Media Studies

Although media studies is not studied as a distinct subject until year 9, Samuel Ryder Academy is dedicated to helping Key Stage 2 students learn about the media and explore their interactions with media products. By working closely with other faculties to interweave digital media literacy into the Key Stage 2 curriculum we can help ensure students are given the tools they need to access digital technologies securely and confidently. Our state-of-the-art television studio, ensures that even our youngest students become increasingly confident in the use of the technologies that form the basis of much of our media curriculum.

Whilst in year 7 and year 8, media is taught through the English curriculum, at year 9 students enrich their curriculum through opting to study media. The media studies course aims for students to reflect upon their own media use as well as examining the social and cultural impacts the media has had on life in the United Kingdom. Oracy plays a large role in media studies as students use their skills to develop, refine, discuss and present ideas. This can take many forms including video essays with voiceovers, debates, group discussions and presentations.

During year 9, students study a number of different topics allowing them to explore different areas of practical and analysis tasks. These projects help students to build a foundational understanding of media, securing the steps to progress onto the GCSE course. These include: -

• Advertising (video games and music artists) where students analyse the effectiveness of advertising, as well as creating their own adverts using professional software such as Photoshop.
• Creating your own animation using iPads. These can be submitted as part of one of our house competitions.
• Preparing your own TV news broadcast. You have the opportunity to record these in our very own professional TV studio. You also have the opportunity to submit your broadcasts for one of our house competitions.
• Analysing film genres and creating your own Film trailer.
• Creating your own website.

The year 9 media studies course enriches and widens the cultural and social experience of students. By looking at real media examples from across the world, students explore and contrast how different audiences may interpret the media. Additionally, students have the chance to study key concepts such as regulation and how moral and social contexts shape the media around them. As a fully digital course, students utilise the digital technology and computer suites available in school, rather than an exercise book, students use systems such as Microsoft Teams and OneNote.

Eduqas Media Studies (C680QS)

The GCSE media studies course encourages students to adopt an analytical approach to the media industry and combine this with a range of practical tasks. Through this unit, students develop their knowledge and understanding of the necessary research methods and communicational skills required. These are based on set products given by the exam board from a range of different media platforms. Students learn all of the set products over the two-year course in order to answer questions about them in the exam. In addition to these skills, students develop their pre-production, production and post production skills for a specific stimulus.

There is also a piece of practical coursework that students need to complete based on a brief set by the exam board.

 Areas of study include:

• Magazines
• Films
• Newspapers
• Advertising
• TV shows
• Social Media/websites

Students are assessed in the following ways:

• Two external exams (taken at the end of year 11) - 70% of final grade.
• One piece of practical coursework (completed in years 10 and 11) - 30% of final grade.

As well as developing analytical skills, the media studies GCSE develops learner’s oracy skills. Discussion and debate are key parts of the media studies and great care is taken in developing our students into confident and articulate speakers. The higher-order thinking that is developed within media studies benefits students across their academic study, helping develop skills that will be utilised in subjects such as history and English.

Through media studies, students explore something that they spend a lot of time with, helping them to understand how it affects them and make them more critical of the media they consume. By exploring the contexts behind the production and distribution of media for both domestic and international texts, students develop cultural capital and explore representations, points of view and experiences they would perhaps not come across normally. Students look at the moral and social impacts of media including discussions around issues such as the media’s construction of identity and how audiences are moulded by their media consumption habits.

Like the Key Stage 3 course the media studies GCSE has been completely digitised. By taking advantage of tools such as YouTube revision videos, Padlet sharing pages and embedded digital assessments, students are supported in their examination preparation.

Following success at GCSE, there are two pathways that students undertake in sixth form: A-Level and BTec.

A-Level – Eduqas Media Studies A-Level (A680QS)

The media studies A-Level course is a continuation of the GCSE course offered at Key Stage 4 with the Eduqas examination board. The course looks at the media critically and explores contemporary media issues such as the concentration of media ownership, political bias within news media, the representations of race and gender, and the impact of regulation. The course allows students to analyse and question their own experiences of the media whilst developing an understanding of how historical, cultural, social and economic contexts shape media products and their audiences. As well as theoretical study, students also produce their own media texts to meet a brief set by the exam board. This NEA (non-examination assessed) work makes up 30% of the total grade and is an opportunity for students to directly apply their knowledge of audience targeting and messaging, semiotics and design to create original media products. The school is fully equipped with Adobe Premier, Photoshop and After Effects as well as a full green screen suite with professional camera equipment to support students with producing high-quality projects.

To complete the course, there are a range of set texts used to provide case studies for the application of theory, these include:

• 1950s advertising
• Contemporary radio
• Film marketing (both historical and contemporary)
• Music videos
• Long form foreign and domestic tv drama
• Tabloid and broadsheet newspapers
• Historical and contemporary magazines
• Video games

Students are assessed in the following ways:

• Two external exams (taken at the end of year 13) - 70% of final grade.
• One piece of practical coursework (completed in year 12 and 13) - 30% of final grade

Oracy is a key component of the media studies course. At A-Level, students research the key issues and debates surrounding media and be able to discuss them with peers, as well as being challenged on their findings. With areas of study including politics and the economy, the cultural capital provided by media studies provides students the ability to discuss a range of topics outside of the classroom.

BTec Creative Digital Media Production – Pearson Edexcel

The creative digital media production BTec course is the flagship vocational media course at Samuel Ryder Academy. The course, equivalent to studying three A-Levels, is designed for students who are aiming for a career in the media or to study the media within further education. The BTec is specifically designed around the use of industry standard briefs from a range of clients that encourages students to approach their work in the same fashion as a media professional. A focus on independence, organisation, team work and personal responsibility anchor the course, alongside its mix of practical and theoretical studies. With independent access to the TV studio, photography and film equipment, students challenge themselves and produce their own media texts. Each student finishes the course with a digital portfolio of their projects that is used to secure university places, apprenticeships and further employment. 

Previously students have completed units such as:

• Website design
• Advertising
• Digital campaigns
• News production
• Magazine and digital layout production
• Fiction film
• Single camera production

With over 30 different units to choose from, the BTec is adapted to meet the strengths of our students and to provide a varied and valuable experience. The course is assessed via the completion of 9 internal units (assessed in school by teachers and externally verified) and 4 external units (set and assessed by the examination board). These assessments are completed under examination conditions or extended assessment periods over several sessions within a set time period. Competition for places on this course is high and students have an active interest in the study and making of media.

The BTec course is designed for those that aspire to work within the media industry or to engage in a media production apprenticeship after they finish their post-16 education. The course also provides a number of opportunities for learners to develop leadership skills as they take control of their learning and projects.

Media literacy

At Samuel Ryder Academy, media literacy moves beyond internet safety, ensuring all students have the tools to assess the value and purpose of media, regardless of their choice of subjects. As young people continue to migrate so much of their lives onto digital platforms, it is increasingly important to embed an understanding of how to recognise trustworthy information, the effects of ownership on media texts and how we are drawn to things we agree with. By working closely with other departments within the school, the media department works hard to embed this ethos into the curriculum for all students.

Outside our taught curriculum content, the media department at Samuel Ryder Academy provides areas of study that both excite and challenge students. By exploring media texts and issues beyond the curriculum content, students are able to textually analyse any media product and recognise the messages being encoded by producers. We also work hard to ensure that our equipment and resources such as the television studio are freely available for students to utilise for their own projects and passions.

Our yearly house competition challenges students from all year groups to use the stop motion app on their iPad to produce creative and imaginative 1-minute animations around a different theme or genre each year, with valuable house points up for grabs!

Media studies currently runs two trips with plans in place to expand this provision in the immediate future. In Key Stage 2, a trip to Harry Potter Studios allows year 6 students to experience a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most successful film franchises of all time. In Key Stage 5, A-Level students visit the both the British Film Institute’s Imax theatre for screenings of set texts and the BFI film archive for study days in the lead up to examinations.

Media students are regularly entered into both local and national competitions for media production. In the past two years we have had entry and selection for both a regional and national award for the post-16 category. In addition, each year students join the young reporters’ program and some have been lucky enough to attend career days hosted by the likes of Warner Brothers and Sky TV.

According to the office of national statistics, media studies degrees are the second most employable after medicine. This is due to a number of factors, including the growing media markets in the UK, shifting consumer patterns and the recognised skill sets that the study of media provides such as audience profiling, communication and critical thinking.

There are lots of careers that media studies can lead to, some are obvious, for example those in production roles within sectors such as TV, film, radio, print and digital. However, media studies could also lead to areas such as media and copyright law, public relations, social media management, digital networking, audience profiling, communication management and many more.

Wider reading in media studies takes multiple forms as our utilisation opens up opportunities for students to access a wide range of material.

KS3

What is Media Studies? Key concepts explained! - YouTube

Media Studies - Genre, Sub Genre & Hybrid Genre - Key Words - YouTube

Key Concepts - Media Language - YouTube

KS4

Mrs Fisher - YouTube

The Media Insider - YouTube

Photoshop Basics: Everything You Need to Know to Edit Photos - YouTube

GCSE Media Studies - BBC Bitesize

KS5

Mrs Fisher - YouTube

The Media Insider - YouTube

Essential Media Theory | A Level Media Studies Revision

Exam board link KS4:

https://www.eduqas.co.uk/qualifications/media-studies/

Exam board link KS5 (A-Level)

AS and A Level Media Studies | Eduqas

Exam specification KS5 (BTEC)

BTEC 2016 Specification (pearson.com)