www: There is lots to credit here - definite flashes of top-level work. When discussing the illusion of democracy you are showing sophistication needed for A* grades.
ebi: You need to add consistency and make sure every paragraph is sophisticated+queston focused.You don't offer enough on the news also - revise this (not Rodney King).
2) Read through the mark scheme. Explain why and, for any that are not Level 4, what you are going to do to improve in that area.
"A sophisticated and comprehensive essay, showing very good critical autonomy. Sophisticated and detailed understanding of representation.A sharp focus on the question throughout.Sophisticated application of a wide range of media debates, issues and theories and wider contexts.A comprehensive individual case study, with a wide range of detailed examples. Well structured, articulate and engaged."I need to work primarily on the news examples I use and how they are applied.
3) Look at the Examiners' Report. Read page 10 - Section B New/digital media. How many of the good points or higher level answer examples did you include in your essay and what were they? + What could you have added to improve?
"This question was answered well, with students using a really wide range of case studies to answer it.
• Almost all students discussed the impact new and digital media has had on enabling audiences to participate, with detailed examples to support this from their case study.• Good answers also addressed the harder concept of democracy, but were able to apply itto a really wide range of case studies, not just obvious ones like news.• Good answers used this to discuss the changing role of audiences and producers. Higher level answers debated the arguments for and against.• Higher level answers debated the obstacles to equal participation and democracy, for example the digital divide in the UK and globally, the power and control of media organisations. Sophisticated answers debated whether this was increasing or decreasing with developments in new and digital media. Good answers had examples of this from their own case study rather than just as a general point.• Good answers discussed the reasons why there was democracy or not, using media issues, debates and wider contexts."
4) Read through exemplar A grade essays from previous Media graduates. Identify three things you can take from these essays to improve your own responses in future.
- Use of more theorists/statistics
- Stronger argument - express my own critical autonomy more strongly
- Stronger topic sentence - ill help me have sharper focus on the exam question.
5) Write a new paragraph that meets the criteria for Level 4 of the mark scheme
We can argue that new and digital media cannot be described as a 'democratic space'. This is reinforced by a Marxist perspective. Marxist view of media owners. The traditional Marxist approach argues the concentration of ownership of the mass media in the hands of a few corporations enables owners to control media output and send out ideas/ideologies which benefit ruling-class interests. Alain De Botton reinforces this power struggle, he argued that audiences respond passively when consuming media. Audiences are bombarded with information, leaving them helpless to the news and our consumption of it and therefore maintaining the status quo because they are so bewildered by the flooding of content. This essentially promotes hegemonic ideology and ensure the dominance of the upper class. Furthermore, this links nicely into Lasswell's 'hypodermic needle model' - which suggests audiences are passive, like Botton claims, and simply absorb whatever the media presents them with and internalise what they see. In other words, the media can 'brainwash' audiences easily because of how submissive they are towards the media. This is supported by Baudrillard’s theory of hyper-reality; Hyper-reality refers to ‘a condition in which "reality" has been replaced by simulacra’. Division between "real" and simulation has collapsed, therefore an illusion of an object is no longer possible because the real object is no longer there. This links to the earlier point of audiences being fooled by 'the illusion of power' that the media creates - in other words, audiences are not powerful and are simply being brainwashed. This suggests they can control audiences easily, making them hugely influential and powerful. Yet, these theories, especially the hypodermic needle model has been criticised widely, it is said to be outdated and too obsolete. Research methodology became more highly developed, it became apparent that the media had selective influences on people. As a result, an alternative model, called the two step flow developed by Lazarsfeld. The two-step flow of communication model hypothesises that ideas flow from mass media to opinion leaders, and from them to a wider population. So rather than whatever the media pushes, it is down to people like celebrities to really influence audiences. This suggests media institutions don't have the power, rather the media figures such as celebrities and politicians do.
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