Media Studies

Why study A Level Media?

It has never been more exciting to look at and analyse the media in all its different forms. From newspapers to film and television to the way that social media has grabbed hold of all of us over the last decade and a half.

Studying media develops your analytical skills through close study of important media products and texts. You will be covering a wide variety of media texts, from watching crime dramas to analysing music videos to looking at how video games and advertising have an impact on our lives.

You will also be creating your own media product as part of the Coursework for this qualification and in doing so you will be able to showcase your creativity, video skills and team work.

There are four units of study during the course and these include Media Language, Media Representation, Media Industries and Media Audiences. All of these units have different content but work parallel in heightening your understanding of the way that the media works and the way that people react to it.

The type of person we are looking for is someone who isn’t afraid to have strong opinions and won’t shy away from a debate, we like our students to have good communication skills and to be able to demonstrate this in written and verbal form. We’ll teach you the difference between the male gaze theory and feminist film theory so we want you to be someone who can learn brand new theoretical skills and use them. We also like team players, on the course you will be asked to work together on projects and completing tasks and so you would ideally be someone who enjoys generating ideas with others. Please get in touch with us and we will answer any questions you might have about the course or the college.

Media Language

This unit of work is all about the ways in which different media products and producers communicate directly with us - the audience. We will teach you about semiotics and the ways in which language is used to reach a variety of audiences and the ways in which ideologies can be spread through media language. We will teach you about post-modernism and the ways we can study genre and narrative theory in relation to film and television and how we can dissect the way in which we ‘read’ media texts because of media language.

Media Representation

Media representation is all about how different groups of people or events are shown to the world through the media, after all we see the word representation as being the way that the media is ‘re-presenting’ the world and everything in it to us. We will teach you about stereotypes and the ways in which groups of people can be negatively shown and how that influences us, we will teach you feminist theories including the Male Gaze theory. We’ll discuss and debate issues like Patriarchy and Post-feminism as well as other key issues like Cultural imperialism. There is so much to discuss and dissect in Media Representation and it’s a topic that you will find no issues in getting your teeth into.

Media Industries

With Media Industries, we will study the way in which power and profit margins are the focus of big companies and the way in which they utilise their market dominance to become and then stay as conglomerates. We will look at the way ownership is vital in media and how publicly owned entities like the BBC are more important than ever with such a saturated media. We will look at the impact of the new digital age of streaming with the likes of Netflix creating a new and exciting yet unknown landscape of production, distribution and exhibition of media. We will also look at the way in which marketing has evolved and changed over the last few decades and the ways in which companies now market their products to a completely different type of media consumer.

Media Audiences

For this unit you will look at the role of the audience member in how they access and consume media texts. We will look at the ways in which media producers target, attract and potentially construct audiences too. We will be looking at audience theories including the Uses and Gratifications theory, Hypodermic Needle theory, Moral Panics and Reception theory. We will also study the ways in which audience fandom has become part of participatory culture and has changed the way in which audiences can get involved with the media texts they are consuming.

Exam One

What's assessed

Section A will focus on Media Language and Media Representations. Questions in this section will test the following forms:

· advertising and marketing

· music video.

Section B will focus on Media Industries and Media Audiences. Questions in this section can test any two of the following forms:

· radio

· newspapers

· film (industries only).

How it's assessed

· Written exam: 2 hours

· 84 marks

· 35% of A-level

Questions

· A range of questions relating to an unseen source and Close Study Products.

· Two essay questions (20 marks), one of which is an extended response question.

Exam Two

What's assessed

Questions will focus on the in-depth media forms of television, magazines and online, social and participatory media/video games.

How it's assessed

· Written exam: 2 hours

· 84 marks

· 35% of A-level

Questions

· One medium length unseen analysis question.

· Three essay questions (25 marks), one of which is an extended response question and one of which is a synoptic question.

Coursework

What's assessed

· Application of knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework.

· Ability to create media products.

How it's assessed

· A choice of one of six annually changing briefs, set by AQA.

· 60 marks

· 30% of A-level

· Assessed by teachers

· Moderated by AQA

Tasks

Students produce:

· a statement of intent

· a cross-media production made for an intended audience.

Minimum grade 4 in Maths and English along with a minimum of grade 4 in other subjects.

University or an apprenticeship