A2 Media STudies How to get the top grades

AQA A2 Media Studies | How To Get The Top Grades

Caroline Bagshaw | Thursday August 25, 2011

Categories: Courses, A Level, AQA A Level, AQA A2, Hot Entries

How do I get my students to reach the top grades? This is a question which we all ask.
Examiners and moderators often see work by students who may not be in the top ability bands yet manage to reach the higher mark bands because they REALLY understand what is required of them.
Below are some ideas and strategies which have been proven to help raise achievement in both exams and coursework modules. These are focused on the AQA Media Studies A2 level course, although much of the advice could be adapted for other awards.
A2 students need to move beyond looking at just the texts themselves and now be actively engaged in asking why texts are the way they are. Considering context is key to reaching high marks at A2; at A/S students focused on how texts were constructed; at A2 they need to consider why, thinking about contexts surrounding production and reception.

Theory

At A2, there is a higher expectation that students are exposed to and can use more complex theories. A good starting point is Postmodernism ~ see ‘An Introduction to Postmodernism’ by John Lough and the link below on Strinati. As with A/S, in the exam as well as in their coursework there is little if any reward for throwing the word into their analysis without demonstrating understanding of the term and its relevance to the point they’re making. For this reason, it might be useful to spend some time at the beginning of the course getting them to understand and apply to specific texts the ideas behind this concept and some of its main players, such as Baudrillard and Strinati (see separate article - coming soon). In this way, abstract theories can be made concrete for students to understand them and be able to apply them in their own work.

MEST 3 Section A | Unseen Text

Read the supplied information

As with MEST 1 at A/S level, do make sure the students know how crucial it is for them to read the information on the question paper. The few minutes spent on this at the beginning of the exam isn’t just time well spent – they need to see it as an essential part of their exam technique which is designed to help them access the paper.
Unlike A/S level, the questions here are not equally weighted. Students shouldn’t spend an inappropriate time responding to the first question, worth 8 marks, at the expense of the second and third questions, each worth 12 marks. Examiners often see scripts where candidates have spent too long on the first two questions and had to leave the 3rd one incomplete.
One strategy for ensuring they get the timing right is to give lots of brief, timed questions. Find two texts, give them a few minutes of “reading” time then give them only 10-12 minutes to write a question 1 response or 15-17 minutes for a Q2 or Q3 one. This way they will gain an understanding of what a short-answer response feels like and are less likely to get this wrong in pressure of the exam room.

Hint: If you run out of ideas for suitable texts and questions, set the students in pairs to produce their own question paper for their colleagues. It’s a great way to get them to focus on the mark scheme and to get them exposed to a range of media texts whilst they make their selections. You can even get them to mark their colleagues’ responses and give advice about where / how they could improve!

The first question focuses on the texts given; for high marks they must keep referring to specific elements of the texts – considering the media language used in order to support their ideas.
Although to date question one has been on Representations, students should be aware that this question could also be on forms, institutions, audiences or values, so some time spent on practicing questions with these different focuses will ensure that, come the exam, they aren’t thrown by an “unfamiliar” question type.
The second question tells candidates that they “may” refer to other media products in their answer. However, students who are aiming for the top marks should be bringing other texts in at this point; the top two mark bands reward this use of their wider knowledge when answering this question.
The third question is more definite: “you should refer to other media products in your answer”. Here, to reach the top marks it is essential that other, relevant products are included. Top marks are awarded for a “wide range” of examples from other media. It is perfectly acceptable for candidates to refer to products from their case studies, even if they then go on to use that same material in their Section B response.
Higher marks are awarded to those candidates who present different sides of a debate, especially in response to question 3, but also if relevant in question 2. To help them achieve this, a key phrase they can be taught to use is “However, it could be argued that…” Coming half to 2/3 of the way through an answer, this will really signpost to the examiner that the candidate is considering different viewpoints. Relevant counter-arguments will be rewarded.

MEST 3 Section B | Case Studies

Building on the skills they used at AS level where they produced an individual case-study, students now need to produce two case-studies: one on Representation and one on New Media Technology (see below).
As with A/S, some initial teacher-taught work is relevant, demonstrating how a case-study could be constructed, including theory and context, but after this is it important that they produce their own case-studies if they want to achieve high marks. Examiners mark a centre at a time, and will be able to award the highest marks to those candidates who provide “detailed evidence of individual study”. Clearly this is difficult to achieve if the examiner reads script after script where all candidates have used the same case study.
Of course, moving from being a teacher to being more of a facilitator can be unnerving – surely they’re more likely to do better if I teach them a case study? Setting aside lessons when students are undertaking research means that the teacher can give individual attention and support. Interim deadlines will help to maintain control over these different study areas. One successful strategy is to set essays fairly early on to help students see where they have gaps in their knowledge, such as insufficient theory, too few examples, lack of contextual material, etc. These omissions can then be addressed as students collate their material, long before final “mocks” and the exam.

Individual Case Studies | Representations

See links to other material on this site

In order to achieve the highest marks, candidates need to demonstrate their engagement with their topic area. Modelling what a case-study should involve is also a useful way of covering some representation theory. A good starting point for their own projects is to find out what they are interested in outside of their studies.

For example, a student who plans to spend a gap-year working in Africa could do a representation study on the country; a student who has an interest in going into the Army could look at the representation of the armed forces.

Representation questions tend to condense to three key areas; is the representation:

• fair or unfair;
• realistic or unrealistic;
• harmless or harmful.

Using these as focuses will ensure students consider who has the power to create the representations of their chosen group or place ~ a key understanding which will enable them to engage in the media issues and debates required at the top mark level.
As with A/S, it is essential that students can draw from a wide range of specific examples, both fiction and non-fiction, from all three platforms.

For example: a case-study on Africa may include the representation of the country in films such as Blood Diamond (2006), The Constant Gardener (2005) and Invictus (2009) as well as press responses to the release of these films; documentaries such as the film Cry Freetown (1999) and the work of Louis Theroux; news reports on famine and civil unrest; newspaper reports of contemporary issues in the country, as well as holiday brochures and wildlife programmes. Then they can consider the focuses above: How fair are there representations? How realistic/accurate are they? If most of the texts available are created by non-Africans, are these representations harmful? (For example, do they invite audiences to make unfavourable comparison between African ideologies and those of the Western world?)

click on image to enlarge

Individual Case Studies | New Media Technology

Once students have understood the way in which an A2 case study is constructed, then producing their New Media Technology case study can be achieved by the teacher moving fairly swiftly through a range of potential study areas. These could include: (see The Impact of Digital Media on this site for more detail on this)

• Political – such as the Government report on Digital Britain or other contemporary references
• The history of the Internet and World Wide Web
• New Media and the impact of self-scheduling
• Interactive Media and convergence
• User Generated Content ~ any current dramatic news story will include UGC
• Impact of New Media on Radio
• Podcasts
• Multimedia Videogames Technology
• Impact of New Media on Print
• Newspapers – charging for online content?
• New Media and Safety (attempts at regulation and debates surrounding release of contributor’s details)
• New Media and the Music Industry
• Piracy (which comes into some of the above, including music, gaming and the film industry)
• Web 2.0

Whilst introducing each of these, keep focusing on brief details of what a case study on each of these could include.
One way students can present their case studies is by given a presentation to the class. This has huge benefits – not only does it focus their own ideas, it exposes the rest of the group to areas which they aren’t themselves studying in depth, but which may come up in the unseen section of the exam.
Keeping one or two really good ones will also enable you to present to future classes how a good case-study looks!
Some potential areas of study include:

• News
  • The British Press
  • Television News
  • News International

• Music
• Film
• The Magazine Industry
• The Video Games Industry
• How political campaigns use New Media Technology
• How sport uses New Media Technology

• A single institution
  • BBC
  • ITV
  • Sony

• Royalty’s use of NMT
• The Police’s use of NMT

New Media Technology questions tend to condense to opportunities and challenges / threats ~ both for producers and consumers, and requires an understanding how and why institutions react to NMT. Using these as a focus will ensure that students have the material they need to reach the top mark band, which requires a “sophisticated understanding of the impact of new and digital media”.
For example, a good case study looking at newspapers could start by looking at the traditional newspaper industry:

• its history
• institutions
• formats
• pricing
• profit-routes (ie. advertising vs. cover price vs. small ads)
• an understanding of the changing role of the Press Complaint’s Commission / on-line regulation

Then consider the challenges to this traditionally print-based industry which New Media Technology brings:

• competing against free, online news from (eg.) BBC
• small-ads in decline, competing with ebay, craigslist and other free, NMT routes
• on-line news is searchable where print-based isn’t
• 24 hour news channels with breaking news, arguably makes newspapers not “new” but “old”?
• potential loss of readership (circulations in decline) and therefore of advertising revenue
• are local papers facing different challenges to nationals?

Moving to then consider the ways in which the industry has responded to these challenges and used them as opportunities:

• using convergence to reach new audiences (eg. via hand-held devices / apps etc.)
• charging for news via new media
• promotion of on-line advertising which is easier to show direct benefits via click-through rates
• increase in consumer time spent using NMT
• new ways to interact with consumers
• use of user generated content (UGC) to enhance content
• including moving images on websites

For consumers, the benefits which include:

• fast news
• easily accessible on-the-move with NMT
• free news
• opportunity to be exposed to ideologies of different news providers
• opportunities to contribute via UGC

The debates here are those surrounding free news; regulations regarding bias, (traditionally newspapers have been allowed to have an overt ideology and align themselves to specific political parties; we expect a different, more balanced attitude from other news outlets, which are frequently held to account over perceived bias); convergence as newspapers include moving images as part of on-line content; controversy over inclusion of some pictures – put up hastily on website in order to be as up-do-date as possible but accused of jeopardising fair trial, as well as a wide range of other contemporary issues which will arise during the period of their study.
A thorough knowledge of material such as this will enable candidates to tackle the New Media Technology questions, demonstrating a clear understanding of the challenges that NMT poses for the media industries, how they are tackling those challenges, the relevant debates and wider issues, as well as the opportunities which NMT brings for both producers and consumers.

HINT: A good starter to A2 lessons once a week is to hand out pages / supplements from Sunday papers. Give pairs of students 5-10 mins to find and read a story which is relevant to anything they, or their colleagues, are studying. Each pair then has to read out / summarise this news story for the rest of the class. A poster on the wall detailing which Representation and NMT case study each student is doing will help them to find information relevant to their colleagues’ study areas.