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: Some Understanding of contexts with some examples

EBI: Both answers need more development with more points and more detail.

2) Focusing on the unseen question 1, pick out three bullet points on the anticipated content and link each point to the three aspects of the question - denotation, connotation, myth. 

• the visual codes and composition of the image including framing

• the denotation of the costume, props, colour and body language

• the connotations of the image with reference to USA’s national identity through the

burning flag and the reference to the Western genre

3) Look at the anticipated content for the 25-mark Magazines question. Pick out three points on GQ and three on The Gentlewoman that you think are particularly interesting for this question on social and cultural contexts.

-Global Editorial Director Will Welch has championed a ‘New Masculinity’ that has seen cover

shoots that challenge gender stereotypes and a move away from style advice to self-

expression.

-GQ supports David Gauntlett’s view that the mass media is a force for change and is actively

liberalising society – he talks of a “slow and steady process of change and transformation”.

This would support the idea that as the mainstream media and corporations become more

‘woke’ that brands need to move with this social and cultural change.

-The new masculinity that GQ is offering would subvert Liesbet van Zoonen’s work on

Feminist Media Studies from the early 1990s. Her discussion of sex role stereotypes being

reinforced in mainstream media products is challenged by the new GQ – Harry Styles or

Pharrell Williams wearing traditionally feminine clothing in photoshoots for example.

-The Gentlewoman magazine has bucked the trend when it comes to the decline in print

media but perhaps reflects changes in social and cultural contexts with regards to

rebranding print as a luxury product in an ethical lifestyle.

-It is published just twice a year which is perhaps the consequence of the digital revolution in

society. It’s worldwide distribution (many copies paid by subscription rather than

newsstand) reflects the change in the way audiences buy and consume their media.

-CSP edition features also suggest producers are responding to changing social and cultural

contexts. Ramla Ali boxing feature offers a working class woman from a minority group

talking about her strength and what it is like to be punched.

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:

Mention how Will Welch had changed the term "new masculinity" and how gender stereotypes are things that aren't a part of style/limit self-expression.

• Paragraph 2 content:

Talk about how van Zoonen's sex role stereotypes are being subverted in the Pharrell Wiliams cover.

• Paragraph 3 content:

Talk about the scarcity of the Gentlewoman magazine and how it represents the consequence of the digital revolution in magazine content

• Paragraph 4 content:

Talk about the representation of a working-class woman who made it big later on by doing boxing in which many would say is a man's sport.

• Conclusion: sum up your argument a final time in one sentence

It would appear that they need to keep up with their audience by changing their cultural contexts and such in order to maintain their audience as they are to relate to the content shown in the magazine or to have more of a personal connection.

5) Finally, identify three key skills/topics you want to work on in A Level Media this year before the final exams in June.

-Revise theorists

-Learn how to structure answers

-Learn terminology more clearly.