M. writes: Hi I’m looking to do my AQA exam this week and one of the topics is newsbeat. I only moved to the UK last year so my understanding of the BBC and industrial side of it is a bit rusty. I know you’ve explained it, but would you mind explain how it all works in a few short sentences as a small summary? Also do you know how aqa essays are meant to be structured for the exam as we’ve not really had much guidance on it.
Thanks!
Firstly M. Good luck. Moving country and doing exams has got to be tough.
Secondly, let me see if I can help out.
The BBC. There are lots of notes on my Newsbeat page https://jpgayfordefm.wordpress.com/media/newsbeat-bbc-radio-1-almost-everything-you-could-want-in-an-aqa-media-studies-a-level-csp-notes-and-answer-essay/ but here is a quick summary.
The BBC was created as a response to a perceived need for regulation (Curran and Saeton) of radio broadcasting. This regulation was partially practical and was down to the need to control the limited bandwidth (allowing military and civil use to continue unimpeded). However, although radio was the first mass broadcast medium, newspaper publishing and film had demonstrated that mass media had political and social power. As a result there were concerns about the control of this new, instantaneous, means of reaching a mass audience.
In America radio networks had developed competitively, as businesses. This led to chaotic expansion as they vied for dense audience markets and ignored low population density areas (Hesmondhalgh). The control of these networks was in private, and so less accountable, hands. The UK wanted to avoid this.
This is why the BBC (the world’s first national broadcaster) was created as a careful balancing act. It was a business model created by a Royal Charter. This means that the corporation is charged with doing a job for the British state. However it was clear that if it was under the direct control of the government of the day it would give them a huge propaganda advantage. This is why the BBC has a Director General who is appointed by Parliamentary committee but retains independent control free from interference by the government. It is paid for by the country’s only hypothecated tax (a tax with only one purpose) which is the BBC Television License Fee (which pays for all BBC services).
Livingstone and Lunt point out that the BBC was created by Lord Reith as a truly national public service designed to “inform, educate and entertain” (it could have been constructed quite differently) and this characterises not only the BBC (and much of its content) even today but many other UK broadcasters which have been made as a response to, and in the image of, the BBC.
AQA essay structure.
Firstly you have very little time to write a 20 or 25 mark response so use it wisely. Always create a 3 minute plan so you can get the most writing out of your remaining time. In around 30 minutes of writing time you should be able to write 700+ words (around two and a bit sides of regular A4). Not a lot of space to be discursive.
The questions all have a different focus. So make sure each paragraph is tackling it by linking your opening sentences back to the question. Pay particular attention to command words – If you are asked “How important do you think” then make sure you are responding with – One way I think that X is important is . . .
When you are asked to consider the validity of an theory think about what it can reveal and how useful it is (rather than critiquing it directly) so phrases like “in this way we can see that X is highly effective at revealing Y in media production and products” become key.
If you are asked to decide on something in a question – check that your final paragraph makes your decision (or carefully considered ambivalent position) clear to the examiner.
I hope this helps.
Mr G's English, Film and Media. 
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