Learner response:

Create a new blog post on your Media 1 Exam blog called 'OSP assessment learner response' and complete the following tasks:

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: Good use of media terminology theory in Q1
EBI: More developed answer needed in synoptic. Q2



2) Read the whole mark scheme for this assessment carefully. Identifythree potential points that you could have made in your essay for Question 1 (Shirky, audiences and producers).

• Teen Vogue is clearly constructed for mobile and tablet consumption – simple clean layout, style of headline, use of advertising and commercial tie-ins (sponsored content or ‘Partner Content’) etc.
• The Voice should be successful – the opportunities that are offered by digital media and the new media landscape in targeting niche audiences could provide an ideal platform for a strong black British voice. However, the poor construction of the website and social media presence (dead links, cluttered design, low-quality photography, lack of fresh content, poor video production values) means it is not the powerful voice in British media it set out to be when launched in 1982.
• Analysis of the social media content reinforces this. The Voice’s YouTube channel offers videos with startlingly low production values such as ‘Meet Six Influential Black Women’. This should be attractive content with the potential to go viral but it is poorly constructed.

3) Now use the mark scheme to identify three potential points that you could have made in your essay for Question 2 (values and ideologies).

• Despite appearing to champion progressive causes, Teen Vogue in fact reinforces the expectations placed on women with regards to beauty and appearance. This is regressive and promotes a capitalist ideal that encourages people – particularly women – to spend money to solve ‘problems’ with their life and appearance.
• Gilroy would arguably agree with Hesmondhalgh’s view that the cultural industries promote a narrow set of values and ideologies – ideologies that are dominated by white voices and a white perspective. If The Voice offers black audiences the opportunity to see representations that are not created by media producers that are overwhelmingly white (and middle class) then it is arguably offering an important service to British culture despite its low production values or YouTube view count.
• Hesmondhalgh has written of the marginalising of working class voices and products such as Oh Comely (and even Teen Vogue) are clearly representing wealthy, middle-class interests. In contrast, The Voice has quite an authentic working class feel to it – but appears to be struggling to find an audience in the “contemporary media ecosystem”.

4) Use your exam response, the mark scheme and any other resource you wish to use to write a detailed essay plan for Question 1. Make sure you are planning at least five well-developed paragraphs in addition to a brief introduction and conclusion.

Essay plan:

Introduction:

• Teen Vogue and the voice-  reflective of activism and progression/highlights the change and relationship between audience and producers.
• The idea that Teen Vogue is a movement/progressive/woke brand.
• Clay Shirky and his idea of mass amateurisation- the voice can be seen as more amateur.

Paragraph 1:

• How media producers target, attract, reach, address and potentially construct audiences.
• How media organisations reflect the different needs of mass and specialised audiences, including through targeting.
• The construction of both websites.

Paragraph 2:

• Consumer culture of the media- How audiences use media in different ways, reflecting demographic factors as well as aspects of identity and cultural capital.
• The construction of the Teen Vogue website and social media also reflects the power shift from producers to audiences.
• Teen Vogue’s success in recent years (unique website users shot up from 2m a month to 10m+ a month thanks to digital director Phillip Picardi) is down to reinvention of the brand to take into account the changes in the media landscape that Shirky’s ‘End of Audience’ theories suggest.

Paragraph 3:

• Production values: Aesthetic of both websites.
• Website and social media presence (dead links, cluttered design, low-quality photography, lack of fresh content, poor video production values) means it is not the powerful voice in British media it set out to be when launched in 1982.
• Shirky discusses the “mass amatuerisation” of the media but successful products still need to at least imitate professional production values and The Voice fails to do this.

Conclusion:

The balance between audiences and producers: media consumption/ teen vogue and the voice how each CSP differs in promoting cultural values.

5) Finally, do the same for Question 2. Remember, Question 2 is a synoptic question so your answer must refer to aspects from the whole A Level Media course. Therefore, make sure you are bringing in CSPs, theories or debates from across the whole course of study.

Introduction:

• Values and ideologies are transmitted despite the size of the cultural industries.
• The voice ideologies are to promote the positivity about the black community aimed at niche audiences and teen vogue is owned by conde nast making it available to mainstream audiences.

Paragraph 1:

• The ‘End of Audience’ that Clay Shirky writes of means that a wider, more diverse range of values and ideologies are now available to consumers. Teen Vogue illustrates this with a liberal agenda that promotes perspectives championed by digital feminists in the late 2000s.
• Audiences now use the immediacy culture because now websites try to achieve many clicks as possible.
• Features such as the first black photographer to shoot the cover picture of Vogue magazine (December 2018) and a suggestion to ‘Buy black on Black Friday’ (November 2018) both reflect this agenda.

Paragraph 2:

• Teen Vogue is positive on gender fluidity and an increasingly non-binary approach to gender identity. This is illustrated by features such as the October 2018 article ‘How to Break Away From the Gender Binary’.
• Teen Vogue, in fact, reinforces the expectations placed on women with regards to beauty and appearance. This is regressive and promotes a capitalist ideal that encourages people – particularly women – to spend money to solve ‘problems’ with their life and appearance.
• Men’s Health magazine – which while appearing to promote progressive causes (such as mental health - #SlayWinterBlues), in fact, reinforces the idea that men should spend money on changing their appearance.

Paragraph 3:

• It could be argued that Teen Vogue is replicating many of the mainstream, hegemonic values and ideologies found across the cultural industries with regards to the representation of women and the fashion industry.
• Teen Vogue’s promotion of issues such as gender fluidity chimes with the Maybelline ‘That Boss Life’ advert featuring notable YouTube influencers MannyMua and Shayla.
• The YouTube campaign suggests that the internet has led to a more diverse set of views and values and perhaps challenges Hesmondhalgh’s theory.

Conclusion:

• Perhaps the narrow range of values and ideologies in the cultural industries is less a product of political hegemony but instead the constant demand for profit.
• This is regressive and promotes a capitalist ideal that encourages people – particularly women – to spend money to solve ‘problems’ with their life and appearance.
• The Voice has quite an authentic working-class feel to it – but appears to be struggling to find an audience in the “contemporary media ecosystem”. This perhaps reinforces Hesmondhalgh’s view regarding a narrow range of values and ideologies.