NDM and Audiences

Setting their own agenda? As you highlight the key components of the question, consider what it really means… Freedom? Involvement? Setting their own agenda?

How has NDM allowed more audience freedom/involvement How has NDM allowed more audience freedom/involvement? (include wider contexts/examples)

In what ways are they not free? (include wider contexts/examples)

Which theories would work well in this question?

Michael Wesch- the machine is using us We are the machine: we are creating and producing- we are empowered. But… the machine is using us. It learns from us all the time. Our likes/ interests/we are commercially exploited. ‘Filter bubbles’ Tell us what to watch Follow our likes and recommend suggestions for us How can we be free if our media is mediated? Cookies Store data and can be sold to other companies. We are free to use the web as we like- but it can be turned against us. Two step flow theory; We can share information quickly across the world. But we are often helping to generate income for large institutions. We share their products, their adverts, links to their social media sites, their news stories etc…

Youtube is worth around $40 billion. Who really has control/power?! Facebook is worth about $235 billion Gatekeepers still mediate A blog is born every minute E-commerce- audiences are becoming wealthy from instagram, etsy, e-bay (linked in with globalisation). Everyone has a voice! (upholds pluralism and democratic values)

Examiner’s report Q6 (Agenda setting) Successful responses to this question explored the issue from the perspective of both audiences and producers. In doing so, they debated the extent to which audiences are now able to set their own agenda and also discuss the ways that media producers have had to respond as a result. Students therefore explored the different ways that audiences could use a variety of media services and platforms to enhance their individual lives and look at the impact of hashtags, online voting systems and website forums as part of that debate. This led to the question being debated from both sides, rather than revolving around a fixed binary position. Weaker students, however, tended to take a binary position and run with it, using their case study to force a point, rather than consider the nuances and subtleties that exist within the question. Weaker students also tended to explore the more basic features of new and digital media, such as the ability to create an individualised avatar as a method of self-expression, rather than explore the concept of having an agenda. Arguments therefore became quite simplistic, suggesting that having an individual Snapchat or Twitter account was enough to allow audiences to be in control of how they use the media. A range of theories were used by students across the ability range, including Gauntlett, Uses and Gratifications, Stuart Hall, Marxism and Liberal Pluralism. Some students continue to throw media theory at a question, seemingly in the hope that some of it will stick. Some essays are constructed in a list-like fashion, with each new paragraph detailing a different theory while making sometimes limited reference to the case study products. It might be worthwhile re- visiting media theory in preparing students for the A2 exam, and perhaps encouraging students to only attempt to apply theory if they are confident that they know how it can be used to progress an analytical argument.

Examiner’s report (Q7) Almost all answers were able to explore how producers had involved audiences more. Many answers used the example of social media and stronger answers had detailed examples of this rather than just general discussion about YouTube or Twitter. However some weaker answers struggled to move on from this and some just repeated an audience essay they had previously practised. Stronger answers addressed audience involvement but kept their focus on the changing role of producers. Higher level answers also addressed the word ‘control’ and/or superficial or explored the word ‘involved’, exploring what it meant for audiences from the question. Students should take time and care to read the question, underline the key words and plan their answer. Higher level answers included debate and complexity, including arguments and examples that showed both sides of the argument. Sophisticated answers discussed the differences between media producers, with debates about status, credibility, aims, etc. Good answers discussed the reasons why the producers’ role had changed, using media issues, debates and wider contexts. Economic, political and social wider contexts were particularly useful for this question. Many answers included quite complex debates about pluralism and Marxism and sophisticated answers debated the strengths and weaknesses of both arguments. Issues of globalisation, cultural imperialism and competition, profit motives were also used in sophisticated answers.