Courses

YEAR 10

2018 is the pilot year for this programme. The aim is to focus on practical skills and get students ready for senior Media Studies.

Along the way we will learn about

  • radio, film, print journalism, youtube channels
  • current events, ethical issues, advertising


Year 10 Media Studies - Course Outline

LEVEL 1

In Year 11 students can start Media Studies. The course introduces students to looking at media use, analysing film techniques and creating their own films.

Units of study include

  • Studying how you and a partner interact with the media (eg social media or TV) in similar or different way
  • Analysing how film scenes are created by using visual, sound and editing techniques
  • Planning a media product by writing a concept and treatment (eg storyboarding a music video) and including conventions of the genre and medium
  • Creating a media product by filming and editing it
  • Analysing a TV or film genre and looking at key conventions (eg reality TV or horror or sci-fi)


2018Subject Course Booklet MD100
MD100 2018 Year Planner

LEVEL 2

In Level 2 there is a focus on journalism and students also create short films. They study the horror genre for the external topic.

Units of work include

  • Writing a feature article which is a profile about one person, including interviewing and the drafting process
  • Planning a media product using conventions and coming up with a concept and treatment (eg print or short film)
  • Creating a media product, including filming and editing or doing the layout of an article
  • Analysing narrative conventions in a TV series across different episodes
  • Analysing a film genre to look at how it has changed over time (eg slasher films)
2018 Subject Course Booklet MD200
MD200 2018 Year Planner

LEVEL 3

In Level 3 students do either print journalism or documentaries and they look more widely at media industries and how they're developing in the modern era.

Units of work include

  • Researching a recent development in the media (eg fake news, streaming sites for TV)
  • Planning an extended media product (eg documentary or print)
  • Creating a media product
  • Analysing how genre reflects society (eg film noir)
  • Analysing how a film can be 'read' in different ways for meaning (eg feminist, psychological, genre, sociological)
2018 Subject Course Booklet MD300
MD300 2018 Year Planner

SCHOLARSHIP

Students can opt to do the Scholarship exam in Year 13. This has an extra cost of around $30. In 2017 the format of this exam has changed slightly from two essays to three, in a three hour exam. These can be linked to two of the topics we studied as a class, plus the student's own experiences making a media product.

See the NZQA information here or look through the folders of past papers and examplars on this page.

Essay topics could include

  • Analysing how a media industry is changing (eg with technology shifting to the internet) and implications for society (eg social, cultural); this could like to the 3.7 or 3.1 topics
  • Analysing how genre works as a way to categorise films using genre theory; this could link to the 3.4 and 2.4 topics