1. G325: Critical Perspectives
in Media
Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of
Production
Section B: Contemporary Media Issues
1

2. Critical Perspectives in Media
G325: Critical Perspectives in Media
• The purpose of this unit is to assess candidates' knowledge and
understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical debates,
through their understanding of one contemporary media issue
and their ability to evaluate their own practical work in reflective
and theoretical ways.
• The examination is two hours. Candidates are required to
answer two compulsory questions, on their own production
work, and one question from a choice of six topic areas. The unit
is marked out of a total of 100, with the two questions on
production work marked out of 25 each, and the media theory
question marked out of 50.
There are two sections to this paper:
Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production (50 marks)
Section B: Contemporary Media Issues (50 marks)
2

3. Section B: Contemporary Media
Section B: Contemporary Media
Issues
Issues
• One question to be answered from a choice of six topic areas
offered by OCR. There will be two questions from each topic
area.
• The topic areas require understanding of contemporary media
texts, industries, audiences and debates.
• Candidates must choose one of the following topic areas, in
advance of the examination and, through specific case
studies, texts, debates and research of the candidates' choice,
prepare to demonstrate understanding of the contemporary
issue. This understanding must combine knowledge of at least
two media and a range of texts, industries, audiences and
debates, but these are to be selected by the centre /
candidate
3

4. Section B: ContemporaryMedia
Section B: Contemporary Media
Issues
Issues
• Contemporary Media Regulation
• Global Media
• Media and Collective Identity
• Media in the Online Age
• Post-mordern Media
• ‘We Media’ and Democracy
4

5. Section B: Contemporary Media
Section B: Contemporary Media
Issues
Issues
• Each topic is accompanied by four prompt
questions, and candidates must be prepared
to answer an exam question that relates to
one or more of these four prompts. There
should be emphasis on the historical, the
contemporary and the future in relation to the
chosen topic, with most attention on the
present
5

6. Media and Collective Identity
KEY QUESTIONS BLACK BRITISH COLLECTIVE IDENTITY
• How do the contemporary media
represent nations, regions and
ethnic / social / collective groups of
people in different ways?
• How does contemporary
representation compare to WHAT DO YOU NEED FOR
previous time periods? THE EXAM?
• What are the social implications of • social group as a case study
different media representations of • at least two different media
groups of people? • understanding of and
reference to theory/cultural
• To what extent is human identity critics
increasingly ‘mediated’? • your own voice!
6

7. Consider at a ‘macro’ level how ‘the media’ represent people and ideas
But more importantly discuss on a ‘micro’ level how people give meaning
To particular kinds of media in relation to their identity
7

8. Representations of Black Britain
Representations of Black Britain
• In order to be fully prepared for the specific requirements of
the question, the material studied by candidates must cover
these three elements:
Historical - dependent on the requirements of the topic,
candidates must summarise the development of the media
forms in question in theoretical contexts.
Contemporary - current issues within the topic area.
Future - candidates must demonstrate personal
engagement with debates about the future of
the media forms / issues that the topic relates to.
8

9. Representations of Black Britain
Representations of Black Britain
• We will be focusing on film and music – the texts that we will
be looking at are:
• Sapphire, Basil Dearden (1959)
• Flame in the Streets, Roy Ward Baker (1962)
• Pressure, Horace Ove (1976)
• Kidulthood, Menhaj Huda (2006)
• Freestyle, Kolton Lee (2010)
• Shank, Mo Ali (2010)
• Attack The Block (Joe Cornish, 2011)
9

10. Film
HISTORICAL CONTEMPORARY
10

11. Representations of BlackBritain
Representations of Black Britain
• We will be focusing on film and music – the texts that we will
be looking at are:
• 2 Tone and The Specials
• Reggae and Smiley Culture
• Grime & UK Hip Hop – Dizzie Rascal, Bashy, N-Dubz, Professor
Green
• We will be considering the use of the term ‘Urban’
• And music as a subculture – representative of something
much bigger
11

12. MUSIC
HISTORICAL CONTEMPORARY
12

13. Theory & Culturalcritics
Theory & Cultural critics
Paul Gilroy David Gauntlett
Antonio Gramsci Stuart Hall
David
Dick Hebdige Buckingham
13

14. Let’s review
Let’s review
• What do you need for the exam?
• social group as a case study- examples
• at least two different media
• understanding of and reference to
theory/cultural critics
• your own voice!
14

15. What is Identity?
Brainstorm what
makes you you? If
we were to pick Who
you apart what
would you say are am I?
the building blocks
of you?
15

16. What is Identity?
On the one hand, identity is
something unique to each of us
that we assume is more or less
consistent (and hence the same)
overtime.. our identity is
Who
something we uniquely possess: it
is what distinguishes us from
other people.
am I?
David Buckingham (2008).
He argues that identity is
complicated and complex.
Yet on the other hand, identity also implies a relationship
with a broader collective or social group of some kind.
When we talk about national identity, cultural identity, or
gender identity, for example, we imply that our identity is
partly a matter of what we share with other people. Here,
identity is about identification with others whom we
assume are similar to us (if not exactly the same), at least in
some significant ways.
16

17. What is Identity?
“The term [identity] (by
“people's concepts of who
convention) references mutually
they are, of what sort of constructed and evolving images
people they are, and how of self and other" (Katzenstein
they relate to others" (Hogg 1996, 59).
and Abrams 1988, 2).
“the way individuals and groups “Identity emerges as a kind of
define themselves and are unsettled space, or an unresolved
defined by others on the basis question in that space,
of race, ethnicity, religion, between a number of intersecting
discourses. ... [Until recently, we
language, and culture" (Deng have incorrectly thought that
1995, 1). identity is] a kind of fixed point of
thought and being, a ground of
“refers to the ways in which action ... the logic of something
individuals and collectivities are like a `true self.' ... [But] Identity is
a process, identity is split. Identity
distinguished in
is not a fixed point but an
their social relations with other ambivalent point. Identity is also
individuals and collectivities" the relationship of the Other to
(Jenkins 1996, 4). oneself" (Hall 1989)
17
http://www.stanford.edu/~jfearon/papers/iden1v2.pdf

18. What is Collective Identity? COLLECTIVE IDENTITY AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS.
Annual Review of Sociology, January 01, 2001, Polletta, Francesca; Jasper, James M
It is a perception of a shared status or relation,
which may be imagined rather than experienced
directly, and it is distinct from personal identities,
although it may form part of a personal identity.
A collective identity may have been first
constructed by outsiders, who may still
enforce it Collective identities are
expressed in cultural materials
-names, narratives, symbols,
verbal styles, rituals, clothing,
“Garms” and so on
“Wha gwan”
“You get me?” 18

19. What’s this got to do with media?
Think about how we form our identities and where the How does the media
information comes from. The influence of mass media aid identity formation?
shapes our concepts of who we are, what is important
to us and how we live our lives. Everything concerning
our lives is seen to be ‘media saturated’.
Identity is something that is constructed over a period
of time and can be updated or changed completely.
In today’s world the choosing of one’s identity is a multi
layered experience, consciously and unconsciously
influenced by countless factors
IDENTITY ISN’T SIMPLE?
19

21. Contextualising Sapphire
• In order to fully understand the
representations and the construction of
representations presented in Sapphire it’s
necessary to contextualise the film.
• Researching the socio-political context of the
production will allow for better understanding
when discussing issues of collective identity
among Black Britons

22. Some terms you may come across
• Racialisation
• Emigration
• Migration
• Immigrant
• Videos to help with research
“Most of our people
have never had it so
good.”
1957 prime minister
Harold Macmillan

23. Research
• Investigate what was happening in Britain between
1948 – 1962
• How was the social landscape changing?
• How did the changing social landscape lead to a
‘racialisation’ of British politics?
• Representation works through construction – how
were black people represented in the film?
• Considering your research and film analysis - How
does the film put across a sense of collective identity
of Black British people?