YEAR 13 LESSON TWENTY-NINE [18th May 12]: Homework.

Digital media case studies were collected and a discussion was generated that attempted to differentiate between a SOPHISTICATED and a PROFICIENT critical argument. Students must create a SOPHISTICATED response to MEST 3 Section B if they want to access the higher grades. Issues discussed related to:

• the idea that digital media has empowered the Producer more than the Audience. Discussion attempted to highlight areas of the digital debate where the Audience has been empowered and areas where the Audience is clearly still subject to content mediated by the Producer. The empowerment of the audience depends on which digital industry you are exploring. For example has the News industry empowered the Audience or Producer? Does the nature of this empowerment change when considering the effect of digital media upon the music industry?
• the idea that any consideration of empowerment needs to consider the idea that digital freedom depends very much on where you live. Digital freedom in the UK is very different to the digital experience in China, North Korea or Cuba.
• the idea that theory can be used when discussing why certain nation states attempt to control digital information. Students must refer to the central belief of Marxist theory when dealing with why any nation would want to control digital access. Chomsky's idea of the media as a propaganda model that manufactures consent needs to be considered as does the fact that some nation states have access to a more pluralist digital culture.

The rest of the session considered MEST 3 Section A and the two questions:

1.Why does the media rely so heavily on conflict?

2.Should the internet be more regulated?

Students were then offered the gift of a 40 minute timed response.

HOMEWORK: Students need to be revising. Students should be digesting all the notes that have been gathered in our sessions, refer to past exam questions, and consider how they would answer these questions. When next our worlds collide, we will be considering issues that relate to both Section A and Section B.

KEEP PERUSING THE BLOG AS I WILL BE POSTING A SERIES OF A2 REVISION RESOURCES.