Media Studies Questionnaire/Essay

Year 12 Media Studies

Name: Charlotte Worden

IGCSE Results: English Language – B, English Literature – C, Drama – C, Physical Education – C, Math – D. Environmental Management – D, Biology – D, Information Technology – D, Business – E.

Hobbies: Shopping, dancing, listening to music, tennis, football, basketball and socialising.

MEDIA INTERESTS:

Print Media:
I hate to admit that I don’t read many newspapers, though my parents always say it’s always a good thing to know what’s happening in the world. Now I’m a media student, I will definitely start to read more of them. When I do pick up a paper, I usually look at the Eastern Daily Press, which has a lot of news in it. It includes all the main headlines, all the sport news and fixtures and scores of matches, it has some bits about celebrities – I usually read that in magazines though – and it shows upcoming events and television times.
I love reading magazines, I usually pick one up when I’m in a shop that sells them. I usually buy Teen Vogue or just Vogue itself, as my fashion magazines are my favourite. I adore just sitting down and browsing through to see the fashion and read the articles about what’s hot and what’s not. Sometimes I read the cheap, celebrity gossip ones like Heat or OK, usually if I’m in the hairdressers, or if they’re laying around, but I don’t buy them. They have some pretty informative stories about celebrities’ personal life, which I guess can be interesting.

Radio Media:
Most of the time, I listen to the radio when I’m in the car. I don’t really listen to it for news, mostly music, although if it’s on the channels I listen to then I’ll listen sometimes. I always tune into Kiss radio first because they have good songs, but if there’s not a song on I want to hear, I’ll switch to Radio 1 or Broadland 102 to see what’s on. Sometimes the Kiss channel has gossip about or interviews with celebrities which are always interesting.

Music Industry:
When people ask me what my favourite music genre is, I don’t really know what to say. I listen to a lot of different types, but I guess I mostly listen to RnB/Hip hop, though I love so many songs from other genres too, such as Rap, Country, Pop, Punk, Alternative and probably more.
I watch a lot of music videos on television, some of the people in the video and the stars of the video wear some nice clothes. If I’m out shopping and I remember something I’ve seen in a video, I would probably look for a cheaper version of it. Or even if I see something in a shop that I saw someone in a video wearing and I thought it looked nice then I might buy it. Some people get affected by the way the stars of videos act, they may want to be like them, so they act like them, but I don’t do that. I like watching the music videos, because a lot of them have great dance moves and sequences in that I can use when I make up a dance to a song with my friends or in a class even.

Video Games:
I don’t play many video games, but when I go to my friends’ houses and they have the consoles then I will play games such as car driving, football and dance on the Playstation or golf and tennis on the Nintendo Wii. I don’t play violent games, though some of my friends do play them and it just makes them want to be aggressive, stupid and mess around, but that’s just the boys.

New Technology:
I do have access to the internet and I use it all the time. I always use messenger to talk to my friends and Skype to call them for free which is great. I use Google a lot to search for anything I need and it gives me great websites to use for things such as homework.
I think new technology is great, the internet is amazing for many things, and definitely increases communication with others as well as finding out anything you want to know. It stores so much information that is just so easy to find and increase peoples’ knowledge.
I have a mobile phone, it’s a 5610 Music Express. It’s great, I can store so many songs on it – I still haven’t reached its full capacity – It has a good camera on it, so I can take pictures in the moment I want to, I can access the internet on it too, though I tend to just keep to computers for that one, it also has a big memory to store my messages from friends on it. I love watching DVD’s, just sitting down with someone and some chocolate too is great. Digital television is brilliant, I have sky digital and it’s so good to be able to see what you’re watching what time programs start, what they’re about and even set reminders on them so you don’t forget to watch them. I also think its great when say, I’m watching music videos on television and some crazy image comes up that is surely not real and has obviously been generated by computers, it’s amazing what people can do with them these days.

Television:
I have a few favourite television channels, even though I’m sixteen I still watch some children’s channels, such as Disney channel or Nickelodeon, when there are good programmes on because they’re funny and they take up wasted time. I also watch music channels like, MTV, TFM or The Box because they always have interesting programs about celebrities on or just great music videos.
I suppose that my favourite television genre would be comedy, because some programs I watch are hilarious, but I do watch a few action or romances too.
I wouldn’t really know an amazing advertisement to say as the most entertaining, stylish, humorous or clever, but I do have a couple of them in mind that are pretty influential. First of all the stop smoking advertisements, especially the one where the children are copying the adults and pretending to smoke crayons, while playing the song with lyrics along the lines of, ‘whatever you do, I do too, because I love you’, and if I was an adult smoker with children, or with a love of children it would definitely affect me a lot. Then there’s the legendary Sheila’s Wheels that affects women that need good car insurance, as it’s all pink and has a catchy song and it’s just attractive to the women audience that it’s aiming for.
I have a few memorable television programmes, which I absolutely love. One Tree Hill is an amazing series, once I bought it I just watched them all one after the other when I wasn’t doing other things as it’s a really addicting program where you watch teenagers through high school, then after college. I also love The O.C, which is the same sort of thing, though set in a different location with different story lines. Ugly Betty is another series that is very funny and I love watching it, as it’s about a girl who starts off not fitting into her job environment as it’s a big magazine headquarters, but soon she makes things turn around and become better than before. Those are the three main ones, but I do also watch other shows such as Hannah Montana, the Suite Life of Zack and Cody and That’s So Raven.

Feature Film:
I’m always watching films, and if I really enjoy the film I will watch it again after a while. I suppose a favourite film genre would be romantic comedy, but I also enjoy action. Romantic comedies are funny as well as serious, which is really nice to have a mix of the two and they always end well somehow. Then there’s action, where you’re always alert and waiting for something to crash, bang or wallop, it’s great!
I have watched so many films in my life, I would definitely not be able to name even half of them. My favourites are The Notebook, Love Actually, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Moulin Rouge, P.S – I Love You, Chasing Liberty, Never Back Down and yes, Harry Potter and the High School Musicals, but lots more too. They all include amazing actors and actresses that star in many movies I enjoy, such as Rachel McAdams, Hugh Grant, Nicole Kidman, Sean Faris, Zac Efron and Renee Zelleweger.
I watch the majorities of films on DVD, as it’s cheaper and at home, though I do really enjoy a trip to the cinema with friends or family. So, I don’t really prefer either one, it depends on my mood. Sometimes I love to just curl up on the sofa and watch a DVD, but other times I really fancy going to the cinema and watching it on the big screen. I think that when a movie that’s been long awaited comes to the cinema, you really have to watch it there, it’s more special that way.
Well, my family moved to Thailand when I was eleven, my parents still live there, but I’ve come back for college. I’ve only been back here for almost three weeks, but when I was there I went to the cinema at the shopping mall almost every weekend, and even twice a weekend sometimes, it wasn’t very expensive there, almost two pounds a ticket. Here it’s more than double the price which is awful, but I have been to the cinema a couple of times since I’ve been back. I went to Vue in the Castle Mall and the Odeon in Riverside. I don’t think it really matter which cinema I go to, the one in Riverside is close for when I’m going out just to the cinema with family or friends, but the one in the city is convenient when we’re already out shopping, or if friends want to meet at the cinema. Both cinemas that I’ve mentioned hardly differ in comfort. I’m not sure about the price as I’ve only been twice and paid once, though in Thailand they are much cheaper. I never go to the cinema on my own, I never have, unless someone with me goes to get more snacks or goes to the toilet! Going in a group is always a laugh, and if we all really want to watch something its great. Sharing the experience with friends and family is excellent because then you can have conversations about the film and everyone will know what you’re talking about and elaborate on it.

In conclusion:
I get really offended by how magazines are all about using the size zero models. I think it looks silly when they’re so skinny that they could be anorexic, and some of them actually are. It also surprises me to see what lengths the models go to, to be featured, such as anorexia or bulimia.
I’m really interested in a programme on MTV called, ‘The Hills’. It’s a reality show about a group of friends living in America, the main character is named Lauren. Lauren starts of as being an intern for Vogue, which is something that really benefits me as I’m really into fashion journalism. She climbs up the ladder of success at Vogue, making some mistakes along the way. Her work colleagues/friends also do well there, which is entertaining to watch, as you get to see what they all have to do for their jobs. Sometimes they go to Paris for fashion week, or arrange parties/big events for the magazine, which really gets me interested and inspires me a great deal.
I read a lot of fashion magazines and watch a few programmes on fashion and fashion journalism (‘The Hills’), these all have made me choose what I’d like to do with my life. I would love to work for a fashion magazine, such as Vogue one day, it looks and sounds really interesting and I love the magazine. All the pictures are wonderful, which makes me think it would be great to be able to take some of my own, then write articles to go with them, or something along those lines.
I’ve started doing the Creative and Media Diploma and Media Studies as an AS and A-Level as I’m really interested in the journalism side of things as well as film and I really want to learn more about all the aspects of Media.
If I was asked to construct a media text, I would probably choose a writing piece or maybe a photography piece. I would like it to be on the fashion side of things, it could be debating for or against something or just writing about something I really like.

Charlotte Worden.
Media Studies. AS Level.