1. Wednesday 20 th October Miss Pearce AO1: knowledge and understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical debates AO4: demonstrate the ability to undertake, apply and present appropriate research

2.  What is the difference between censorship and regulation?  Censorship is the restriction and control of media content by powerful groups – whether governments or media producers

3. Media is regulated as a result of concerns about the potential power of the media to influence its audience, as well as the way in which media effects theories have, to a significant degree, become acccepted

4. Development of Saussure’s idea to analyse the media in relation to culture.  He suggests that our understanding of many media texts rests not on just what the text portrays but on the texts’ relationship to frequently told stories or myths in our culture.  Many media texts convey or tap into popular myths.

5. Romantic Comedy = Cinderella myth Girl (poor/oppressed/bored)  Rescued from her miserable life (or poverty)  by the love of a rich, handsome man.

6. Cultural meaning of Cinderella = ideologies (cultural meaning) conveyed are that men are active and women are passive, that men are economically powerful providers and a woman’s key role is to be sexually alluring.

7. Warns that there is a tendency to read connotations as if they were self-evident truths – as if they were denotations. HOWEVER – connotations are codes that are particular to specific cultures.  As a result audiences in different cultures may interpret media texts different. Some media texts attempt to limit the interpretations of media texts  E.G. Newspapers – photographs anchored by captions.

8. There are many different types of signs, but each has two parts: 1. The signifier 2. The signified

9.  An iconic sign has a signifier that bears a close relationship to the object being signified.  E.G. A photograph of a person has a close relationship to the person whom it signifies.  An indexical sign assumes a relationship between the signifier and the signified, so that when we see one, we expect the other.  E.G. Smoke signifies fire  A symbolic sign has no obvious relationship between the signifier and the signified.  E.G. Red for hot on a tap, blue for a boy, a dove for peace

10. A grade: Confident and insightful analysis and evaluation demonstrating sophisticated knowledge and understanding of differing media representations, key concepts and wider context. Writing will be well structured, articulate and engaged. B grade: Proficient analysis and evaluation, demonstrating good knowledge and understanding of differing media representations, key concepts and wider concepts. Writing is well written and clearly expressed. C grade: Sound analysis and evaluation demonstrating adequate knowledge and understanding of differing media representations, with reference to key concepts and wider contexts. Writing is reasonably well written. D grade: Satisfactory analysis and evaluation demonstrating some adequate knowledge and understanding of differing media representations, with basic reference to key concepts and wider contexts. Writing will be satisfactory and poorly structured. E grade: Basic analysis demonstrating some knowledge and understanding of media representations. Little or no reference to key concepts and wider contexts. Meaning may be obscured by weakness in written communication.