Component 4Critical Perspectives
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This is an externally assessed written component which covers two areas:
In Section B, candidates choose one topic and demonstrate their understanding of a contemporary issue through reference to a range of texts, institutions, audiences and debates.
The examination is two hours long. Candidates are required to answer two questions. The component is marked out of a total of 100, with each question marked out of 50.
This component assesses the following objectives:
Ao1: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical debates, using terminology appropriately.
Ao2: Apply knowledge and understanding to show how meanings are created when analysing media products and when evaluating their own practical work.
Section A: Evaluation of production skills development (50 marks)
There will be a two-part question in this section.
Part (a) will require candidates to focus the discussion of their own skills development on to one or two specific production practices from the list below:
Section B: Contemporary media issues (50 marks)
One question is to be answered from a choice of five topic areas. There will be a choice of two questions from each topic area.
The topic areas require understanding of contemporary media texts, industries, audiences and debates. For the purposes of examination, a contemporary media text is defined as being a media text that was published or released within five years of the examination date. For example, in June 2016 a contemporary media text would be any media text from the period of 2011 onwards.
Centres must choose one of the following topic areas in advance of the examination and, through specific case studies, texts and debates of the centre’s choice, prepare candidates to demonstrate understanding of the contemporary issue.
This understanding must combine knowledge of at least two media and a range of texts, industries, audiences and debates. These are to be selected by the centre/candidate. The assessment of the response will be generic, allowing for the broadest possible range of responses within the topic area chosen. Each topic is accompanied by four prompt questions, and candidates must be prepared to answer an exam question which relates to one or more of these four prompts. There should be consideration of both the historical and the contemporary in relation to the chosen topic, with most attention on the contemporary. Centres are therefore advised to ensure that study materials for this unit are up to date and relevant.
The five topic areas and their prompt questions are listed below.
Contemporary media regulation:
Film censorship, the regulation of advertising, the press and regulation/control, computer/video game classification, the regulation of online media, social networking and virtual worlds, contemporary broadcasting and political control, the effects debate and alternative theories of audience, children and television, violence and the media, or a range of other study contexts relating to the regulation of contemporary media. Regulation might be researched in regard to media content, access, ownership and control and/or in relation to politics, public interest and democracy.
Global media:
Media and collective identity:
Media in the online age:
Post-modern media:
- Section A: Evaluation of production skills development
- Section B: Contemporary media issues
In Section B, candidates choose one topic and demonstrate their understanding of a contemporary issue through reference to a range of texts, institutions, audiences and debates.
The examination is two hours long. Candidates are required to answer two questions. The component is marked out of a total of 100, with each question marked out of 50.
This component assesses the following objectives:
Ao1: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical debates, using terminology appropriately.
Ao2: Apply knowledge and understanding to show how meanings are created when analysing media products and when evaluating their own practical work.
Section A: Evaluation of production skills development (50 marks)
There will be a two-part question in this section.
Part (a) will require candidates to focus the discussion of their own skills development on to one or two specific production practices from the list below:
- use of digital technology
- creativity
- research and planning
- using conventions from real media texts
- genre
- narrative
- representation
- audience
- media language
Section B: Contemporary media issues (50 marks)
One question is to be answered from a choice of five topic areas. There will be a choice of two questions from each topic area.
The topic areas require understanding of contemporary media texts, industries, audiences and debates. For the purposes of examination, a contemporary media text is defined as being a media text that was published or released within five years of the examination date. For example, in June 2016 a contemporary media text would be any media text from the period of 2011 onwards.
Centres must choose one of the following topic areas in advance of the examination and, through specific case studies, texts and debates of the centre’s choice, prepare candidates to demonstrate understanding of the contemporary issue.
This understanding must combine knowledge of at least two media and a range of texts, industries, audiences and debates. These are to be selected by the centre/candidate. The assessment of the response will be generic, allowing for the broadest possible range of responses within the topic area chosen. Each topic is accompanied by four prompt questions, and candidates must be prepared to answer an exam question which relates to one or more of these four prompts. There should be consideration of both the historical and the contemporary in relation to the chosen topic, with most attention on the contemporary. Centres are therefore advised to ensure that study materials for this unit are up to date and relevant.
The five topic areas and their prompt questions are listed below.
Contemporary media regulation:
- What is the nature of contemporary media regulation compared with previous practices?
- What are the arguments for and against specific forms of contemporary media regulation?
- How effective are regulatory practices?
- What are the wider social issues relating to media regulation?
Film censorship, the regulation of advertising, the press and regulation/control, computer/video game classification, the regulation of online media, social networking and virtual worlds, contemporary broadcasting and political control, the effects debate and alternative theories of audience, children and television, violence and the media, or a range of other study contexts relating to the regulation of contemporary media. Regulation might be researched in regard to media content, access, ownership and control and/or in relation to politics, public interest and democracy.
Global media:
- What kinds of media are increasingly global in terms of production and distribution?
- How have global media developed, in historical terms, and how inclusive is this trend in reality?
- What kinds of audience behaviour and consumption are increasingly global?
- What are the arguments for and against global media, in relation to content, access, representation and identity?
Media and collective identity:
- How do the contemporary media represent nations, regions and ethnic/social/collective groups of people in different ways?
- How does contemporary representation compare to previous time periods?
- What are the social implications of different media representations of groups of people?
- To what extent is human identity increasingly ‘mediated’?
Media in the online age:
- How have online media developed?
- What has been the impact of the internet on media production?
- How far has the worldwide web had a democratising effect for audiences?
- To what extent has convergence transformed the media?
Post-modern media:
- What are the different versions of post-modernism (historical period, style, theoretical approach)?
- What are the arguments for and against understanding some forms of media as post-modern?
- How do post-modern media texts challenge traditional text-reader relations and the concept of representation?
- In what ways do media audiences and industries operate differently in a post-modern world?