A Level: Media / Film / TV Studies

As a GCE Media Studies student, you will analyse how media products use language and representations to create meaning. You will learn about the media industry and how the industry

affects how media products are made. You will investigate media audiences, exploring who are the people who watch, read and consume the products and considering how different people might respond to products differently, and why. You will study many different media forms, such as:

• Television
• Online Media
• Advertising and
• Marketing
• Film Marketing
• Magazines
• Newspapers
• Social and Participatory
• Media
• Music Video
• Radio
• Video Games

You will explore and apply critical perspectives including those of world-renowned media and cultural theorists, and will examine how social, historical, political and economic contexts affect

media production. You will also have the opportunity to apply what you have learned through the production of your own media texts, exploring and creating media forms such as music videos, magazines, television, websites and film marketing.

Media Studies is designed to allow students to draw on their existing experience of the media and to develop their abilities to respond critically to the media. It enables students to explore a wide variety of media, including digital media technologies, drawing on the fundamental concepts informing the study of the media: media language, institution, audience, representation and contexts. The course also encourages creative work to enable students to gain a greater appreciation of the media through their own production work and to develop their own production skills.

Most sessions are taught in the Media Lab, kitted out with 20 powerful iMacs and professional software packages. The emphasis is on active learning and examples and learning material are pulled from a vast array of contemporary and historical media texts in a variety of forms (television, film, print, video games, social media, advertising, etc..)

Combining different ideas and approaches drawn from disciplines such as Sociology, Critical Theory, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology and Semiotics and covering a wide-range of critical methodologies (Feminism, Post-Colonialism, Postmodernism etc.), Media Studies offers a fascinating and comprehensive introduction to higher-level critical thinking about an increasingly important and central aspect of our everyday lives in contemporary Britain; the Media.

Component 1: Media Products, Industries and Audience - Written Exam (35%)

Component 2: Media Forms and Products In depth - Written Exam (35%)

Component 3: Media Production, Non-Examined – Practical Coursework (30%)

For all level 3 pathways five passes (9-4) or more at GCSE's are required inculding at least a Grade 4 in Maths and / or English Literature.

A-Level Media Studies is welcomed by universities and colleges of Higher Education. It can lead to degree courses in Media and/or Journalism but does not necessarily mean that you are compelled to take the subject further. It is valuable and useful for entry into all professional areas of the mass media and can be combined with degrees in English Literature, Sociology, Communications and Psychology. By 2021, the UK media industries will be worth £76 billion and with career opportunities abound in the rapidly growing and diverse fields of UK Cultural Industries, there has never been a better time to be a Media Studies Student.