GCSE Explained

Learning Objectives:
I will be introduced to the Media Studies framework.
I will mark some examples of GCSE Media Studies coursework using WJEC guidelines.

Key words: Coursework, Assessment, 


Welcome to Media Studies GCSE at The De La Salle Academy.

You will be studying and creating different types of media over a two year period.
There are two main parts to the progrramme:

Unit 1. External Assessment: Written Examinations: Worth 40% of your final grade
To take place in JUNE 2017.
The topic for the exam will be advertising and marketing; 
Thinking about the Media: Investigating and Planning

Section A: Thinking about the media - Investigating
Four questions: candidates respond to stimulus material chosen from a topic set by WJEC.
This section will also assess the way the contemporary media is convergent.
The topic for section A will be News

Section B: Thinking about the media - Planning
A series of tasks: candidates demonstrate planning and creative skills through a series of creative tasks which demonstrates knowledge of the convergent nature of the contemporary media.
The topic for section B will be News

Unit 2. Controlled Assessment. Worth 60% of your final grade

Creating for the media: Investigating and Producing

Coursework to be marked internally and externally.
Three pieces of work from at least two different media:

• Two textual investigations on two different media areas [one must be print-based] (20%) 
• 400 – 850 words or equivalent, (10% for each investigation)

The first textual investigation will be based on GENRE

The second textual investigation will be based on narrative or representation.

• One media production consisting of research, planning, the production itself and an evaluation of the production (40%). 

2015

As detailed in the online specification, the unit 1 exam topic for June 2015 is Print Advertising for section A and TV Advertising for section B. The resource material for section A will be provided in print format.

For 2015, the following productions are not permitted, as they are based on the unit 1 topic of Advertising and Marketing:

• Music video

• Adverts

• Film or TV trailer

• Film/TV/music poster campaign

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For genre, candidates study:
 generic features, conventions and iconography
 principles of repetition and variation of a repertoire of elements
 hybridity
 intertextuality
 genres – relationship between organisational and audience/user needs.

For narrative, candidates study:
 narrative construction and the role of editing in creating narratives (to include different types of montage)
 implied narratives – visual organisation, hierarchies and compositional codes
 narrative structures (based for example on equilibrium, disequilibrium and restoration of equilibrium; binary oppositions and their resolution; open & closed narratives; interactive narratives; linear and non-linear narratives; multi-stranded or flexi-narratives)
 character functions within narratives
 settings and locations in which narratives take place.

For representation, candidates study:
 what makes representations - images plus points of view about them
 the processes of 're-presenting' mediated versions of the 'real' world
 stereotypes and representations - processes of categorisation, identification and recognition
 the way people and groups of people are represented in the media - in terms of gender, ethnicity, cultural diversity, age and nation
 the way events and issues are represented in the media.