This module provides students with a sound critical framework within which to navigate the changing global media forms and structures and to understand its role in shaping politics, economics, business and a range of legal and ethical issues. Students will examine specific media platforms and their evolution, the history of media in different parts of the world and the increasing role it plays in the more connected global population today. They will understand its impact as a driver of change in areas such as day-to-day life as well as in specific fields such as business marketing, changing employment patterns and opportunities and in big world fields where elections might be influenced or policies changed. Assessment is 50% weighted for examination, and 50% on research and creative design tasks that give an authentic student experience in the field as well as the critical academic framework within which to interrogate perceptions of truth & reality.
Learning Aims (include but not limited to)
Students will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical and questioning approach to information that may be taken for granted within the media field;
- Demonstrate independence of thought; analyse the relationships between media platforms, their users, suppliers and audiences;
- Understand the evolving nature of the ways politics and business both drive and react to the changing media landscape;
- Design and implement research techniques in exploring the effects of the changing media in a global society;
- Represent information appropriately and analyse, evaluate and interrogate it in discussion and in writing;
- Demonstrate critical understanding of the historical development of media in all its forms;
- Understand the changing legal, ethical and moral considerations relevant to the pace and evolution of media around the world;
- Engage in critical debate about academic theories relevant to media issues;
- Demonstrate sophisticated practical skills by providing opportunities for creative media production list of aims.
Assessment Objectives
Assessment objectives are designed to mirror those in use for UK A-level Media Studies specifications and all exam boards.
The exams and non-exam assessment will measure how students have achieved the following assessment objectives.
Indicative Assessment Tasks
AO 1: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework of media and contexts of media and their influence on media products and processes.
AO 2: Reason, interpret and communicate mathematically. Students should be able to:
- Analyse media products, including in relation to their contexts and through the use of academic theories;
- Evaluate academic theories;
- Make judgements and draw conclusions.
AO 3: Create media products for an intended audience, by applying knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework of media to communicate meaning.
| Assessment | Indicative weighting | Indicative length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |
A Research Task k, selected from a pre-
published list of fields and with a title agreed with a teacher (supervisor) AO2 |
10 credits | 2000 Words (notional) |
| 2. |
A project completion, selected from a series
of client-briefs AO3 |
5 credits | 1000 Words (notional) |
| 3. |
Paper 1 AOs 1,2,3 |
15 credits | 2 hours 30 minutes |