Theory – How to get Distinction

1. Theory – How to get Distinction • Make a statement (PASS) • Explain your statement(s), give the reasons why (MERIT) • Include examples (PASS/MERIT) • Include really precise examples, fully explaining how they support the statements you’ve made (DISTINCTION) • Compare and/or evaluate against other statements (DISTINCTION)

2. Example Gender profiling is, at its most basic, aiming a product at males or females. Media producers will, if aiming at a specific gender, keep certain stereotypes in mind. (PASS) Males stereotypically prefer competitiveness, strong male leads, beautiful damsel in distress, bold actions, while females tend to prefer a calmer, more sensitive approach, include softer emotions with a happy ending. (MERIT)

3. Example Examples of this include TV shows and movies. A full-on action movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role, lots of explosions, very little dialogue, plenty of violence, all the bad guys dead at the end, is clearly aimed at a male audience for reasons explained previously. Meanwhile, a romantic comedy, boy-meets-girl, overcoming trials and tribulations where true love shines through will appeal to a more female audience.

4. Example The drawback of using gender alone as a way of defining an audience is that a media producer would have to appeal to all ages, socio-economic backgrounds etc., its too broad a profile. Also there is some cross-over in gender stereotyping and there are often cases where males will enjoy a romantic comedy and females a full-on action flick. However, appealing to a gender specific audience means that, in general, you are only negating half of the population. The more profiling methods you use, the more audience you lose. For this purpose, gender profiling is used across most media products, appealing to the stereotypical tastes of males and females and can often be found in movies (as explained above), computer games, magazines, TV shows, etc.