The specification you will be following at Great Barr school is the AQA examination. The AS for this is composed of two main elements: MEST1 and MEST2. Both elements involve a comprehensive study of the way that media texts construct meaning for their audiences.
Students following this course will engage with the range of issues that surround the production, audiences and impact of media texts across three media platforms [film & broadcast fiction; print; emedia]. This is done by both the critical study of existing commercial media texts and the construction of their own media artifacts.
The course needs to begin by equipping all students with a common language [discourse] for engaging with the analysis and discussion of media texts. The first half-term will be work on the micro elements that will feed the macro studies of the second half-term which will be platforms. As the course progresses each feature will attempt to use extracts, texts and case-studies that will be relevant and useful to both the macro study and the cross media study and feed the ideas and techniques for the coursework.The first things students need to be clear on are definitions of the key concepts that underpin this subject.
A fundamental principle of our approach is that understanding only truly comes through the application of knowledge. The first two terms [modules 1.0 and 1.5] will involve the construction of several different types of media texts - advertising copy and images, magazine layout, web design and film production. In responding to each of the set production task briefs students will be applying the taught theory to real life situations with the accent on deadlines and an understanding of production contexts.
the study of a texts messages and ideologies is a critical part of the course, particularly what they tell us about changing social attitudes