arguably plays an important role in offering a more diverse range of values and ideologies in offering black British audiences representations that more closely reflect their experience of life in Britain.

4) Use your exam response, the mark scheme and any other resources you wish to use to write a detailed essay plan for Question 2. Make sure you are planning at least four well-developed paragraphs in addition to an introduction and conclusion.

Para 1-Teen Vogue (against)
P- Teen Vogue= radical in American mainstream media industry, due to their liberal politics and political focus in the digital media industry.
E- Endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election- juxtaposition of celebrity and politics, digital convergence has lead to more features from Non-mainstream musical artists (YouTube playlist of our lives) as well as mainstream media artists. 
T- Hesmondhalgh- narrow thoughts= debunked due to diversification of the industry seen through the content. 
Hesmondhalgh- dilution of  North American monopolisation = features Korean Pop Idols as well as American Celebrities

A: Comparison with Vogue and Men’s Health - Feature mostly domestically successful artists… Teen Vogue operates outside of that hegemonic bubble however their motivations ARE unclear and so it is not a direct contradiction 

L: the cultural industries do operate within narrow ideals however due to changing political climate = there is a small percentage of cultural capital that subverts the hegemony from mainstream media sources 


Paragraph 2: TEEN VOGUE (FOR) [EXAMPLE BELOW]


P: Liberal politics have become the mainstream with most media conglomerates providing a liberal, impartial political stance to maximise profits 

E: rise in social media - more variety in political views and as we break into the 2020s conservative politics/Right wing politics are heavily criticised by mainstream media

T: Shirky many to many + Fiske Audience 

A: Changing audience structures means there’s actually progressively more diverse opinions in the media and as Fiske argues “Audience defines pop culture” which is seen through Teen Vogue’s content changes 

L: Narrow ideologies = Hegemony even if they are progressive it’s still a limited opinion in books



Paragraph 3: THE VOICE (FOR) 

P: They reflect traditional values and British culture from a Black British perspective with a consistent target audience 

E: Articles on BREXIT = cover the same key events however from an alternative perspective - it highlights the importance of British culture but from a perspective that’s under represented 

T: HESMONDHALGH - Narrow Views / Cultural industries depend on fitting the status quo in order to make profit 

A: The voice doesn’t generate enough traffic however they have no analytics or media pack and so we cannot be sure of their ability to generate profit but they do have Capitalist values promoted on their website 

L: Supports Hesmondhalgh’s view however offers a different perspective and suggests that The Hegemonic Values of the media industry are not only to cater to White Western Perspectives 



Paragraph 4: THE VOICE (AGAINST) 

P: They offer a different perspective from the British mainstream culture that is Celebrity focused and perpetuates hegemonic western ideologies with a White British focal point 

E: the homepage = focuses on Black Issues and activism as well as celebrity 

T: Gilroy - Black Diaspora + Double consciousness — this offers a Raw perspective that definitely caters to the Black hegemonic perspective in England HOWEVER not universal due to conservative Black beliefs 

A: It offers a different point of view from the narrow ideologies however it has lacked commercial success as time has gone on due to its almost stagnant political ideologies however neither has the political climate and so it both proves and disproves Hesmondhalghs theories 

L: Hesmondhalghs beliefs that the cultural industries are dominated by narrow ideals is true since the Voice is a niche publication it has the liberty to subvert the hegemony without the risk of plummeting audience numbers (unlike TEEN VOGUE) However it has been slowly losing commercial value (localised focus) 



CONCLUSION

  • Hesmondhalgh is correct 

  • Narrow views/Cultural Hegemony/ commercial value 

  • Times are slowly changing and so are the focal points of the mainstream media however this doesn’t make the ideologies niche but rather makes the hegemony progressive 

  • This is proved by TEEN VOGUE - UNRADICAL FEMINISM and THE VOICE - STATIC POLITICS 


5) Finally, identify three key areas you plan to revise from the OSP unit (CSP aspects or theories) having looked at your feedback from this assessment.
  • Timing
  • An effective plan
  • More theories

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