AS Media Studies

This subject may be offered at more than one Southern Consortium school site. The teaching of this subject may be at any one of the sites listed below.

The information on this webpage is a guide only. Topics, units and course content may vary from those listed below.

AS Media Studies @ SRS

How Can I Maximise My Success In A/S Media Studies?

Learn and use Media Terminology with confidence. Get to know your Media Vocabulary as you progress, then ensure you practice using it both in discussion and written work.

Be an active Media Consumer. Watch a wide variety of television programmes, read or be aware of a variety of magazines, listen to the radio, read the papers, go to the cinema, download podcasts and vodcasts and explore the internet for unusual or Media relevant sites.

Be prepared to improve your academic written style. Although Media is not English, you will be expected to express your ideas and knowledge in a suitably academic written style. This means using an analytical, detached tone instead of an informal, 'chatty', anecdotal style.

Be prepared to contribute orally in class. Discussing ideas and theories and verbally analysing Media Texts is an essential part of your learning and academic development in the subject.

Get to grips with technology. Spend time after school in L1, learning the digital editing programme basics, so that you can concentrate your efforts on quality of content when producing your MED 3 practical piece. Become confident in saving work between and across both applications and drives - and ask what this means if you don't know!

What Will I Study?

We follow the AQA Media Studies syllabus. Set out below is the current general information given by the board on the Assessment Objectives.

AO1 - Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of media concepts contexts and critical debates

AO2 - Apply knowledge and understanding when analysing media products and processes and evaluating their own practical work, to show how meanings and responses are created

AO3 - Demonstrate the ability to plan and construct media products using appropriate technical and creative skills

AO4 - Demonstrate the ability to undertake, apply and present appropriate research

The new specifications will also expect candidates to:

  • provide comprehensive and integrated coverage of media theory and practice with special emphasis on emerging technologies
  • cover audiences as both producers and consumers of media texts
  • provide opportunities for candidates to investigate personal media interests and including a choice of cross-media studies
  • offer a rolling programme of production briefs and pre-set topics
  • prepare your students for progression into work or higher education in a range of media-related areas

How Will I Be Assessed and Examined?

External Examinations: There will be several of these. They will include set study topics and ‘Unseen’ texts. They will be externally set and marked.

Externally-assessed Coursework: This will be assessed by your teacher and an external moderator.

Ongoing Internal Assessment: Essays, homework tasks, class discussion and mock examinations.

 

AS Media Studies @ JRCS

Outline of the course

Media Studies gives students the opportunity to study a wide range of media – films, television, magazines, newspapers, websites, computer games, advertising, radio, and even comics. Whilst studying some of these, you will also start to learn about how they are produced, as well as their impact on the people who consume them. The course is split into two areas:

1. Key Media Concepts (TV Drama) – in which you will learn to analyse the production of media texts, as well as their impact on audiences. The unit is focussed on TV drama. This unit is examined by one exam, and it worth 50% of the AS level grade (25% of the A level grade).

2. Foundation Portfolio – in which you will learn the skills needed to plan your own piece of media, such a film, magazine, adverts, or radio, and then produce it. This unit is examined as coursework, and is worth 50% of the AS level grade (25% of the A level grade).

At A-level, you will produce an Advanced Portfolio of more sophisticated media. This unit is assessed by coursework, and is worth 25% of the A level grade.

You will also study Critical Perspectives in Media, which deals with theoretical approaches to the media. This unit is assessed by one exam, and is worth 25% of the A level grade.

Careers and further study

A-Level Media Studies is an industry-recognised qualification, and so offers students the chance to go straight into employment in the industry. It is also a qualification which allows students to pursue further academic study at University, either of this subject or others. Media Studies as a subject is highly compatible with many subjects in the post 16 curriculum because of the training it provides in independent and critical thinking and analysis. Specifically, there are opportunities for links with Arts and Humanities subjects.

 

AS Media Studies @ EB

Media Studies is a growing subject. In 1990 only 60 students in the whole country took the subject in the sixth form. Now over 30, 000 students take the subject. Like many institutions in Further Education, Eastbury School has recognised this fact and has developed an AS/ A2 course in Media Studies, which is oversubscribed every year.

Eastbury boasts a purpose built media base which is fitted out with the latest technology and equipment. This gives students the opportunity to develop their own skills on site with almost immediate access to DV video cameras, six EMacs, a range of image manipulation software, VCRs, DVDs, Digital stills cameras, tripods and TV studio. In order to get the most out of Media Studies it will be essential that you spend time outside your lessons on your practical work. To that end we will arrange wherever possible educational visits to support your studies.

But practical work is only one side of Media Studies. Everything that is produced by students has to be rooted in media theory. In that sense Media is an academic subject. This theory has been built up over forty years and incorporates other academic disciplines such as literary criticism, sociology, psychology, psychoanalytic theory, history, business and economic theory, semiotics and gender studies. Media combines excellently with other subjects across the curriculum, including all Humanities subjects, English, Drama, Art and Technology.

A common misconception is that an Advanced level (or even a degree) in a Media related subject prepares a student for a job in the ‘meeja’. Although the Chairman of ITV does have a Media degree it didn’t get him the job. Of course an understanding of the media industries is not going to harm your chances but if you want to get in to broadcasting, journalism or film the best way is to pursue personal contacts and give up time for free in the holidays working in a local media organisation. The careers department is a good place to start.

Finally, Media students are encouraged to keep up to date with current media events and developments. This involves activities such as watching TV, reading newspapers and going to the cinema. You hopefully do these things anyway but as students of the media you should try to broaden your experience of as many different kinds of media as possible and not just limit it to the things that you are into.

The syllabus followed is that of the OCR board – the largest board offering Media Studies at AS level. In Y12 you will take two exams - one in January and one in June. These will be on Textual Analysis and Audiences and Institutions respectively. Coursework makes up 40% of the qualification - in the Spring term you will plan and produce the opening sequence of a thriller movie. The course is currently delivered by three members of staff over four hours a week. The vast majority of students studying AS Media continue the course into Y13 - not because they are forced to, but because they enjoy it and want to explore the subject further.

 

AS Media Studies @DP

What does the course involve:

50% Exam

  • 25% Representation in TV Drama (studying how filmic techniques: Angle and movement of camera, Mise-En-Scene, Editing and Sound create representation in T.V. Drama).
  • 25% Audiences and Institutions: Studying how PlayStation use marketing and Branding to promote their products, with particular attention to the marketing practices of RockStar Games, the makers of Grand Theft Auto.

50% Coursework:

  • 25% Practical: Making the two minute opening sequence of a feature film:
  • 25% Planning and evaluation of coursework, chiefly through the use of a blog.

Learn how to use video cameras and up to date editing software.

Develop and make your own short films. Develop an understanding of media theory and how to apply it to the production and evaluation of your own practical work.

Learn about many different types of media institutions.

Discover the secrets behind the media from film to print, from TV to radio, from i-pods to x-boxes.