A2 MEDIA STUDIES SECTION B

1. A2 MEDIA STUDIES
SECTION B
EXAM

2. Section B Your question
In section B you will be given a choice of two questions. You
will answer only one of these.
Remember the question you are answering is based on ‘Media
in the online age’
Past questions
4. ‘For media audiences, the internet has change everything.
Discuss’
5. Explain the extent to which online media exist alongside
older methods of distribution in 2010’ (50marks)

3. Examiners Report
 In the examiners report it was noted that candidates
who answered section B first did better overall.
 This is probably down to the fact section B is worth
more marks (50) as where the section A questions are
worth 25 each. So if you run out of time at least the
question you wrote less on isn’t worth as many marks.

4. EXAM PREPARATION
For the exam you need to learn about the following, in relation to at least
two areas of the media:
 The film industry and internet.
 Online media production by the public (social network sites)
What you need to know. The historical development of online media.
 Examples of how media production has been transformed by the
internet and broadband access (and examples of media that have
remained untouched by these developments ,if any)
 The impact of broadband internet access on audience behaviour
 The importance of media convergence and the role of the internet in
accelerating this
 Debates around the future of the media in the web 3.0 era.

5. WHO OR WHAT ?
Independent Research
 You will be expected to have knowledge on the following areas, though we will be
covering them during lesson time you will be expected to conduct your own
independent knowledge building for this section
You need to research these three theories. To reference in your answer.
 Chris Anderson’s (2006) theory -‘The Longtail’.
 Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams- (2006) ‘Wikinomics’
 Charles Leadbetter -‘We think’
These are the media areas you need to conduct research into. Concentrating on two of
them in particular.
 Online Newspapers
 Online TV, EG I player
 Web Radio (DAB)
 Film industry and the internet
 Online media production by the public (social network sites)
 Audio books

6. HISTORY OF THE INTERNET.
This will help you understand how much the internet can
influence our choices. In comparison to the choice we had before
the internet really took off.
ACTIVITY:
In pairs, you are to create a timeline outlining a brief history of the internet. You
will be presenting your timelines to the rest of the class.
Your timeline needs to show the following info:
5. When the internet started and by whom/what?
6. Who created emailing?
7. When was Spam born?
8. What is MUD and USE NET?
9. What happened in 1988?
10. What was launched in 1989?
11. When was the first Web page created?
12. Why was 1995 significant for internet users?
13. When did Google go live?
14. When is Wikipedia launched?
Anything else you think may be a significant factor for the internet.

7. CASE STUDY Chris Anderson THE
LONGTAIL
What is it?
 In 2006, Chris Anderson, editor of ‘Wired’ magazine (Wired is a full-colour
monthly and on-line periodical, published since March 1993, that
reports on how technology affects culture, the economy, and politics.)
Published his theory-a description of the way that the internet has
transformed economics, commerce and consumption.
 He argues that pre-broadband era, companies and distributors were
interested in blockbuster hits and best-selling products, now there is a
realisation that adding up all the niche consumption might amount to
as much revenue (profit) as units sold of the peak material.
 The next slide is a visual representation

8. THE LONG TAIL THEORY
 If you think about it in terms of
a graph, there is a longer,
flatter, low end of the market-
this is the ‘long tail.’
 His simple point is this: as
broadband internet allows
more and more people to look
for and share or buy less of
more. So instead of ignoring
all the small sales of obscure
products in favour of
concentrating on huge mass
sales businesses ought to
To the right is the long tail (yellow), to consider both routes and give
the left are the few that dominate (Green) equal weighting to both ends
of the tails.

9. The Long Tail Theory
 In Anderson’s own words:
“Our culture and economy are increasingly shifting away from a focus
on a relatively small number of hits (mainstream products and
markets) at the head of the demand curve, and moving toward a
higu number of niches in the tail. In an era without the constraints
of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution,
narrowly targeted goods and servisces can be as economically
attrctive as mainstream fare.”
What is he saying?
 Basically, Stores can only stock a certain amount of stock whereas,
the internet is a ‘virtual warehouse’, a fewer overheads associated
with niche distribution, therefore infinite choice becomes an
essential commodity.

10. An example - Amazon
The company Amazon apply to the Long Tail strategy.
Amazon sells books that are popular and books that are
more obscure. Amazon finds that they sell more units of
the obscure books, then they make on the more popular
books.
This is down to the fact most book shops won’t stock the
more obscure books, so through unavailability customers
will look on line for the book they want.
This is how the internet is affecting the way people shop for
media products.