PAPER 2 MAGAZINES : Exam questions

 Next week you will be completing   mock exam questions for the Magazines section of Paper 2 .

 Please use the time before then analysing the key pages of the texts and any relevant theory and background information and planning the content of your answers.

You will have 50 minutes to complete both questions .

a) Discuss the influence of historical context on representations in the set edition of Vogue magazine. [15]

b) Explore how the set edition of The Big Issue conveys viewpoints and ideologies. [15]

 

PAPER 2C MAGAZINE Key Text 2 THE BIG ISSUE

                                                 THE BIG ISSUE

PRODUCT CONTEXT

 

• Weekly magazine

 • Publisher – Dennis and The Big Issue Ltd.

 • Genre – Independent/Current Affairs/Entertainment/Street magazine

 • First published – 1991

 • Creators – John Bird and Gordon Roddick

 • Current cover price - £2.50

 • Current circulation – 82,000

 • Distribution method – “Since the magazine was founded, we have been in partnership with the people who sell it. Vendors buy The Big Issue for £1.25 and sell it for £2.50. Each seller is a micro-entrepreneur who is working, not begging”  https://www.bigissue.com/latest/how-much-does-the-big-issue-cost/

  The magazine is one part of The Big Issue Ltd alongside:

 The Big Issue Foundation – an independently funded charity which provides support and guidance for vendors in areas such as training, education, health and housing

 Big Issue Invest – helps to finance sustainable social enterprises, charities and a social trading platform

 The Big Issue Shop – buyers purchasing eco-friendly products, or products from organisations which use profits to support social enterprises or charitable causes

 

                              LINK TO KEY TEXT ISSUE   

25th ANNIVERSARY ISSUE OCTOBER 17 2016

PAGES TO FOCUS ON :  Media language , social perspective and audience

 Front cover of magazine

 Contents Page (p.3)

 Editor's Letter (p.6)

 Feature: 'Letter to My Younger Self: Grayson Perry' (p.14-15)

 Feature: 'Vendor Success Stories: Moving On' (p.32-33, 35)

 Feature: 'Rise of the Homeless Bakers: No Soggy Bottoms Here!' (p.41)

 Adverts: look at selection  

Look at choice of language,themes and topics  layout, images,colour etc. and how that informs/entertains  the audience and gives clues to the magazine's editorial position and ideology 

PAPER 2C MAGAZINES Key text 1 VOGUE

PAPER 2C MAGAZINES 
Key Text 1 : Vogue Magazine ( 1965)

VOGUE MAGAZINE : wikipedia

A brief history of Vogue :  video




1  Summarise the key change in social attitudes  to gender that happened in the 1960s , as well as changes to the  economy ,consumer goods,travel.food and  culture such as fashion and music

Use these links  to help

The Changing Role of Women in the 1960s – BBC History File    

Historic UK article UK in the 1960s

Timeline of women's rights in the UK

These key changes  could include : 

 • Increased opportunities for women to have jobs – be more than wife or mother. • Developments – women attending university – intellectual and financial freedom – greater expectations. • Woman realised they were being badly treated – not paid the same as men for example. • Advertisements criticised for offering a limited view of women. 
• Betty Friedan (American feminist) – ‘women are shown solely as: men’s wife, mother, love object, dishwasher, cleaner and never as a person’. 
• Women’s rights ‘hot news’ by the end of the 1960s – women’s liberation movement – shocking for some. • Demands for equal pay/ opportunities – protests/ marches. • Advertisers ‘unsure how to react’ to the women’s movement – advert for intercity – women singing about their rights - but heading home before their husbands find out







2  Analyse the following sections of the Vogue key text magazine for technical codes and how they represent and appeal to  their historical target  audience , including reference to any of the changes explained above 

 Front cover of magazine
 Contents page (p.3)
 Feature: 'Money: Questions and Answers' by Sheila Black (p.14, 18)
 Advert: Revlon 'The applied art of eye-making' (p.17)

A LINK   ( Find Vogue in second half of document  )



 pinterest  link to full copy  of Vogue July 1965 issue

EXAM QUESTION : Attitude and Zoella

Clay Shirky argues that audiences in today’s online age are no longer passive consumers of media content.  How far is this true of online audiences ?

Refer to Zoella ( blog /youtube/other channels ) and  the Attitude website to support your answer. [30 marks]

50 minutes-1 hour      2-3 pages 

Brief 1-2  sentence introduction  explaining how you will be answering the question

Main points evaluating and applying  the theory ( and any other content)  to the texts, with specific examples from the texts to support your points 

You need to :


Explain the key points of the  theory including how modern online audiences are described as active,interactive and individual "prosumers".

Use specific and relevant examples from the key texts to explain how audiences can be seen as active (website features , content of articles and pages, specific  links to social media, range and type of opportunities for feedback and interaction e.g Zoella's youtube or Q and A, Attitude's social media accounts )

How far is this true ? Do both texts encourage their different audiences to be equally genuinely  active or interactive and to "talk back" to the producer ? Are more traditional methods and media used ?  How does this relate to their different target audiences ? 


Conclusion : evaluate how far you agree with the theory in general  and whether it fully explains how online life and social media works for young modern audiences..  Are all modern and young audiences active ?   Is social or online media different from traditional media in its relationship to  audiences ?  How important are other factors in how media is consumed , such as audience identity, media power , repetition of familiar stereotypes etc 

  You can use other theories and concepts such as parasocial interaction to support your points .