WJEC

What is Media Studies?

The media forms a central element of modern life in modern technological economies. The media plays a crucial role in such economies by providing information about the world, creating opportunities for commerce and offering pleasure and entertainment in mediated forms. Starting in the familiar and media saturated world of the student this course allows students to study modern media production through both the world of media organisations and through their own work in creating meaning in a range of modes.

Thus Media Studies is concerned with:

• What we see on television and at the cinema
• What we read in magazines and newspapers
• What we listen to on the radio

What will I Study?

Throughout this course students will be encouraged to:

• Develop their interest and enjoyment of the enormous diversity of media communications in local and global contexts and the increasing links between those contexts
• Develop a critical and investigate approach to major media forms and the links between them
• Study patterns of similarity and difference across a range of media texts
• Recognise the distinctive ways in which different media technologies shape media productions
• Recognise the ways and means in which media organisations and institutions represent people, ideas and events to different kinds of audiences and the constraints and restraints on their media productions
• Become creative media producers for different audiences

How will Media Studies help me?

This course will enable you to gain in confidence and develop expertise that is valued by employers and colleges of further education. This is a subject that you will be able to study at ‘A’ level and at degree level. If you are considering a career in management, business or the media this subject will give you a head start.

Assessment

Coursework (50%)

Three assignments from at least two different media

One piece must be based on textual analysis, one piece must be based on pre-production and one piece on production.

Examination (50%)

One two and a half hour paper

Section A

• Unseen moving image material
• Four compulsory questions.

Section B

• Four compulsory questions which will focus on still images or print, drawn from newspapers, magazines, comics or advertisements.