Saturday 19 November 2016

YEAR 13 Mon-Thu 14th/17th Nov 16.

These sessions included a discussion of the SECTION B essay and an attempt at a timed essay relating to the Presidential campaign films of Clinton and Trump. The Thursday session was a consideration of CONTEMPORARY MEDIA ISSUES AND DEBATES. The discussion involved a consideration of...

  • THE FILMS OF KEN LOACH and whether media can change society.
39 journalist have dies so far this year as they have been investigating truth around the globe. 11 journalists have died reporting the War in Syria. Not all journalists sit in an office and spin lies! This bloke was a bit of a hero...TIM HETHERINGTON...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4W97bmAHSo.....He died in Libya in 2011 when covering the conflict in this country.
  • To what extent technology is liberating human creativity.
  • How technology is being accused of invading our privacy.
THE BIG TASK THAT STUDENTS NEED TO CONFRONT FOR HOMEWORK IS THE FOLLOWING ESSAY TITLE:
Developments in New Digital Media means that audiences can now have access to a greater variety of views and values. To what extent are audiences empowered by these developments?
Potential Essay Structure:
  • Address the inference within the title that we live in such a pluralist media world that it is difficult for mainstream media to influence the audience with a narrow and bias representation of national and global events. A contemporary media belief is that NDM has inspired an explosion of non-mainstream news portals that has diluted the power of mainstream news institutions. Reference to Marxist theory?
  • The next paragraph needs to provide examples of the non-mainstream news platforms and consider whether access to The Canary, The Young Turks, Paul Staines, or Breitbart news has empowered the audience. Has access to the different views and values of these organisations inspired a more informed audience? Has choice increased the ability of the audience to make objective and informed political decisions? Hypermedia Seduction Theory?
  • The next paragraph needs to deal with the explosion of social media. Twitter??? More access to views and values...or prejudice, trolling and mindless abuse???Are we closer to truth?? READ THAT FANTASTIC ESSAY I GAVE YOU FROM LAST YEAR'S COURSEWORK. Note the comments about BUZZFEED. Is Buzzfeed trivialising news? Empowering the audience? 
  • Perhaps reference to FREEVIEW and the fact that the narrow Northern European view of the world can be challenged as we now have access to Al Jazeera, Russia Today, Press TV etc...
  • The final section needs to deal with with the idea that all this DEEPLY MEDIATED choice is just exposing the audience to more examples of PROPAGANDA. BAUDRILLARD??? Is the audience being empowered? Read the POST-TRUTH articles I have posted to the blog. They will help you construct a PROPER EVALUATIVE A LEVEL conclusion. 70% of Donald Trump's statements of FACT have been found to be LIES...so what chance does the audience have of being empowered by truth when the media are reporting lies as truth? Perhaps both mainstream and non-mainstream media need to challenge the views and values of politicians and political commentators to ensure that the audience is being empowered by factual information rather than being bombarded with emotionally loaded lies!!! WHAT SAY YOU? Perhaps audience empowerment is a complete myth. Perhaps ANDREW KEEN'S comments are correct....
ANDREW KEEN....Is the internet killing journalism?
Great Keen extract from Radio Four.....'the internet is not democratising our culture...it is resulting in cultural chaos and moral decay...we are dumbing down our culture.....everyone is talking and no one is listening'.....

A post-truth world????

HOMEWORK: Complete the essay.

No comments:

Post a Comment