Media Studies at Philip Morant School introduces students to the ways in which the media that surrounds us builds a picture of the local and global communities in which we live and belong. Through exploration, we look at how social groups and issues are represented in media products and how this shapes our understanding of the world, and is in part responsible for: growing ideas; perspectives; attitudes and values. In a world shaped by high media coverage, along with the rise of AI and ‘Fake News’, it has never felt more important to impart knowledge to young people on the power of the media, and the importance of interpreting the way in which things are presented to the public.
Students cover a broad range of media forms across the media curriculum including: online and social media, television drama, radio soaps, film, music videos, gaming, advertising, newspapers and magazines. Designed to give young people a broad overview of media overtime, the course creates a journey through which students can explore the value and success of each type of media and the reasons for which audiences can connect with them. All products taught across the course, as a collective, have been carefully chosen with the diversity of our school community in mind and support meaningful learning for all as a result. With products representing individuals from a variety of different social groups and cultural backgrounds, learning is enriched through understanding the ways in which different areas of our own communities are represented publicly and why, and how this contributes to a sense of connection and belonging. Students cover each product in relation to: media language, representations, audience views and surrounding contexts. This develops the understanding that interpretation of a media product relies on the foundations on which it was produced and what the aims and intentions of the product are.
The Media course begins by introducing how to interpret media language in terms of form and design, and the subsequent purpose for audiences. Students learn how messages and meanings are created through the use of media language and how this is responsible for the representations we see of our world around us. The analysis of media products is modelled for students with a collaborative ‘I do, we do, you do’ approach to build confidence. The same approach is taken with students when developing their notes into extended written responses to support growing independence and key literacy skills.
Students are also given a lot of opportunities to research and collaborate with others as they work on the
context and industry elements of the course. Here students are guided by their teachers in what key areas they need to investigate and how they should present their findings. This supports students’ knowledge and understanding of the standard of work expected of them and the excellence in presentation we strive for. Research tasks also support our keen interest in supporting students reading development and students are often set specific reading tasks to develop their skills and enhance their vocabulary.
While the majority of the course is theoretical and analysis based, a third is creative. The coursework element offers students the opportunity to create their own media product in line with a production brief provided by the exam board. Here students are expected to meet the brief fully and execute the key skills in design that they have seen in professional products studied across the course. Here students are encouraged in their creative thinking and flare as they take on their own interpretation of the brief using research to support them. Here students are able to utilise cross curricular learning with English, Photography and Graphics, building a creative skill set that will not only enhance the quality of their work but also develop their learning further for post 16 opportunities, either within education or the workplace.
