Exam Tips - How you will be marked and what they are looking for?

Key Areas of Media and Collective Identity

• How do the contemporary media represent (Youth Culture) in different ways?
• How does contemporary representations compare to previous time periods?
• What are the social implications of different representations of groups of people?
• To what extent is human identity increasingly "mediated"?

From the Specification

The majority of examples in candidates' answers should be contemporary (5 Years). However, theories and approaches may be drawn from any time period

Where candidates refer to only one media area in their answers, marks will be restricted

Where candidates fail to provide of infra historical references and/or future projections, marks will be restricted

Examiner's Report

Examples and case studies should be from within the last 5 years (E.g. Since 2009)

• "Classic" case studies add little value for candidates

The stronger answers were those that managed to tackle the question of how dominant representations inform identity, with the less accomplished responses tackling the latter for granted, or merely dealing with the degree of "accuracy" of the representations

Balance is important. All the critical perspectives are chosen because there are "no right answers". More candidates would reach level 4 if they approached with this in mind

The stronger answers are those which present a balanced argument with a clear structure, weighing up competing arguments, developing the case through the use of examples and working towards a conclusion

The Mark Scheme

Explanation/Analysis/Argument = 20 marks

Use of Examples = 20 marks

Use of terminology = 10 marks

Music

Historically the youth culture has stemmed from music

Film has sought to represent youth culture whereas music seeks to appeal to them

Remember we talked about how the music industry was reactive to the culture (Cool-Hunting)

OCR > Media and Communaticatiosn > Past Papers