VCE Media

The relationship between audiences and the media is dynamic and changing. Audiences engage with media products in many ways. They share a common language with media producers and construct meanings from the representations within a media product.

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.

Fictional and non-fictional narratives are fundamental to the media and are found in all media forms. Media industries such as journalism and filmmaking 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.

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.

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.