WE MEDIA &

DEMOCRACY

Section B

1. What piece of Technology

Reminds you most of growing up?

2. What piece of Technology from

your past do you still wish you

had?

timeline

How old were you when each of the following happened?

•got TV in your bedroom

•first mobile phone

•your first social networking account

•first time on an 18 game

•first online purchase

•first downloaded music illegally

Major websites

•guess the year each went online

PURCHASES

Write down the last ten things

that you purchased

Topic Points:

• What are ‘We Media’?

• Where / how has ‘We Media’ emerged?

• In what way are the contemporary media more democratic than before?

• In what ways are the contemporary media less democratic than before?

In The Exam:

• Historical – dependent on the requirements of the topic,

candidates must summarise the development of the

media forms in question in theoretical contexts.

• Contemporary – current issues within the topic area.

• Future – candidates must demonstrate personal

engagement with debates about the future of the media

forms / issues that the topic relates to.

Theorists/Theories

• Marxist Theory: Chomsky/Habermas

• David Gauntlett

• Dan Gillmor

• Fourth Estate

• Clay Shirky

• Chris Anderson – The Long Tail

• Michael Foucalt

Past Questions

• How far can the media in 2014 be considered to be

democratic?

• Assess the claim that the media is becoming more

democratic.

• Discuss the meanings of the term ‘we media.’

• Explore the claim that the ‘new’ media are more

democratic than the ‘old’ media.

• What is ‘we media’ and what difference does it make to

citizens?

• ‘We get the media we deserve.’ Discuss, in relation to the

role of media in a democracy.

Markscheme

• 20 marks for Explanation, analysis, argument

• 20 marks for use of examples

• 10 marks for terminology (including ‘theory’)

Activity 1

• How has web 2.0 changed the way media is distributed

and exhibited?

Documentary…