Head of Department Overview Video - Media Studies

The new Media GCSE course is a contemporary and interactive subject that encourages you to develop your creative, analytical, research, and communication skills, through exploring a range of media forms and perspectives.  If you are interested in the world around you, Media Studies will be enjoyable because of its relevance to your life and for the opportunities it provides for exploring contemporary issues through the use of different media in creative and practical ways. You will continue to develop analytical skills that you have already been using in subjects such as English or History: looking at media products, exploring how meanings and ideas are created and considering how audiences are targeted. 

 

The course also allows you to develop creative practical work, so that you can express your ideas whilst learning contemporary technical skills.  Media Studies is about helping us to understand the world we now live in and the ways that cultural ideas are shaped by the media.

 

There are four key concepts studied across a range of media products; the key concepts are Media Language, Audiences, Representations and Industries.

Assessment

Component 1: Exploring the Media. Written exam: 1 hour 30 minutes (40% of GCSE). 

 

Section A: Exploring Media Language and Representation. This section assesses two of the following print media forms: magazines, marketing (film posters), newspapers, or print advertisements. 

 

Section B: Exploring Media Industries and Audiences. This section assesses two of the following media forms: film, newspapers, radio, video games.

 

Component 2: Understanding Media Forms and Products. Written exam: 1 hour 30 minutes (30% of GCSE).  

Section A (Television): This section will focus in-depth on the television products that students have studied in the course. One of the questions will be based on a screening from an extract of one of the television products. 

Section B (Music): This section will focus in-depth on the music videos and online media products that students have studied in the course. 

 

Component 3: Creating Media Products. Coursework (30% of GCSE).

Students select a media product to create from a choice of briefs set by Eduqas, for an intended audience. The five briefs change every year and will include some of the following forms: television, music video, radio, newspapers, magazines, advertising/marketing, online, social and participatory media, video games.