VCE Media

Media provides students with the opportunity to examine the media in both historical and contemporary contexts while developing skills in media design and production in a range of media forms.

VCE Media provides students with the opportunity to analyse media concepts, forms and products in an informed and critical way. Students consider narratives, technologies and processes from various perspectives including an analysis of structure and features. They examine debates about the media’s role in contributing to and influencing society. Students integrate these aspects of the study through the individual design and production of their media representations, narratives and products.

Media forms, representations and Australian stories 

In this unit students develop an understanding of audiences and the core concepts underpinning the construction of representations and meaning in different media forms. They explore media codes and conventions and the construction of meaning in media products.  Students analyse how representations, narrative and media codes and conventions contribute to the construction of the media realities audiences engage with and read. Students gain an understanding of audiences as producers and consumers of media products. Through analysing the structure of narratives, students consider the impact of media creators and institutions on production. They develop research skills to investigate and analyse selected narratives focusing on the influence of media professionals on production genre and style. Students develop an understanding of the features of Australian fictional and non-fictional narratives in different media forms.  Students work in a range of media forms and develop and produce representations to demonstrate an understanding of the characteristics of each media form, and how they contribute to the communication of meaning.

Areas of Study:

1. Media Representations

Students will be able to explain how media representations in a range of media products and forms, and from different periods of time, locations and contexts, are constructed, distributed, engaged with, consumed and read by audiences.

2. Media Forms in Production

Students will be able to use the media production process to design, produce and evaluate media representations for specified audiences in a range of media forms.

3. Australian Stories

Students will be able to analyse how the structural features of Australian fictional and non-fictional stories in two or more media forms engage, and are consumed and read by, audiences.

Narrative across media forms  

Fictional and non-fictional narratives are fundamental to the media and are found in all media forms. Media industries such as journalism and film-making are built upon the creation and distribution of narratives constructed in the form of a series of interconnected images and/or sounds and/or words, and using media codes and conventions.  New media forms and technologies enable participants to design, create and distribute narratives in hybrid forms such as collaborative and user-generated content, which challenges the traditional understanding of narrative form and content. Narratives in new media forms have generated new modes of audience engagement, consumption and reception.  In this unit students further develop an understanding of the concept of narrative in media products and forms in different contexts. Narratives in both traditional and newer forms include film, television, sound, news, print, photography, games, and interactive digital forms. Students analyse the influence of developments in media technologies on individuals and society, examining in a range of media forms the effects of media convergence and hybridisation on the design, production and distribution of narratives in the media and audience engagement, consumption and reception. Students undertake production activities to design and create narratives that demonstrate an awareness of the structures and media codes and conventions appropriate to corresponding media forms.

Areas of Study:

1. Narrative, style and genre

Students will be able to analyse the intentions of media creators and producers and the influences of narratives on the audience in different media forms.

2. Narratives in production

Students will be able to apply the media production process to create, develop and construct narratives.

3. Media and change

Students will be able to discuss the influence of new media technologies on society, audiences, the individual, media industries and institutions.

Media Narratives and pre-production 

In this unit students explore stories that circulate in society through media narratives. They consider the use of media codes and conventions to structure meaning, and how this construction is influenced by the social, cultural, ideological and institutional contexts of production, distribution, consumption and reception. Students assess how audiences from different periods of time and contexts are engaged by, consume and read narratives using appropriate media language. Narratives are defined as the depiction of a chain of events in a cause and effect relationship occurring in physical and/or virtual space and time in non-fictional and fictional media products. Students use the pre-production stage of the media production process to design the production of a media product for a specified audience. They investigate a media form that aligns with their interests and intent, developing an understanding of the media codes and conventions appropriate to audience engagement, consumption and reception within the selected media form. They explore and experiment with media technologies to develop skills in their selected media form, reflecting on and documenting their progress. Students undertake pre-production processes appropriate to their selected media form and develop written and visual documentation to support the production and post-production of a media product in Unit 4.

Areas of Study:

1. Narrative and Ideology

Students will be able to analyse how narratives are constructed and distributed, and how they engage, are consumed and are read by the intended audience and present-day audiences.

2. Media production development

Students will be able to research aspects of a media form and experiment with media technologies and media production processes to inform and document the design of a media production.

3. Media production design

Students will be able to develop and document a media production design in a selected media form for a specified audience.

 Media production and issues in the media 

In this unit students focus on the production and post-production stages of the media production process, bringing the media production design created in Unit 3 to its realisation. They refine their media production in response to feedback and through personal reflection, documenting the iterations of their production as they work towards completion. Students explore the relationship between the media and audiences, focusing on the opportunities and challenges afforded by current developments in the media industry. They consider the nature of communication between the media and audiences, explore the capacity of the media to be used by governments, institutions and audiences, and analyse the role of the Australian government in regulating the media.

Areas of Study:

1. Media Production

Students will be able to produce, refine and resolve a media product designed in Unit 3.

2. Agency and control in and of the Media

Students will be able to discuss issues of agency and control in the relationship between the media and its audience.