Media AS (YEAR 12) WJEC outline

1. Starter Activity
• Discuss and list your ideal man
and/or woman in your groups.

2. • What does this suggest you value
most about men/women?
• What is it about those values that
you think you think is important?

3. To understand the outline of the course
To begin to understand how gender is represented

4. AS Media Studies
What will I study?
• Representation
• Genre
• Audience
• Textual Analysis

5. How will I be assessed?
• MS1 - Examination - 2 ½ hours (50%)
• MS2 - Coursework – 1 Pre Production task
and a linked Production and a written
reflective report (50%)

6. AS Media Examination topics
• 1 Question – Textual analysis of an unseen text
(print or moving image) 40 marks
• 3 Questions on media representations and
audience responses (30 marks each)

7. AS Media Coursework
• Pre-production task (20 marks);
• Production which develops from the pre-production (40
marks)
• 1200 – 1600 word Reflective report on the production
process (40 marks)
• Group work for the production is only allowed for
audio-visual productions (group size no more than 3)

8. What can I do to help myself?
• Become more familiar with media texts you would not
normally consume – newspapers, news reports, any genres
you would not normally be familiar with
• Read around the subject – Media supplements in
newspapers, text books and dedicated websites
• Be up to date with news and current affairs

9. What is Media Studies all about?
1. Textual Analysis
2. Representations
3. Audience Response

10. The Tool Kit for analysis
The Media is a channel of communication from producer to
audience.
Producers create MEDIA TEXTS which we consume:
• advertisements
• DVD covers
• CD covers
• newspaper front pages
• magazines /comics
• radio sequences
• Films
• television programmes
• music videos
• websites
• computer games

11. What is representation?
• Representation is the way in which the
media constructs aspects of ‘real life’
including
people, places, events, culture, ethnicity
and issues (WJEC, Exploring the Media)
• The media don’t just present reality they
re-present it.

12. Understanding Representation
• To be able to understand representation we need to be
aware that part of it is how we see things and this is
affected by our own experiences, culture, gender and
preconceived expectations.
• Task- write a 50 word description of yourself and then ask
the person next to you or someone on your table to write on
of you. How are they different?
• They are different because of the person’s positioning and
relationship to the subject matter which in this case is you.

13. Same person: one year apart. Consider
how Miley Cyrus was representing
herself last year, compared to her most
recent representation.

14. This is the image on Miley Cyrus’
homepage of her official website.
Why has this image been chosen?
What does it represent?

15. Important Points to Consider!
• What kind of world/image is being created by the text?
• Is it positive or negative?
• How will audiences interpret this?
• This will depend on how the person sees the particular
person or celebrity, what their relationship is to a certain
event or issue
• It will also depend on the persons age, gender, ethnicity and
situation

16. What is gender?
"Sex" refers to the biological and
physiological characteristics that define men
and women.
"Gender" refers to the socially constructed
roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes
that a given society considers appropriate for
men and women.
...and transgender should be part of this too.

17. • Consider birthday cards and girls/boys magazines.
• What do these say about what it means to be a boy/girl? What do
boys like and what do girls like?

19. • Do you think this changes in men’s/women’s
magazines?
• Spend 5 minutes discussing the contents of ‘men’s
magazines’ and ‘women’s magazines’.
• What types of articles do they feature?
• What does this suggest is important about men/women?
• What do you think about this?

20. Masculinity and femininity
Gender and representation of gender is
tied up with ideas of masculinity and
femininity...
Are the following ideas about the
representation of men and women
reinforced by what you found in the
magazines?

21. Representation of Men
'Masculinity' is a concept that is made up of
more rigid stereotypes than femininity.
Representations of men across all media
tend to focus on the following:
• Strength - physical and intellectual
• Power
• Sexual attractiveness (which may be based
on the above)
• Physique
• Independence (of thought, action, finances)

22. Representation of Men
• Male characters are often represented as
isolated, as not needing to rely on others
(the lone hero). If they submit to being part
of a family, it is often part of the resolution
of a narrative, rather than an integral factor
in the initial balance.
• It is interesting to note that the male
physique is becoming more important a part
of representations of masculinity.

23. Representation of Women
Representations of women across all media tend
to
highlight the following:
• beauty (within narrow conventions)
• size/physique (again, within narrow
conventions)
• sexuality (as expressed by the above)
• emotional (as opposed to intellectual)
dealings
• relationships (as opposed to independence/
freedom)

24. Representation of Women

25. Start observing…
• Start observing how people are being represented. Look at
real people around you – how are they representing
themselves? Look at actors in soaps? Read about
celebrities. Representation is everywhere?
• For next lesson I want you to have one example of an
observation.