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Media Studies

Welcome to the Media Studies Department

"The media intervene; they provide us with selective versions of the world, rather than direct access to it" - David Buckingham

Acting Head of Department:

Mrs Steinhof
e-mail: gsteinhof.310@parkhighstanmore.org.uk

Introduction

Media Studies aims to develop students into CRITICAL consumers and ANALYTICAL appraisers of media texts, and to equip them with knowledge about Media Institutions and Audiences, with focus on some of the biggest industries in our Western world.  

Media Studies also aims to develop students into INFORMED PRODUCERS of a range of media texts: print – eg. film posters and adverts, and developing Photography skills and using Photoshop - and audio-visual – eg. filming and editing skills using Premiere Pro).

Key Stage 3

Year 9

The year 9 course introduces students to the exciting study of the media at a time when understanding the media could not be more important. The course is wide-ranging and will introduce students to some important global conversations about the power of media companies and the ways in which audiences engage with a range of media texts and platforms. The course focuses on the key knowledge and skills, theoretical and practical, students will need should they want to Media Studies as a GCSE option in Year 10.

Autumn Spring Summer

Key concepts of Media Studies 

  • Media language 
  • Media audience 
  • Media representations 
  • Media industries 
  • Media contexts 

 

Unit 1 The Film Industry: Power and Profit - Conglomerates, Franchises and the MCU 

Including the marketing of Black Panther 

 

Production: Film poster 

 

Unit 2 Print Advertising: In a digital world, why do brands still rely on Print adverts? 

  • Brand identity 
  • Advertising strategies 
  • Evolution of advertising 
  • Targeting & reaching audiences 
  • Perfume adverts & Stereotyping: Representations of gender & ethnicity  

Production: Print advert design 

Unit 3 Music Industry: Promoting the Star Persona via Music Videos, websites & social media? 

  • Ownership & record labels? 
  • Star power & star text? 
  • Conventions of music videos? 
  • Evolution of music videos? 
  • Marketing and online media? 
  • Representations of gender & ethnicity? 

 

Production: Designing a music artist’s website 

 

Unit 4 Newspaper Industry 

  • Ownership and Control (oligopoly)? 
  • Political landscape & contexts? 
  • Newspapers, print and online? 
  • Conventions of front pages – bias in the representation of events & issues.? 
  • Comparing front pages? 
  • Regulation? 

 

Production: Building a front page (Trip to The Guardian if running) 

Unit 5 TV Industry and TV Crime Drama 

  • Public Service Broadcasting Vs?Commercial organisations? 
  • BBC structure & funding? 
  • Regulation? 
  • Impact of technological development on the industry? 
  • Audience fragmentation & changing patterns of consumption? 

 

  • Conventions of TV Crime Drama? 
  • Analysis of Media Language in extracts? 
  • The archetypal detective?? 
  • Focus on two contrasting adaptations of?Sherlock Holmes, focusing on production choices & audience responses? 

 

Unit 6 Responding to a practical brief 

Applying knowledge & understanding of the theoretical framework?to?research, plan & produce linked media texts in response to a specific brief and with a specific target audience.? 

(Audio-Visual and Print)? 

KS3 Assessment:

All students who follow this course will be set home-learning weekly.?  

Regular quizzing to support learning, fluency in the taught concepts and long-term retention. 

Knowledge Tests and Extended Responses for each unit. 

Wider reading is always useful either from the booklets, the websites offered, the textbook or as directed by their classroom teacher. 

In the Summer Term, each student will sit a formal, internal exam which will cover all elements taught throughout the course.? Appropriate preparation and revision should be taken seriously with sufficient planning and organisation to ensure each student fulfils their potential. 

Useful Websites: 

The Media Insider YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGXfqzVEZr0XaZLWG3_HniA 

BBC Bitesize Media (KS3): 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/z7pfb9q

Key Stage 4 

Year 10

Autumn Spring Summer

Component 1 section A: Advertising 

Quality Street /This Girl Can 

  • Analysis of media language and representation
  • Evolution of print advertising  
  • Contexts (inc. post-war rationing and rise of consumerism, role of women) 
  • Quality Street (historical text) advert
  • This Girl Can campaign 
  • Exam practice 
  • Comparison with unseen texts

 

Component 1 section A: Magazines

Set texts:

  • GQ and Pride front covers
  • Overview of industry 
  • Codes and Conventions of front covers 
  • Targeting and reaching audiences
  • How Media language constructs ideologies and representations

Component 1 sections A & B: James Bond evolution and set posters (Man with the Golden Gun / Spectre) 

  • Bond evolution through time (and film posters) 
  • Media language and Representations of gender
  • Spectre and the Film Industry 
  • Production processes 
  • Regulation BBFC 
  • Marketing, synergy, convergence, merchandise 
  • Audience appeal 
  • Audience response 

 

Component 1 section A: Newspaper Industry 

Front pages Guardian & Sun 

The Sun paper + website 

Component 1 sections A + B 

  • Set products: Newspaper front pages -The Guardian                 -The Sun 
  • Analysis of audiences & industry
  • Political landscape & Newspaper political leanings 
  • Branding and news values 
  • Ownership and oligopoly 
  • Horizontal integration 
  • Power/Control/Bias 
  • Media contexts
  • Anchorage 
  • Whole editions & Online editions 
  • Digital Convergence 
  • Regulation, Leveson and IPSO 
  • Audience response 

Component 2 section A: TV Crime Drama

  • Generic conventions
  • Narrative Theory
  • Analysis of full-length episode of Luther (set text)
  • Analysis of representations
  • Exploration of relevant contexts,
  • Industry issues and how audiences are reached
  • Audience responses
  • Second product (historical set text): The Sweeney
  • Comparison of media language and representations, linked to contexts, audience and industry

 

Component 3 (Non-examined assessment = coursework) 

Students respond to a brief set by Eduqas. 

Students undertake some research and planning, constructing representation in relation to their intended audience. They then complete the production work, applying knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework to be successful in your production work for a specific target audience.? 

KS4 Assessment:

All students who follow this course will be given home learning weekly.  In order to support students with their on-going learning, there will be frequent quizzes and short tests in lessons; students should also self-quiz regularly as home-learning to avoid the pitfalls of ‘cramming’ at the end of the course.

Wider reading is always useful either from the websites offered, the text book or as directed by their classroom teacher.

In the Summer Term, each student will sit an internal exam which will consist of all elements taught throughout the course.  Appropriate preparation in the form of revision should be taken seriously with sufficient planning and organisation to ensure each student fulfils their potential.

30% of the final grade will be awarded for the students’ Non-Examined Assessment (NEA, or coursework) and this will be completed in the Summer Term (year 10).

Year 11

Autumn Spring Summer

Complete the NEA

Music Videos & Online? 

Component 2 section B? 

 

Set texts: 

Historical: TLC’s Waterfalls 

Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood? 

Pharrell Williams’ Freedom? 

Evolution of music videos & rise and impact of MTV? 

Codes and Conventions of music videos  

Construction of the star text 

Representations of gender and ethnicity in music videos 

Analysis of set music videos (contemporary and historical) 

 

Music industry  

Analysis audience and industry, media contexts and online media (artists’ websites and use of digital convergence) 

 

Component One Section B: Analysis audience and industry and media contexts

Set products: Video games Fortnite (2016)

Industry context, game and franchise overview 

Epic Games as institution 

Social and cultural contexts 

Gameplay and appeal 

Audiences 

Funding and revenue / Profit models 

Impact of new technology and convergence 

Global reach 

Regulation and PEGI 

Audience: historical and political contexts, moral panics 

Targeting the audience 

Appeal of the genre; multi-stranded narratives 

Active / Passive audience – debate

?--------------------------------------- 

Radio: The Archers?? 

Component 1 Section B? 

Target audience, global audience, responses, fandom 

Historical, social, cultural contexts? 

BBC as institution; PSB v Commercial? 

Funding models and Licence fee? 

Production processes? 

Radio 4, scheduling and audience?- branding: identity and market share? 

Regulation?and Ofcom? 

Impact of technologies and convergence?-?iPlayer?and BBC?Sounds?- Consumption patterns? 

 

Revision and Practice 

Revision and exam preparation

  KS4 Assessment:

All students who follow this course will be given home learning weekly.? In order to support students with their on-going learning, there will be frequent quizzes and short tests in lessons; students should also self-quiz regularly as home-learning to avoid the pitfalls of ‘cramming’ at the end of the course. 

Wider reading is always useful either from the websites offered, the text book or as directed by their classroom teacher. 

This is a linear course with terminal examination. An internal year 10 exam will be sat in the Summer term and a practice exam will be sat at the end of Term 1 in year 11. 

In the Summer Term, each student will sit an internal exam which will consist of all elements taught throughout the course.? Appropriate preparation in the form of revision should be taken seriously with sufficient planning and organisation to ensure each student fulfils their potential. 

Percentage of Coursework: 30%

Percentage Exam marks: 70%

Examination Board :

Eduqas

Course Specification:

Eduqas 603/1115/0 GCSE Media Studies

Qualification obtained:

GCSE Media Studies

Additional Information

Useful Reading Material

Textbook: GCSE Media Studies, Hayley Sheard, Illuminate Publishing,  

ISBN:?978-1-911208-48-8