Media Studies

OCR

Whether you’re watching the latest blockbuster film, downloading a favourite track from iTunes, or talking to friends via the internet you are engaged in the world of Media. Media Studies is about how those who make, advertise and sell products interact with those who buy and consume them.

You will look at the moving image and how it is created technically. We study how meaning is communicated and how digital technology is changing the world around us and the choices we have to make. Media Studies is taught by doing. You will become skilled using video editing packages such as ‘Adobe Premiere Pro’ and learn how to research a topic and draw conclusions from your findings. Our annual Media Festival in June shows student video work on the big screen.

Students take AS Media Studies alongside science, humanities and art subjects. Many Media students go on to university to study Media or Film Production, Broadcast Journalism, Advertising, Marketing or Journalism and later go on to work in the media. Past Media students are now working for Leopard Films, Radio Norwich, North Norfolk Radio, Heart Radio, Anglia TV, Island Records and Tiger Aspect.

AS Media Studies

In AS Media you will develop your knowledge of Media and your practical skills. You will study:
• TV drama: analysing extracts from programmes such as ‘Skins’, ‘Hollyoaks’, ‘Dr Who’, ‘The Street’ looking at both the technical codes and representations of gender, age, class, sexuality, disability and regional identity.
• Institutions and audiences: researching and discussing the processes of production, distribution, marketing and consumption of a specific production company such as Archant (who publish EDP, Norwich Evening News and the North Norfolk News and other East Anglian titles). People from the industry will come and speak to you about the changing Media world e.g. this year Archant’s Head of Digital and Editorial Services spoke about the online newspaper revolution.

You will also:
• Learn technical and creative skills. Your research, planning and evaluation will be presented in electronic form such as a blog, website or podcast.
• Make two ‘media products’ such as the opening to a new fiction film, including the titles.

Assessment

Coursework and a written examination.

Entry requirements

A minimum of BBCCC at GCSE including English/English Language, and Mathematics or a science.

A2 Media Studies

You will continue to develop practical and theoretical skills. You will:
• Make a Media ‘product’ such as a music promo or an extract from a new TV documentary, a website for a new TV channel, a film trailer or a promotion package for a new film or computer game. Teachers and technical staff will support you in your practical work in the Media Suite.
• Your research, planning and evaluation must be presented in electronic form such as a blog, podcast or web pages.
• Study critical perspectives in media. You will assess how your own skills develop through the production work on the course and analyse and evaluate one production you have made in relation to ideas such as genre, narrative, representation, audience and Media language.
• Study the debates involved in contemporary media regulation. This involves issues of censorship, film classification and the control of computer games, the press and advertising.

You will also consider to what extent the media influences our behaviour and the wider social issues surrounding the regulation and control of the media.

Assessment

Coursework and an examination.