Year 12 Media exam - revision and preparation

Your Year 12 A Level Media exam is on Friday 15 June in the afternoon.

This is a crucial exam as it will form the basis of your predicted grade for university applications next year.

To answer one question that has come up a couple of times: you will only have ONE Media exam at the end Year 12. This is because we haven't covered all the content in the specification yet. For the Year 13 PPEs next year you will have two Media exams that will replicate the real exams you will take in the summer of 2019.

Year 12 A Level Media exam: revision and preparation

You need to revise all of the following to make sure you're fully prepared for the end of Year 12 exam. Remember, a good starting point is the index we completed at the end of each unit.

General

MIGRAIN Introduction to Media
Here you need to look over all the concepts, theories and media terminology we learned from September to February. The MIGRAIN final index is here - look over this and your own index to make sure you know it.

Film & TV Language
For Film & TV Language, you need to pay particular attention to the technical film terminology used to analyse images and video. This will be useful both for your extended essay on TV drama and any unseen material in the exam. The Film & TV final index is here.

Assessment: learner responses and mark schemes
This will be arguably the most useful revision you will do. Look over your Media assessments this year - ideally your original exam paper but certainly your LR blogposts. What do you need to do to improve in future? This is the exam to put all of that into practice.

In addition, every assessment LR task had the mark scheme attached. These are based on real AQA mark schemes and all have extensive indicative content which suggests the answers the exam board are interested in. Read through the following carefully:

• October assessment mark scheme: Media language and theory
• January assessment mark scheme: Industries and Audience
• Advertising assessment mark scheme: Language and Representation
• Film and TV assessment mark scheme: all key concepts

Section A
Section A will cover the targeted CSPs:

• Film Industry - Chicken
• Advertising & Marketing - Score hair cream and Maybelline 'That Boss Life'
• Music Video - Letter to the Free and Billie Jean - current CSPs

Section B
Section B will cover the in-depth CSPs and require an extended essay-based response:

• TV - Capital and Deutschland 83
• Magazines - Men's Health

Monday 4 June: Revision lessons

Due to a combination of Year 13 and GCSE final exams plus pre-exam revision sessions, we are unable to teach our normal Year 12 lessons on Monday 4 June (we don't have the staff or rooms). Instead, we are giving you that double lesson to make sure EVERYTHING on your blog is up-to-date so you can really kick-start your revision for the exam on Friday 15 June. 


Revision: top tips

The most important advice is simple: don't leave it to the last minute! There is too much information here to cram it in the night before so work an hour or two a day over the next three weeks to prepare for the exam. A couple of other words of advice:

• The new exams specify certain theories - so you need to make sure you know, understand and can apply the key theories we've learned this year.
• Textual analysis will definitely be part of the exam - so you need to make sure you can confidently apply media concepts and terminology (e.g. narrative, mise-en-scene etc.) to a variety of media texts.
• For longer answers and the Section B essay questions, you need to demonstrate you have opinions on the big media debates (representation, media effects, the impact of new technology etc.)

There is plenty to take in here - you need to make sure you look over this regularly in the next few weeks. Good luck - and don't leave it all to the last minute!

Magazines: index so far

We have reached the halfway point in our Magazines unit with Men's Health completed.

Over half-term, you need to make sure all Men's Health tasks are completed as this will definitely come up in the end of Year 12 exam. As we've discussed before, keeping an up-to-date index of all your work is extremely good practice from a revision perspective. It keeps the vital CSP information fresh in your mind and also highlights if you've missed anything through absence or trips. 

Magazines index: Men's Health

Your Magazines index should include the following so far:

1) Men's Health - Audience
2) Men's Health - booklet blog summary
3) Men's Health - Representation journal article and questions
4) Magazine production task - learner response
5) Men's Health - Industries and the impact of digital media

If you are missing any of this work, make sure you catch up over half-term and post it alongside a completed index. Remember, for your index it needs to link to YOUR corresponding blogpost so you can access your work and revision notes quickly and easily.

BFI Future Film Labs

The BFI is running a series of Future Film Labs aimed at getting young people into the film industry.

You can watch a preview here:



We strongly recommend checking out the BFI Future Film Lab website and looking at the upcoming events. These include: 

• 16 June 2018 Future Film Labs: The Economic Examination
• 14 July 2018 Future Film Labs: The Freelance Enterprise
• 18 August 2018 Future Film Labs: The Production Company Probe
• 15 September 2018 Future Film Labs: The Humanity Factor
• 20 October 2018 Future Film Labs: The Statutory Speculation
• 17 November 2018 Future Film Labs: The Magnanimity Method
• 15 December 2018 Future Film Labs: The On Set Analysis
• 19 January 2019 Future Film Labs: The Celluloid Recalibration

Tickets are £6 or two for £10 - a really good deal. You can book via the specific Film Lab event page on the BFI website - linked above for the 16 June event.

Music Video: Michael Jackson - Billie Jean

Our second Music Video CSP is the classic Michael Jackson - Billie Jean.

This was a hugely influential media product that set the conventions for future music videos - and persuaded Michael Jackson's record company to throw million-dollar budgets at future productions.

Notes from the lesson

Goodwin’s music video theory

Andrew Goodwin’s theory of music videos states that music videos contain some or all of the following elements:

• A link between the visuals & lyrics (compliment, contradict or amplify)
• Genre characteristics (heavy metal in industrialised settings; rap music in urban street contexts etc.)
• Contain intertextual references (references to popular culture)
• Contain notions of looking (e.g. screens within screens)
• Include objectification of females (e.g. male gaze)
• Include demands of the record label (close ups of lead singer, symbols or motifs associated with the band / performer etc.)
• Video will be performance, narrative or concept based.

Neale’s genre theory of Repetition and Difference

Steve Neale states that though all genres are structured along the identical conventions of plot, narrative and mise-en-scene, success lies in their ability to manipulate and re-shape these elements.

In this sense, all genres all contain instances of repetition and difference – and difference is essential to the economy of the genre.

Neale’s model holds that a product’s genre is defined by:

• How much it conforms to its genre’s individual conventions and stereotypes. A product must match the genre’s conventions to be identified as part of that genre if it is to attract that audience.
• How much a product subverts the genre’s conventions and stereotypes. The product must subvert convention enough to be considered unique and not just a clone of another product.

Michael Jackson: defining genre

Michael Jackson largely defined the modern music video with Billie Jean. He followed it with two bigger-budget videos: Bad (directed by Martin Scorcese) and Thriller (directed by John Landis) – pushing the boundaries of the music video genre.

Both of these later videos were effectively short films that leaned heavily on film genres – using well established film directors. This reinforced the intertextual element of his music videos and helped to create the Michael Jackson identity of the 1980s and 1990s.




Michael Jackson - Billie Jean

Billie Jean changed the music industry by introducing the idea that a single must be accompanied by a high-production video - thereby transforming a song release into an “event”.

In doing so, Billie Jean transformed MTV from a small niche TV channel for young people into a cultural institution that wider society paid increasing attention to. It also changed MTV itself – persuading MTV executives that a white rock orientated audience would respond enthusiastically to videos featuring a black performer, something they had not previously believed.




Billie Jean and postmodernism

Postmodernists claim that we live in a media-saturated world – immersed in media products 24/7. So much so, that the distinction between the real world and the media representation of the real world has become blurred. 

Media producers are copying copies: we no longer have any distinction between the real world and real things and media images of these things. Everything original has been made, all we now have is finding originality in mixing old ideas.

This idea of ‘copying copies’ and finding originality in old ideas is a strong theme of Billie Jean – which uses polaroid photos and intertextual references to old movie genres.

Michael Jackson - Billie Jean blog tasks

Work through the following tasks to create a comprehensive case study for Michael Jackson's Billie Jean music video.

Media Magazine reading: Billie Jean, birth of an icon

Go to our Media Magazine archive and read the case study on Billie Jean - birth of an icon (MM62 - page 20). Answer the following questions:

1) What was the budget for Billie Jean? How did this compare with later Michael Jackson videos?

2) Why was the video rejected by MTV?

3) Applying Goodwin's theory of music video, how does Billie Jean reflect the genre characteristics of pop music video?

4) How do the visuals reflect the lyrics in Billie Jean?

5) Why does the video feature fewer close-up shots than in most pop videos?

6) What intertextual references can be found in the video?

7) How does the video use the notion of looking as a recurring motif?

8) What representations can be found in the video?


Close-textual analysis of the music video

1) How is mise-en-scene used to create intertextuality - reference to other media products or genres? E.g. colour/black and white; light/lighting.

2) How does the video use narrative theory of equilibrium?

3) How are characters used to create narrative through binary opposition?

4) What is the significance of the freeze-frames and split-screen visual effects?

5) What meanings could the recurring motif of 'pictures-within-pictures' create for the audience?

6) Does the video reinforce or subvert theories of race and ethnicity - such as Gilroy's diaspora or Hall's black characterisations in American media?

7) Does this video reflect Steve Neale's genre theory of 'repetition and difference'? Does it reflect other music videos or does it innovate?

8) Analyse the video using postmodern theory (e.g. Baudrillard's hyper-reality; Strinati's five definitions of postmodernism). How does the 'picture-in-picture' recurring motif create a postmodern reading?


Extension reading: Michael Jackson

Read this fascinating Guardian feature on Michael Jackson and race - building on our recent work on music video, genre, theory and representations of race and ethnicity.

Another Guardian feature - How Billie Jean changed the world - explores the cultural influence of the song and video. 


Complete for homework - due Wednesday after half-term.

Magazines: Industries & Men's Health

To explore the Industries context for Men's Health we need to study Hearst publishing and look at the impact of digital media on the print magazine industry.

This means interrogating why the internet has had such a devastating effect on certain print brands and why some other magazines are continuing to thrive in the digital age. We also need to spend some time on the Men's Health website and consider the similarities and differences to what we've found in the print version of the magazine.

Notes from the lessons

Men's Health UK is published by Hearst Publishing UK, a subsidiary of Hearst Communications.

Hearst Communications is an American media conglomerate based in New York that is over 130 years old and is still owned by the Hearst family.

It owns a range of media and business information brands including American newspapers, magazines (e.g. Cosmopolitan), half of the A&E Network TV channel and 20% of US sports broadcaster ESPN.

It employs 20,000 people and its 2016 revenue was $10.8 billion.

Hearst Publishing UK

Hearst UK publishes over 20 magazine titles including Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Inside Soap and more.

Hearst UK brands reach 30% of UK women and 25% of UK men. They sell over 4m magazines a month and have 17m UK digital unique users.

Hearst UK has also diversified into events and other licensed brand extensions (e.g. Esquire Townhouse pop up members club, Country Living sofas and Men’s Health home gym equipment).

The impact of digital media on the magazine industry

Some key questions:

• Why has digital media (the internet) had such a devasting effect on the magazines industry?
• When did YOU last buy a magazine?
• Who IS buying magazines?

Suggestions for SWOT analysis of the impact of digital media on magazines:

• Strengths: Magazine brands are well established to diversify online, audiences already know and like them.
• Weaknesses: Print publishers do not have the expertise or knowledge of digital – it is a very different medium.
• Opportunities: Magazines can find new audiences online.
• Threats: Audiences will stop buying paper products and expect everything online for free.

Digital media has had a devastating effect on the print magazines industry. 

• Print sales fell by 42% from 23.8m to 13.9m between 2010 and 2017. 
• Back in 2000, sales were over 30m – signalling a 55% decline in just 17 years.
• Advertising in consumer magazines has fallen from £512m in 2010 to £250m in 2017. 
• Google and Facebook now dominate online advertising (they account for 65% of the UK digital ad market).

As a result of these changes, many magazines have closed.

Digital media: Hearst and Men’s Health

Hearst UK has posted losses in recent years due to the decline in the magazines market.

Men’s Health has also declined in recent years from a circulation high of 228,000 in 2008 to 180,000 now. However, it dropped to 160,000 in 2016 so has successfully reversed the decline in recent years.

Men's Health - Industries case study blog tasks

This is a comprehensive case study covering a range of Industry contexts. It is divided into three sections: Hearst publishing, the impact of digital media and Men's Health online platforms. You will need to allow for at least two hours to work through the following tasks.

Hearst publishing

Research Hearst publishing by looking at the Hearst UK website and the Wikipedia entry for parent company and conglomerate Hearst Communications.

1) Hearst UK is part of Hearst Communications. What is Hearst Communications and where is it based?

2) What media industries and brands make up the Hearst Communications conglomerate?

3) What was the global revenue for Hearst Communications (in dollars) for the most recent year on record?

4) Focusing on Hearst UK, what other magazine brands are part of Hearst UK publishing? How many UK people do they reach in print and online?

Read this Campaign interview with Hearst UK CEO James Wildman.

5) What is James Wildman's plan for Hearst UK?

6) What percentage ad decline are consumer magazines facing?

7) What Wildman think about premium content and paywalls?

8) How has Hearst used diversification to grow the business?

Read this Hearst UK press release for their late 2017 ABC figures.

9) Is Men's Health increasing or decreasing in circulation?

10) What explanation is provided by Hearst for the success of their magazines in a tough print market?


The impact of digital media on the print magazines industry

Read this BBC website feature on the print magazine industry and then this Guardian feature on the demise of NME magazine and print magazines in general.

1) Why are traditional print magazines struggling?

2) What genre of magazines is currently bucking the trend and increasing sales? Why is this?

3) In contrast, what magazine genres are struggling? Give examples of magazines that have declined or stopped printing altogether.

4) Look at the Guardian article in detail. What statistics are provided to demonstrate the decline in the print magazines industry between 2010 and 2017? What about the percentage decline from 2000?

5) What percentage of ad revenue is taken by Google and Facebook?

6) What strategies can magazine publishers use to remain in business in the digital age?

7) Why does the Hearst UK CEO James Wildman suggest that the magazine industry is not dead?

8) What examples from the Guardian article are provided to demonstrate how magazines are finding new revenue streams? What is the Men's Health branding used for?

9) What signs for optimism might there be for traditional magazine brands?

10) How does Men's Health fit into this picture? Why do you think Men's Health has remained successful in the digital age? Do you think Men's Health will continue to publish for many years to come? Why?


The Men's Health website and social media

Visit the Men's Health website, Twitter feed and Instagram. You may need to complete this part of the case study at home if it is blocked in school.

1) What similarities do you notice between the website and the print edition of the magazine?

2) What is the Men's Health daily newsletter and what does it include? How does this help Hearst UK to make money?

3) Look at the menu bar along the top of the website. What are the menu options? What does this suggest about the representation of men and masculinity associated with Men's Health?

4) Choose one of the menu sections and write a list of the features in that area of the website. What target audience are these features aimed at?

5) Do you think the Men's Health website is trying to sell the print version or simply build a digital audience? What are the advantages and disadvantages of a 'digital first' strategy?

6) How does the Men's Health Twitter feed use 'clickbait' to try and get users to click through to the magazine's website? Give examples of tweets that are designed to get the audience to click through.

7) How does the Twitter feed uses images and video content alongside text and links?

8) What does the Men's Health Instagram suggest about the Men's Health brand? Is this appealing to a similar audience to the print version of the magazine?

9) Is the Men's Health social media designed to sell the print magazine or build a digital audience? Why?

10) Evaluate the success of the Men's Health brand online. Does it successfully communicate with its target audience? Will the digital platforms eventually replace the print magazine completely?

There is a lot of work here but you'll have plenty of time to do it (including the whole of half-term). 

Homework due date: Friday 8 June.

Magazines: Magazine cover production learner response

You will receive feedback on your magazine front cover production work before half-term.

Depending on lesson time and staff availability, you will receive this feedback either via email or verbally in class. It will be marked out of 15 using the new specification mark scheme for coursework. This divides up your mark using the different Media concepts - Media Language, Media Representations, Media Industries and Audiences etc. For this front cover assignment, we are only using the mark scheme for Media Language:

Magazine front cover - Learner response

Create a new blogpost called 'Magazine cover learner response' and complete the following tasks:

1) Add your finished magazine cover as a JPEG image.

2) Type up your feedback from your teacher. If you've received this by email, you can copy and paste it across - WWW and EBIs.

3) Consider your mark against the mark scheme above. What are the strengths of your production based on the the mark scheme? Think about magazine cover conventions and the media language techniques you have used to communicate with your audience (e.g. mise-en-scene, camera shot etc.)

4) Look at the mark scheme again. What can you do to move your mark higher and, if required, move up a level?

5) What would be one piece of advice you would give a student about to start the same magazine cover project you have just completed?

Complete for homework - due next week.

Magazines: Men's Health - Representation reading

We need to explore the representation of masculinity in Men's Health magazine in significant depth.

We have already covered many relevant theories in our work on Advertising and Marketing (for example, David Gauntlett's writing on Media, Gender and Identity). We now need to apply these theories and ideas to Men's Health and specifically the three pages from the Jan/Feb 2017 issue identified as our Close-Study Product.

Representation in Men's Health: an academic analysis

‘The Representations Of Men Depicted In Men’s Health Magazine’ is an academic journal article by María del Mar Rubio-Hernández of the University of Sevilla. 

It focuses on the American edition of the magazine but its findings also apply to the UK and other international editions. 

Rubio-Hernández makes several key points in her analysis:

• Advertising and consumerism is critical to masculine identity. The products advertised in Men’s Health say a huge amount about the representation of men – “men as consumers”.
• Masculinity is not fixed or natural but socially constructed and “subject to constant change”. It discusses the idea of the “metrosexual” male comfortable with grooming products, fashion and appearance.
• The magazine focuses on the male body and suggests it is one of the few aspects of masculinity still under men’s control. However, it does say that the representation of the male bodies featured in the magazine is largely fixed: “…young, muscular, healthy, sporty, successful, virile…”

Representation and Men's Health: blog task

Create a blogpost called 'Men's Health - Representation'. Read these extracts from the journal article exploring the representation of masculinity in Men's Health magazine and answer the following questions:

1) Why is Men's Health defined as a 'lifestyle magazine'?

2) Why is advertising significant in helping to shape masculine identity?

3) The article suggests that the representation of masculinity in Men's Health is not fixed or natural and is subject to constant change. What media theorists that we have studied previously can be linked to these ideas?

4) What does the article suggest Men's Health encourages its readers to be? What examples and statistics are provided to develop the idea of men as consumers?

5) What representations of the male body can be found in Men's Health?

6) What does the article suggest regarding the objectification of men?

7) What is 'metrosexuality' and how can it be applied to Men's Health?

8) What representation of men in Men's Health is discussed in the section 'Homogenous bodies'?

9) What are the conclusions drawn by the article with regards to the representation of masculinity in Men's Health?

10) What is your own view of the representation of masculinity in Men's Health? Is it a positive representation that encourages men to the best they can be or is it a hypermasculine, consumer-driven representation designed to undermine men's confidence and objectify their bodies?

Complete this for homework - due next Friday.

Music Video: Common - Letter to the Free

Our first Music Video CSP is Common - Letter to the Free.

This is a stunning music video and protest song that documents black American culture and the legacy of slavery.

Notes from the lesson

Common: a pioneering artist

Common is a Black American cultural icon who has maintained a political and social concern in his music. At one of the most charged periods in American history, the video Letter to the Free is presented as his contribution to the divisive political and social issues of contemporary America, a sense that he is attempting to draw attention to initiating a new wave of ‘protest music’.

Michael Eric Dyson on Common

Dyson on black stereotypes and Common: “Many critics don’t account for the complex ways that some artists in hip hop play with stereotypes to either subvert or reverse them. Amid the pimp mythologies and metaphors that gut contemporary hip hop, rappers like Common… seize on pimpology’s prominence to poke fun at its pervasiveness. 

“Hip hop is still fundamentally an art form that traffics in hyperbole, parody, kitsch, dramatic license, double entendres, signification, and other literary and artistic conventions to get its point across.”


Michael Eric Dyson, Know What I Mean (2007)

Common - Selma soundtrack

Common and John Legend wrote Glory as the soundtrack for Selma, a 2014 film portraying the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches, a key moment in the Civil Rights Movement.



The marches were a non-violent protest to demonstrate the desire of black Americans to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

Common returned to the theme of protest with Letter to the Free – highlighting the mass incarceration of black Americans.

Common: Letter to the Free

Letter to the Free was directed by Bradford Young (the cinematographer on Selma). The video has the camera moving at a slow, aching pace through an empty prison where Common, singers Andra Day and Bilal, and other musicians perform the song in different spaces in the prison rooms. 

A black square hovering in the air appears throughout the clip, which, in a final shot, is framed as empty space in a field.

Amendment 13: ‘Black Codes’

The song was written for Ava DuVernay’s Netflix documentary 13th focusing on the historic legacy of the 13th amendment to the US Constitution.

Theoretically written to outlaw slavery, the 13th Amendment had the effect of paving the way for local and State law reforms that created loopholes that effectively enabled the continued enslavement of Black Americans through mass imprisonment. The so-called Black Codes, introduced at state level in the southern states, provided for forced labour as punishment for petty crimes that in reality only applied to the newly emancipated black slaves.

Common - Letter to the Free blog tasks

Work through the following tasks to create a comprehensive case study for Common's Letter to the Free.

Social and cultural context

Read this Billboard interview where Common talks about Letter to the Free, political hip hop and contemporary American society. Use the article and the notes we have made in lessons (also available above) to answer the following questions on the social, cultural and genre contexts for Letter to the Free.

1) What other projects has Common been involved in over recent years?

2) What is the 13th Amendment of the American Constitution?

3) What were the Black Codes?

4) Why do people suggest that the legacy of slavery is still a crucial aspect to American culture 150 years after it was abolished by the 13th Amendment?

5) Why was Ava DuVernay inspired to make the Netflix documentary 13th?

6) Focusing on genre, what was the most significant time period for the rise in political hip hop?

7) Common talks about other current artists that have a political or protest element to their music. Who are they? Are there any other hip hop artists that you are aware of that have a strong political element to their work?

8) What album is Letter to the Free taken from? What was the critical reception for this album? You'll need to research this - the Wikipedia entry for the album is a good place to start.


Close-textual analysis and representation

Re-watch the music video several times to complete the following tasks in specific detail:

1) How does the Letter to the Free music video use cinematography to create meanings for the audience? (Camera shots and movement).

2) What is the significance of the constantly moving camera?

3) Why is the video in black and white?

4) How is mise-en-scene used to construct meaning for the audience - prison setting, costume, props, lighting, actor placement?

5) Focusing on the track, what are the key lyrics that suggest the political message of the song?

6) What is the significance of the floating black square motif? Discuss your own interpretations alongside Common's explanation of it in the Billboard feature linked above.

7) How does the video reference racism, slavery and the oppression of black culture? Make reference to specific shots, scenes or moments in the video.

8) How can Gilroy's idea of black diasporic identity be applied to Common's Letter to the Free?

9) What other theories of race and ethnicity can be applied to this video? E.g. Hall, Rose or Dyson.

10) What current events in America and worldwide are referenced in the song and video?


Complete for homework - due date set by coursework teacher.

Magazines: Men's Health CSP analysis

We have produced a comprehensive booklet to help you analyse the pages of Men's Health that make up the first Magazine CSP.

However, it is important you also have an electronic copy of these notes and quotes to help remember key details and assist with revision for future exams. 

In addition, the booklet document is here if you need access to it for revision and currently you can read the whole of Men's Health Jan/Feb 2017 (the CSP issue) on this website. It's definitely worth reading more of the CSP issue to get a feel for the Men's Health audience, brand and representations contained within it.



Men's Health analysis: blog task

Create a blogpost called 'Men's Health CSP analysis' and complete the following tasks.

1) Write a one-paragraph summary of your notes for each key concept from the booklet:

Media Language (e.g. conventions, narrative, genre etc.)

Media Industries (e.g. Hearst Communications)

Media Audiences (e.g. demographics, psychographics, pleasures)

Media Representations (e.g. masculinity)


2) Identify three specific aspects/conventions (e.g. cover line, colour scheme, text, image etc.) from each page of the CSP that you could refer to in a future exam. Explain why that particular aspect of the CSP is important - think about connotations, representations, audience pleasures, reception theory etc.

Front cover: Vin Diesel

Editor's Letter and contents page

Feature: True Grit - 'The Marathon Man'


3) Type up three media theories that you think are particularly relevant to analysing Men's Health and explain why they are significant:


4) Type up three quotes from the booklet that you think are particularly useful for analysing Men's Health and explain why they are significant:


Complete for homework - due next Monday.

Music Video: theory

There are a range of important theories we need to learn as part of our Music Video unit.

Both our Music Video Close-Study Products contain representations of black Americans. We therefore need to study a range of theories that address the representation of black or minority ethnic people in the media.

Notes from the lesson

Paul Gilroy: The Black Atlantic

Paul Gilroy is a key theorist in A Level Media and has written about race in both the UK and USA.

In The Black Atlantic (1993), Gilroy explores influences on black culture. One review states: “Gilroy’s ‘black Atlantic’ delineates a distinctively modern, cultural-political space that is not specifically African, American, Caribbean, or British, but is, rather, a hybrid mix of all of these at once.”

Gilroy is particularly interested in the idea of black diasporic identity – the feeling of never quite belonging or being accepted in western societies even to this day.

For example, Gilroy points to the slave trade as having a huge cultural influence on modern America – as highlighted by Common’s Letter to the Free.

Diaspora: A term that originates from the Greek word meaning “dispersion,” diaspora refers to the community of people that migrated from their homeland. [Source: facinghistory.org]

Gilroy on black music

Gilroy suggests that black music articulates diasporic experiences of resistance to white capitalist culture. 

When writing about British diasporic identities, Gilroy discusses how many black Britons do not feel like they totally belong in Britain but are regarded as ‘English’ when they return to the country of their parents’ birth e.g. the Caribbean or Africa. This can create a sense of never truly belonging anywhere.

Additional theories on race representations and music

Stuart Hall: race representations in media

Stuart Hall suggests that audiences often blur race and class which leads to people associating particular races with certain social classes.

He suggests that western cultures are still white dominated and that ethnic minorities in the media are misinterpreted due to underlying racist tendencies. BAME people are often represented as ‘the other’.

Hall outlined three black characterisations in American media:

• The Slave figure: “the faithful fieldhand… attached and devoted to ‘his’ master.” (Hall 1995)
• The Native: primitive, cheating, savage, barbarian, criminal.
• The Clown/Entertainer: a performer – “implying an ‘innate’ humour in the black man.” (Hall 1995)

Tricia Rose: Black Noise (1994)



Tricia Rose was one of the first academics to study the cultural impact of the hip hop genre in her influential book Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994).

Rose suggested that hip hop initially gave audiences an insight into the lives of young, black, urban Americans and also gave them a voice (including empowering female artists). However, Rose has since criticised commercial hip hop and suggests black culture has been appropriated and exploited by capitalism.

Michael Eric Dyson: Know What I Mean (2007)

Georgetown University Professor of Sociology Michael Eric Dyson has passionately defended both hip hop and black culture – Jay-Z describes him as “the hip hop intellectual”.



Dyson suggests that political hip hop in the 1990s didn’t get the credit (or commercial success) it deserved and this led to the rap music of today – which can be flashy, sexualised and glamorising criminal behaviour.

Dyson states: “Hip hop music is important precisely because it sheds light on contemporary politics, history and race. At its best, hip hop gives voice to marginal black youth we are not used to hearing from on such critics. Sadly, the enlightened aspects of hip hop are overlooked by critics who are out to satisfy a grudge against black youth culture…” Michael Eric Dyson, Know What I Mean (2007)


Hip hop debate - full video
As requested in class, this appears to be the full Google debate on hip hop if you want to watch more from where those extracts came from.



Music Video theory - blog tasks

Childish Gambino, the musical stage name of writer and performer Donald Glover, has just released a critique of American culture and Donald Trump with This Is America.

Racking up 10m views in 24 hours and already dubbed ‘genius’ and ‘a masterpiece’, the music video is a satirical comment on American culture, racism and gun violence.

Create a blogpost called 'Music video: theory', watch the video again then answer the questions below:


1) How does the This Is America video meet the key conventions of a music video?

2) What comment is the video making on American culture, racism and gun violence?

3) Write an analysis of the video applying the theories we have learned: Gilroy, Hall, Rose and Dyson. 

Read this Guardian feature on This Is America - including the comments below.

4) What are the three interpretations suggested in the article?

5) What alternative interpretations of the video are offered in the comments 'below the line'? 

Complete this for homework - due next Wednesday.

Music Video: An introduction

Our next topic is Music Video - with two brilliant Close-Study Products.

Music video is a targeted CSP which means we need to focus on media language and representation. The CSPs are Common's Letter to the Free and Michael Jackson's classic Billie Jean so we'll also be looking at the representation of race and ethnicity and incorporating post-colonial theory.

An introduction to Music Video

Music videos typically feature movement – often fast paced either in terms of actors, camerawork or editing. Many contain a performance element or narrative. Music videos can also feature visual effects and intertextuality.

Music videos were originally designed as a promotional device to sell the band or artist’s music but have developed over time to become a recognised artform or product in their own right. Modern music videos no longer have the huge budgets of the 1980s and 1990s but digital media means they are now more accessible than ever. Videos such as Psy’s Gangnam Style have received over 3 billion views on YouTube.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is when one media text references another media text – through genre, conventions, mise-en-scene or specific cultural references.

Music videos often use intertextual references – often to classic films but also to television, popular culture, news, videogames or even other music videos.

Notable examples of intertextual music videos:

Music Video introduction blog task

Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet #69: Music Video. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets - you'll need to save the factsheet to USB or email it to yourself in order to complete this at home. Read the factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) What is the purpose of a music video?

2) How has the digital age changed the production and distribution of music videos?

3) Which three major record labels are behind VEVO? What is VEVO and why was it created?

4) What are the key conventions of a music video?

5) How can narrative be used in music video? Give an example of a music video that uses a narrative.

6) What examples are provided in the factsheet for intertextuality in music videos?

7) Why do audiences enjoy intertextual references in media products?

8) Read the music video example analysis on page 3 of the factsheet. Select a music video of your own choice and write your own analysis using the following headings:

• Conventions (movement/narrative/artist)
• Intertextuality
• Representation
• Audience
• Institution

9) Watch the video for Ice Cube's It Was A Good Day (1993). How did this video set the conventions for later hip-hop music videos?



10) How important do you think music videos are in the marketing and promotion of music artists in 2018? Are music videos essential to a band or artist's success?


Complete for homework - due next Wednesday.