AS Media Representation WJEC Gender Intro to the course Specifications

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. H/W – 4 Day Media diary
• List all the media texts you consume
• How long for?
• What does the information say about you?
• Due…

12. 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.

13. 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.

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

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

16. 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

17. 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.