OSP assessment LR

OSP assessment LR

1) Type up your feedback in full (you don't need to write the mark and grade if you want to keep this confidential). Grade B

WWW:

• Excellent analysis of unseen analysis
• strong response to Q2- lots of knowledge of both industries+representations in relation to both OSP CSPs

EBI:

• For the 25 mark Q, consider more specific examples from the content we studied in lessons such as : Taylor Swift's women of the decade and of how the voice published stories different to mainstream outlets with different values and ideologies.

2) Read the whole mark scheme for this assessment carefully. Identify three specific aspects from Figure 1 (the Google Home advert) that you could have mentioned in your answer (e.g. selection of image, framing and focus, colour, text etc.) 

• The repetition of the word ‘home’ may disturb audiences who see the advert as an example that nowhere is safe from multinational capitalist giants such as Google.
• Positions the Google Home device as at the heart of aspirational family life.
•  Negotiated readings could include an acceptance of a warm picture of family life – plus the potential usefulness of the speaker – despite concerns over how the device uses data and the growing power of companies such as Google and Amazon.

3) Now use the mark scheme to identify three potential points that you could have made in your essay for Question 2 (Hesmondhalgh - validity of theory/narrow range of values and ideologies). 

• The relationship of recent technological change and media production, distribution and circulation.
• How media industries target audiences through the content and appeal of media products and through the ways in which they are marketed, distributed and circulated. 
• Alternatively, it could be argued that Taylor Swift is simply replicating many of the mainstream, hegemonic values and ideologies found across the cultural industries with regards to the representation of women. Despite championing women in the music industry (for example, at the Woman of the Decade award ceremony) her marketing material for the Tortured Poets Society (which is plastered across her website and social media) is constructed in a sexualised way that emphasises Swift’s appearance. This appears to reinforce stereotypical representations of women in the media as spectacle (van Zoonen) and therefore support Hesmondhalgh’s idea that only a narrow range of values and ideologies can be found despite the size of the cultural industries.

4) Use your exam response, the mark scheme and any other resources you wish to use to write a detailed essay plan for Question 2. Make sure you are planning at least three well-developed paragraphs in addition to an introduction and conclusion.

• Swift’s website and social media presence also arguably reinforces dominant capitalist ideologies in the way everything is used to maximise profit. The website contains plenty of opportunities for Swift fans to spend their money on merch, collectable versions of her albums (including on cassette tape, CD and vinyl) or tour tickets. An entire tour microsite gives audiences the opportunity to engage with the tour and demonstrate their level of fandom via social media  usually through the money they spend following Swift. This would support Hesmondhalgh’s ideas regarding a narrow range of values and ideologies and also his arguments around commodification and the demand for profit in the cultural industries. Swift’s Eras tour has grossed more than $2bn and may bring in over $4bn when other revenue streams are included – she is big business and ultimately exploits her fans for cash just as Hesmondhalgh accuses the major conglomerates and tech companies of doing.

• The Voice should be successful due to the opportunities that are offered by digital media and the new media landscape in creating a platform for values and ideologies such as a strong Black British voice. However, the poor construction of the website and social media presence (poorly worded polls, cluttered design, low-quality photography, lack of fresh content, poor video production values, weak sponsored content) means it is not the powerful voice in British media it should be. This may reinforce the validity of Hesmondhalgh’s ideas when it comes to a narrow range of values and ideologies.
• Paul Gilroy has written extensively on the experience of Black British people and his work on ‘double consciousness’ is worth exploring in relation to this question. The Voice arguably plays an important role in offering a more diverse range of values and ideologies in offering Black British audiences representations that more closely reflect their experience of life in Britain. Gilroy would arguably agree with Hesmondhalgh’s view that the cultural industries promote a narrow set of values and ideologies – ideologies that are dominated by white voices and a white perspective. If The Voice offers black audiences the opportunity to see representations that are not created by media producers that are overwhelmingly white (and middle class) then it is arguably offering an important service to British culture despite its low production values or YouTube view counts.

5) Finally, identify three key areas you plan to revise from the OSP unit before the January mock exams (e.g. CSP elements or media theories) having looked at your feedback from this assessment.

• revise Taylor Swift lessons+ apply knowlegde to exam questions
• practise applying content to exam questions
• revise industries for the voice