Media Curriculum Intent

 

Media Studies at Preston Manor develops students to internalise a full personalised perception of the effects of the media on their culture, commerce, and consciousness through memorable in depth studies of a broad and balanced spectrum of media forms, via a curated selection of products, both old and new, the culturally familiar as well as those outside of students’ prior experience. Students learn to look backwards in order to understand the evolution of contemporary media products particularly in the study of 1960s TV Drama and Newspapers from the same period, being challenged to contextualise artefacts from the eras that have shaped the society and environments in which they learn.

 

To study Media at Preston Manor is to become media literate, to be able to decode and communicate in the language of the media, its technical elements, thematic and narrative structures, and the complex relationships between producers, products and audiences. These skills run through all of our topics from semiotic understanding, to magazine and newspaper covers, and Film Promotion. Media students at Preston Manor enjoy learning to consider and explore their own diverse backgrounds and multicultural identities as well as the extent to which these are reflected accurately in the media, providing students with the equality of opportunity to actively and positively participate in a media world, and to appreciate the part the media plays in a tolerant, democratic society and in reflecting the beliefs, values and concerns of British life, in particular relation to the topics of Print and Online News.

 

Through the discovery of practical media skills, our students gather the expertise to themselves become creators, and to utilise the features of construction they have identified to express themselves, achieve excellence in the formation of their own products and to realise their own ideas about how the contemporary media operates.

 

Key Stage 4 Media

 

At GCSE level, students will explore pathways through the language and technical concepts to discuss, analyse, and produce media products, understanding the core theoretical framework: media language, and being able to identify representations and their related issues, consider core audiences and their needs; developing a thorough overview of the systems and structures of the contemporary media industry. Students will build knowledge of key set media products, covering all media forms: British newspapers and their place in our democracy, UK TV Drama, music magazines, paired music videos, film and video game promotion, BBC Radio.

 

Key Stage 5 Media

 

As learners progress to KS5 study, they will hone their high level analytical skills through a complex understanding of the varying social, political, cultural, economic, and historical contextual factors which influence the media and its consumption, as well as the influence of the media on democracy and social values.Students will challenge themselves to gain comprehensive skills of evaluation and critique, especially of media theories, to develop opinions and build arguments about the modern media landscape, including US and foreign language Drama, charity and corporate advertising, film promotion over time, video game audiences, the British press. With this breadth of knowledge, students will employ precise technical ability to produce thematically linked productions across media forms which present professional conventions.