End of Year 1 exam learner response

End of Year 1 exam learner response

1) Type up your feedback in full (you do not need to write mark/grade if you do not wish to).

WWW - This is a very good, consistent exam that also offers potential to reach the higher grades. You've clearly revised terminology and theory and made good point throughout.

EBI - Question focus on the essay questions is the main EBI. This may also mean you need to revise postmodernism and industry for TV.

A little more theory and more detailed analysis needed to open up B+ grades.

2) Read the mark scheme for this exam carefully, paying particular attention to the 'indicative content' for each question. This is some of the best learning you can do all year as it gives you an idea of what the exam board is expecting. For your LR blogpost, identify ONE point you could have added for the first three questions in Section A:

Q1 additional point/theory: 

Binary opposition: cover image creates classic binary opposition of good and evil, hero and villain etc.

Q2 additional point/theory/CSP reference: 

Gauntlett – identity becoming more fluid; changes over time; generational differences. (Maybelline)

Propp’s character types reflect traditional gender roles in wider culture – active male hero, passive female heroine (‘damsel in distress’). (Man's Life)

Q3 additional point/theory/CSP reference: 

Bell Hooks: “normalised traumatisation” – bell hooks would suggest media products such as the Score hair cream advert help create a corrosive, toxic hypermasculinity that damages both women and men.

Jean Kilbourne’s work on the representation of women in advertising can be found in the

Score hair cream advert.

3) The final question in Section A was a 20-mark essay that required an extended response containing a coherent argument. Using the suggested content in the mark scheme, write an essay plan containing five paragraphs/points that answer the music video and postmodernism question.

Para 1 - finding originality in the Billie Jean video; The postmodern idea of ‘copying copies’ (that nothing is truly original)

Para 2 - How the editing, effects, camera shots etc. portray postmodernism

Para 3 - the narrative within the music video which was quite new during the time it came out.

Para 4 - Comparison to Letter to the Free and how it doesn't have much elements of postmodernism.

Para 5 - Conclusion; compare the differences between the two and talk about which one uses postmodernism the most.

4) Section B began with two questions testing your knowledge of industry terminology. Make sure you know the answers to these (get the answers from the mark scheme if you have to):

Two benefits of vertical integration: 

The business would have different fields giving competitors heavy competition and even if they don't do well in one sector, they'd be getting profits from another one. 

Definition of diversification: 

When a business or in this case, a media institution expands by introducing a range of products which don't need to be similar to each other e.g. having a TV channel and a radio station which are both for two different types of audience. 

5) Question 8 (TV industry) was arguably the hardest question on the exam. Write a new paragraph that answers the question referring to either Capital or Deutschland 83 and the global TV industry. Use the indicative content in the mark scheme to help you.

Capital reflects the global nature of London (multiculturalism) but perhaps less the global
nature of TV industry. State-of-the-nation drama largely aimed at British BBC audience who understand cultural references to house prices, Eastern European builders, city bankers etc. 
D83 reflects rise in foreign-language TV drama. Walter Presents from Channel 4 is VOD
streaming service with international long-form drama. Audiences increasingly comfortable

with subtitles and open to stories told over many hours.