Summer Work - Contexts

Politics:

Ø  The Brexit Referendum was announced by David Cameron in February 2016.

This was because David Cameron did not agree with leaving and wanted the people to decide based on their views so he may not have had to go through with it. In England and Wales the majority voted for leave which contrasted the majority in Northern Ireland and Scotland. The referendum was on 23^rd June.

Ø  David Cameron resigned on July 13^th 2016 leaving Theresa May in office. May was chosen for Conservative Party leader on July 11^th 2016. She is the second woman Prime Minister in the whole of British history.

Ø  The general election result on 8^th June 2017 resulted in a hung parliament. The Conservatives had 318 seats, with Labour closely behind with 262.

Royals:

Ø  Queen Elizabeth turned 90 on April 21^st 2016.

Ø  Meghan Markle and Prince Harry announced their engagement on November 27^th 2017. This was a huge milestone as it was the first person to enter the Royal Family who was mixed race and from America.

Terrorism:

Ø  On the 16^th June 2016, Jo Cox who was a British Labour Party politician was brutally killed by stabbings and shootings where she had been due to hold a constituency surgery. This was a political attack as the killer had very far right views, contrasting with her on the left.

Ø  The Westminster Bridge attack happened on March 22^nd 2017. A terrorist drove his vehicle into more than 50 people. 6 people died and 49 were injured.

Ø  In Manchester on May 22^nd there was a suicide bombing using a homemade nail bomb at an arena in Manchester just after an Ariana Grande concert. 23 people were killed including the bomber, 112 were hospitalised and 800+ were injured.

Ø  The fourth terror attack of the year was the one on London Bridge on June 3^rd 2017. A van deliberately rammed into pedestrians and into the Southbank of the River Thames.

The Borough Market attack then happened minutes after where three people from the vehicle ran to the market and started stabbing people. 8 people died and 48 were injured. They were all shot dead.

Ø  On 19^th June 2017, a vehicle rammed into pedestrians 100m from Finsbury Park mosque which injured 8 people. One man died.

Syrian War:

Ø  In 2016, 3,800 Syrian immigrants died on their transit to safe countries. It was the deadliest year for them to cross the Mediterranean as the war is still ongoing.

UK Issues:

Ø  January 12^th was when thousands of doctors went on strike for the first time in 40 years. Around 4,000 operations and procedures were cancelled due to this 24 hour walkout. Many more strikes follow this one to protest for the long hours junior doctors have to work.

Ø  July 3^rd 2016, Andy Murray won Wimbledon. It felt extra special for Murray and for the whole country. It was a back and forth match with no promise as to who would win so was a surprise when he did.

Ø  In late 2016 and through 2017, the football sex abuse scandal developed. It had been found that football coaches to young players had been sexually abusing them. The abusers were revealed to have been named and convicted before.

Ø  In 2016 and through 2017, the era who had moved to Britain through the wind rush generation, were facing deportation. This was huge throughout the country as these people were the first huge population to be moved legally to England.

Ø  On 14^th of June 2017, in a tower block in Grenfell, a huge fire broke out. The tower block was 24 storeys high which resulted in the deadliest structural fire in the UK since 1988. This was huge news as many all of the people lost their homes and 72 lost their lives. It also caused outrage because people believe it could have been easily prevented if the structure and features were different.

Ø  There was a huge controversy on July 28^th 2017. This was when an 11 month old boy sadly passed away. It was controversial because the hospital didn’t agree towards experimental treatment wheras the parents did. In the end the infant boy had his life support turned off after his parents losing all of their court battles.

Ø  In 2016, the Olympics proved highly successful for the GB team as they won 67 medals with the most being gold.

Youth Aggression:

Ø  In 2016, the numbers of acid attacks done by teenagers had risen significantly with London being the worst city.

Trump election:

Ø  On November 8^th 2016, Donald Trump became the US President. Many people disagree with this as the way he speaks about women is distasteful and rude and how he has no political past just a business one.

Summer Work - Examples in the media

Disability:

• In the London 2012 Paralympic games, there seemed to be drum up much more excitement and advertisement than in the past years. There was a television advert which, instead of calling them 'diasbled' or 'paralympians' they are called 'superhumans'. This is because people with disabilities are now being recognised as a part of society and are being shown as people who can do more than many abled people. 
• In the Maltesers adverts on television, many use a disabled character or someone who requires additional support. For example, in one advert there are two women who are shown as deaf, and another where there is a lady in a wheelchair. This is accepting all walks of life and all abilities into media as it is something that can never be avoided and should always be accepted and no one should be left out of the media or any situation due to their disability. 
• In many television shows, there are also disabled people included. In Hollyoaks for example, there is a character in a wheelchair called Courtney. Her storyline would really relate to disabled mothers as she struggles to care for her child due to her daily difficulties. There is also a character called Alfie who struggles with Schizophrenia. He hid it from everyone and tried to jump off of a Bridge. These stories can relate to so many people which is why it is good that they are included to show everyone to give more support, or even ask for some.

Regionalism:

• In the UK, regionalism is shown through a variety of television shows. For example, shows like Geordie Shore, Made in Chelsea and TOWIE show people who do not live in those regions the stereotypical behaviour and look of people that live there. In Made in Chelsea, the stereotype is that they are all very posh and well dressed where as that is highly contrasted in the other two shows. 

Class:

• In many television shows, class is represented in two different ways. On a channel 5 show called "Rich kids go skint" it represents the A, B, C1 demographics as spoilt due to their wealth. It shows them that when they live the lifes of not as lucky people they become more humble and aware.
• In other shows such as "Life and death row", the criminals are all deemed as the C2, D and E demographics. This shows that the less fortunate are usually represented in a more negative way. Also, all of the victim's families are shown as much more higher class.

Age:

• In TV shows now, there are all ages represented. For example, in the highly popular show on Netflix called "Stranger Things" 99% of the main characters are children. The show represents the children being strong and independent in trying to save their friend. 
• There is another television show which represents the older generation which is called "Off their rockers". The ITV show is all about old people pulling pranks and having fun which shows that people of that age do not all stay inside and are not serious all of the time but can be just like the younger people too. 

Gender:

• Recently, gender has become a huge talking point in many communities. There are some TV shows showing people the complete day to day lives and struggles of people transitioning from one gender to another. One show is called "Transformation Street" which shows people going through the lengthy procedures that it takes to transform into the opposite gender. It shows that in everyday life it is getting more and more common all of the time and even more accepted into society. It has also been shown through another BBC show "Life Through My Lens" which shows the day to day challenges and the impacts on them and their families. It also just represents gender in itself and how some people can be one gender, but can completely feel like another one. 
• There are also many other gender based debates going around because of the way that women and men are treated differently. For example, it shows powerful men taking advantage of women and manipulating them. Such as the Harvey Weinstein case where he sexually assaulted many actresses telling them that they would get a job if they took part. This shows how many people feel as though men are so much more powerful and still seen as more superior in society than women.

Ethnicity:

• Ethnicity has always been a popular subject in the media. On Netflix for example there is a show called "Dear White People" which shows the daily life of black college students and how they are constantly discriminated against and how it is still very common even though it isn't seen as much by everyone. Another show which is comedy on E4 called "Blackish" shows the life of a black family in America and how they have many different views and lifestyle choices compared to white people. 
• The "Black Panther" film was released in 2018 which is based around a majority black / African cast. The film was based in Africa and showed all of its natural beauty and the tribes that are still present within the continent.
• In the news there has been much about ethnicity as Trump is deporting people to their home countries. Immigration issues are very popular in the news but it is rarely a positive message and leans more towards immigrants and other ethnicities being negative.

Sexuality:

• The LGBTQ+ community have shown themselves through many shows and have become much more common in society and more accepted due to the media playing a part. Shows like "Ru Paul's Drag Race" and "Queer Eye" represent the different sexualities that are around in the current day. The acronym for the community is now LGBTQQICAPF2K+ which stands for Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, queer, intersex, curious, asexual, agender, ally, pansexual, polysexual, friends and family, kink and more. 

Summer Work - Reflection of the Zeitgeist (2016-2018)

June 2018 PPE

Lucozade

The Big Issue

Shelter

Old Spice Advert

Music Video Technical Codes

Assessment and Feedback

Video Game regulation

How is the industry regulated and by whom?
The video games industry is regulated by ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board) and VSC (Video Standards Council) through PEGI which is an age rating system based on violence and explicit content. This was made law by the UK Government in 2012.

What are some of the effects video games have on players?
+ Improves cognitive functions.
- Can increase aggressive behaviour
+ Improves hand eye coordination.
- Can cause social isolation.
+ Prepares for quick thinking and accuracy.
- Can teach wrong values.
+ Improves decision making skills.
- Can sometimes cause poor academic performance.
+ Encourages teamwork.
- Not enough exercise = bad health/health problems.

Minecraft Merchandise Task

Minecraft Group Presentations

Group research from Great Baddow High School Media

Why and how has Minecraft been a commercial and critical success?

Since Minecraft was developed by Mojang in 2009, there has been many developments and updates to keep players interested even though some updates may be very minor. Minecraft is a block by block game which gives players the opportunity to create their own world and to explore others which people have formed.

The highly admired game gains some popularity from the fact that since 2012 it has been available to play on several different consoles such as Xbox 360 and Xbox Live. This gives the game a better reputation because if people do not have a certain games console they can still play as it is available on a variety of different ones. Also, only one year later the game expanded to an educational game for new players and for schools etc. to help children learn whilst also having fun.

Another reason for the success of this game is that the majority of the audience is children. Due to children being in love with this game and playing it every day, the name ‘Minecraft’ has become a household name across the globe. This means that word of mouth between parents/carers and children gets the game played much more which then gets spread even more and so on. Going back to the educational version, this also would get the game much more success because parents/carers would much rather their children to play something which would educate them and benefit them rather than violent bloody games.

The genre of the game is Sandbox, due to this it has infinite replayability which means it can never be completed and you can play for as long as you want with it staying how you like. This is good and attracts more people because players will never have to end the game and can play until whenever they want to be it 2 weeks or 2 years. Not many games have this feature which then makes it unique and appealing to a wider audience who are used to stopping games when it tells them to stop.

Minecraft is a platform agnostic game which means that it can be played through pretty much every platform e.g. PC, Xbox, PlayStation, iPhones, Android. This is very useful to many people as they can play on the go or play at their friend’s house even if they have a different console. Another format is in print, now you cannot play the game like this but they have books which can highly assist the players of the game as they sell handbooks with tips and tricks in alongside magazines which contain updates on the game, more tips, tutorials and many puzzles. This is so successful because it means that the players don’t always have to be staring at a screen and can use reading as a more educational and old-fashioned way of playing their favourite game.

One more reason as to why it is a success is because it brings people together. For example, it means that players can socialise without actually leaving their bedroom. There are videos on YouTube for people to watch and comment on meaning they are interacting with other players in a safe and fun way. There is a strong social community of Minecraft players on social media platforms where they can share their favourite tips and tricks for various goals which then are shared between people who may need them.

The final reason why Minecraft is the second most popular video game created in history is because it fulfils people when they are enabled to bring order to a world full of chaos and mayhem. They can change and organise the world in whatever way they would like to which means it can be as messy, as organised, as colourful as they want it to be. It gives people the opportunity to make a world completely unique from all others which enables freedom and power over everything in their world. Players are also allowed to make their avatar look however they want from regular people to mermaids again giving them a huge sense of freedom and individuality. This makes it a very popular game among the video game community as very few games allow this.