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: Q3 shows the beginning of a solid answer but overall, we need to use this as an important lesson in the level we need to reach by the end of the year.

EBI: Q1+2 both show up a lack of knowledge/ revision of the radio topic and CSP's/ ideally, we should be picking up 10+ marks here so revise these topics/csp's.

In Q3 you MUST cover both csp's. Was it a timing issue or knowledge/revision?

LR-see blog

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.

Newsbeat informs Radio 1 listeners about the news – important events going on in the UK

and around the world including breaking news and developing stories.

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.

Newsbeat offers educational content through some of the news stories selected to be in the

daily bulletins.

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?

Gerbner’s Cultivation theory is very useful in understanding how American radio’s recent
convention in the 1930s of ‘breaking news’s (‘We interrupt this broadcast to bring you...’)
may have made audiences more likely to believe the fictional radio play was real.

• 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: GQ media audiences (GQ audience: wealthy, middle to upper middle-class men)
• Paragraph 2 content/ideas:  GQ media industries (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.
• Paragraph 3 content/ideas: The Gentlewoman Media audiences (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).
• Paragraph 4 content/ideas: The Gentlewoman media industries (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.)
• Conclusion: sum up your argument a final time in one sentence - Despite the challenges posed by digital media, GQ and The Gentlewoman have successfully maintained strong brand identities and loyal audiences by adapting their content strategies and creating a distinct, niche appeal, making sure there is a continued relevance in the evolving media landscape.

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.

Audience and industry

Practical media skills

Practicing analyzing texts