A-LEVEL MEDIA STUDIES Investigating Media/Unit 1 MEST1 Report on the Examination 2570 June 2016 Version: 1.0
Further copies of this Report are available from aqa.org.uk Copyright Š 2016 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. AQA retains the copyright on all its publications. However, registered schools/colleges for AQA are permitted to copy material from this booklet for their own internal use, with the following important exception: AQA cannot give permission to schools/colleges to photocopy any material that is acknowledged to a third party even for internal use within the centre.
REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION – A-LEVEL MEDIA STUDIES – MEST1 – JUNE 2016
Section A: Text, Concepts and Contexts General Comments The unseen product, the title sequence for the BBC docusoap Scrappers, presented students with a variety of ways to approach the analysis of media concepts and they responded thoughtfully and at times enthusiastically to Terry and his ‘Scrappers family’. As in previous years, the level of detailed reference that students were able to make to the product under exam conditions was impressive. The responses suggest that students are well prepared for this exam in terms of understanding the media concepts as well as in the skills of effective note taking. There was again less reliance on the contextual material in the written answers which is another positive development. Question focus in both Section A and B is an important discriminator. In Section A, students should make sure they are addressing the specific questions set within the context of the question heading - Forms, Representation, Audience and Institution. Question focus is also an integral part of the assessment in Section B; descriptions of cross-media studies and rote responses based on whole class teaching, often on film marketing and Reality TV, don’t allow the student to reach the higher levels of the mark scheme. Question 1: Media Representation: How is the representation of the ‘Metro Salvage’ workers as a family unit constructed? This was successfully answered with students clearly confident in applying the concept of representation with ideas of selection and construction providing an excellent foundation for the analysis of the ‘family’ unit. The best answers directly linked the points about the way the sequence constructed traditional roles of the family - as patriarchal, hierarchal and gendered - to specific examples from the sequence. These included the composition of shots with Terry as a single focus, leading the viewer through his empire, with the more static shots of groups of women in domestic spaces. Much reference was made to the groups of workers being represented as mischievous children, with Terry as their firm but fair father. The final group shot of the sequence was identified by many as referencing a family portrait. It was notable that the great majority of students saw the idea of family as unarguably positive, a connotation which would be transmitted to the audience. Top level responses did this but also considered some of the reasons for and effects of the representation, suggesting that it was an intertextual reference to BBC soaps or part of an ideological function of the media. Problems in the responses to this question came when students had misread the sequence to believe that the Scrappers were a biological family or when they discussed the concept of family in an abstract way without linking back to the sequence. Sometimes there was an issue with students moving too far away from the idea of family, focusing instead on the mood and tone of the sequence. Question 2: Media Forms: How does the sequence encourage the audience to keep watching? This was the question where students achieved the highest marks. Students had plenty of ideas about why the audience might be encouraged to keep watching, but needed to make sure that they were firmly rooted in the concept heading of forms. It was fine for students to focus on one aspect
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of media forms and there were many sound responses using narrative theory to analyse the use of narrative stages and enigmas in order to entice the audience. The emphasis on narrative also extended to the use of character identification and positioning which helped to lead the audience through the sequence, along with the clear exposition provided by Terry in voice over which meant that viewers were quickly orientated into the programme. Using the prompt of media forms led to successful answers which analysed the use of cinematography, mise en scène and sound. Answers referred to the visually appealing use of shots of the scrapyard counterpointed by the music which suggested originality and creativity - a twist on the conventional docusoap which made it more appealing to the audience. It wasn’t necessary for students to recognise the music, but they were confident in analysing it as a contrast to the setting and subject matter. Several responses also made reference to the excitement and action of the sequence, with the car falling at the end apparently causing a strong audience response. Weaker answers were characterised by more general reference to the sequence’s content which didn’t give precise examples eg identifying the importance of Terry as a character was much more successful when backed up by reference to use of close ups, tracking shots and direct address to the audience. Question 3: Media Institutions: How does the sequence reflect the BBC’s stated aims as a public service broadcaster to ‘inform, educate and entertain’? Students seemed happy to address this area and it was clearly a familiar concept. Many took the slightly unexpected approach of working through the three descriptors from the BBC remit one at a time in a highly structured way. There was nothing inherently wrong with this strategy but it did perhaps make for a slightly repetitive response than a more holistic approach. On the whole, students were able to use the sequence to draw out examples of entertainment in the slapstick humour and exchanges between characters, extending this to successfully argue that the forms - cinematography, mise en scène, sound etc - used were also entertaining. The clear focus in the question that students should focus on the sequence itself seemed to lead to more relevant responses. The discussion of informing and educating focused on the idea that the working of the scrap business was being revealed to a mainstream audience, along with the idea that this was a group of people, in terms of class and region, who were often ignored or negatively stereotyped by the media. The best answers directly linked this to the props and setting, picking up on the signifiers of working class culture in the sequence which provided recognition for the audience. This was a very fruitful area of discussion and some answers referred to this as a counterbalance to the London centric nature of the BBC identifying it as part of the institution’s remit to represent the whole nation, often noting that this was a positive representation based on community and support. It was notable - and slightly problematic - that while raising the issue of marginalisation many students seemed to interpret this group as ‘other’; one which apparently didn’t watch television and wouldn’t be interested in identifying with their own culture on screen. However, this idea was also explored in a more subtle way with some answers linking Scrappers to a trend in popular television which encourages a voyeuristic response to the subject matter and which could be accused of ‘class tourism’.
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Question 4: Media Audiences: How does the sequence appeal to a prime time mainstream audience? This question caused the greatest difficulty for students with responses often barely making reference to the sequence itself. While it was appropriate to refer to the time slot of the programme this needed to be linked to the family friendly, pre watershed content of the sequence rather than being a description of people’s domestic habits (finishing work, putting children to bed, eating dinner etc). Much more successful was the related approach of placing Scrappers in the context of soap opera, reading it as a continuation of programmes such as EastEnders with a familiar address to the audience. Students pointed to the familiarity of narrative, characters and conventions as well as the appeal of the humour, also pointing to the use of the construction of the family unity to appeal to a family viewing. The docusoap focus on everyday work situations was also read as appealing to a mass, mainstream audience. This relationship was usefully explored by some as an example of the media constructing personal identity and a range of media uses and gratifications were also referred to. Section B: Cross-Media Study General Comments There was again evidence of a lot of effective work on the cross-media study with students covering a variety of contemporary products, audiences and institutions. There were strong crossmedia studies across the topics with good responses using cookery and lifestyle, music industry, sports and film. It is recognised that with the developments in technology, the three media platforms are not the discrete forms that they once were with TV broadcasts now on channels such as YouTube, newspapers having an online presence, hosting podcasts and films as well as existing in print forms. It is important that students cover a range of examples – they do not have to be evenly distributed across platforms. As has been discussed in detail in several previous reports, it is vital that students have a viable cross-media study in order to access the higher levels of the mark scheme. The focus should be on a case study which allows students to engage with contemporary media debates and also gives them a wide enough range of products in order to be able to select the most appropriate examples for the question focus. With the emphasis being on contemporary media debates it is necessary for students to have current and recent examples to use. Case studies on documentary in particular often refer to examples which are really too old to be effective in analysing the contemporary media landscape. It can be relevant to talk about the way that older media products may have an extended life due to digital repeats but this should not be the main focus of a cross-media study. It is also worth noting that there is no need for students to describe the cross-media study in detail at the beginning of the essay; this doesn’t tend to be relevant and wastes their time. In a related point students should be reassured that long essays are not necessarily better; it is often the case that they suffer from repetition and lack question focus. On average the five A4 sheets provided in the answer booklet for Section B should be sufficient to produce a thorough, coherent response.
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Question 5: “Media institutions always attempt to shape the values and attitudes of their audiences through their products.” Consider this statement in relation to the products in your crossmedia study. Far fewer students answered this question which was disappointing, as those who did performed well with some very thoughtful and at times original responses. Most students who answered this interpreted it as a question of how - and if - media products operated ideologically (though they didn’t need to use the term explicitly). This was a very productive approach which could be applied to all choices of cross-media studies. Examples included analysis of the way particular representations can be used to normalise types of appearance and behaviour. For example, case studies on music artists such as Taylor Swift and Beyoncé debated feminist messages in a sophisticated way while Game of Thrones was a frequent example, using the political conflicts as well as the representation of gender to address the question. The idea of constructing a brand or a whole lifestyle in order to shape values and attitudes of the audience was successfully applied to examples from Nigella Lawson’s empire to US sit coms. Particularly successful responses were evident in work on the Marvel franchise where the roles of different superheroes were read ideologically and linked to institutional contexts. It was also acceptable for students to interpret the question as one about marketing and persuasion to analyse how producers encourage audiences to consume products, though these tended to be more literal responses. While the majority of responses tended to agree that the media shape values and attitudes to a great extent, some students did argue against this very effectively, using evidence from theories of active audiences to back up their points. Weaker responses to the question were typical of poorer responses to Section B in general, with students paying little attention to question focus and instead giving a detailed description, often at some length, of their cross-media study. While any relevant points would be credited, these answers, despite their length and detail, could only achieve lower level marks. Question 6: Show how and why producers have responded to the audience’s use of new technology in consuming media products. This was by far the most popular choice in Section B with students clearly responding to the concepts of audience and new technology, although not always addressing the question in its entirety. A clear differentiator here was the ability to address both the how and the why of the question as well as keeping a clear focus on the wording which asked students to consider how producers - rather than audiences - have responded. The definition of producer in the context of this question could range from global conglomerates, commercial institutions and public service broadcasters to music industry personas/brands such as Kanye West and Miley Cyrus. Where students selected material from their cross-media study to precisely address the question, there were interesting and thought provoking responses evaluating a range of reasons for the way producers had responded. These tended, logically, to refer to the financial imperative and demonstrated a welcome ability by students to look beyond producers’ more benevolent claims about new technology. Examples included film merchandising where viral marketing also tracked user’s data, issues around privacy and surveillance with online streaming and the different ways 6 of 8
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producers benefit from online voting in reality game shows. As with Section B Question 5 there was a very productive use of the idea of brands with a particularly successful cross-media study looking at how the Hairy Bikers responded to the use of new technology while also attempting to retain a traditional, authentic persona. An unexpected approach came with some students who focused on the use of new technology as part of a film’s subject matter (Spectre, Kingsman, Marvel films etc) arguing that this was a way of attracting a youth audience familiar with the products. The music industry was also a popular choice with candidates comparing the response to new technology in the context of global conglomerates and independent (often local) industries. It was possible to take an alternative view of the question with some students arguing that there are industries where producers haven’t responded effectively enough, such as the newspaper industry. As referred to in Question 5, weaker responses were those which lacked question focus and merely regurgitated the cross-media study. There were a lot of responses which dealt well with the how of the question but had no or limited reference to ‘why’, meaning that they couldn’t access the highest marks.
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Mark Ranges and Award of Grades Grade boundaries and cumulative percentage grades are available on the Results Statistics page of the AQA Website.
Converting Marks into UMS marks Convert raw marks into Uniform Mark Scale (UMS) marks by using the link below. UMS conversion calculator
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A-LEVEL MEDIA STUDIES MEST 2: Creating Media Report on the Examination 2570 June 2016 Version: 1.0
Further copies of this Report are available from aqa.org.uk Copyright Š 2016 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. AQA retains the copyright on all its publications. However, registered schools/colleges for AQA are permitted to copy material from this booklet for their own internal use, with the following important exception: AQA cannot give permission to schools/colleges to photocopy any material that is acknowledged to a third party even for internal use within the centre.
REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION – A-LEVEL MEDIA STUDIES – MEST2 – JUNE 2016
Administration Most administration was completed accurately and submitted on time. Thanks to everyone for this. This year was the first year that schools and colleges were asked to submit their marks online. This seemed to be a simple and efficient system. For larger schools and colleges it removed the waiting time between submitting marks and receiving details about which students to include in the sample being sent to the moderator. This was certainly helpful from the moderators’ perspectives and I hope this was seen as a positive move by teachers and course leaders. Occasionally marks were input incorrectly. Some errors may be picked up during moderation but as moderation is a sampling system it is possible that some will not. Do please check marks carefully before submitting them to AQA. Where errors are picked up in moderation, they can be amended online but this needs to be done by schools and colleges as moderators cannot alter them on their behalf. The vast majority of schools and colleges are including Candidate Record Forms with all submissions and are signing and sending the Centre Declaration Sheet. A small number of schools and colleges send students' work to moderators with little or no annotation or commentary. Please note that it is an Ofqual requirement to submit work with evidence of marking. It also helps the moderator understand the thinking behind the mark awarded. Some schools and colleges are sending group productions to the moderator without including information about the individual contribution of each student. Please see page 9 of the specification where this is identified as being a requirement. This is especially important where group members are awarded different marks. If moderators are not told why this decision has been made, this may make the marking appear erratic. Some administration issues are still arising during moderation: Some schools and colleges are misunderstanding how group work should be managed. All students must complete at least one of the tasks as an independent production. If students create print or e-Media work in a group then the volume of work identified in the brief must be increased in line with the number of students in the group. So, where the task asks for '3-4 pages of A4' a group of three students working together should produce 9-12 pages. It is assumed that groups will usually be involved in video or audio production and then the students will work on individual print or e-Media productions. Students should not be sharing photographs or other production elements, besides perhaps a logo/ident if this has been used in the broadcast production. All work submitted by the student for the second task should be the student’s own work. Where students work in groups please give moderators as much information as possible to help them find and access work. Please use candidate numbers and names and ensure that all group members' paperwork contains all the information a moderator might need. Moderation is a sampling process so please ensure practical work is easy to find regardless of which students are included in the moderation sample. Some schools and colleges are not completing all of the candidate record form. Please ensure that information about software and any found images used is included on the front page and details about any group work and specific comments regarding the submission are included on the back page. Some schools and colleges make their own comments forms which is good practice and helps the moderator enormously. Do inform the moderator of any specific issues that you feel will help them understand the context of the productions and the marks. Some schools and colleges are still sending work where all students have worked on the same brief and sometimes the same tasks. Research can sometimes be a class task rather than something undertaken by individual students. This does not follow the spirit of the unit. 3 of 7
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Students should choose from the briefs on offer and from the tasks within that brief. Lots of schools and colleges are still sending far too much research and planning material. Please note that only 5-6 pages of research and planning should be sent to the moderator. This is assumed to be a sample of the work undertaken. Please consider the practicalities of moderation when sending work to your moderator. Overly large folders, unlabelled work, sending multiple copies of productions/evaluations etc can make moderation very difficult. Increasingly schools and colleges are submitting work online. Videos can be submitted via YouTube, Vimeo or when embedded within social media and/or blog sites. This is fine and often helps avoid some of the technical issues experienced when electronic work is sent on a disc or a pen drive. However, some schools and colleges are sending links to moderators as nothing more than handwritten or printed urls. Students often make errors in transcribing urls and their handwriting can be difficult to decipher. Even printed urls can be tricky to read as underscores disappear, 'I' (capital I) and 'l' (lowercase L) look the same etc. As more schools and colleges submit this way moderators are finding they often have to contact schools and colleges to send the urls again as work cannot be accessed. Please send all urls as links. The simplest way to do this would be to copy and paste urls from the browser into MS Word and then send the word document to the moderator on a disc or pen drive. You can send one Word file with all urls pasted in or one Word document per student. Word documents could be sent on one pen drive per school and college or one per student. Do please ensure that moderators can easily locate the urls for individual students by labelling using candidate names and numbers. This will ensure the moderators can access the work and will not come back to you creating an extra job later on. A reminder that print productions should be printed for submission. Colours and proportions do not look the same on screen as they do on paper and so this can make moderation difficult. E-media work should be sent so it can be seen through a browser. Also be aware that moderators work on their home computers and may not have all browsers loaded. If you think your students work should be looked at using a specific browser, please inform your moderator but also ensure you have sent screen grabs or a video walk through of the e-Media work too - moderators may not have access to the browser you need them to use. Please see the submission guidelines for specific advice on the submission of practical work. http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/subjects/AQA-25702-SUB-GUIDE.PDF
The Briefs and Tasks Schools and colleges are reminded that each brief and its associated task has specific requirements - some related to the institutional context, some with audience engagement. Some students are presenting folders that do not appear to have engaged with the specifics of the brief/task. This can impact on the production and the evaluation mark. The most successful folders were those that had engaged with the specifics of the brief/tasks selected. Many students seemed to have a general approach to the briefs and moderators saw a lot of openings, promotional websites and feature articles but not as many that engaged with the detail of the instructions within the brief/tasks. The new Brief 1 (film competition) was a popular option as was the more familiar Brief 3 (music). Fewer students chose Brief 2 (lifestyle) this year. Where they did, there were some very interesting productions being created. Cookery, fashion and beauty were popular choices with some students looking at sport as a lifestyle. Stronger students engaged specifically with the brief's requirements
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but many students made 'openings' for the broadcast task rather than a ‘segment from a television magazine show’ as per the brief. Weaker students tended to produce work that showed limited concrete engagement of codes and conventions of the forms they said they were creating (TV show, magazine etc) whilst stronger students made conscious use of media language techniques to emulate the style and tone of lifestyle programming. Similarly, an engagement with the institutional context of the briefs helped support marks in the upper levels of the mark scheme for stronger students completing Brief 1. Some students appeared to mis-read the brief and moving image submissions included trailers, which are not requested, others seemed to imply that the student thought they had to create an opening sequence. The brief allows an opening to be selected but it is not a requirement. Students w engaged with the idea that they were creating scenes to create a specific effect or reflect an approach to a particular aspect of narrative or genre often did very well indeed. Higher grades could be supported where students showed an awareness of the codes and conventions used in moving image storytelling as well as the conventions of the chosen genre, techniques to engage the audience/create a specific feeling or response etc. At the lower end of the mark scheme productions felt more like collections of images and lacked narrative cohesion. Lots of productions followed an actor - some walking, some running and some in forests, some in suburbia and others in urban streets. Work at the lower end of the mark range often missed the need to create work based on a theme. Students selecting print productions in Brief 1 had a free-hand as the promotional booklet for the film competition allowed students to approach page design and illustration creatively. Stronger students were creative whilst using magazine/booklet design conventions. Weaker students tended to use very basic page design with a lack of attention to detail in terms of the use of images, columns and fonts. Stronger students considered the proportions of the page and the way images and texts create balance on the page. Some students created a front cover for this task. This is not part of the task's requirements but can be submitted in addition to the work that follows the instructions in the brief. E-media submissions were varied. Some students showed creative and technical skills in their use of photography and the inclusion of creative content. Others simply added photographs to the preexisting template. Teachers are reminded that marks can only be awarded for the technical and creative work of the student so using an online template makes the considered construction of photographs, short videos and/or audio material extremely important if high marks are to be supported. Students who engage with the role of social media by creatively using strategies to engage the audience encourage interactivity and sharing with others can also achieve well. Brief 1 asks students to create a film blog that makes reference to the film competition but also, simply discusses film as a special interest blog would. Many students produced websites to promote their film missing the intent of the brief. Brief 3 generates a wide variety of responses and students present video work covering a range of genres - some lip-synching a performance, some creating narratives and some taking a more ‘symbolic’ approach. Stronger students take the opportunity that music video offers to experiment with media language and it was a pleasure to see post-production techniques being used as well as attempts to create in-camera effects. Weaker students often seemed bound by local issues such as having to film in school/college. Some videos had band members in school uniform and so communicating ideas of the musical genre were not fully successful. Only a small number of students are picking up on the idea in the brief that they should be trying to create some form of social media discussion/viral communication. Many students populate their social media templates with photographs and a few comments rather than attempt to demonstrate a social media strategy for getting the band/artist talked about. Some students used the same photographs across social 5 of 7
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media sites and their print production. Some students use screen grabs from moving image production to illustrate their print or e-Media. Using the same image multiple times simply means there is less production work to reward and students should be encouraged to create images and illustrations for each element of their submission. The more original work included gives more opportunities for you to reward technical and creative skills. Stronger students engaged with the tasks more specifically and considered rewarding audience loyalty as well as communicating image and ethos.
Evaluations Some students engage well with the evaluation and analyse the success of their productions in light of the brief/tasks’ requirements. Others still produce very descriptive evaluations that describe the research process (rather than show how the research influenced their approach to the production), they describe the process of production and/or they describe the productions themselves (rather than evaluate them). Stronger students use media concepts to show the relationship between their research, the finished productions and the instructions they had been given. Although the evaluation holds fewer marks than the production element, the 20 marks on offer can make all the difference to a student’s overall mark for the unit. Some evaluations appear to have been completed quickly at the end of the process and so some students miss out on valuable marks. Stronger students discuss their work making specific reference to the brief - for example, how well they succeed in communicating their ideas in the theme they chose for Brief 1, how well the article in the specialist magazine helps raise interest in Synopticity’s lifestyle programme for Brief 2 or how successful the e-Media products contribute to a marketing strategy for Brief 3.
Further Support As ever moderation has allowed the team to view some wonderful and creative work. The vast majority of the work we see shows real engagement and enthusiasm from the students and high level of support for creative and individual work from teaching teams. The e-submission system seems to have streamlined the mark submission and sampling process. Further support materials are on the AQA website. Do make sure you contact your coursework adviser if you have any queries. Email: mediastudies@aqa.org.uk Coursework guidance and information including the latest briefs, brief guidance, submission guidance (including e-Media advice) http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/media-studies/as-and-a-level/media-studies-2570/coursework Coursework briefs 2017 http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/subjects/AQA-W-2570-COURSEWK-BRIEF-17.PDF Guidance on the briefs for 2017 http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/subjects/AQA-25702-BRIEF-2017.PDF
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Mark Ranges and Award of Grades Grade boundaries and cumulative percentage grades are available on the Results Statistics page of the AQA Website.
Converting Marks into UMS marks Convert raw marks into Uniform Mark Scale (UMS) marks by using the link below. UMS conversion calculator 7 of 7