Media
Since September 2005, the Media Studies and department has quickly been established as a lively environment producing innovative work. Through a variety of approaches, including the manufacture and production of texts, AS Media will enable students to enjoy ‘reading’ media texts (‘texts’ refers to any product of media production processes) in addition to developing their critical sensibilities.
Welcome
Staff
Overview
Facilities
In the Classroom
Beyond the Classroom
Mrs Annie Farrell
Who decides what you read and watch? Have you ever blogged? How much does the BBC cost us? And who pays? Media studies offers an opportunity to question our culture and communications. It also provides an opportunity to study film, magazines, computer gaming, radio, new media such as the Internet, newspapers, in fact all those things that we accept as part of our culture.
Department Staff
Department Overview
Media Studies offers the opportunity to look at the role the media plays in our lives on a daily basis by acquiring a foundation in the main concepts and debates of Media Studies. Production work is an important part of the course where students put theory into practice, demonstrating knowledge and understanding of technical skills, like photography and filming, in their own media production. Media Studies can be a creative, imaginative and artistic activity as well as an intellectual and analytical subject. This year the Lower Sixth is working on the opening sequence of a thriller film.
Facilities
The Media Studies classroom is one of the smallest classrooms in school but what a store of goodies lies within! A computer with a DVD writer and scanner, a digital video camera, a compact digital camera and editing equipment are snuggled closely to the TV and DVD player. Our studio is really so much larger than this - it is the universe! We leave our cosy little world to work any where, any time, as our projects demand.
In the Classroom
Students do not merely ‘read’ a variety of media texts but spend a great deal of time and effort creating their own. In addition they must also study the key areas of: Media Language and Institutions, Genre, Representation, Audience, Ideology and Narrative. So, whether you aspire to be a Steven Spielberg or a Pete Jackson, media studies may be the place to begin.
AS Level
As with other A levels the OCR AS Media Studies course comprises three distinct modules organised and examined through three elements. Practical Production work is the most time-consuming of these, for which students must create their own film, web page, magazine, radio programme or children’s TV programme. Textual Analysis of media texts, using short, previously unseen moving-image media extracts are analysed so that concepts of representation may be appreciated. And finally, a unit about Institutions and Audiences is studied through which students acquire knowledge and improve their understanding of media institutions, production processes, technologies and related issues concerning audience consumption and reception.
Beyond the Classroom
Media is everywhere! Trips to the cinema, local businesses, newspaper offices and design offices are all possible adventures, during the course of which new facts and processes will be unearthed, inspected and analysed. We are soon to visit the IMAX cinema at Bristol and have two invitations to visit local businesses with design departments. As the department matures, so will its interests be linked to available resources. Watch this space!
