Term 1: Component 3: Cross-Media Production
Component 3 involves one cross-media production in two forms for an intended audience. Students will have to cover media language, representations, audiences and media industries (including digital convergence). The Statement of Aims & Intentions should be of 500 words approximately. The following forms will always be set: - Television - Advertising & marketing (music or film) - Magazines The exam board will stipulate the industry and audience contexts, and specific key requirements to be included in the production. Learners will develop a response to their chosen brief and create a production in a genre of their choice for the specified industry context and intended audience. Teacher review Re-shooting/re-drafting as necessary. Final editing/design/polish of entire cross-media production. Submission of cross media production – end of October.
Component 3: cross-media production (non-exam assessment 30%) Component 3 draws on the knowledge and understanding of the theories framework and the analytical skills developed in components 1 and 2, through the practical application of knowledge and understanding in a media product. Internally assessed and externally moderated. Create individual media production work for an intended audience, applying knowledge and understanding of: - Media language - Representation - Audiences - Media industries Statement of Aims & Intentions to explain how the learner intends to respond to the brief, apply knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework and target the intended audience.
Anchorage
The words that accompany an image (still or moving) contribute to the meaning associated with that image. If the caption or voice-over is changed then so may the way in which the audience interprets the image.
Audience categorisation
How media producers group audiences (e.g. by age, gender ethnicity) to target their products.
Audience positioning
The way in which media products place audiences (literally or metaphorically) in relation to a particular point of view. For example, audiences may be positioned with a particular character or positioned to adopt a specific ideological perspective.
Brand identity
The association the audience make with the brand, for example Chanel or Nike, built up over time and reinforced by the advertising campaigns and their placement.
Camera shots
The type of shot and framing in relation to the subject, for example, close-up shots are often used to express emotion.
Caption
Words that accompany an image that help to explain its meaning.
Conventions
What the audience expects to see in a particular media text.
Cover lines
These suggest the content to the reader and often contain teasers and rhetorical questions. These relate to the genre of the magazine.
Editing
The way in which the shots move from one to the other (transitions), e.g. fade, cut, etc. Fast cutting may increase the pace and therefore the tension of the text, for example.
Feature
In magazine terms, the main, or one of the main, stories in an edition. Features are generally located in the middle of the magazine, and cover more than one or two pages.
Target audience
The people at whom the media text is aimed.
Visual codes
The visual aspects of the product that construct meaning and are part of media language, for example clothing, expression, and gesture
Develop the individual:
Create a supportive community:
Term 1 - 2 : Component 2 Section B: Television in the Global Age
Students will deconstruct ‘Humans’ and 'The Returned' as part of the Television examination set texts. In this unit, students will explore • the way events, issue, individuals (including self-representation) and social groups (including social identity) are represented through processes of selection and combination; the way the media, through re-presentation, construct versions of reality • how genre conventions are socially and historically relative, dynamic and can be used in a hybrid way • the significance of the varieties of ways in which intertextuality can be used in the media. As well as this, students will explore: • Processes of production, distribution and circulation by organisations, groups and individuals in a global context • the specialised and institutionalised nature of media production, distribution and circulation • the relationship of recent technological change and media production, distribution and circulation • the significance of patterns of ownership.
Exam-style focus on Television and on online media (30 mark extended answers)
Action code
Something that happens in the narrative that tells the audience that some action will follow, for example, police chasing a criminal.
Audience consumption
The way in which audiences engage with media products.
Audience interpretation
The way in which audiences 'read' the meanings in media products.
Audience positioning
The way in which media products place audiences in relation to a particular point of view. For example, audiences may be positioned with a particular character.
Audience response
How audiences react to media products.
Back story
Part of a narrative which may be the experience of a character or the circumstances of an event before the action or narrative of a media text.
Binary opposition
Where texts incorporate examples of opposite values; for example, good versus evil, villain versus hero.
Brand identity
The association the audience make with the brand, for example the BBC, built up over time.
Camera angles
The angle of the camera in relation to the subject. For example, a high angle shot may make them appear more vulnerable.
Camera shots
The type of shot and framing in relation to the subject. For example, close-up shots are often used to express emotion.
Channel identity
That which makes the channel recognisable to audiences and different from any other channel.
Diegetic sound
Sound that comes from the fictional world.
Non-diegetic sound
Sound that comes from outside of the fictional world i.e. voice over, sound overlay.
Iconography
Visual images or symbols used to convey key information about the story, genre or timeframe. Iconography provides visual cues as to the genre, plot or theme.
Versimilitude
When something has the appearance of being true or real.
Hyperreality
An aspect of postmodernism where an image or simulation distorts the reality that it purports to depict.
Develop the individual:
Create a supportive community:
Term 1-2: Component 2 Section C: Online Media
Students will prepare for Section C of the Component 2 examination by an online magazine – ‘Attitude’ and online blog - 'Zoella'. Websites and blogs are, by their very nature, dynamic and updated to respond to industry and audience needs. Learners are required to study the following elements of their chosen websites and blogs: • the design of the home page, including its use of images and topical material • links to other content, including audio-visual material such as the relevant YouTube channel, vlog etc. • interactive links, including to social and participatory media. Students will explore: • how the different modes and language associated with different media forms communicate multiple meanings • how developing technologies affect media language • the codes and conventions of media forms and products, including the processes through which media language develops as a genre • the dynamic and historically relative nature of genre • the processes through which meanings are establish.
Exam-style focus on Online Media (30 mark extended answers)
Connotation
The suggested meaning attached to a sign, e.g. the sports car suggests speed and power.
Conventions
What the audience expects to see in a particular media text.
Convergence
The coming together of previously separate media industries and/or platforms, often the result of advances in technology.
Denotation
The literal meaning of a sign, e.g. the car is red.
Develop the individual:
Create a supportive community:
Term 3: Component 2 Section B: Magazines
Section B: Magazines – Mainstream and Alternative Media The magazine industry in the UK is a highly challenging media environment, with thousands of titles competing for readers and market space. Here, learners will study two magazines in depth, developing an understanding of the contextual factors that shape their production, distribution, circulation and consumption, as well as considering the historical, social, and cultural significance of the representations they offer. Learners will also explore how media language incorporates viewpoints and ideologies. Each option includes two magazines that have been produced within different historical and industry contexts and that target different audiences. One of the magazines, The Big Issue, will be contemporary, whilst the other, Vogue, will have been produced before 1970; one will be a commercial magazine with mainstream appeal, whilst the other will have been produced outside the commercial mainstream.
A comparative essay response, marked out of 30.
Masthead
The title of the publication displayed on the front page.
Main image
Dominant picture filling much of the front cover.
Standalone
Picture story that can exist on its own or on a front page, leading to a story inside.
Body text
Also known as copy. Written material that makes up the main part of the article.
Standfirst
Block of text that introduces the story, normally in a different style to the body text and headline.
Skyline
An information panel on the front page that tells the reader about other stories to tempt them to read inside.
Pull quote
Something taken from within the article, usually said by the person in the main image.
Z-line
The idea that our eyes are drawn diagonally down the page (in the shape of a 'Z') from masthead, to main image, and then across the bottom.
House style
What is expected of a particular brand's cover.
David Gaunlett's theories
The idea that the media presents us with ideas from which we can shape our own identities - it can provide us with role models to aspire to.
Develop the individual:
Create a supportive community:
Term 4 - 5: Exam Revision
This unit will focus on preparation for both Component 1 and Component 2 examination. Component 1: • Section A: Analysing Media Language and Representation (45 marks) • Section B: Understanding Media Industries and Audiences (45 marks) Component 2: • Section A: Television in the Global Age (30 marks) • Section B – Magazines: Mainstream and Alternative Media (30 marks) • Section C – Media in the Online Age (30 marks)
Full SAM exam papers for both Component 1 and Component 2.
Pick and mix theory
Suggested by British sociologist and media theorist David Gauntlett, summarised as audiences will select aspects of media texts that best suit their needs and ignore the rest.
Production
The process by which media texts are constructed.
Products
Media texts
Regulator
A person or body that supervises a particular industry.
Sign/code
Something that communicates meaning.
Stereotype
An exaggerated representation of someone or something.
Sub-genre
Where a genre is subdivided into smaller categories each of which has their own set of conventions.
Synergy
The combination of elements to maximise profits within a media organisation or product. For example, a film and soundtrack.
Target audience
The people at whom the text is aimed.
Develop the individual:
Create a supportive community: