Media Studies

SUBJECT INTRODUCTION

Head of Department: Maryam Rai

The Media Studies Department at Christ's aims to inspire creativity within our students and widen their awareness of how media impacts in their everyday lives in the 21st Century. Students will study contemporary, diverse, varied and engaging content, helping students to develop research, problem-solving skills as well as their creativity. They’ll also refine their debating skills through the discussion of contemporary issues from a range of perspectives. We equip them with extensive knowledge and valuable skills that will be transferable to any career path they choose to follow in the future.

Students will analyse a variety of Media products such as: Advertising and Marketing, Music Video, Radio, Newspapers, Film Industries, TV, Magazines, Online, Social and Participatory Media and Video Games. These products will enable students to assemble their ideas using the AQA theoretical framework which examines the following 4 areas: Media Audiences, Media Industries, Media Language and Media Representation. This approach broadens students’ knowledge and understanding of how the media around us is constructed.  

The course aims to develop a critical approach towards Media, through the range of theories that students will deconstruct. Some of the critical theories that students will study include investigating, gender, feminism, reception, cultivation, semiotics, regulation, structuralism, postmodernism and genre. 

Moreover, students will analyse and compare media products in relation to relevant key social, cultural, economic, political and historical contexts. This approach will develop students’ ideas about the impact that Media has around us. Furthermore, there is an opportunity for students to showcase their knowledge of the theoretical framework as they will be required to independently create a cross-media product of their own in response to a brief set by AQA. The media products that are devised by the student must communicate meaning to a specified audience, draw on what they know and understand about the theoretical framework and demonstrate understanding of the digitally convergent nature of media products.

By the end of the two-year AQA A Level Media Studies course, students will be equipped to question the validity of the information that they receive on a daily basis so that students have a stronger understanding of the world that they live in.

THE CURRICULUM

KEY STAGE 5 - A LEVEL

Year 12 Topics covered: 

• Music Videos: Ghost Town and Old Town Road
• Advertising and Marketing: Score Hair Cream and Sephora Black Beauty
• Newspapers: The Daily Mail and The Guardian 
• Radio: War of the Worlds and Newsbeat
• Film Industries: Blinded by the Light
• Non-Examined Assessment: Create an Independent Media Product

Year 13 topics covered: 

• Non-Examined Assessment: Create an Independent Media Product
• Magazines: The Gentlewoman and GQ
• Television: No Offence and The Killing
• Online, Social and Participatory Media: Zendaya and The Voice 
• Video Games: Horizon Forbidden West, The Sims FreePlay

 

Careers

After studying A Level Media Studies at Christ's students can continue their learning at Higher Education level with a range of Media degree courses. An A Level in Media studies equips our students with valuable skills that are transferable in any career setting. It is the perfect springboard into a wide range of exciting and creative careers including, Film, Television, Newspapers, Magazines, Advertising, Journalism, Broadcasting, Digital Media, Media Production, Public Relations and Teaching.

 

Exam Board

KS 5 Exam Board: AQA 

Course Code: 7572

Link to Specification 

Link to Past Papers