Y13 baseline assessment learner response

 Y13 baseline assessment learner response

1) Type up your feedback in full (you don't need to write the mark and grade if you want to keep this confidential).
WWW: Ishmeet, a fairly solid assessment from you. Overall sound knowledge of the named CSP's in this assessment.

EBI: Not enough evidence from the specific magazine CSP's to strengthen your argument. Also validate the media effects theories

2) Focusing on the BBC Newsbeat question, write three ways it helps to fulfil the BBC's mission statement that you didn't include in your original assessment answer. Use the mark scheme for ideas.

• The news topics in a Newsbeat bulletin tend to offer entertainment to listeners. Although the top story will usually be serious (hard news) every Newsbeat bulletin will contain some sport or entertainment content which helps to fulfil the remit to entertain. For example, Newsbeat will contain pretty extensive reports from major sporting events such as Wimbledon or the World Cup and will also cover music or film awards ceremonies more than some other BBC news programmes.
• The BBC’s remit demands that it offers informative content to all audience demographics and this helps fulfil its remit for reaching teenagers and young adults with news content.
• Newsbeat offers educational content through some of the news stories selected to be in the daily bulletins. Examples include a Newsbeat story on a project highlighting street harassment of women which serves to educate both male and female listeners on the impact of harassment on victims.

3) Question two asked you how useful media effects theories are in understanding the audience response to War of the Worlds. Complete the following:

Gerbner's Cultivation theory: useful or not useful? Why?

Frankfurt School's Hypodermic Needle model: useful or not useful? Why?

Stuart Hall's Reception theory: useful or not useful? Why?

4) Write a full essay plan for the 25-mark Magazines question. The mark scheme contains plenty of ideas you can use here. Your plan should include notes/bullet points addressing the following:
Introduction: one sentence answering the original question and laying out your argument clearly.

Paragraph 1 content/ideas: 

• Magazine offers a range of audience pleasures to its target audience: Uses and Gratifications – personal identity and surveillance. Readers may see their lifestyle and ambitions reflected on the pages.
• Audiences feel part of the magazine, are rewarded for their knowledge and have their expectations met.
• GQ audience: wealthy, middle to upper middle class men (average HHI of £138k, 61% ABC1).
• David Gauntlett suggests that the mass media is a force for change and is actively liberalising society – he talks of a “slow and steady process of change and transformation”. The question is whether GQ is presenting a more ‘woke’ representation of masculinity to move with what its target audience wants

Paragraph 2 content/ideas:

• Decline in print due to rise in new/digital media: GQ has declined sharply over the last 10-15 years. Even in the last 5 years its circulation has dropped 25,000 (from 110,000 to 85,000). Therefore it is fair to ask whether GQ has been successful in targeting its audience in the digital media landscape.
• One aspect that may be considered more successful is the way GQ has diversified in order to maintain or expand its target audience. In addition to a changing approach to masculinity, Will Welch has moved the magazine’s focus away from traditional print towards digital, social media and video content.
• This reflects the generational difference in terms of the distribution and consumption of media products. Younger audiences are not engaging with print products and therefore GQ has changed its product to move with this technological change. Video content such as the Netflix Heartstopper actors responding to key scenes or Bukayo Saka talking about his essential lifestyle items demonstrates how technological convergence is allowing GQ to keep targeting its audience but in new ways.

Paragraph 3 content/ideas:

• The Gentlewoman has a very strong, distinctive brand and clearly positions itself to attract an audience that perhaps wouldn’t buy other women’s lifestyle magazines. Only printing twice a year, largely selling via subscription and charging a premium price (£10 per issue) can all be presented as examples of how the magazine has directly and successfully targeted its audience.
• Twice a year publication perhaps reflects the digital revolution in society. Its worldwide distribution (many copies paid by subscription rather than newsstand) reflects the change in the way audiences buy and consume their media. The Gentlewoman has cleverly positioned itself as a print product yet used the global, digital landscape to successfully target its audience.
• Applying Uses and Gratifications theory, The Gentlewoman provides a strong sense of personal identity, personal relationships and surveillance on issues not covered by mainstream media.

Paragraph 4 content/ideas:

• The Gentlewoman reflects a changing media marketplace with small, independent producers finding gaps in the market to connect with niche audiences. It is successfully using the digital landscape to connect with its target audience (global distribution etc.)
• The Gentlewoman target audience of ‘confident, independent and stylish women and men from a strikingly broad range of age groups’ arguably values print (particularly the thick, quality ‘art book’ style) and therefore the magazine has been less hit by rise in digital publications. Unlike GQ, The Gentlewoman was launched in the digital age.

5) Finally, identify three key skills/topics you want to work on in A Level Media this year before the final exams in the summer.

• how to apply media theories to radio CSP
• how to write structured 25 markers
• definitely need to revise magazine- GQ and Gentlewoman