Exam Style Questions

Identify who collects audience data for radio in the UK (1)

RAJAR

How does Radio 1 live lounge meet the PSB requirements? (5)

Live Lounge meet the PSB requirements through 'reflecting the diversity of Britain'. Live lounge include celebrities from the UK who are of different ethnicities, race, religion, etc. This distinctly displays how Britain is full of different cultures as well as talent through these artists, which meet PSBs' aim. Another one of the PSB requirements is to provide distinctive programming. The Live Lounge is distinctive because no other radio station offers this content, and this helps to promote both upcoming artists as well as already popular artists.

Explain one way in which music videos use media language to appeal to target audiences. (4)

Black Magic uses mise en scene to appeal to younger audiences. The music video is set in a high school, with characters being young, innocent 'children' and experiencing stereotypical feuds to gain popularity. Despite the unrealism of using 'magic' to transform into 'cooler' and more popular girls, the fantasy storyline set in a place where younger audiences find themselves everyday appeals to them as they could relate to some of the experiences that the girls go through - wanting to be more respected and attracted to by the good looking boy.

Explain how a social group is represented within a music video. Refer to the music videos you have studied to support your answer. (10)

The girls are represented as typically nerdy at the beginning of Black Magic. This is evident from their clumsy and shy manner when thinking the good looking boy is glancing at them. They become over excited and seem to make a fool of themselves once in realisation that the boy was not looking at them, but instead at the popular, blonde haired girl. A nerdy group stereotypically have glasses, are portrayed as 'dorky' and boring, and not very good looking. They use this social group in a negative way as they evidently hold conventions of an unpopular and disliked group of people, that are not respected in the school.

In Somebody To You, the girls are represented as an attraction to please the boys. Throughout the music video, the girls are wearing revealing clothes and seem to get the boys attention through this. When in the pool, the girls wave at the boys whilst wearing bikinis to get their attention. This is stereotypical as the 'cool', popular boys seem to only be attracted to better looking girls. This is portrayed in Somebody To You as the boys are admiring and taking interest in the girls for not necessarily what they are doing, but instead for how they look. This hetereosexual perspective links to the Male Gaze theory, in which women act as sexual objects for the pleasure of men. Additionally, there is a lack of diversity between races and ethnicities as all the girls are only white throughout the music video. This is a completely unfair representation as there are none, for example, black, Muslim, asian girls in the video, which projects a message that is completely wrong as it implies that you can only seem desirable if you are white. This may lead to a negative response from sensitive audiences of other religions, nationalities, or races, who may feel excluded.