Wednesday 12th March

Language	Representation	Audiences	Industries
Roland Barthes – Semiotics	David Gauntlett – Identity theory	George Gerbner – Cultivation theory	David Hesmondalgh – media is a risky industry
Levi-Strauss – Structuralism	Judith Butler – Gender performativity	Clay Shirky – end of audience	Curran and Seaton – power media
Todorov – Narratology	bell hooks – intersectionality	Henry Jenkins – fandom	Livingstone and Lunt – Regulation
Steve Neale – genre theory	Paul Gilroy – ethnicity and post-colonialism	Albert Bandura – media effects
Jean Baudrillard – Post-modernism	Van Zoonen – Feminist theory	Stuart Hall – Reception theory
	Stuart Hall – representation theory

MONDAY WORK.

TUESDAY WORK.

QUESTION 1:

• The Father Christmas is fairly crudely constituted (being iconic with low
  motivation) by colour, styling, positioning to offer instant recognition,
  reassurance, benevolence, a warm welcome and a clear focus.
• Here is signification at four levels: reference (denotation), association
  (connotation), myth and ideology.
• The setting suggests an urban, business-oriented, consumerist Christmas.
  There is warmth here but nothing particularly spiritual unless the audience
  identifies a star in the east among the white spots in the sky (which may be
  stars or snow and add either way to the manufactured ‘magic’).
• The words provide anchorage through a tag-line (“when it comes to
  Christmas, there’s no place like…Manchester”).
• This stating of Christmas then sharpens up the snow-covered iconic
  buildings which add relevance and a familiar Christmas aesthetic.
• It also draws focus to the pretty lights which draw attention to what most will
  recognise as a German or continental or merely generic Christmas market.
• There is a semiotic vocabulary for those who want to use it: paradigm,
  syntagm, icon/index/symbol, denotation/connotation/myth/ideology.
  Equally it is appropriate to respond out of the language of composition and
  framing (size of shot, camera angle)

QUESTION 3:

the hybrid identity of this text

• the Protest element which has reference to the sixties but also through
  Maya Angelou (“the caged bird sings for freedom”) to Billie Holiday
  (“southern trees we hung from”)
• the associations of the song and images with Hip Hop and Rap
• there is also a documentary element in both style (cinema verité: black and
  white film, realistic location, element of historical accuracy) and lineage: the
  song and video are both connected with the award-winning documentary
  The 13th (about the 13th amendment)
• if genres are ‘cultural categories’, produced with particular discursive
  practices, then they are not found in texts but are subject to the cultural
  readings of media industries, audiences and historical contexts. The
  discourses here are political, cultural and connected to the moment (eg
  Black Lives Matter)

QUESTION 5:

Briefly explain the ‘hypodermic needle’ theory.

• impact of TV violence
• decline of moral standards
• drug misuse
• consumerism
• impact of texting on literacy.

Q1.  Three sets of signs are potentially useful (but this is only 8 marks of work):
the signs that constitute the Father Christmas, the signs that combine as
words to provide anchorage and the signs that draw significance from this
anchored context.

The Father Christmas is fairly crudely constituted (being iconic with low
motivation) by colour, styling, positioning to offer instant recognition,
reassurance, benevolence, a warm welcome and a clear focus.

Here is signification at four levels: reference (denotation), association
(connotation), myth and ideology.

The setting suggests an urban, business-oriented, consumerist Christmas.
There is warmth here but nothing particularly spiritual unless the audience
identifies a star in the east among the white spots in the sky (which may be
stars or snow and add either way to the manufactured ‘magic’).

The words provide anchorage through a tag-line (“when it comes to
Christmas, there’s no place like…Manchester”).

Q5. Demonstrate knowledge of the theoretical framework of media

Examples might include:

• impact of TV violence
• decline of moral standards
• drug misuse
• consumerism
• impact of texting on literacy.

Q7. how media organisations maintain, including through marketing, varieties of
audiences nationally and globally

processes of production, distribution and circulation by organisations,
groups and individuals in a global context

the relationship of recent technological change and media production,
distribution and circulation

the significance of economic factors, including commercial and not-for-profit
public funding, to media industries and their products

the impact of ‘new’ digital technologies on media regulation, including the
role of individual producers

how processes of production, distribution and circulation shape media
products

cultural industries as summarised by Hesmondhalgh:
o cultural industries
o commodification
o convergence
o diversity
o innovation
o conglomeration
o vertical integration
o cultural imperialism.

Media Language	Media Audience	Media Representation	Media Industries
– Barthes. – Strauss. – Todorov. – Neal. – Baudrillard.	– Gerbner. – Shirky. – Jenkins. – Bandura.	– Gauntlett. – Butler. – Hooks. – Gilroy. – Hall. – Van Zoonen.	-Hesmond-halgh. – Curran & Seaton. – Livingstone & Lunt.

Exam Reflection:

Questions	What went well?	What could be improved?	What I am going to do to make the improvements
1	Being able to find signs that communicate Christmas.	The use of theorists	Revise all theories.
2	The context of ghost town	Being able to relate the unseen	Do past questions on the unseen and relate it to my set text
3	understanding the concept of the male gaze.	adding more aspects about the male gaze rather than just the general	Revise score and relating it to the male gaze, a redo the question.
4	i knew the representation of Old Town Road	Relating the theorist in detail	revise theorists
5	I knew some vocabulary.	Knowing the vocabulary in detail	Make flashcards on vocabulary
6	Knowing the newspapers and what theorists match	Understanding what the question means	Look at past questions and answers.
7	Knew how industry in blinded by the light worked	Understanding what the question means	Look at past questions and answers.