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A short class with Sarah and her students. The other ways are under More.
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What three choices does the task ask you to make?
A platform, a perception, beauty, success or lifestyle, and a format, a blog post or a video essay.
The task says 'analysing'. How is that different from reviewing the app?
A review says whether we like it. Analysing explains how its features shape messages and affect people.
Who is your audience?
Probably people our age who use the platform, and we want them to look at it more critically.
Good. Keep the audience in mind for every choice you make.
'TikTok and success' is a topic. How could we narrow it?
Focus on how videos about 'a day in my life' of rich young entrepreneurs make success look easy.
Now turn that into a thesis.
TikTok's algorithm and short videos reward glamorous success stories, making wealth look quick and effortless while hiding the work and luck behind it.
Which features will provide your evidence?
The algorithmic feed, view counts that act as proof of success, and sponsored posts disguised as daily life.
Excellent. Each feature can become one section of your piece.
What does a video essay need that a blog post doesn't?
A script, a voiceover, on-screen text, visuals that support the argument, and captions.
And a blog post?
Headings for each section, images with captions and credits, and a reference list.
You'll use screenshots of real posts. What must you do?
Credit the source, blur the names and faces of private users, and analyse ideas without shaming anyone.
Right. Ethical choices are part of producing a strong text.
One platform, one perception (beauty, success or lifestyle) and one format (blog post or video essay).
Explain how platform features shape messages and affect audiences, with evidence.
A focused claim, supported section by section through features such as filters, algorithms and likes.
A blog relies on headings, images and references; a video essay on script, visuals, on-screen text and captions.
Analysing, Organizing, Producing text and Using language, together with citation, privacy and honesty.
Narrowed thesis: "Instagram's built-in filters and like counts reward a narrow, edited ideal of beauty, encouraging young users to see unedited faces as flawed."
Feature analysis: An algorithmic feed that keeps showing luxury lifestyles can make expensive living seem normal, shaping viewers' sense of success.
Ethical evidence: A screenshot of a private user's post is used with the username and face blurred and the platform credited.
Pick a platform, pick a lens, prove your point from start to end.
Ravi planned a video on "everything wrong with social media". After narrowing it to how TikTok's feed makes success look effortless, his script suddenly had three clear sections, each built on one feature.
P-P-F: Platform, Perception, Format, the three choices to make first.
T.E.F.E. - Thesis, Evidence from features, Format, Ethics.
Term
What three choices does the task require?
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Term
What does the command term analyse require in this task?
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Term
What is a thesis?
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Term
Name three platform features you could analyse.
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Term
What should you do when using screenshots of ordinary users' posts?
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A written online article, usually informal or semi-formal in style, organised with headings and often including images and links.
A video that presents an argument through a scripted voiceover combined with images, clips and on-screen text.
The central claim that a piece of writing or a video sets out to prove.
A built-in part of a social media app, such as filters, feeds, likes or hashtags, that shapes how content is made and seen.
A stream of content selected and ordered by the platform's rules, usually favouring posts that get engagement.
Posts paid for by a brand, sometimes presented to look like ordinary personal content.
A sequence of sketches or notes that plans the shots, visuals and narration of a video.
A reference that identifies the source of information, a quotation or an image.
This lesson unpacks the chapter's assessment task: create a blog post or video essay analysing how a popular social media platform, such as Instagram or TikTok, shapes perceptions of beauty, success or lifestyle. It explains what the task asks, how to plan it and what a strong response includes.
The task asks you to make three choices, a platform, a perception (beauty, success or lifestyle) and a format (blog post or video essay), and then to analyse, not just describe or review, how the platform's features shape what people think. A strong response narrows the topic to a clear thesis, gathers evidence from features such as filters, algorithmic feeds, likes and follower counts, hashtags and trends, and sponsored content, and organises the piece for its format, with headings, images and references for a blog, or a script, visuals, on-screen text and captions for a video. The four criteria, Analysing, Organizing, Producing text and Using language, describe what will be assessed, and working ethically, with citations, privacy and honesty, is part of the task.
Reading a task carefully is the first step to doing it well. This lesson breaks the assessment task into its parts and shows how to plan a strong response.
Create a blog post or video essay analysing how a popular social media platform (for example Instagram or TikTok) shapes perceptions of beauty, success or lifestyle. The task connects to the global context of scientific and technical innovation, because it asks how a technology changes the way people see themselves and others.
A broad topic such as "Instagram and beauty" is too wide to analyse well. Narrow it to a question, then answer it in a thesis, the central claim your piece will prove. For example:
For each feature, ask what it does, what kind of content it rewards and how that might shape perceptions:
Useful evidence includes examples of posts (described, or shown as screenshots with sources), the platform's own features and policies, articles or studies from reliable sources, and your own observations, or a short survey of classmates carried out with their consent.
The lessons that follow look at each criterion in detail.
Cite every source. Use screenshots only for analysis, credit the platform and creator, and blur the usernames and faces of private individuals. Analyse ideas rather than mocking or shaming people, and follow your school's rules on academic honesty, including stating whether and how you used AI tools.