What Will I Study?
You will study the four key areas of the subject: media representation; media language; media audiences; media industries and apply this understanding and knowledge to academic analysis and research and also creative productions.
You will study media texts from a range of sources such as audio-visual (TV, film, music video, radio), print (newspapers and magazines, including advertising) and online (gaming, online news, online advertising, streaming).
Media Studies Advanced Level will teach you how to deconstruct and analyse a media text in the same way as you can a novel, play or poem. You will also learn how to research academically and compile case studies for analysis. This, in turn, leads to rigorous academic writing skills in the shape of essays and presentations on topics such as the representation of women in the media and how music consumption has changed in the online age.
Through your coursework portfolio (NEA), you will utilise the skills learnt through media analysis in your own media productions. You will pitch, plan, create and evaluate media products, based on a choice of brief specified by the exam board. These could include making the opening two minutes of a thriller film, a trailer for new TV show launch, a spread of pages for a magazine or even a music video.
How Will I Be Assessed?
At the end of Year 13 you will sit two exams worth 70% of the qualification and submit an NEA portfolio (coursework), accounting for the remaining 30%.
What Could I Do Next?
Media Studies gives you an enjoyable and useful grounding in a variety of skills, from developing critical evaluation and analysis skills to studying and researching contemporary issues with links to Sociology. Many of the skills you will become proficient in are highly desirable to both further education institutions and employers, such as independent research, team work and collaboration, time management, creative thinking and critical analysis.
This subject can lead to a variety of careers where the transferrable skills can be put to excellent use. With Media City on our doorstep now, the range of jobs within the media sector is growing year on year. The Media Studies Advanced Level is an invaluable foundation for careers in this area.
Subject Specific Entry Requirements
Grade 5 in English Language.
Where Can I Get More Information?
Contact Miss S. Walker, Head of English and Communications Faculty.
