Check the past papers below... we will be covering them in class anyway.
2015
http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/319358-question-paper-unit-g322-01-key-media-concepts-tv-drama.pdf
2014
http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/242471-question-paper-unit-g322-01-key-media-concepts-tv-drama.pdf
2013
http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/175337-question-paper-unit-g322-01-key-media-concepts-tv-drama.pdf
2012
http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/131203-question-paper-unit-g322-01-key-media-concepts-tv-drama.pdf
2011
http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/66934-question-paper-unit-g322-key-media-concepts-tv-drama.pdf
Tuesday, 2 May 2017
Media Theories relevant for Section A
Media Theories relevant to Section A
Media Theory 1 - Uses and Gratification - Blumler and Katz
Examples of Uses and Gratification Theory
In situations like watching movies and listening to the music of your own choice, this theory is applicable. People choose from their own choices and moods. The needs of the particular person are met through the media used.
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Media Theory 2 - The Male Gaze - Laura Mulvey
The U&G model is a theory that states that audiences consume media products because they have to satisfy needs:
Goals of Media
The goals of media use are:
- To be informed or educated
- To get entertained
- To develop social interaction
- To feel connected with the situations and characters emotionally
- To escape from real life situations
In situations like watching movies and listening to the music of your own choice, this theory is applicable. People choose from their own choices and moods. The needs of the particular person are met through the media used.
Some people might watch news for information, some for entertainment, and some for self-reassurance. Some watch according to their moods. There are various needs which gets fulfilled by the media.
Similarly, internet and mobile phones have become a source of media that tries to fulfill not only the mass communication needs, but also interpersonal needs like interaction and emotional involvement. People can use internet, text, call, talk with photos or with videos. It is portable and accessible. It has come to be useful for many and serve many purposes.
This theory was developed by Laura Mulvey, and she states that:
The male gaze is the way in which the visual arts and literature depict the world and women from a masculine point of view, presenting women as objects of male pleasure.
Techniques used to encourage Male Gaze:
- Slow motion
- Back lighting
- Body language
- Montage of shots
- Shot-reverser-shot between the woman and the men watching her
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Media Theory 3 - Reception Theory
Passive audience: Accept the text without questioning it.
Active audience: Seek alternative meanings of the text.
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Media Theory 4 - Reception Analysis Reception analysis is an active audience theory that looks at how audiences interact with a media text taking into account their ‘situated culture’ – this is their daily life. The theory suggests that social and daily experiences can affect the way an audience reads a media text and reacts to it.
This theory about how audiences read a text was put forward by Professor Stuart Hall in ‘The television discourse – encoding/decoding’ in 1974 with later research by David Morley in 1980 and Charlotte Brunsden.
He suggests that an audience has a significant role in the process of reading a text, and this can be discussed in three different ways:
1 The dominant or preferred reading. The audience shares the code of the text and fully accepts and understands its preferred meaning as intended by the producers (This can be seen as a hegemonic reading).
2 The negotiated reading. The audience partly shares the code of the text and broadly accepts the preferred meaning, but will change the meaning in some way according to their own experiences, culture and values EG These audience members might argue that some representations – ethnic minorities perhaps – appear to them to be inaccurate.
3 The oppositional reading. The audience understands the preferred meaning but does not share the text’s code and rejects this intended meaning and constructs an alternative meaning.
This theory about how audiences read a text was put forward by Professor Stuart Hall in ‘The television discourse – encoding/decoding’ in 1974 with later research by David Morley in 1980 and Charlotte Brunsden.
He suggests that an audience has a significant role in the process of reading a text, and this can be discussed in three different ways:
1 The dominant or preferred reading. The audience shares the code of the text and fully accepts and understands its preferred meaning as intended by the producers (This can be seen as a hegemonic reading).
2 The negotiated reading. The audience partly shares the code of the text and broadly accepts the preferred meaning, but will change the meaning in some way according to their own experiences, culture and values EG These audience members might argue that some representations – ethnic minorities perhaps – appear to them to be inaccurate.
3 The oppositional reading. The audience understands the preferred meaning but does not share the text’s code and rejects this intended meaning and constructs an alternative meaning.
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Media Theory 5 - Cultivation Theory This theory also treats the audience as passive. It suggests that repeated exposure to the same message – such as an advertisement – will have an effect on the audience’s attitudes and values. A similar idea is known as densensitisation which suggests that long term exposure to violent media makes the audience less likely to be shocked by violence. Being less shocked by violence the audience may then be more likely to behave violently.
Media Theory 5 - Cultivation Theory This theory also treats the audience as passive. It suggests that repeated exposure to the same message – such as an advertisement – will have an effect on the audience’s attitudes and values. A similar idea is known as densensitisation which suggests that long term exposure to violent media makes the audience less likely to be shocked by violence. Being less shocked by violence the audience may then be more likely to behave violently.
Representation of Gender
AS EXAM - Section A - Representation of Gender
Some clips from TV dramas featuring different genders
GENDER ON TV
Gender Identity refers to whether the characters are men or women. It could also include transgender, transvestite, and androgynous characters.
There are several gender stereotypes widely seen on television:
Male Stereotypes
- · Traditional masculine man – often shown as being muscly, strong, brave, heterosexual, working in manual jobs such as building, plumbing etc. They are often aggressive, tall, and dominant over women, works to provide for family, does no cleaning, cooking or childcare
- · New Man – Often shown as being less masculine but still heterosexual, very peaceful, looks after the family, stays at home to look after family, does cleaning and cooking etc, shown as equal to women
- · Gay Man – Often shown as being very feminine, weak, working in jobs such as fashion or hairdressing, bitchy, etc
Female stereotypes
- · Traditional feminine woman – often shown as being girly, likes pink, wears dresses, does feminine jobs such as working in fashion, hairdressing or stays at home to look after the children, needs a man to cope, weak, scared of things, needs rescuing, pure and innocent
- · Sexy woman – very flirty, dresses in a revealing way, more powerful than traditional women, uses men to get what she wants, no loyalty to other women, bitchy
- · Lesbian Woman – Often shown as dressing in a masculine fashion, doing masculine roles, hating men, looking masculine
It is important to remember that not all characters will fit into these categories and you may have characters that are mixtures. All you need to do is work out what the technical elements say about them.
If you get “gender” as an issue in the exam, you should be thinking about the following things when watching the clip:
- · Can I identify what gender the characters are in the clip?
- · Are people from different genders shown as having different interests, personalities, attitudes, behaviours? If so, how?
- · Is their gender represented as being important in their life?
- · Are people of different genders portrayed as being better, more powerful, than others?
- · Are people from different genders portrayed as being abnormal /weaker/ more pathetic than others?
- · How do other characters in the clip treat the characters of different genders?
- What is the message the clip is trying to portray about gender?
Representation of Regional Identity
AS EXAM - Section A - Representation of Regional Identity
Clips from shows that feature different regional identities
REGIONAL IDENTITY ON TV
Regional Identity refers to the part of the United Kingdom someone is from. It could refer to a general area such a “north” or “south”, a country such as “English” or “Scottish” or specific towns such as “London” or “Manchester.”
There are several regional stereotypes widely seen on television:
- · Scottish – often shown as being money obsessed, won’t pay for anything, drinks a lot of alcohol, loves the outdoors, wears kilts, eats haggis, quite aggressive and violent
- · Welsh –Often shown as living in the middle of the countryside, with people making jokes about them “shagging sheep”
- · Irish – often shown as living in the countryside, working in rural areas such as farms, being very religious, being good at dancing and singing, very friendly but less intelligent
- · English – often shown as being racist, obsessed with beer and football living in London. Sometimes the stereotype goes in the opposite direction of showing English people as very rich, posh, happy, living in castles and being very “royal.”
- · London – There are 2 main stereotypes of Londoners. One is that they are often shown as being rich, posh, snobby, upper class, Hugh Grant types from central or west london. The other is that they often shown as being from north, east or south London, poor, common, lower class, criminalistic, violent “Kidulthood” style
- · Manchester / Newcastle / Liverpool – Often shown as being “chavs”, wearing fake designer labels, or tracksuits, drinking a lot, being aggressive, uneducated, criminals
- · Essex – often shown as being glamourous but cheap, footballer’s wives, lots of partying, being quite stupid
- · Yorkshire – Often shown as living in rural countryside, with rolling hills and cobbled streets, being quite old fashioned
- · Cornwall / Somerset – Often shown as being “backwards”, living in rural areas, working on farms
- · South England – often shown as being the centre of culture, modern, classy, clever, sunny, richer, doing middle class jobs such as managers etc
- · North England – often shown as being poorer, bad weather, lower class, aggressive, less culture, less clever, doing working class jobs such as builders etc
If you get “regional identity” as an issue in the exam, you should be thinking about the following things when watching the clip:
- · Can I identify where the characters are from within the country?
- · Are people from different areas shown as having different interests, personalities, attitudes, behaviours? If so, how?
- · Is their regional identity represented as being important in their life?
- · Are people from particular regions portrayed as being better, more powerful, than others?
- · Are people from particular regions portrayed as being abnormal /weaker/ more pathetic than others?
- · How do other characters in the clip treat the characters from different regions?
- · What is the message the clip is trying to portray about regional identity?
Representation of Age
AS EXAM - Section A - Representation of Age
Clips with examples of age
Monarch Of The Glen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLQwQk_PQtE
Eastenders http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7ohiEFW2e0
AGE ON TV
The representation of people of different ages has changed massively over the years. Up until the 1950’s, there were really only two age groups shown in films and television (adult and child). This was because that most children left school at a young age and went straight to work and became adults. In the 1950’s more young people started staying in education and began leading very different lives from both children and adults and so developed the idea of the “teenager”
Having said that, there are still some stereotypes associated with different ages:
- · Children – often shown as being young, innocent, naive, pure, sweet, helpless, powerless
- · Teenagers – Often shown as being aggressive, moody, lazy, criminals, hate school,
- · 20’s-30’s – Often shown as the ideal age for love, parties, fun, making money, being glamourous and attractive. In films the heroes are often this age group.
- · Middle Aged – often shown as being past it, unattractive, not aware of popular culture, uncool, boring lives, dominant over others, no real connection to their kids, grumpy. In films the villains are often from this age group.
- · Elderly – often shown as being unattractive, slow, weak, ill, confused, pathetic, powerless, not important, dependent on others.
If you get “age” as an issue in the exam, you should be thinking about the following things when watching the clip:
- · Can I identify what approximate age the characters are?
- · Are people from different age groups shown as having different interests, personalities, attitudes, behaviours? If so, how?
- · Is their age represented as being important in their life?
- · Are people from particular age groups portrayed as being better, more powerful, than others?
- · Are people from particular age groups portrayed as being abnormal /weaker/ more pathetic than others?
- · How do other characters in the clip treat the characters from different age groups?
- · What is the message the clip is trying to portray about age?
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