The Case Study Issue
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FEBRUARY 2014: THE CASE STUDY ISSUE edia agazine Menglish and media centre issue 47M | february 2014 Selling GOOGLE Youth GLASS Educating Elysium and the Yorkshire decline of a genre A Field in GTAV & England Mario Kart Wii MM MM47 coversFINAL.indd 1 04/02/2014 13:07 MM This magazine is not to be photocopied. Why not subscribe to our web package which includes a downloadable and printable PDF of the current issue or encourage your students to take out their own £12 subscription? Spring half-term already, and time to think MediaMagazine is published by the ahead to what you’ll be facing exams-wise English and Media in a few months time. So to give you a steer Centre, a non-profit on ways this issue of MediaMag could help making organisation. you out (as well as entertaining and inspiring The Centre publishes a you, of course!) we’ve provided you with case wide range of classroom studies galore. There should be something for everyone and food for materials and runs thought whichever course you’re following. courses for teachers. If you’re studying English David Buckingham leads with a masterly overview of the ways young at A Level, look out people are wooed by, competed for, represented in, and sold to by for emagazine, also advertisers and marketers – a must-read case study no matter which published by the Centre. exam you’re studying for. The same for Steph Hendry’s ‘how to’ piece The English and Media Centre on what makes a successful case study, full of tips and guidance on 18 Compton Terrace honing your focus, how to evaluate sources of information, and research London N1 2UN processes. Telephone: 020 7359 8080 Fax: 020 7354 0133 If you’re preparing for AS – for example WJEC’s MS1 (Media Email for subscription enquiries: Representations and Responses), you really need to read Steve Connolly’s [email protected] thought-provoking article on Educating Yorkshire, and Emily Stuart’s close Editor: Jenny Grahame study of representations of war in TV News. If you’re studying OCR’s AS, Subscriptions manager: you will find really useful studies from inside the videogame industries Emma Marron (GTAV or Mario Kart Wii anyone?) and the UK film industry, with articles on Design: Sparkloop the marketing and distribution of Attack The Block and A Field in England – Print: S&G Group which will of course double up for the Film Studies AS FM2 module. Cover: From Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol A2 film students should brush up with Nick Lacey’s introduction to ISSN: 1478-8616 ‘other’ New Wave cinemas, arguments around the Hollywoodisation of science fiction, and spectatorship in The Reader. And A2 Media students of all three Awarding Bodies should find fuel for the debates and critical perspectives around new digital media, globalisation and regulation with our well-researched case studies of the forthcoming Google Glass, and the ethics and issues around Primewire.ag. Our final issue of the year is on Producers and Production – watch out for it in May. Meanwhile, If you’re putting the finishing touch to your production coursework right now, remember you still have a few weeks to get your submission ready for the 2014 MediaMag Production Competition. The deadline is Friday 28th March (see back page), entry is simple, open to all, and a great first step for you if you love film-making, either in school/college, or in your own time. Check out last year’s shortlist on our home page and aim high – inspire us! 2 MediaMagazine | February 2014 | english and media centre MM contents The Front Page A Case Study in Poetry No More: What’s 04 The latest media news and 27 50 Controversy: Onscreen Gone Wrong with Science views. Politics Student Harry Fiction? Elysium and the Cunningham explores the Decline of a Genre Jonathan Selling Youth David representation of political issues Nunns mourns the loss of wonder 06 Buckingham looks at the on TV and asks what happens in contemporary science fiction, changing ways in which when a supposedly impartial focusing on Neil Blomkamp’s marketers are targeting young presenter clashes with extremist Elysium (2013). consumers. views? Trails and teasers: 54 Harry So, er, What Exactly Makes Marketing GTAV 31 Cunningham examines the 10 Steph a Good Case Study? Hendry takes you through the marketing campaign for one of processes, skills and questions the most anticipated video game you need to master for a good releases of the year: Rockstar case study – with plenty of tips North’s Grand Theft Auto V. and examples along the way. Google Glass: a Case Study in Globalisation Matthew 58 Educating Yorkshire: Kaufman explores the hopes 14 and techno-panics generated by the Reality and Representation of the the literally mind-boggling new Modern Documentary development of Google Glass. Format Steve Connolly travels from Essex to Yorkshire to follow A Digital Technologies up the next stage in Channel 4’s 37 Mario Kart Wii: a Case Case Study: exploration of education. Liz Sim’s research into Primewire.ag Primewire.ag Study the global phenomenon that is makes an excellent case study, Mario Kart Wii suggests that as Distributing A Field in especially if you’re studying for the technology evolves, games 19 You may have heard A2’s Critical Perspectives exam, England are becoming increasingly about A Field in England, the focusing on New/Digital Media, inclusive and appealing to first film in the UK to launch Representation and Audiences audiences of all ages and simultaneously across all and Institutions. So how does interests. platforms – and then again this media-streaming site work, you may not. Because film and what are the legal and distribution is a high-risk battle ethical issues it raises? Popular Film and for revenue, with the major 61 Emotional Response: a Hollywood studios packing the Cartoon by Goom Case Study on The Reader biggest punches. 42 How do films create the emotional responses in their Beyond the French audiences/ Lecturer Morag The Spirit of 13 Director 44 Davis unpicks the ways Stephen New Wave: Brazil, 22 Ken Loach’s film The Spirit Of ‘45 Czechoslovakia and Daldry’s disturbing film The (Sixteen Films/Dogwoof, 2013) Hungary They’re New Wave Reader constructs challenging is a powerful documentary – but are they Old Hat? Nick and uncomfortable feelings for about the spirit of unity and Lacey takes a look at some of the spectator. community that helped create the less well-known ‘new wave’ a better, more equal society movements of the 1960s which after WW2. Student Lydia have influenced the work of Representations of Kendall describes a production 64 directors such as Tarantino and War in TV News: a project which reflects on the Scorsese. Representational aspirations and values of her Case Study How has our own generation. understanding of war and Attack the Block: B-Movie military conflict been mediated 47 The British and shaped by media coverage or Blockbuster? film industry may not be well and technologies? Emily Hughes known for its blockbusters but investigates. with a long tradition of science fiction on film and television, Attack the Block brought big thrills to a very British setting. Pete Turner gets tooled up. english and media centre | February 2014 | MediaMagazine 3 MMThe Front Page Top Five TV drama treats to look forward to in 2014 As you head towards the summer, lots The Red Road: An original crime drama decades and multiple time-lines, leading of AS OCR students will be speculating from the Sundance Channel – low-key them to dark places. To see the trailer go about representations in TV Drama. Our but with a great cast from Game of to http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist advice for exam practice is: watch lots Thrones, Masters of Sex, and Boardwalk and search ‘True Detective trailer’. and lots of it! We’ve picked out five of the Empire. After a sudden tragedy involving The Knick: produced and written most interesting newcomers which may his wife, a sheriff makes a pact with a by Steven Soderbergh (Sex Lies and be heading our way over the next few member of an unrecognised Native Videotape, Oceans 11-13), ‘final’ film months. American tribe that has the potential to Behind the Candelabra. Historical medical only make things worse. Coming to Sky Babylon: Heavily trailed new Channel drama in ten episodes, about the lives Atlantic very soon. 4 comedy drama, directed throughout of doctors and nurses at New York’s by the great Danny Boyle, turning to True Detective: Knickerbocker Hospital in the early 20th the small screen for the first time. An From HBO, directed century. Starring Clive Owen. American PR expert is hired to help by Cary Fukunaga Broadchurch: Not strictly new, but David improve the image of the London (Sin Nombre Tennant has crossed the Atlantic for a police force … a dark and satirical look and Jane Eyre), US remake of ITV’s brilliant drama (to at the Metropolitan Police written by an 8-episoded be titled Gracepoint). Meanwhile Olivia Peep Show and Fresh Meat writers Sam ‘anthology’ series Colman will be returning alone as Sgt Armstrong and Jesse Bain. Brit Marling which will feature Ellie Miller in Series 2 later this year. plays the American PR executive, while new characters and Rumour has it this one may be a prequel the cast includes brilliant UK TV regulars roles each season, starting with Matthew to the events of Series 1... like James Nesbitt, Paterson Joseph, Jill McConaughey and Woody Harrelson in Halfpenny, Adam Deacon, Jonny Sweet lead roles. Two cops try to track down a and Daniel Kaluuya.