Media Paper 1: Learner response

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

No feedback given.

2) Did you succeed in meeting or exceeding your target grade for A Level Media? If not, how many additional marks do you need to achieve your target grade in this paper?

The grade boundaries for this paper:

A* = 78; A = 68; B = 56; C = 46; D = 36; E = 26.

Now read through the AQA mark scheme. This is vital as the paper was an official specimen exam paper and therefore the mark scheme tells us a lot about what AQA are expecting us to produce. The original question paper is here if that is helpful too.

Yes, I just barely met my target. My ultimate goal is an A which means I would need another 22 marks to get there.

3) Write a question-by-question analysis of your performance. For each question, write how many marks you got from the number available and identify any points that you missed by carefully studying the AQA indicative content in the mark scheme:

Example: Q1: 5/8 marks
Additional points: didn't mention codes and conventions of music promotion flier/poster;  didn't discuss unconventional focus on mouth rather than eyes; didn't discuss idea that gender stereotypes are ironically reinforced to emphasise 'outsider' element of artist.

Q1 - 4/8
Overall the use of media language is consistent with the codes andconventions of the media form (flier / electronic advertisement)
The syntagm consists of visual and verbal signifiers (dominant signifiers potentially include the mouth, the artist’s name, words like LAUNCH)
The composition is interesting in that it works in three ‘layers’ which each have different textures representing a movement from signs with high

motivation to signs of high convention

Q2 - 5/12
products must reflect the cultural values of their target audiences in order to be successful but these may be diverse and can explain the differences in representation the various texts are similarly unhelpful. The singer’s name is just out of kilter as is the title of the album which rather than anchoring a preferred reading merely extends the paradox / intrigue

boys write love songs too? In a music industry still dominated by specific ‘boys’ singing of their various loves for girls in general, this is another double take, conventional only at first glance, the point at which we are taken in the title makes explicit reference to the audience since we are,
potentially, ‘the free’ and are connected culturally to a tradition of protest

songs

Q3 - 4/9
gangster iconography in the costume and props – spats, the flicking of the coin refers to 1930s gangster genre
fantasy elements through special effects and transformations
the road which the artist dances along, with its impossible lay out across an imagined city suggests the yellow brick road of the Wizard of Oz (Michael Jackson had previously appeared in a remake of the film – The Wiz)

Q4 - 10/20
this is how gender is constituted as the repetition of stylised acts though 50 years apart, for Butler they are manifestations of the same ongoing process creating the illusion of gender difference
the male model subverts traditional gender expectations through appearance, body language, transformation through make up usually associated with femininity
this subversion of socially constructed norms calls into question the relevance and stability of gender / sex as categories (the binary doesn’t work) the relationship between sex, gender, sexuality and power is transparent / exposed (deconstructed): this was never ‘real’ always ‘fantastic’
this performance of gender lacks credibility as does its certainty about the gender binary it acts out

Q5 - 5/6
creating videos and video edits related to their fan focus purchasing / accumulating / collecting merchandise / memorabilia engaging in ‘cosplay’ (roleplaying in costume) creating fan art

Q6 - 5/9

preparation is vital to this kind of production (e.g. work with actors): Stephenson talks about working with Scott Chambers (Richard), spending “Hours and hours of discovering a complex character together so we could bring him to life with respect and honesty”
Stephenson created his own production company and relied on friends and acquaintances when the big companies said ‘no’


Q7 - 13/20
The Surgery wants to offer useful advice in an appropriate way to a largely student audience: it wants to be cool and reliable!
there are clearly other readings that can be made by this audience who have this kind of information available in many different formats. Its demise in 2017 might suggest that these ‘oppositional readings’ were becoming ‘dominant’.
negotiated readings could include the explicit association of the ‘aliens’ with Nazi invaders which caused some panic
it could be assumed that any reading that took the product as literal truth is oppositional (though this could be challenged if it is considered that the ultimate goal of the producers was to create publicity). An interesting aside in the age of ‘fake news’.


4) Look at Question 4 - a 20-mark essay evaluating how useful Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity is. Write a full essay plan for this question using the indicative content in the mark scheme and with enough content to meet the criteria for Level 4 (top level). This will be somewhere between 4-6 well-developed paragraphs planned in some detail.

Intro - 

• Breif explanation of the theory
• Some basic information of the two CSPs

Para 1- 

• Maybelline focus
• Subverting male stereotypes
• link to Butler
• change in apperance between olden times vs newer times

Para 2- 

• Focus on score hair cream advert
• Since it's oolder, the use of stereotypes is more logical
• Constructing masculinity structure
• Binary gender
• link that with Levi Strauss

Para 3 -

• Back to focusing on Maybelline
• Butler - gender is a social construct
• Link that to the CSP
• Two step flow - influencers
• Time passes - social media platforms

Para 4 - 

• Focus on Score hair cream advert
• Typography and iconography (things you can see)
• Reference to James Bond stance and power above all
• Link to power of male over women

Conc- 

• Evaluation of the two CSPs 
• Which one has more valid interpretations
• Effect of sociocontexts

5) Based on the whole of your Paper 1 learner response, plan FIVE topics / concepts / CSPs / theories that you will prioritise in your summer exam Media revision timetable.

• Linking the name of theory to the theorist
• Industries
• Michael Jackson - conventions
• Life hacks
• Audience theories (War of the Worlds)