January assessment: Learner response

January assessment: Learner response

1) Type up your feedback in full (you do not need to write mark/grade if you do not wish to).

WWW: Well structured, articulate and engaged writing 

EBI: Could do with more extended case study-some more examples of the news industry, linked to theory with a paragraph doing this.

38/48 B+

2) Read through the mark scheme (go to the last two pages of the document - Section B New/digital media). Of the six different statements for each level (e.g. A sophisticated and comprehensive essay, showing very good critical autonomy.) write which level you think YOU are currently working at for each one. Explain WHY and, for any that are not Level 4, what you are going to do to improve in that area.

-I believe i am currently working on a level 4.

-A sophisticated and comprehensive essay, showing very good critical autonomy.

-Sophisticated and detailed understanding of new and digital media.

-A sharp focus on the question throughout.

-Sophisticated application of a wide range of media debates, issues and theories and wider contexts.

For this point i could have added more examples throughout the essay and explained them a bit better, as well as adding a few more theories to help back up my points.

-A comprehensive individual case study, with a wide range of detailed examples.

-Well structured, articulate and engaged.

3) Look at the Examiners' Report for this particular paper. Read page 10 - Section B New/digital media. How many of the good points or higher level answer examples did you include in your essay? What were they? What could you have added to improve your mark?

I mentioned most points but forgot to mention the digital divide and its affect on democracy, also i only mentioned citizen journalism briefly and should have had a larger paragraph dedicated to it. 

4) Read through these exemplar A grade essays from last year. What do these essays offer that yours does not? Identify THREE things you can take from these essays to improve your own responses in future.

-Using current examples from the weekly news stories.

-Have clearer topic sentences like 'From a Marxist perspective'

-Have a longer conclusion showing more critical autonomy

5) Write ONE new paragraph for your January assessment essay. Ideally, this should be a section you did not cover in your original essay. This paragraph needs to be comprehensive and meet the criteria for Level 4 of the mark scheme.

'Furthermore, blogs which attract 18 million people per day are something that a pluralist would argue strengthens democracy. This concept of citizen journalism and allowing people to voice their own opinions. Social media like facebook and twitter make this possible as well as blogger and thousands of other sites. However, citizen journalism can also be just as easily fabricated and is easily shared via social media. For example, during the us election 20 fake news stories largely in favour of Trump were circulated on facebook over 30 million times, and this can be very damaging for democracy. Although, citizen journalism allowed for the prosecution of the police officers involved in the beating of Rodney king in 1994. Without the citizen filming this and reporting it the police officers would never have been tried.Moreover, as citizen journalism grows the amount of professional journalists decreases as pluralist would argue that this means more opinions are being shared but this is hurting professional journalism and possibly democracy as citizen journalists arent being paid to tell the truth. None the less, the lack of gate keeping and regulators for citizen journalists can be quite damaging for democracy.'