Examiner Report 2015 - G325 Critical Perspectives in Media

G325 Critical Perspectives in Media

General Comments
In general, the performance of candidates was in keeping with the previous year, with question
1b eliciting relatively strong responses, centres appearing to have prepared candidates well to
utilise theories of narrative in the analysis of one of their own productions.

The use of contemporary media examples and, where applicable, recently developed critical
theory or media appears to be increasing with each session, with many candidates able to
demonstrate personal engagement with their own mediated citizenship through theoretical
approaches encountered on their course.

Avoidable shortcomings in otherwise proficient answers remain – these are described below.
Exam technique is apparently the subject of increasing preparatory attention, with many
candidates answering section B first, in order to minimise the loss of marks if time management
is an impediment. At the same time, less candidates offered brief or incomplete responses than
has been the case in the past.

Comments on Individual Questions

1a Stronger responses devoted equal time to AS and A2 productions (and other media
production work if applicable) and clearly signposted progress over time throughout the answer.
The distinction between general research and planning, production techniques and / or use of
audience feedback and the strategic adoption or subversion of media conventions was the key
distinguishing feature of level 4 answers. Top level answers also featured a range of specific
textual examples at the ‘micro’ level rather than broad genre traits or the more obvious end of
the scale of audience expectations. The strongest answers drew conclusions from carefullychosen
examples from real media texts and explained how these informed decisions made.
Many candidates chose to point out the value of real media texts but failed to explain examples
in any detail. Most candidates provided evidence of the progression from AS to Advanced but
tended to be restricted to an acknowledgement that progression had taken place in for the
majority, bolted onto the end of the response without any further elaboration.

1b Most candidates wrote about a Year 13 production and were able to relate a range of
mainstream theorists' work to the practical piece. Many candidates systematically applied the
classic narrative theories very well to one of their texts – Propp, Todorov, Barthes, Levi Strauss,
Bordwell and Thompson. Where candidates attempted to relate genre or representation to the
answer, some managed this by locating the text in question at the intersection between overlapping
theoretical ideas (eg Mulvey, whose formative essay fuses the male gaze with narrative
pleasure), whilst weaker answers appeared to be answering another question. A key point of
distinction, eternally recurring, is between answers which deal with the theoretical concept as a
production technique, using first person or accounts of collective decisions and those which
adopt a critical vantage point on the text as site of theoretical analysis. To restate, 1a is about
the candidates’ decision making and progress, 1b is about the finished work, to be analysed in

the same way candidates would deconstruct other media texts during their studies.

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