This document provides an overview of media studies as an academic subject and career path. It discusses the key skills learned in media studies, such as research, analysis, discussion and content creation. It also outlines some common career paths for media studies graduates, including film production, graphic design, journalism, advertising and more. The document gives examples of course units focused on portfolio creation, textual analysis, and industry topics like institutions and audiences. Overall, the summary introduces media studies as a multi-faceted subject that teaches vital skills for understanding and creating various media content.

2. Media Studies=Learning
about the media

3. Media Studies
Media Studies students can:
 Research
 Deconstruct
 Analyse
 Discuss
 Plan
 Create and Produce
 Evaluate

4. Subjects & Jobs
Subjects Jobs
Film & Screen Studies
Digital Film
Contemporary Media Practice
Media & Communication (event &
exhibition, new media, journalism, media
photography, public relations)
Film & TV Production
Graphic Design
Creative Media
Broadcast Media
Advertising
Art & Design
Fashion
Journalism & Mass Communication
Media & English Literature, Media &
English Language
Technical production crew – cameraman,
editor, sound specialist, lighting
specialist, screenplay/script writer,
special effects etc)
Film & Television critic
Radio
Newspapers
Internet: Digital & Interactive Media
Magazines
Video game design & development
Journalism
Photography
Publishing
Corporate Development
Media & Music

5. Important considerations
 Time consuming subject: Filming/ using photo-editing
software lunchtimes/after-school or evenings/weekends
 Needs to fit in with other GCSE choices
 Must be a team player: a lot of group work
 Useful ( but not essential) to have access to a computer,
editing software (GIMP is a free Photoshop style program),
a USB stick/hard drive to store your work safely
 Some people say it’s easy, others wouldn’t – 40% of your
mark is a challenging written exam

6. Unit B321: The Individual
Media Studies Portfolio
 This is a controlled assessment unit, 25–30
hours, internally assessed and externally
moderated. 120 marks, 30% of the total GCSE
marks
 Candidates produce an individual portfolio
containing a comparative analytical
assignment, a production exercise and a
planning and evaluative commentary. The
comparative analytical assignment is based
on at least two media texts from a selection

7. Unit B323: Textual Analysis
and Media Studies Topic
(Moving Image)
 40% of the total GCSE
1hour 45 minutes written paper 80 marks
 This is an examined unit where candidates in
Section A analyse and respond to an unseen
moving image extract.
 In Section B, candidates answer questions
based on Institution and Audience through the
study of Television Comedy.

8. Unit B324: Production
Portfolio in Media Studies
 This is a controlled assessment unit, 25-30 hours,
internally assessed and externally moderated.
120 marks, 30% of the total GCSE marks
 Candidates can either work individually or in
groups to produce a major practical production
from a selection of set briefs. Within this, each
individual produces their own evidence of
research and planning alongside an individual
evaluation of their finished product

9. Class Blog
 Using Blogger to create a coursework blog of
your own and to access homework and lesson
notes from your teacher’s blog
 Example of how a blog looks:
 http://lcmedia2.blogspot.co.uk

10. Institution
 This is who makes the Media texts. The
institution can be a large company like Warner
Bros. Pictures or a small company like Working
Title.

11. Representation
The way real life is
presented on television, on
the radio, in newspapers
and magazines is known as
Representation.
Groups of people are
represented in a certain light
so that people begin to
believe all people in that
group are like that. This is
called stereotyping.
Places, gender, social class
can also be represented.

12. Audience
 People who listen, watch, read or use media
texts are called the audience.
 Audiences are grouped together by gender,
age, how much money they earn and what
they like.
 Institutions work hard to make their media
texts appeal to the right audience.

13. TV Codes and Conventions
Television uses these codes and conventions.
 Moving Image – camera shots, camera
movements
 Sound – music and dialogue
 Graphics – station logo, title graphics, credits
 Genre – what type of TV programme is it
(film, drama, news programme)
 Narrative – what happens in the programme

14. Code and Conventions
 Each media text uses different codes and
conventions which the audience learn to
recognise and understand.
 Media students know what those codes and
conventions are.
 Media students are able to talk about
Language (codes and conventions) to help
them analyse any media text.

15. Plenary – twitter square
 1) 1 thing you learned from today’s presentation
 2) 1 reason why you want to take media
 # to write down a key phrase from today’s presentation at the end
(positive or negative) i.e. #ilovemakingfilms #editingisnotmyfav

16. Tools to analyse Media
texts
= The Four Key Concepts Language
 Institution
 Audience
 Representation
MEMORY JOG – people say the media is full of lies and its
true there are many tricks to get the audience’s attention.
LIAR This should help you.

17. Language
 What type of
media is this?
 How do you
know?

18. Language
 What kind of
media is this?
 How do you
know?

19. Language = Codes and
Conventions
 Media texts follow the same rules depending
on what kind of media platform they use.
Magazines follow the rules of Print.
 Layout
 Colour
 Image
 Text
These rules are called the codes
and conventions. They make it
easy to understand what kind of
media text you are looking at.

20. Task
In pairs, look at the media text and talk about
Language and Audience.
1. What type of media is it?
2. What kind of media language does it use?
3. Who is the audience and how do you know it
would appeal to that group of people?