SOCIAL NETWORKING & CITIZEN JOURNALISM

You have an article about the role of citizen journalism in spreading the word of the uprisings now known as the Arab Spring. We build on the recent lesson to discuss how the combination of smartphones, social media like Facebook and YouTube has given a voice to ordinary people trapped in the middle of tragic events. Repressive regimes attempt to control information (think of the Egyptian government'a attempt to shut down internet access during the revolution). In the Arab Spring, social networks can become a tool for ordinary people to express their opinions about their government and their desires for change.

We consider related issues:

• journalistic integrity - respected news organisations like the BBC and CNN have to uphold a reputation for truthfulness and have to be accountable whereas the public can post anonymously. 
• how footage can be verified e.g. BBC's Reality Check
• propaganda, misrepresentation and misleading the public
• the case of Khalid Said: in June 2010, the Egyptian businessman and anti-corruption campaigner was pulled from an internet cafe by the Egyptian police and beaten to death. The FB page, created by an anonymous activist, exposing police brutality We are all Khalid Said played a major role in Egypt's uprising.

Additional information:

    

    Jay Rosen, journalist and professional blogger, regular contributor to HuffPost, uses the term      'the people formerly known as the audience'.

    For Dan Gillmor, founder of the Centre for Citizen Media, journalism is evolving from a lecture      into a conversation, as he writes in his book We The Media (2004).

FDA YEARBOOK

Starter activity: Google Arts and Culture: Filming  Diversity

NFTS On Equality and Representation

Learning from the current Film Distributors' Yearbook

p.26 - 28 A Big Night Out

p.28 - 29 Animation

p.32 - 34 British Cinema

p.44 Family Films

INTRODUCING MEDIA ECOLOGY

What is media ecology?

View the CIE video here

Introducing Marshall McLuhan - central to discussions about media ecology

In Laws of Media: The New Science (1988) he presents four laws that he called the tetrad - for laws for looking at our culture that can be asked about any media or new technology:

Enhance: what ability does this media aim to extend or enhance?

Obsolesce: What media is pushed aside by this new media? In other words, what previously served the purpose that this new media replaces?

Retrieve: What older media or function does this new media bring back in new form or release to serve a new function? 

Reverse: At its extreme, what effects occur that are opposite from its intended enhancement?

In this lesson, we apply McLuhan's tetrad to two case studies, the smart phone and the iPod

TV DRAMA

Paper 2 Media Texts and Contexts: exam question practice

You will not be given context or names, but for the purposes of this classwork, the historical context, in the Great Smog of December 1952, 4,000 were killed when London was covered in a blanket of thick, poisonous smoke.

We put into practice exam tips:

• Watch the extract at least once without distraction 
• 

Decide on the overall representation and write the introductory paragraph - the overview - knowing that as you analyse you can make links across the whole extract 

Use T, E, EAA (= analyse rather than describe) 

Use a theorist to support your points where relevant 

Start with mise-en-scène as this situates the extract in time and place

 

AUDIT: COMPLETING YOUR FOUNDATION PRODUCTION

You have been asked to complete your Foundation production, tidying up any loose ends over half term. This is the check list, sent to you as a document to complete. Remember to state the platform that you used for each Creative Critical reflection.

The first post at the top of your blog must state your name and candidate number, the names and numbers of your production team, your brief and exactly what you yourself took responsibility for. You must be honest. 

Your actual film opening should be immediately below that.

Proof read your blogs: 

• remove any post about exam work; 
• read through posts in case you have copy/pasted from the class blog by mistake; 
• in your Preliminary Exercises, ensure that all videos & images are there
• in your Creative Critical Reflection 4, ensure that the images supporting your claims about the technology you have used are your own work, rather than generic images
• if you made a 'theory' poster and have included it, introduce the poster, linking it relevantly to your own work
• make all images large and clear
• go through my emails, as many of you have not carried out the corrections requested

EMBEDDING PREZI

Link here: https://support.prezi.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003478614-Embedding-your-presentation

 

FILM INDUSTRY: EXAM QUESTIONS