Paper 1 mock exam - Learner response

1) Type up any feedback in full (you do not need to write mark/grade if you do not wish to).

WWW: Some good general points, especially about war of the worlds

EBI: A more comprehensive answer needed, including issues of interaction with R1

Now read through the genuine AQA mark scheme. This is vital as the paper was an official exam paper and therefore the mark scheme tells us a lot about what AQA are expecting us to produce. Please note that some of the CSPs have changed since last year's exam so we've updated some of the indicative content for our 2024 CSPs.

2) Write a question-by-question analysis of your performance. For each question, write how many marks you got from the number available and identify any points that you missed by carefully studying the AQA indicative content in the mark scheme:

Q1: 4/8 marks

Additional points: The iconic look sported by the model is that of the 1950s film star cf. Grace Kelly or Marilyn Monroe - the archetypal post-war blonde bombshell beauty, arguably designed to accommodate the male gaze.

Q2: 7/12 marks

Additional points: Link to the theorist Van Zoonen and show how both advertisements promote similar brands and to some extent engage with well-established codes and conventions associated with advertising beauty products

Q3: 2/9 marks

Additional points: Focus on the question and possibly add this is simplistic and ‘tongue-in-cheek’: the jungle is clearly a constructed set and the Big Game Hunter/colonial adventurer a cartoon character

Q4: 10/20 marks 

Additional points: Some references to audience but undeveloped overall. Use Gauntlett's theory of fluidity of identity, negotiated identity and collective identity 

Q5.1: 0/3 marks 

Additional points: A desire for deregulation of media markets, a move towards the privatisation of state-owned media interests (e.g telecommunications), a championing of consumer choice above all other considerations

Q5.2: 1/3 marks

Additional points: Form of organisation, chain of the conglomerate 

Q6: 3/9 marks

Additional points: Needs developing. Mention that after the initial theatrical run, the producers of the film were also able to make further profits from sales to streaming services, airlines, TV providers as well as DVD/Blu Ray and download sales directly to consumers - highlighting that a film’s profitability is no longer measured by takings at the box office alone.

Q7: 8/20 marks 

Additional points: Newsbeat’s aim is to offer a succinct and accessible news service suitably

packaged for a ‘young’ audience aged between 16–35 years and war of the worlds demonstrated the power of ‘actuality footage’ (real or not) to engage media audiences, and media producers would arguably become more reliant on this focus on ‘real people in real situations’ as a tool for attracting and maintaining audiences in future.

3) Look at Question 4 - a 20-mark essay evaluating Shirky's 'End of audience' theory. Write an essay plan for this question using the indicative content in the mark scheme and with enough content to meet the criteria for Level 4 (top level). This will be somewhere between 3-4 well-developed paragraphs plus an introduction answering the question planned in some detail.

• Other elements of Gauntlett's theory:
• fluidity of identity - the dynamic nature of representations of identities featured in mainstream media
• negotiated identity - the balance between the need to conform to wider media constructs and the subjective desires of the audience
• collective identity - the sense of belonging to a particular group through the shared experience of engagement with a media text.
• Old Town Road - the two time periods in the music video emphasise how attitudes to men and women, race and sexuality have changed over time (or in some cases, not changed). The music video is described as the 'Official Movie' and indeed breaks the song up in several places to develop narratives beyond the music.
• Music can play an important part in how people construct their identity and the representation of country music here as a genre (indeed the evolution or creation of 'country-rap') reinforces Gauntlett's ideas around how identity is in a constant process of evolution and change.

4) Based on the whole of your Paper 1 learner response, plan FIVE topics / concepts / CSPs / theories that you will prioritise in your summer exam Media revision timetable.

• Hyperrreality 
• Gauntlett 
• Hesmondhalgh 
• Jenkins