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Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production

Section B: Contemporary Media Issues

G325: Critical Perspectives in Media

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G325: Critical Perspectives in Media• The purpose of this unit is to assess candidates' knowledge and

understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical debates, through their understanding of one contemporary media issue and their ability to evaluate their own practical work in reflective and theoretical ways.

• The examination is two hours. Candidates are required to answer two compulsory questions, on their own production work, and one question from a choice of six topic areas. The unit is marked out of a total of 100, with the two questions on production work marked out of 25 each, and the media theory question marked out of 50.

Critical Perspectives in Media

There are two sections to this paper:Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production (50 marks)

Section B: Contemporary Media Issues (50 marks)

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Section B: Contemporary Media Issues

• One question to be answered from a choice of six topic areas offered by OCR. There will be two questions from each topic area.

• The topic areas require understanding of contemporary media texts, industries, audiences and debates.

• Candidates must choose one of the following topic areas, in advance of the examination and, through specific case studies, texts, debates and research of the candidates' choice, prepare to demonstrate understanding of the contemporary issue. This understanding must combine knowledge of at least two media and a range of texts, industries, audiences and debates, but these are to be selected by the centre / candidate

Section B: Contemporary Media Issues

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Section B: Contemporary Media Issues

• Contemporary Media Regulation• Global Media• Media and Collective Identity• Media in the Online Age• Post-mordern Media• ‘We Media’ and Democracy

Section B: Contemporary Media Issues

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Section B: Contemporary Media Issues

• Each topic is accompanied by four prompt questions, and candidates must be prepared to answer an exam question that relates to one or more of these four prompts. There should be emphasis on the historical, the contemporary and the future in relation to the chosen topic, with most attention on the present

Section B: Contemporary Media Issues

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Media and Collective Identity

• How do the contemporary media represent nations, regions and ethnic / social / collective groups of people in different ways?

• How does contemporary representation compare to previous time periods?

• What are the social implications of different media representations of groups of people?

• To what extent is human identity increasingly ‘mediated’?

BLACK BRITISH COLLECTIVE IDENTITYKEY QUESTIONS

WHAT DO YOU NEED FOR THE EXAM?

• social group as a case study• at least two different media• understanding of and

reference to theory/cultural critics

• your own voice!

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Consider at a ‘macro’ level how ‘the media’ represent people and ideasBut more importantly discuss on a ‘micro’ level how people give meaning

to particular kinds of media in relation to their identity

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Representations of Black Britain

• In order to be fully prepared for the specific requirements of the question, the material studied by candidates must cover these three elements:

Representations of Black Britain

Future - candidates must demonstrate personal engagement with debates about the future of

the media forms / issues that the topic relates to.

Contemporary - current issues within the topic area.

Historical - dependent on the requirements of the topic, candidates must summarise the development of the

media forms in question in theoretical contexts.

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Representations of Black Britain

• We will be focusing on film and music – the texts that we may look at are:

• Sapphire, Basil Dearden (1959)• Flame in the Streets, Roy Ward Baker (1962)• Pressure, Horace Ove (1976)• Kidulthood, Menhaj Huda (2006)• Freestyle, Kolton Lee (2010)• Attack The Block (Joe Cornish, 2011)• Gone To Far (Destiny Ekaragha, 2013)• It's a Lot (Darwood Grace, Femi Oyeniran, 2013)

Representations of Black Britain

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FilmHISTORICAL CONTEMPORARY

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• We will be focusing on film and music – the texts that we will be looking at are:

• 2 Tone and The Specials• Reggae and Smiley Culture• Grime & UK Hip Hop – Wiley, Kano, Dizzie Rascal, Bashy, N-

Dubz, Professor Green

• We will be considering the use of the term ‘Urban’• And music as a subculture – representative of something much

bigger

Representations of Black BritainRepresentations of Black Britain

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MUSICHISTORICAL CONTEMPORARY

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Theory & Cultural critics

Paul Gilroy

Antonio Gramsci

Dick Hebdige

David Gauntlett

Stuart Hall

David Buckingham

Theory & Cultural critics

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Let’s review

• What do you need for the exam?• social group as a case study- examples• at least two different media• understanding of and reference to

theory/cultural critics• your own voice!

Let’s review

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What is Identity?Brainstorm what makes you you? If we were to pick you apart what would you say are the building blocks of you?

Who am I?

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What is Identity?

David Buckingham (2008).He argues that identity is

complicated and complex.

On the one hand, identity is something unique to each of us that we assume is more or less consistent (and hence the same) overtime.. our identity is something we uniquely possess: it is what distinguishes us from other people.

Yet on the other hand, identity also implies a relationship with a broader collective or social group of some kind. When we talk about national identity, cultural identity, or gender identity, for example, we imply that our identity is partly a matter of what we share with other people. Here, identity is about identification with others whom we assume are similar to us (if not exactly the same), at least in some significant ways.

Who am I?

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“Identity emerges as a kind of unsettled space, or an unresolved question in that space,between a number of intersecting discourses. ... [Until recently, we have incorrectly thought that identity is] a kind of fixed point of thought and being, a ground of action ... the logic of something like a `true self.' ... [But] Identity is a process, identity is split. Identity is not a fixed point but an ambivalent point. Identity is also the relationship of the Other to oneself" (Hall 1989)

What is Identity? Let’s talk…

PERS

ONAL

CULT

URAL

SOCIAL

A CONSTRUCT

“people's concepts of who they are, of what sort of people they are, and howthey relate to others" (Hogg and Abrams 1988, 2).

“the way individuals and groups define themselves and are defined by others on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, language, and culture" (Deng 1995, 1).

“refers to the ways in which individuals and collectivities are distinguished intheir social relations with other individuals and collectivities" (Jenkins 1996, 4).

“The term [identity] (by convention) references mutually constructed and evolving imagesof self and other" (Katzenstein 1996, 59).

http://www.stanford.edu/~jfearon/papers/iden1v2.pdf

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What is Collective Identity?It is a perception of a shared status or relation, which may be imagined rather than experienced directly, and it is distinct from personal identities, although it may form part of a personal identity.

A collective identity may have been first constructed by outsiders, who may still enforce it Collective identities are

expressed in cultural materials -names, narratives, symbols, verbal styles, rituals, clothing, and so on “Garms”

“Wha gwan”“You get me?” ‘Multi-ethnic London English’

COLLECTIVE IDENTITY AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS.Annual Review of Sociology, January 01, 2001, Polletta, Francesca; Jasper, James M

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What’s this got to do with media?Think about how we form our identities and where the information comes from. The influence of mass media shapes our concepts of who we are, what is important to us and how we live our lives. Everything concerning our lives is seen to be ‘media saturated’.

Identity is something that is constructed over a period of time and can be updated or changed completely.

In today’s world the choosing of one’s identity is a multi layered experience, consciously and unconsciously influenced by countless factors

How does the mediaaid identity formation?

IDENTITY ISN’T SIMPLE?

Contextualising Sapphire• In order to fully understand the

representations and the construction of representations presented in Sapphire it’s necessary to contextualise the film.

• Researching the socio-political context of the production will allow for better understanding when discussing issues of collective identity among Black Britons

Some terms you may come across

• Racialisation• Emigration• Migration• Immigrant• Videos to help with research

“Most of our people have never had it so good.”

1957 prime minister Harold Macmillan

Research• Investigate what was happening in Britain between

1948 – 1962• How was the social landscape changing?• How did the changing social landscape lead to a

‘racialisation’ of British politics?• Representation works through construction – how

were black people represented in the film?• Considering your research and film analysis - How

does the film put across a sense of collective identity of Black British people?