How to be a Media Legend!

In order to be the best student you can be, you should follow the tips below.

There will also be extra articles, videos, questions and media products here to push your understanding of the media beyond the classroom. If you are interested in Taking It Further in media, then this is the page for you!

Take It Further

Self-Representation in Social Media - Walker Rettberg (2017)

In the time of one-to-many communication, media was scarce. It was very expensive to write, edit, print and distribute books or newspapers, to make and distribute movies, or to create and broadcast television and radio, so gatekeepers like publishers and production companies made sure that only material that was either commercially viable or seen as aesthetcically or ideologically important was published or broadcast. This meant that we could assume a certain level of quality when we picked up a book or newspaper, or turned on the television. Before the internet, individuals' production of personal media was also limited.

...With digital technology, media is no longer scarce. When everyone can create and distribute as much media content as they please, there will obviously be a lot of material available that is not particularly high quality and that will never be of interest to the world.

...The accusation of shallow vapidity is on that recurs with every new form of self-representation online. Blogs and selfies have both been accused of being shallow, of being expressions of narcissism, of being boring.

...Bloggers use their blogs both as mirrors to reflect themselves and see themselves better, and as veils to hide behind. Self-representations are rarely about trying to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth about ourselves. They are as much about constructing a truth or many truths about who we are and coud be.

What does your own social media reveal about your identity?

Does it reveal a complete true picture of yourself? Can it reveal a truthful picture of you?

How to be the best...

Get Creative!

One of the best ways to develop your understanding of the media is to make some media, it's also a lot of fun too. Go out with your friends and film a section of a music video - getting someone to lipsync in time is an art form in itself! Take some pictures of an event you attend - how might a different camera angle give you a different perspective?

You will have done Point - Evidence - Explain (PEE) paragraphs in English, and possibly Technique - Evidence - Analysis (TEA) Paragraphs in Media before, but to make your analysis sophisticated you should be aiming for a Technique - Evidence - Analysis - Analysis - Audience - Link paragraph. Media products often have what is called a polysemic reading, meaning there is more than one way to analyse something. The more of this you can do in your extended writing the better. You should also be looking to develop your writing style by using connectives to join your arguments together.

TEAAAL Paragraphs

Discuss the media with other students/friends/family

Engaging in discussion about the media is an excellent way to develop your reasoning skills and help you understand audiences. Consider what you liked about a particular media product, how it made you feel. Do you share that feeling with someone else? Perhaps they take a completely different reading than you - ask them why!

Consume lots of different types of media

The more exposure you have to a range of media products the better you will be at analysing the set texts and unseen texts in your exam. Watch something you wouldn't normally watch, pick up a newspaper, visit a website that is aimed at a different audience - push yourself out of your comfort zone!

Why Trust in the Media Matters

Can you believe anything you read nowadays? In this maelstrom of information that we inhabit, how do you know what to trust?

It’s actually quite rare for us as human beings to test consciously whether we trust something. But one area where it does happen is with the news. Do I trust the journalist, editor or the proprietor to give me an honest report? Or do I not care just so long as it’s entertaining?

In Britain, it’s a mixed story of trust in media. The Edelman Trust Barometer - an annual survey of how much we believe the major institutions which govern our lives will “do the right thing”- suggests a large number of us simply don’t. Just over 50% of Britons trust the media, and when you look closely at titles, the picture is more acute. Broadsheet newspapers and television are trusted considerably more than mid-market or tabloid, with similar trust scores to politicians.

We’re not alone in seeing this trend. The Digital News Report, published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism today, shows further evidence that trust in media is eroding.

To some extent this is a global issue. The wider news spreads, the more it gets questioned. The more information people are exposed to, the more they have to exercise their critical faculties.

The EU referendum is one of the best cases yet of this phenomenon. The public is bombarded with data, which is unpacked and rubbished by the opposing camp. On both sides of the debate, newspapers are strongly driving their house view through the news pages and editorials.

The paradox of it all is that, though acres of coverage has focused on this debate, the likelihood is that if it has achieved anything it is to further erode trust in media and politicians.

Does all this really matter? Well, I would argue that it does. In a broad, societal sense, it matters whether or not our media is trusted.

Any examination of political rhetoric shows a disturbing trend: facts are increasingly valued in the same way as opinion. What is most surprising in this year’s Reuters data is the increasing dominance of social media platforms as gatekeepers of news content. For some young demographics, social media is the only place they are served and consume news.

The irony is that while digital has created a flourishing of sources, some are consuming news in a narrower and more self-reinforcing way than ever. Digital on the one hand promised so much, but the risk now is that consumers are self-selecting news and driving themselves into opinion-ghettos and the likelihood of coming across opinion that runs counter to one’s own is diminishing.

It would seem that there are few industries more in need of the boost offered by increased trust than the news industry. But Britain also happens to be the country, according to the Digital News Report, where people are least willing to pay for news.

Publishers point the finger at the somewhat overbearing presence of the publicly-funded BBC and they have a point.

However, before we jump to connect the dots, we should think harder: it’s probably just as likely that many people no longer visit media outlets for “trusted” information. They go for fun. Or entertainment.

They know they can trust some sources more than others and they don’t mind. But in a world of declining revenues, it’s important to know what role trust is having on the bottom line. If news consumers can’t trust a source are they likely to pay for it?

The conclusion is that trust isn’t a market-mover for every media owner, but for those who are going to rely on being paid online, it will be vital.

Why is it problematic that people don't trust traditional news outlets?

Can we trust social media to deliver unbiased news? Do audiences even want unbias news?