FURTHER DETAIL ON THE SET TOPICS

Assessment Objective Six highlights the emphasis on investigative techniques and independent research and analysis in their chosen topic. It should be clear from the
candidates’ examination script that there is ample evidence of individual study and
independent research, rather than of answers coached by the teacher. As such, this unit
offers the candidate an excellent opportunity for learning progression to higher education
degree-level study.

It is important that candidates understand that the nature of this unit is one of active research rather than media text-based analysis.

The content below represents a range of possible investigations within the scope of each
topic.

Topic 1
Advertising
Research into advertising, marketing and sponsorship.

Issues such as the nature and purpose of advertising - selling image and lifestyle. Issues of ideologies, values, messages and meanings. Consumer cultures. Product placement. Niche and mass markets. Audience targeting. Social demographics and product mapping. Marketing strategies. Case studies of particular campaigns. Audience reception of advertising. Relationship between media institutions and advertising.

Topic 2
Children and the Media
Research into the relationship between children and the media as subjects of media
representations and/or as consumers of the media. [“Children” to mean up to and including
age 15].

Targeting and use of children in media products. Representations of childhood and gender. Academic perspectives. The media as educative. Research into effects theories in relation to children and the media. Children as participants in media productions. Views of parents, teachers and children on the media and childhood. Children’s reception of media texts. Media to include television, film, radio, magazines, comics, newspapers, video games and
internet.

Topic 3
Community Radio
The relationships between radio stations and their communities.
[local radio stations, commercial and publicly funded or niche radio programmes].

Functions and roles of community radio, including public service broadcasting and local radio (public and/or commercial). The needs of community/community identity. Public access. Community radio as balance for London-centric broadcasting hegemony. Candidates are encouraged to use a specific example of community radio as a case study.

Topic 4
Crime and the Media
The representation of crime in/across a range of media.

Crime films; televisions crime series. True crime magazines. Press representations of crime and criminality. News reporting of crime; radio and internet crime coverage. Moral panics. Show case trials; crime and news values. Trial by the media. The media and public perceptions of crime.

Topic 7
Television Drama
Research into the significance of television drama.

Place of television drama in the schedules. The changing face of television drama. Issues of “quality”/dumbing down. Drama documentaries/”faction”. Representations of social groups. Drama series and serials. Soap operas. Comedy drama, costume drama. Literary adaptations. High culture v low culture debate. Audience reception of TV drama. Historical development. Notions of authorship in television drama. Relationships of genre to television institutions.

Topic 8
Women and Film
Research into the relationships between female filmmakers and the industry as well as between their films and their spectators and/or female spectatorship of film.

[Filmmaker is defined here as director, actor, producer, screenwriter or other personnel for example editor, production designer, director of photography].

Gender issues such as equality of opportunity for women filmmakers in the industry. Issues of gender representation in films. Feminist critical perspectives. Popular criticism. Audience reception. Candidates may draw on examples of films classed as ‘feminist films. Films made for female audiences and films made by women as well as female responses to other films.

Topic 9
World Cinema
Research into the cinema of countries other than US or the UK.

Differences of context, audience and genre. Cinematic hybrids. Media imperialism. Cultural independence. Issues of representation. World cinema and politics. Cinema as agent of social and political change. Audience reception. Popular and art cinemas’, relationship with other media. Influence upon US and UK cinema.