Representation of National

IdentityClass Case Study

A2 Media Studies

Mest 3 Exam 2010

You need to consider:

• Our concept of our national identity

• How we choose to represent ourselves & others as part of a national group

AssessmentMest 3 Exam

Mest 3 Section AAO1 Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical debates

• Examiners will be prepared to expect the unexpected and to treat all responses as positively as possible - remembering that the examination requires that candidates go into as much detail as possible and refer to examples to back up their arguments

• encourages independent study and critical autonomy• synoptic unit • candidates should explore the media with as much freedom as is possible

• some elements in all responses will have been taught and discussed in the classroom• should also be examples of where candidates have taken their own pathways, read and watched media texts individually and investigated media issues and debates under their own steam

AssessmentMest 3 Exam

Mest 3 Section BAO2 Apply knowledge and understanding when analysing media productions and processes to show how meanings and responses are created• two pre-set topics

• teaching unique to each centre

• examiners will have to be open-minded - emphasis will be on positive marking• Candidates to explore issues and debates, wider contexts and theories individually

• difference between higher and lower grades will depend on the evidence of independent study and critical autonomy

think about....

• One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist

• Representations depend on who is in power

ideologies

• Representations of nationality are reinforced and embedded in our cultures as ideological truths and often passed off as common sense – ‘naturalisation’ occurs

identity & difference

• Susan Hayward (1993):‘film functions as a cultural articulation of a nation reduced to two fundamental concepts: identity and difference’

• We define ourselves by looking at what we are not and labelling that as ‘ the other’

• We achieve understanding of our identity through binary opposition

stereotypes

• Readings of texts are offered to us and we are often too lazy to bother to look closely so we fall back on relying on preconceptions and stereotypes

List elements of Britishness:

• positive • negative

Identity through division and binary opposition

• Not French!

• Urban v. rural

• Class

• Regional identity – ‘Northern’, Cornish, Ndubz, Wickites

• Religion

One Nation?

• War

• Sport

• Disaster

• Threat

Britishness is the macro grouping

• Micro groupings are:Welsh, Scots, Irish, Polish, Caribbean, Asian, etc

• Kaleidoscopic nature of national identity

Shared ideologies – a generally agreed mental set

• British Film:actor-ledsocial realismheritageliterary adaptationsquirky sense of humourclass structure

• Hollywood film:star-ledhyper-real – high production valuesactionRomCom Family relationships