Examiner's Report June 2011 Exam.  Read this through and look at it when reflecting on your mock exam.

Section A: Texts, Concepts and ContextsThe vast majority of centres and their candidates have now clearly acclimatised themselves
to the demands of Section A. Most responses were appropriately succinct and focused.
Many were able to achieve a high hit-rate of ideas and close reference to the unseen textthus ensuring a level three or above. Stamina remains an issue for some candidates
although there was far less evidence of responses collapsing completely by question four.
Far fewer responses were theory-lead and if/when media theories were used they were often
applied well to the question at hand. One key concern though for many candidates was to
ensure that they took note of the key concept heading of each question and that their answer
was actually relevant to this area. Many either repeated ideas from other question/concept
areas or produced irrelevant responses because of an inappropriate concept being explored.A valuable lesson to be learnt for many is to make certain that during the note-taking stage of
the exam, ideas are generated for each question in relation to the specific key concept
heading.Question 1: Media FormsThis was once again the best answered question, with well over a third of candidates
achieving a level three or above. Many responses showed sound understanding of media
techniques such as lighting, transitions, camerawork, sound and mise-en-scene. Slightly less
secure, however, was use of media terminology. Candidates on the whole seem comfortable
with the difference between diegetic and non-diegetic sound but less assured when
describing shot types and editing.
Unfortunately less successful candidates, although showing sound understanding of media
language were unable to focus on how techniques were used to compress time. Narrative
theory was a useful aid here, with some applying theories such as Todorov to consider the
narrative closure of the advertisement.
Many candidates unfortunately decided not to focus on media forms at all, instead using a
range of other concepts (often representation or audience) to analyse the text in a general
way rather than answering the question at hand. The best example of this was the everpopular
reference to the colour red (as worn by the lead character throughout). Rather than
relating this to how it aided the audience’s understanding of the compression of time, many
just linked it to representation through its connotations of passion and love. An interesting
observation but largely irrelevant in this case.
Question 2: Media InstitutionsThis question was also fairly well-answered by candidates with just under a third achieving
level three or above. The majority of responses were secure in their knowledge of what
brand image stood for (most commenting on family values) but many had difficulties with
commenting on how these values were communicated through the textual construction of the
advertisement (in order to achieve a level three). Less successful answers tended to focus
purely on the appearance of the products sold by John Lewis rather than the values
promoted.
Report on the Examination – General Certificate of Education (A-level) Media Studies – MEST1 –
June 2011
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Question 3: Media RepresentationsAgain this was a fairly well-answered question with over a third of responses achieving a
level three or above. Successful responses were able to show how the representation of
femininity was constructed in the advertisement. Weaker responses though, tended to just
describe the life of the actual woman in the advertisement rather than showing a wider
understanding of how media texts construct gender representations.
There was less evidence of textual detail in many responses (as perhaps candidates who
had not made detailed notes during the viewings had by now forgotten key moments). Such
responses in turn tended to latch desperately onto the examination paper’s introduction
merely repeating ideas and sometimes actual quotations from BlogSpot and Mumsnet.
However, many level four responses used the information provided well. They were able to
successfully navigate between the conflicting interpretations of the advertisement and the
contradictory representations on offer. Stereotyping was in turn alluded to (particularly the
1950s housewife) and wider discussions of feminism developed. Analyses of how female
representation was strongly linked to age and class within the advertisement were also
effectively produced.
Question 4: Media AudiencesThis was unfortunately the least well-answered question with only just over a quarter of
candidates achieving a level three or above. The defining characteristic of successful
responses was their ability to consider the pleasures provided by the advertisement itself
rather than the brand. Many candidates developed ideas more in keeping with question two,
identifying John Lewis’ values (most often related to family) and linking this to audience
response. Another common approach was to merely focus on the loyalty that John Lewis
provided the consumer, apparently shown through the range of products (particularly
clothing) featured in the text.
More successful responses were able to isolate pleasures that the advertisement provided
such as nostalgia, aspiration, high emotion and narrative compression. Theories were also
applied well, most notably Uses and Gratifications, Altman’s Genre Pleasures and Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs. Less useful were the Hypodermic Needle Effect and JICNARS scale
which tended to take responses away from the focus of the actual question.