Secondary School
Sixth Form > Our Pathways
Media forms are becoming ever more relevant in the ‘online’ age for every individual and every industry. This subject gives you the skills to access and understand the exciting and rapidly evolving media landscape, whilst applying ideas from great thinkers such as Marx, Gilroy and Mulvey.
Examination Board AQA
Specification Number 7572
Sixth Form > Our Pathways
Media forms are becoming ever more relevant in the ‘online’ age for every individual and every industry. This subject gives you the skills to access and understand the exciting and rapidly evolving media landscape, whilst applying ideas from great thinkers such as Marx, Gilroy and Mulvey.
Examination Board AQA
Specification Number 7572
The media stands as the most dynamic, innovative, and influential form of mass communication in contemporary times. Reports indicate that adults in Great Britain are engaging with media for nearly 8 hours daily. This includes watching films and television, reading newspapers, and navigating through online content. During these hours, we are exposed to others’ portrayals of the world, and our responses to these portrayals can shape our perceptions of people, places, and society, as well as our views on politics, culture, ourselves, and our roles within the world.
“In our media-saturated age, it’s vital that young people can evaluate competing sources of information, and communicate effectively within a fast-changing digital environment. This isn’t just a matter of easy-to-learn skills. They need critical knowledge of media texts, audiences and digital culture, and of the complex political economy and technology which underpin them.”
Professor Sonia Livingstone, OBE, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Media forms are becoming ever more relevant in the ‘online age’ for every individual and every industry. This subject gives you the skills to access and understand the exciting and rapidly evolving media landscape, whilst applying ideas from great thinkers such as Marx, Gilroy and Mulvey. You will study a range of products from legendary radio broadcast War of the Worlds (1938) to mobile game The Sims FreePlay, improving your written and spoken communication skills through your powers of analysis, discussion and debate. You will also have an opportunity to explore your practical and creative skills through media production.
Media Studies will also help you to develop valuable transferable skills such as critical thinking, analysis, research, planning, skills of enquiry and evaluation, time management, essay writing skills and more.
Your studies will complement and assist your learning in other subjects such as English Language and Literature, Humanities, Sociology, and the Extended Project.
Media Language – how the media through their forms, codes, conventions and techniques communicate meaning.
Media Representation – how the media portray events, issues, individuals and social groups.
Media Industries – how the media industries’ processes of ownership, production, distribution and circulation affect media forms and platforms.
Media Audiences – how media forms target, reach and address audiences, how audiences interpret and respond to them, and how members of audiences become producers themselves.
For more insight into the core content, have a look at these videos by Mrs Fisher:
Theories: Theory Playlist
Set Products: Set Products Playlist Videos
Ms Lyttle
A minimum of 5 9-5 GCSE grades, which must include a grade 5 or above in either English Language or English Literature.
Previous study of social science or a creative subject to GCSE level would be beneficial if you have not studied Media before. Previous experience of studying Media Studies is not required but would be advantageous.
Submission of a piece of work to the Head of Media Studies one week before Sixth Form Interviews is not compulsory but will provide you with an opportunity to showcase your ideas. The work should be no longer than 1000 words or 3 minutes (dependant on format) and should be an analysis and commentary on one of the following: the impact of social media; the representation of class; gender as a social construction; boxsets versus films.
| Assessment | Topic Area | Duration | Value |
| Paper 1 | Media Language and Media Representations | 2 hour written exam | 35% |
| Paper 2 | Media in Television, Magazine and Online | 2 hour written exam | 35% |
| Assessment | Coursework | Practical media product in the format of their choice from a selection of annually changing pre-set briefs. | 30% |
Paper 1: section A will focus on Media Language and Media Representations. Questions in this section will test advertising and marketing and music video. Section B will focus on Media Industries and Media Audiences. Questions in this section can test any two of the following forms: radio, newspapers, film (industries only).
2 hours • 84 marks • 35% of A-level
Paper 2: questions will focus on the in-depth media forms of television, magazines and online, social and participatory media/video games.
2 hours • 84 marks • 35% of A-level
Non-exam Assessment: students develop their practical, analysis and evaluation skills in the production of a set of media products in the format of their choice from a selection of annually changing pre-set briefs.
60 marks • 30% of A-level
Over one hundred universities offer courses in Media, Communications and Cultural Studies in the UK. A GCE in Media Studies can also help you to progress in other areas such English, Humanities and Social Sciences.
There is a huge array of career opportunities in the media; it is an industry growing at an exponential rate. According to PwC’s latest figures, the entertainment and media sector is worth over £76 billion and the video games sector is currently valued at more than half the UK’s whole entertainment industry. If you are looking for a job in this area, studying Media at GCE and at degree level is a route into careers such as TV and film production, marketing and advertising, journalism, production/project management, interactive media, and digital marketing. It could also help to secure roles in technical production, special effects, web design and post-production.
Not convinced by Media degrees? Read this Guardian article
| The Essential Introduction: Media Studies | Rayner, Wall & Kruger |
| Mythologies | Barthes |
| An Introduction: Media Studies | Dutton |
| Ways of Seeing | Berger |
| Reading Television | Fiske & Hartley |
| Understanding Television | Goodwin & Whannel |
| Manufacturing Consent | Herman & Chomsky |
| A Level Media Studies | Explore Website |
| Ofcom | Explore Website |
| Screen Online | Explore Website |
Ms Lyttle
Wood Green Academy is an 11-19 over-subscribed National Support School specialising in Sport, Maths and Computing.
