January assessment learner response

  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).

I need to revise the Industry topic, since that is what I lacked on the most and make sure that I do not get my terminology mixed up in terms of their meanings. Particularly revise on 9 marker questions.

2) Read the mark scheme for this assessment carefully. Identify at least one potential point that you missed out on for each question in the assessment.

 

1- Excellent analysis of the product that is detailed and critically engages with the nuanced aspects of how media language is used to construct meaning

2- • Diversification

    • Synergy

3- Consistent highly appropriate use of subject specific terminology throughout.

4- Judgements and conclusions regarding the application of audience effects theory are perceptive and fully supported with detailed reference to theories and examples.

3) On a scale of 1-10 (1 = low, 10 = high), how much revision and preparation did you do for this assessment? You may also want to think here whether you had completed all the original blog tasks from last term before doing the assessment.

On a scale of 1-10 i believe i stand near 8 since i revised during the holidays and also days leading up to the exam. I believe I was just focusing on the wrong aspect of my revision in terms of what I needed to pay more attention to. Industry is what I lack on and I will revise more on that topic so that I don't make the same mistake again in any other future examinations.

4) Look at your answer for Question 2. Did you manage to write about three different strategies and three different benefits? It's vital you read the question and follow it exactly.

I was able to identify 3 strategies but failed to explain and give examples for them which really brought my mark down.

5) Look at your answer for Question 3. Did you follow the question guidance and write about both the BBC and commercial broadcasters? What could you have added to this answer to reach a higher mark?

In my own way, I tried to interpret all the different theorists that have said something about the BBC but I suppose that was not what the question was intending me to answer.

For

• Public service broadcasting maintains quality standards and audiences appreciate the quality

and consistency of BBC, ITV and Channel 4. PSB channels still dominate audience ratings

even after digital fragmentation. TV remains at the heart of the country and the collective

experience of television is vital to maintain in British society.

• It is regulated by Ofcom so therefore maintaining standards and providing audiences

somewhere to complain or raise objections to content.

Against

• Younger audiences simply don’t watch live TV in the same way as older generations.

Streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime will dominate TV market eventually –

public service broadcasting needs to update to find a place in that digital market.

• Commercial broadcasters cannot compete to provide content such as news and current

affairs if audiences can get it free from public service broadcasters (e.g. BBC website). This

places commercial broadcasters (e.g. Sky News) at a huge disadvantage.

6) Now look over your mark, teacher comments and the mark scheme for Question 4 - the 20 mark essay question on media effects theory. Write a new paragraph for this question based on the suggested theories/answers in the mark scheme. Make sure it is an extensive, detailed paragraph focused on the question and offering examples from the wider media. 

Blumler and Katz (1968) see media audiences as active. Their uses and gratifications model suggests that people use the media in order to satisfy particular social needs that they have. Blumler and Katz identify four basic needs which people use the media to satisfy.Diversion – people may immerse themselves in particular types of media to make up for the lack of satisfaction at work or in their daily lives, e.g. women may compensate for the lack of romance in their marriages by reading romantic novels. Some people even have alternative lives and identities as avatars on websites. Personal relationships – media products such as soap operas may compensate for the decline of community in our lives, e.g. socially isolated elderly people may see soap opera characters as companions they can identify with and worry about in the absence of interaction with family members.Personal identity – people may use the media to ‘make over’ or to modify their identity. Social networking websites, such as Facebook, allow people to use the media to present their particular identities to the wider world in a way that they can control.Surveillance – people use the media to obtain information and news in order to help them make up their minds on particular issues. Marxists are critical of this model because they suggest that social needs may be socially manufactured by the media and may therefore be ‘false needs’.