GCSE Media StudiesWhat To Expect?

Introductions

• Tell us what is your favorite film, book, video game, song and why?

(1 Minute)

Ms Walters

Course Outline

• Unit 1 - Investigating the Media

1 hr 30 minute examination

(2015 - Television News)

• Unit 2 - Understanding the Media

Two coursework assignments

1. Moving Images

2. Cross Promotion: Magazines

3. Advertising & Marketing

Controlled Assessment

60% coursework!

Why Media Studies?

Write a paragraph or two on the following:

•Why you chose to take Media Studies GCSE.

•What sort of things you expect to do during the course?

•What you hope to gain from it.

Key Concepts

• The key concepts provide the foundation for Media Studies. You will be using them throughout the course. It is essential that you understand what they are and how to use them to analyse media texts.

Key Concepts

Media Language is the techniques you by media producers to

communicate with the audience. The words, visual images and sounds used to convey meaning in a media in a media text.

Audience is the people who experience the product. E.g. Mass (large) and

Niche (small but important).

The actual audience may differ from the target audience.

Institution is companies and businesses that produce the products/media or

make regulations. E.g. BBC public services or News International (The Sun, Fox, Sky, MySpace, The Times).

Representation is how a certain group of people or a place is portrayed.

The way in which the media constructs its own version of reality. The way in which people, places, issues etc are shown in the media. E.g. gender, race, age, class

Why Study the Media?

Media Studies and other Mickey Mouse

degreesDaily Mail, 12 September 2007

Media Studies and other Mickey Mouse

degreesDaily Mail, 12 September 2007

Students too dim for Media Studies Daily Mail, 18 January

2007

Students too dim for Media Studies Daily Mail, 18 January

2007

It’s just watching films

It’s just watching films

You just sit on computers

You just sit on computers

Media studies isn’t a real subject!

Media studies isn’t a real subject!

• With media studies getting so much publicity, it is important to ask the question, ‘Why study the media?’ Below is a list of possible answers. Do you agree with these reasons?

Reasons to study the media

1. The mass media is very powerful. Advertisers and politicians use it to influence society. To be media literate is part of being an educated citizen.

2. Education has traditionally concentrated on literacy. In today’s society, the visual image is as important as the printed word. Students of media studies learn to read and construct visual images.

3. The ability to design, construct and edit media products are relevant modern, practical skills. Skilled media studies students are employable.

4. The media is an expanding industry. GCSE media studies can help start students on the road to careers in the media.

5. GCSE media studies develop critical thinking, analytical skills and creativity.

6. GCSE media studies develop group work skills.

7. We spend a large proportion of our time exposed to the media. GCSE media studies help us examine the impact the media has on our lives.

8. Because the media studies us!

Discussion Activity

1.Discuss the eight points and consider:

a.How important is it to study the media?

b.How does the media study us?

What are the media?• The media are a means of mass

communication. This means that they have the ability to reach lots of people at the same time.

• Each individual type of media is called a medium. They cover publishing, gaming, filmmaking, photography, music, broadcasting and the internet. The list is growing all the time and many new media combine lots of different types in one.

Look at the images below. Which media do they represent? Fill in your answers in the boxes.

Task

In order to understand the media, we can start by examining our own use of it. Create your own 'timeline' - choose a day - weekend, holiday, school day, whatever - and note all the uses of media you have that day.

That's the first part. The second part is to decide how to present this information.. You can use whatever you want. Prezi is popular. You could even present it as a vlog, made using MovieMaker or iMovie or Final Cut Pro. Really ambitious people could make a Flash animation. It could be print based - a diagram created in Illustrator or Photoshop. I don't particularly want to see Word docs or PowerPoint! Media students need to think and care about presentation - this is your first chance.

And finally, it needs to go on your Media website. One of the pages is called 'My Portfolio' - embed it in the most appropriate section (probably 'Web.')