Media

Subject Overview

Media Studies is both an academic and practical subject, which is appealing to a variety of learning styles.

We have a hugely enthusiastic and talented team of teaching staff who encourage high behaviour expectations and have a history of excellent results.

Our aim is to encourage student participation in a subject area that we all have some knowledge and experience of by creating a challenging, contemporary and varied curriculum that is accessible to all needs and abilities. Media Studies at PCS is available as a GCSE option subject for all students from year 9. As a subject it is highly complementary to Humanities, Art and Drama and uses near identical skills of analysis to those used in English lessons.

“The written analysis is detailed and really helps your literacy, giving you some new insights”
“The production side is fun and you get to be creative in what you produce.”

Teaching and Learning

Students are taught in mixed ability groups based on their band and other option choices.

KS4 Course(s) offered

We follow the WJEC GCSE Media Studies specification.

Year 9

Terms 1 and 2

Image analysis

Advertising mini module

TV Drama investigation

Terms 3 and 4

Horror movie trailer controlled assessment practice pre-production:

Audience research

Analysis of trailer conventions

Analysis of genre

Detailed planning

Initial storyboard ideas

Focus group final feedback

Students work together in small groups to take responsibility for filming, directing and editing a minute of the trailer each

Final evaluation completed at the end of the project

Terms 5 and 6

The web and mobile technologies module

Music mini-module

Film mini-module

Year 10

Terms 1 and 2

Magazine production (First piece of controlled assessment). All written work will focus on at least one of the following: audience, genre, representations, narrative and organisations:

Conducting audience research

Researching magazine genres

Researching chosen genres

Writing detailed plans for production

Drafting design

Focus group

Drawing up final design

Completing production using Fireworks

Evaluating production

Terms 3 and 4

Sci-fi module to investigate how Blade Runner meets the conventions of sci-fi

Sci-fi textual investigation (second piece of controlled assessment)

Module based on the exam paper. This changes each year: 2016 – Film trailers and posters; 2017 –

Newspapers and radio news; 2018 – TV News and News websites

Terms 5 and 6

TV Drama production (third piece of controlled assessment). Students are set the task of designing a DVD cover for a TV drama OR producing a 3 minute extract of a TV drama (for a youth or mainstream audience). Students are taught about TV Drama in relation to audience, genre, narrative, representation and organisation, and then go onto complete the following:

Conducting audience research

Report into the codes and conventions of TV Drama

Analysing sub-genres

Writing detailed plans for production

Drafting DVD design/storyboards

Focus group

Drawing up final design/story boards

Completing production either in groups (extract using Fireworks)

Evaluating production

Year 11

Give an outline of the structure of the KS4 course and relevant qualification and exam board. State what is studied throughout years 9, 10 and 11 in each of the terms 1&2, 3&4, 5&6.

Terms 1 and 2

Taught lessons focusing on key concepts of genre, narrative, representation, audience, organisations and convergence with a focus on comics or print advertising and the investigation question

Textual investigation 2: Representation

Revision for mock exam

Film Studies module – focus is on preparation for section B of the exam.

Terms 3 and 4

Completion of film studies module

Module on digital media and the contemporary industry – focus is on knowledge and understanding to support answering question 4 in section A and task 5 in section B

Exam focus. Learning all focused around exam topic

Terms 5 and 6

Exam focus. New SOWs and lessons are planned each year to support this

Revision

Assessment

In Media Studies, students are assessed through end of module assessments, written investigations and production work, as well as the final exam at the end of Year 11.

Example assessments in Year 9:

End of module test on image analysis; written investigation on TV Drama, focusing on genre, representation or narrative; researching, planning and producing a horror trailer.

Example assessments in Year 10:

Researching, planning and producing a magazine front cover and a TV Drama extract; written investigation into genre conventions in Blade Runner; practice questions and mock papers in preparation for Year 11 exam.

Example assessments in Year 11:

Written investigation into gender representations in comics; practice questions and mock papers in preparation for end of year.

Coursework is worth 60% of overall mark; exam is worth 40%.

Homework

Homework is set once per week in accordance with the homework timetable. A minimum of one hour per homework is required in order to meet coursework deadlines. A variety of homework tasks will be set, for example, handing out questionnaires and analysing results, researching a film or music genre before creating a poster or collage, or continuing with written coursework and production work.