OSP Exam LR

OSP assessment learner response

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 attempt to consider both sides of the argument and to focus on the question.

EBI - More development including references to the CSP's and theories.

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.)

• Negotiated readings could include an acceptance of a warm picture of family life – plus the

potential usefulness of the speaker – despite concerns over how the device uses data and

the growing power of companies such as Google and Amazon.

• Positions the Google Home device as at the heart of aspirational family life.

• Reinforces white, western, middle-class representation of family life to the exclusion of

other backgrounds (race/ethnicity, sexuality, age, class). Presents the white, western ‘2.4

children’ average as desirable, aspirational lifestyle – some audiences will reject this.

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

• The ‘End of Audience’ that Clay Shirky writes about means that a wider, more diverse range

of values and ideologies are now available to consumers. This would suggest Hesmondhalgh’s theory is not valid. Zendaya’s online and social media presence arguably supports this with her promotion of a liberal agenda that challenges attitudes towards race

and gender in society and the media industries.

• However, The Voice has been doing this to some extent since its launch in 1982 and it has

arguably become less powerful and influential in recent years. This suggests the digital

revolution Clay Shirky writes about (the “billion new participants in the contemporary media

ecosystem”) has not benefited The Voice in its mission to promote values and ideologies

that remain outside the mainstream. Perhaps this reinforces Hesmondhalgh’s view that the

media is dominated by a narrow range of values and ideologies in that The Voice has failed

to really challenge the hegemonic ideology of the UK.

• 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. Gilroy would arguably agree with Hesmondhalgh’s view that the cultural industries

promote a narrow set of values and ideologies – ideologies that are dominated by white

voices and a white perspective. If The Voice offers black audiences the opportunity to see

representations that are not created by media producers that are overwhelmingly white

(and middle class) then it is arguably offering an important service to British culture despite

its low production values or YouTube view counts.

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 three well-developed paragraphs in addition to an introduction and conclusion.

Question 2 

Intro 

Point 1 - Zendaya

 

• The ‘End of Audience’ that Clay Shirky
• Examples of Zendaya’s progressive causes are feminism
• Zendaya 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.

Point 2 - The Voice

• The Voice offers an explicit Black British perspective on news stories and issues in London and the UK.
• The digital revolution Clay Shirky
• 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.

Point 3  - Linking back to both CSP's

Conc

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.

• Structure
• CSP
• Shirky