GCSE Media Studies is taught exclusively from Year 10 and is designed to be a comprehensive look into the inner workings of media industries. Students will be expected to take on a range of study cases ranging from film and TV to music and print. Understanding of the nature of construction of products, representation of reality and how audiences can be targeted and manipulated are exciting elements of the course of study.
Along the way to the examinations, students will be constructing their own media pieces so as to experience the pressures and strictures of industry standards for themselves; a great opportunity to be creative!
The Close Study Products are selected by the exam board (AQA) and change year to year to reflect the current media. Students will study contemporary media products and compare these with older examples in order to consider how the media industry has developed and how a product reflects the values and contexts in which it was created. Students will also explore different audience types and representation and how these are utilised in media products.
Students study these products both for analysis and for examples on which to base their own products. The final assessment include two examinations (70%) and a Non-examination Assessment (30%) for which students need to produce a range of media products such as advertisements or magazine articles for a specified brief. Students will develop the creative skills they need for this throughout the course but will only start to complete their assessed pieces in Year 11.