Media Studies
Head of Faculty - Mr Joe Stevens
“We have to teach our children about information that is misleadingly presented. It’s possibly the most important subject you can study.’ Those prescient words by journalist, author and broadcaster, Germaine Greer, were said right at the dawn of what we now recognise as ‘social media’. The ‘most important subject’ she was referring to was, Media Studies.
The GCSE and A-Level courses, provide an insight into the world of media through a broad, balanced and diverse curriculum, including gaining knowledge of the mainstream and alternative media. Media Studies will also give valuable insight into how messages, values and attitudes are encoded into texts and encourage students to take an interest in the world and media around them. It is a subject that will give them an opportunity to compare the contemporary and the historical, challenge them and, perhaps change their perception of what their world is.
Through a range of texts, students will be provided with rich and stimulating opportunities for interpretation and analysis and many opportunities for personal development; creating curious, independent thinkers and helping them to develop their own unique voice.
Media Studies
Curriculum
Ks4 Overview
In Year 10 and Year 11, students follow the EDUQAS Media Studies course:
Components-1 – 3. Component-1 set texts include adverts, film posters, magazines, newspapers, radio and gaming. For Component-2, the set texts are TV Crime Drama and Music Videos. Each set text will be studied in conjunction with the appropriate part of the theoretical framework; the context of the set text and-where appropriate, theory. Component-3 is the NEA (Non-examined assessment) whereby students research, plan and create a media product based on an exam board brief. Typically, the choices in recent years have been:
- Magazine (front cover and double-page feature article)
- Film marketing (DVD/Blu-ray [back, front & spine] with accompanying poster)
Component-1 is assessed by terminal exam worth 40% of the overall GCSE.
Component-2 is assessed by terminal exam worth 30% of the overall GCSE.
Component-3 is internally assessed and externally moderated and worth 30% of the overall GCSE.
Year 9
Media Studies KS4 course begins in Year 9 where students are taught the theoretical framework: Media Language, Representation, Industries and Audiences; with a primary focus on Media Language and Representation, as this constitutes the vast majority of the GCSE. The year begins with an in-depth study of media language (‘semiotics’) and the application of this in terms of technical, visual, language and symbolic codes. The students also study and apply the theoretical framework to each form: adverts, film posters, newspapers, magazines and the moving image. During the year, there is also a focus on structuring responses to ensure students are proficient in using semiotics as the basis of their answers.
Years 10 & 11
In Year 10 and Year 11, students follow the EDUQAS Media Studies course: Components-1 – 3. Component-1 set texts include adverts, film posters, magazines, newspapers, radio and gaming. For Component-2, the set texts are TV Crime Drama and Music Videos. Each set text will be studied in conjunction with the appropriate part of the theoretical framework; the context of the set text and-where appropriate, theory. Component-3 is the NEA (Non-examined assessment) whereby students research, plan and create a media product based on an exam board brief. Typically, the choices in recent years have been:
- Magazine (front cover and double-page feature article)
- Film marketing (DVD/Blu-ray [back, front & spine] with accompanying poster)
Component-1 is assessed by terminal exam worth 40% of the overall GCSE.
Component-2 is assessed by terminal exam worth 30% of the overall GCSE.
Component-3 is internally assessed and externally moderated and worth 30% of the overall GCSE.
Link to specification
GCSE Media Studies: https://www.eduqas.co.uk/qualifications/media-studies-gcse/#tab_keydocuments
KS5 Overview
At KS5, students follow the EDUQAS A-Level Media Studies course which begins with two of the aspects of the Theoretical Framework: Media Language and Representation. These are taught consecutively enabling them to deconstruct the set texts and a range of unseen texts. During the two-year course, students also study set texts for the other two aspects of the theoretical framework: Industries and Audiences.
The forms and set texts for Components-1 & 2 are a rich, diverse (and historical) range of media forms which include:
- Advertising: Tide, Kiss of the Vampire, Super. Human.
- Music Videos: Riptide, Turntables
- Newspapers: The Times, Daily Mirror
- Radio: Woman's Hour
- Gaming: Assassin’s Creed Franchise
- Film: Black Panther, I Daniel Blake
- TV Drama: Peaky Blinders, The Bridge
- Magazines: Vogue, The Big Issue
- Online/participatory media: Zoella, Attitude
The set texts are studied in conjunction with the appropriate social, cultural, historical, political, economic contexts and students also study theory and theorists which are related to each of the set texts.
Component-3 is the NEA (Non-examined assessment) whereby students research, plan and create a cross-media product based on an exam board brief. Typically, the choices in recent years have been:
- Magazine (front cover, contents page and double-page feature article)
- Plus a segment from a podcast/interview
- Film marketing (DVD/Blu-ray [back, front & spine] with accompanying poster)
- Plus a segment from a podcast/interview
Component-1 is assessed by terminal exam worth 35% of the overall A-Level.
Component-2 is assessed by terminal exam worth 35% of the overall A-Level.
Component-3 is internally assessed and externally moderated and worth 30% of the overall A-Level.
Content outline
Component-1: Media Products, Industries and Audiences
- Section-A: Analysing Media Language and Representation
- Section-B: Understanding Media Industries and Audiences
Component-2: Media Forms and Products in Depth
- Section-A: Television in the Global Age
- Section-B: Magazines-Mainstream and Alternative Media
- Section-C: Media in the Online Age
Component-3: Cross-Media Production (Non-examined assessment)
Link to specification
A-Level Media Studies: https://www.eduqas.co.uk/qualifications/media-studies-as-a-level/#tab_keydocuments
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