Email Reply From Jenny

I have received a reply from Jenny Grahame in response to the newspaper features ideas email I sent her previously. The email has been printed and distributed to the entire class to take a look at. Here is what she said:

Hi Alexander

Many thanks for your list – you’ve been incredibly busy! Am going to respond to your ideas one by one in red.

First: some really great ideas here – well done.

One of the most important things you’ve got to persuade your readers is that for the A2 exam they need to be familiar with contemporary theoretical perspectives. This may mean introducing them from scratch – using authoritative sources of information that can be accessed easily. The OCR textbook is a good starting point (I believe your group has access to this?); the other obvous place to go is Pete’s Media Blog, which is really brilliant. His Theory Part 1 and Part 2 has brilliant YouTube clips and some really concise useful summaries. And if you go back down the blog, you’l find some other brilliant examples you can quote and refer your readers to. You really ned to consult these sources yourselves bfore going too much further – you’ll find them really useful.

As you’ll see, I keep dragging you back to your exam topics – not to be boring, but because however interesting, creative or random your material is, it needs to be useful to your readers. Sorry, but that’s the challenge!

Will be happy to talk the ideas through whenever you’re ready.

Best,
Jenny


On 8/3/10 15:55, "Alexander Whitcombe" wrote:

Hey Jenny,

We have been going over ideas and possible features that will be going into the newspaper, I was wondering if you could give feedback on what you like and what you don't like/think we should get rid of from them.

1. A zeitgeist forecast (talking about up and coming media practitioners). Yes, sounds good. What criteria will you ues to identify them? And might there be a case for also including up and coming ‘theorists’?

2. Two pages of exam help (this includes things such as past papers, exam Q&As, model answers and general advice and information about the A2 Media exam).
This is crucial. However you need to make sure your readers know how to answer Q1 on the paper, reflecting on production work. You may need a fair bit of space on this as its a new departure. Pete wrote a really good pece in the last issue of MediaMag (MM31). The problem with preparation for this part of the paper is that it hasn’t been taken yet, so there isn’t a lot in the way of model answers, etc. You might want to interview some of the Long Road staff on this?
Your other problem is how to make this ‘How to’-type fefature interesting and memorable. You might want to think about some graphic ideas here – flow charts or diagrams, a cartoonstrip, Q&A/FAQs -

3. A two page spread character profile (on someone like Simon Panrucker, a recent internet sensation who is in contact with one of our teachers). See 21.

4. Article - "Technical Revolution and Future Technology" Sounds good – as long as you can link it to the spec, rather than just being a general piece.

5. Article on a recently invented Wikipedia game (A good way of learning)
This sounds great, as does No.7, the underground map. Would these go well in the games and learning activities mentioned in 20?

6. Article - "How Twitter Saved a Country" Is this a case study, and if so, of what? Unclear from title.

7. *Probably Unlikely* An underground map showing different Web 20 links. We designed something similar in our first year. (See 5 and 20)

8. An article on Uprising club and 'video mashing'.Interesting

9. Article on Twitter, and how it has changed the way people communicate and see celebrities. Sounds good, as long as its no a Heat-style homage to the Stephen Frys and Kutchers of the world. Am wondeing whether you could pair it with 6., as part of a larger feature looking at the value and potential of Twitter more critically?

10. Article - "Internet Gaming and Downloading Games" Definitely a good topic, but more info needed. Is this a ‘how to’ piece, or a factual overview-type piece? And bearing in mind the vast range of expertise your readers may or may not ave, you’ll have to think carefully about how you position it.

11. Article - Internet 'Flash' Games and the "Return of the Solo Game Designers".As above.

12. Article - "Gorillaz, Rise of the Ogre" Yes – but from what perspective? Is this a ‘fan’ piece, a review, or something that looks at what Gorilaz represent in terms of new media?

13. Article - "Has Facebook Helped Researching Online?"
These two are interesting. You could maybe think about a mini-series of articles here, looking at different aspects of FB, and arguments around them ?
14. Article - "Has Facebook Ruined Student Social Lives?"

15. Article - "Internet Tendencies" Don’t get this – more detail needed.

16. Feature - "TV Catch Up" Would quite like to see somehng on old media here, particularly if you could focus it round TV that tackles some of the Contemporary Media Debates like Collective Identity, Media in an O line Age, WeMedia., etc

17. Article - Website called 'StumbleUpon.com' This would make an interesting piece, espcially if you’re going to focus on exactly whose interests (other than your own) it actually serves. A good one to raise debate.

18. Article about people's preference polarity (How people hate things one minute (the internet, Back to the Future) and love them the next). Interesting – how are you going to explore this one?

19. Article - About Online Forum Communities. Yes

20. A series of games and media related learning activities (we already have a prototype word-search where you have to work out the word from a clue and find it). See 5 and 7. Yes, the more fun you can make it the better.

21. Possible Interviews with Simon Bates (Head of learning and Access at the Junction), Ed Lovelace (A music video director who used to attend Long Road and has recently come back to give talks), Jeffrey Lewis (An American singer-songwriter who specialises in comedic comics and songs, a member of our class has contacted him before for a different project so it's very possible we can contact him again), Simon Panrucker (who I mentioned before), MC Lars (A song mixer), Jake Wynne and Jim Canty (Music video directors who have frequently collaborated with Long Road). I think a couple of features like this will lighten the tone a bit. Make sure you feature people who will have a wide-ish appeal, not just those who are specifically interesting to Cambridge/Long Road. Jeffrey Lewis would be good.