GCSE Media Studies

1. GCSE Media Studies We are learning to: understand what media studies is and a brief history of how it has changed.

2. Expectations • Always enter the room in an orderly manner and start the lesson by copying the D.T.L. (date, title, learning intentions) • Always maintain a high level of presentation in all analysis and production work. • Listen when someone is speaking to the group. • Please don’t shout out. • Always aim to complete tasks within the set time limit • Always read your feedback and targets – this will give you advice to improve your work. • Pay attention when looking at examples of work – you can always learn something from them! • Always try to meet your targets in your next piece of work.

3. Media is a means of ‘mass communication’ • A medium is something that is between the creator (producer) and the person or people (audience) with whom they wish to communicate. • Television, Film, Radio, Newspapers and magazines are all media and we have come to call them the media. “A ‘medium’ is a method of communication. It is something that is in the middle.” What different kinds of media can you think of?

4. Communication There are many different forms of communication that we study for Media Studies. We can put them into three main areas: Audio-Visual Media Print-based Media ICT-based Media Categorise all the media you know into the three sections. Copy the following mind map to help you …

5. Audio-visual Media Print-based Media Media Studies is…… ICT-based Media Cross-Media Forms

6. How the media communicates to you! • Before any of those media forms were invented (and you will learn how and why they were invented), humans relied on various interpersonal communication – and we still do! • Many aspects of interpersonal communication are used to make meaning in newspapers, television, films.

7. The Five Senses: Sight Hearing Touch Smell Taste Verbal Communication Tone of voice Volume Vocabulary Accent Non-Verbal Communication Appearance Facial Expression Posture Eye contact Interpersonal Communication Signs, Codes, Symbols Religious symbols Greetings Manners Written/Visual Communication Letters Drawing/Graffiti Books Poems

8. Think About it… • We use our five senses to help us send and receive communication BUT they cannot make sense of what they receive without the help of our brain. • The eye, for example, can see things but it cannot make sense of them without the brain. • Our brain interprets and understands what the eye sees and the same is true of the other four senses!

9. Perception is everything… • Since the day you were born though, your brain has been collecting information like a huge computer hard drive. • We use this store of information in order to make sense of what we see, often by making links with what we have previously experienced. • Different colours, sounds, shapes, symbols, smells, typefaces, words, objects and images can trigger our memories. • However, not everyone perceives the world around them in quite the same way or makes the same interpretations. • Why might one person perceive something in a different way to someone else?

10. Perception Colours can be observed in different ways by different audiences. Match the colour with its associated meanings – record your answers in your exercise books. red pink brownorangeyellow greenbluepurple white black power light royalty calmness nature warmth sunshine death goodness masculinity freshness happiness evil purity luxury cleanliness energy warmth passion mystery desire innocence ambition healing tropics war danger femininity power

11. So How Can We Study The Media? • For the purpose of media study, we call any product of a media production process a media ‘text’ • What we study about these ‘texts’ are called the key ideas of Media Studies. • There are 4 key points you will need to address when analysing texts: • Media Language • Audience • Representation • Institution

12. GCSE Media Studies Skills There are two main subject specific skills you will need to develop over the next two years: • Textual analysis skills • Practical media production skills You will also need to learn lots of subject-specific vocabulary to get higher grades and use these in your analyses and evaluations!

13. Practical Media Production • The purpose of producing your own media texts is a good way to use your skills in creative activities and demonstrate that you are capable of using ICT effectively. • In practical work, you will be required to reflect on the decisions and processes you use when making your ‘texts’. • This year, you are going to work on: • Producing your own Sitcom. • Designing and creating a new magazine. • Creating an effective cross-media marketing campaign.

14. Assessment Your end of course portfolio should contain your three coursework pieces. TWO of these are completed in Year 10 and the other piece is completed during Year 11.Overall, your controlled assessment is worth 60% of your final grade.

15. Development of the Media over time You have 3 minutes. Put these media forms in order of when you believe they were invented: Internet Television Newspapers + Magazines Films Cable TV Radio Digital Communication (mobile phones, digital TV)

16. Web quest • Take a guess, how old do you think the media is? • When was the ‘Diamond Sutra’ printed? What was it? • Who mastered the printing techniques of ‘casting and setting’? When? • When did William Caxton patent his printing press? • What was the name of the first text he published and when was it published? • What was the first text published in English and when? • When was the first English newspaper published? • When was the first folio of Shakespeare’s plays published? • When was the BBC established and what does the acronym stand for? • When was the first tabloid paper established and what was it called? • When was the first typewriter patented and by whom? • Who invented the modern computer and when? • Who invented the first camera and when? • When was the gramophone invented? • Which company launched the first CD player and when? • When was the VCR invented? What does VCR stand for? • When was the DVD invented? What does DVD stand for? • What was the first film with sound and when was it filmed? • When was the first commercial radio station broadcast? • What was the first advertisement on commercial television? When was it shown and on what channel? • When was breakfast television launched? • Do you now wish to adjust your answer for Question 1?

17. Homework – Media Consumption Diary Take 10-15 minutes at the end of every day to note down what media you have consumed and for how long. You could include: - watching television (what you watch, how long for) - reading newspapers/magazines (which publications, what were the articles about?) - playing computer games (which games, how long for) - listening to MP3 Player/Radio stations (what you listened to, how long for) - using the internet (sites visited, time spent per day) Also, try to record any time you spent discussing media texts with friends and family!