Media Studies aims to develop students into CRITICAL consumers and ANALYTICAL appraisers of media texts, and to equip them with knowledge about 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 media texts.
The mass media is one of the fastest world-changing phenomena of the last 100 years. In Britain it is almost impossible to avoid: TV or radio in every room in the house, home computers connected to the Internet, magazines and newspapers on the doormat, posters on the local bus shelter advertising the latest movies at the local multiplex.
It seems that the mass media not only reflect our attitudes and values, they also help to shape them. How they do that, why they do that, and the effect that has on individuals, communities and cultures, are issues at the heart of Media Studies.
The course is endorsed by AQA and is 70% exam and 30% Non-Examined Assessment/ Coursework. This is in response to an exam board brief which will require students to create original linked texts from moving image, print or E.media.
The exam will require students to study a range of set texts from adverting, news, magazines and television. It will also focus on the Media Industries of music, film, radio and gaming.
In Media Studies, we assess and analyse a range of different media products, across the worlds of radio, TV, film, new media and print. We investigate the larger businesses responsible for giving us our daily media fix, and the nature of media consumption by different audiences.
We also learn how the media tries to manipulate its audience through the use of particular kinds of language, and we learn to use those tools for ourselves in producing our own original media products.
Media Department
Miss Phillips – Subject Leader
Mr Davies – Subject Leader
Miss Stanway – Teacher and Literacy & Enrichment Lead
