Structure for question 1a - further guidance

(b)1. Genre

Discuss how genre changes over time and how the industry uses it to help find audiences and distribute work, and how YOU have used this knowledge in your chosen product.

Whatever production you choose to write about, you MUST analyse it in relation to the forms and conventions present in your type of product... What makes your product fall into this specific genre? What conventions have you chosen to use in your final piece and why? How has genre changed over time and how has this helped informed your creative decisions? How is genre used to target/create new audiences and how have you used this in your work? 

Also, use media theories of genre with different approaches. This could be used to inform your writing about your production piece.

How to answer question 1b

This is where you need to take a step back and look at your own work critically (but always be positive; don't write about what you think is wrong, but rather what you have chosen to do). Remember, the examiner on this paper won't have actually seen your production work!

For Question 1(b) you have to select one production and evaluate it in relation to a media concept. This will be one of these:

• Genre
• Narrative
• Representation
• Audience
• Media language

Past Questions:
January 2010 - Analyse one of your productions in terms of representation.
June 2010 - genre
January 2011 - narrative
June 2011 - audience
January 2012 - representation
June 2012 - media language
January 2013 - narrative
June 2013 - representation
June 2014 - genre
June 2015 - narrative

Basic essay structure for 1b (Choose only ONE product to write about):

Para 1 Intro:

1. First, define the concept you have been given in the question. For example, for Narrative you might say that every text tells a story. Add a quotation, such as for genre, "Genre is a type" (Daniel Chandler, 2001).

2. Outline the production you've chosen to evaluate.

3. Tell the examiner you're going to discuss (x) number of ideas about the concept. Use no more than 5 theories in your answer (so you'll need to have learnt about 6-7 theories in total).

para 2: Using the theorists, describe some of the key features of the concept you are being asked to apply. Outline two or three of the theories/ideas of particular writers, relating them to your production.

para 3: Start to apply the concept, making close reference to your product and to other examples to show how the concept is evident in it.

para 4: Show ways in which ideas work in relation to three areas of your product - production, distribution and exchange - and also ways in which those ideas might not apply/could be challenged.

para 5: Conclusion - Sum up by returning to the question and, having discussed key issues, say how your product follows or challenges the conventions of that issue

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