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Teacher Resource Bank

GCSE Media Studies and

GCSE Media Studies (Double Award)
• Course Outlines

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The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (company number
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Dr Michael Cresswell, Director General.
GCSE Media Studies and GCSE Media Studies Double Award

Models of Delivery
Introduction

The new specification provides choice from a range of delivery models according to
the priorities and needs of individual centres. The sample models provided here
illustrate just four of the possible routes through the specification and are by no
means the only ones that can be devised; however, they are intended to reflect what
may be a typical delivery pattern for centres wishing to offer the following:

1. Double Award over three years

2. Double Award over two years
3. Single Award over two years
4. Single Award over one year.

It is important to stress that the models offered are intended to support the
production of schemes of work which centres will need to develop according to the
needs and interests of their candidates, the expertise of their staff and the resource
levels available.

Unit 1 External Assessment

Teachers are advised to pay attention to the rubric given in the AQA specification on
Page 8. As the Unit 1 topic changes each year, the course may need to be adapted
from year to year to prevent any overlap of the chosen Unit 2 assignments with the
Unit 1 external assessment. The brief for the Unit 1 written paper will be available
four weeks prior to the external examination. Once the brief has been given to the
candidates, no further teaching on this topic can take place. Instead, students should
be encouraged to carry out their own research and develop their own ideas using the
resources provided by the centre and the internet and resources to be found
elsewhere.

Unit 2 Controlled Assessments

In planning course outlines, teachers should ensure that all internal marking and
standardisation for Unit 2 is completed in time to meet the external deadline set by
AQA (7 May) for the controlled assessment work to be sent to the Moderator.
Centres will be informed which candidates’ work is required by the moderator and will
always include the highest and lowest ranked folders. Similar procedures will need
to be in place for the assessment of Unit 4.

Units 3 and 4

Both units are likely to be more successful if links can be made with media
professionals. Examples are given in the models as to how this might be achieved.

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Option One: GCSE Media Studies (Double Award): Three Year
Course
Teachers will have eight terms to deliver this course, with the final (ninth) term being
dedicated to revision and practice for the Unit 3 exam, once the Unit 4 coursework
has been submitted.

The course needs to cover:

• the four Key Concepts

• the three Controlled Assessments taken from banks of set assignments
• the knowledge and understanding of the set topic required for Unit 1
• the skills to allow students to respond to the Brief for Unit 4
• the knowledge and understanding of two media industries required for Unit 3.

Given below is just one example of many possible approaches.

Year One Year Two Year Three

Term 1 Term 4 Term 7

Media Language & Pre- Unit 2: Assignment 2 Units 3 & 4 Research:

Production skills [Advertising and Print/Electronic Publishing
Marketing] and Web-based industries
Audience
Production Skills Unit 4: Responding to a
Media Brief

Term 2 Term 5 Term 8

Representation Unit 2: Assignment 3 Unit 4: Responding to a

[Promotion of Music] Media Brief
Unit 2: Assignment 1 [Web-
based Media]

Institutions

Term 3 Term 6 Term 9

Unit 1 Set Brief preparation
Unit 1 Exam
Advertising industry
Units 3 & 4 Research: Revision of Key Concepts
Print/Electronic
Publishing and Web- Unit 3 Exam
based industries
Production skills

In the example provided, the centre involved has already worked with their local
newspaper on previous Media courses and pays a professional designer to work on
its website who is willing to talk about his work. Therefore the Print/Electronic
Publishing and Web-based industries are being explored for Unit 3. To keep the
course as broad as possible, it has been decided to use a different medium for Unit
2: Assignment 3.

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The centre’s Media department has ready access to a computer suite where
students can work on DTP and web-design software. They have more limited access
to video cameras and video-editing software, but can use them for short, intense
periods of time.

YEAR ONE

Term 1: Media Language, Pre-Production skills & Audience

Term 2: Representation, Institutions, Assignment 1

The teaching of the Key Concepts in the first two terms will be based around at least
two media, the Unit 1 Topic and Web-based Media, in order to support the Unit 1
Exam and the first Unit 2 assignment. This will also support Unit 3 when the students
have to research the Web-based media industry. Students will use key texts from at
least two media as their stimuli and will undertake as much practical work as possible
to allow them to embed the theory through contextual work.

After studying the first three of the Key Concepts as well as pre-production skills, the
students are in a good position to undertake the first assignment. This will then be
banked within the centre for submission the following year.

Term 3: Preparation for Set Brief, Exam, Production skills

Having studied the relevant media industry and a wide variety of texts throughout the
year, students will sit the Unit 1 exam at the end of the first year. This will enable
them to retake the exam in year two if necessary. Although the retake exam will be
on a new Topic, the use of at least two media throughout this first year should enable
students to transfer their learning to other media if necessary.

Exam (Please note: the date of the exam will be set by AQA. The provisional
date is Friday 25 June 2010 a.m.)

After the exam, there will be a short introduction to the advertising industry. Students
will be asked to apply the Key Concepts to that industry, and then to create
presentations about one advert that they enjoy and one that they find annoying. This
should lead to an understanding of the different ways in which adverts grab the
audience’s attention and of the Uses and Gratifications theory.

YEAR TWO

Term 4: Assignment 2, Production Skills

Students will develop their understanding of the advertising industry and, in

particular, investigate how campaigns are created. They will analyse the
representations created within adverts and the impact these have on their audiences,
before carrying out Assignment 2. They will then have time to access the hardware
and software to be used for Assignment 3, working on a shorter piece of work, to
learn the relevant skills. This will emphasise the need for accurate planning.

Term 5: Assignment 3

Students will spend most of the term on Assignment 3, carrying out independent
research and planning before combining together into small groups to complete the

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detailed planning needed. They will produce their music videos together before
writing up final evaluations.

Term 6: Units 3 & 4 research

The students should already have some understanding of three media industries: the
Unit 1 Topic, Web-based technologies and Advertising and Marketing. From this,
they will be able to work out what they already know about the two industries for Unit
3. Teachers in this centre will arrange for the class to visit the local newspaper early
in the term, both to see the production process and to undertake a mini-assignment
which can be continued back in class. Before the visit students will have worked out
questions about the industry to fill in some of the gaps in their knowledge about Print
Publishing. The mini assignment will include teaching of some of the relevant
production skills.

Later in the term, the centre’s web designer will visit the class to run workshops in
using relevant software and to lead a Q and A session about their work.

When the teachers know what the Unit 4 brief will be, they will research possible
visitors or locations to help their students to understand the issues involved.

YEAR THREE

Term 7 & 8: Industry research and Unit 4 Brief

The term will begin with revision of information about advertising campaigns and how
different media forms and platforms require different approaches. Further research
will then be undertaken to complete understanding of the two industries being
studied.

Students will then be introduced to the Unit 4 Brief, with at least one visiting speaker
or visit out of school to help put the issue into a real-world context. Students will then
be given time to research, plan and create a treatment for each response to the Brief.
The treatment is to be presented to the client (teacher) before Christmas.

This will leave students with a term to create the final products.

Term 9: Revision of Key Concepts

Teachers will lead revision of the Key Concepts of Language, Representation,

Audience and Institutions, asking students to apply them to the media industries for
the Unit 3 written paper.

Unit 3: External Assessment

End of course

Option Two: GCSE Media Studies (Double Award): Two Year

Course
In this model, teachers will have five terms to deliver the course, with the final (sixth)
term once again being dedicated to revision and practice for the Unit 3 exam, after
the Unit 4 coursework has been submitted.

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Again, the course needs to cover:

• the four Key Concepts

• the three Controlled Assessments taken from banks of set assignments
• the knowledge and understanding of the set Topic required for Unit 1
• the skills to allow students to respond to the Brief for Unit 4
• the knowledge and understanding of two media industries required for Unit 3.

In this example, the centre already has connections with a TV production company
through former students, and can build on that link. The local BBC radio station has
offered to work with centres in the area in a variety of ways. Therefore the TV and
Radio industries are being explored for Unit 3. To focus on key production skills, it
has been decided to use these areas within Unit 2 as well, though obviously more
than two media must be used here. Centres are encouraged to explore and develop
their own links with media industries in a similar way.

Year One Year Two

Term 1 Term 4

Media Language & Pre-Production skills Unit 2: Assignment 3 [Advertising and

Marketing – one TV and two Radio
Audience adverts]

Unit 2: Assignment 1 [Packaging of Units 3 & 4 Further Research: TV and

DVDs] Radio industries

Representation

Term 2 Term 5

Unit 2: Assignment 2 [Promotion of Music Unit 4: Responding to a Media Brief

– MySpace and music video]

Institutions

Unit 1 Topic [e.g. Action Comics]

Term 3 Term 6

Unit 1 Set Brief preparation Revision of Key Concepts

Unit 1 Exam Unit 3 Exam

Production Skills / Industry Research

YEAR ONE

Term 1:

Teaching of each of the Key Concepts would also focus on the topic for Unit 1 (action
comics in this example).

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Media Language & Pre-Production skills

• Film Language, to include shot sizes, camera angles & movements, editing,
sound etc. Use TV openings as the main texts for analysis – How language
creates meaning (denotation and connotation). Narrative.
• Storyboarding and scripting skills.
• Print (inc. comics) and Website Language, to continue use of camera and
framing, but also fonts, layout, colour, graphic devices, navigation etc. Narrative
in print.
• Deconstruct a DVD front cover and identify its audience.
• Print layout planning.

Audience

• Targeting an audience, audience profiles, positioning. Mode of address.

• Genres and codes & conventions. How genres and audiences are linked. Why
codes and conventions are important.

Unit 2: Assignment Bank 1: Packaging of DVDs

• Analyse the DVD covers for two films. How does each cover they appeal to its
target audience?
• Design a DVD cover for a film targeted at a specific audience, taking the cover
shots using a digital camera. [The photography is a good preparation for the later
Assignment 2 band promotion work and for framing shots for TV production in
Unit 4.]
• Explain your ideas with reference to your use of media language and how the
DVD cover appeals to its target audience. [total assignment approx 500 words]

Representation

• Mise-en-scène.
• Representations of people, places and ideas: gender, social class, ethnic groups,
ideology.
• Case study of a band and its image, looking at the music video, the website, the
CD covers etc. How has the band represented itself and its music?
• Designing websites including navigation.

During this term, teachers should be collecting resources to support the Unit 1 written
paper, e.g. newspaper/online news reports, reviews relating to the topic, DVDs,
podcasts, URLs.

Term 2:

Unit 2: Assignment Bank 2: Promotion of Music

• Explore how one band is promoted across two different media (music video,
internet sites).
• Produce a mock-up design for a MySpace page, and a storyboard for a music
video to promote a band.
• Explain how the promotional products use a common idea in two different media,
and how they deal with representation and institutional issues [total assignment
approx 1000 words].

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Institutions

• How media form influences product: adaptations to different media, e.g. how was
the music video’s imagery used in other media?
• Synergy.
• Production processes and industry roles.
• Finance.
• Scheduling, distribution.
• Media Codes and legislation (e.g. copyright issues in internet sites).

Unit 1 Topic

• Introduce Unit 1 Topic, using guidance from AQA about the topic to inform the
delivery of the sessions.
• Investigate the topic in relation to the key concepts, ensuring that students have
access to a variety of texts. They will need to consider style, presentation, values,
audience and representation within these texts, and develop an understanding of
codes and conventions.
• How new technologies are involved in the consumption and production of the
specific media form.
• Current debates and audience issues, as well as issues of bias and
representation.
• Give opportunities to create pre-production and production work in response to
the topic. Revise scripting, storyboarding, print and website design skills.
• Remember that AO2 Analysis and Response is not being tested in this paper.

Term 3:

Unit 1 External Assessment: Preparation for Set Brief

Exam (Please note: the date of the exam will be set by AQA. The provisional
date is Friday 25 June 2010 a.m.)

Production Skills & Industry Research

• Workshops with the TV crew, looking at specific production skills (e.g. continuity
editing – 180˚ rule, 30˚ rule, establishing shot, master shot, shot-reverse-shot etc.
Using a video camera and editing to create a simple sequence such as entering a
room and sitting down).
• Skills workshop – using the relevant hardware and software to create a radio
sequence.
• Evaluate sequences to learn from mistakes.

YEAR TWO

Term 4:

Unit 2: Assignment Bank 3: An advertising campaign

N.B Students should complete the practical work in groups of no more than 4. Editing
to be carried out individually (this can mean the development of four different
products or dividing equal parts of one production into individually edited sections –
this should be indicated in the evaluation).

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• Research and Planning (individual evidence needed): research into similar
advertising campaigns and their audiences (inc. bullet point analyses around
screengrabs and annotated scripts); planning inc. scripts and storyboards. Paired
assessment of ideas and checking for use of codes and conventions. Final group
planning.
• Production – filming and sound recording.
• Post-production – editing, sound mixing.
• Evaluation (individual work, 700-800 words).
• Students to select work for submission – maximum 12 pages of planning and
research.

Research into media industries

• Give students the Unit 4 Brief, acting as the client. Discuss preliminary ideas, but
then allow time for research.
• Research into TV and radio industries, including visits to media producers or
visits to classroom by media professionals. Workshops by professionals if
possible, Q&A session about industry roles if possible.
• Analyse texts to demonstrate possibilities.

Planning

• Students to use their research and their knowledge of production skills to plan
their response to the Brief.
• Create treatment – to be completed just after Christmas.

Term 5:

Unit 4 Brief

• Presentation of treatment to client.

• Creation of two final products.

Term 6:

Revision of Key Concepts

• Revise the Key Concepts of Language, Representation, Audience and

Institutions, asking students to apply them to the media industries for the Unit 3
external assessment

Unit 3 External Assessment

End of course

Option three: GCSE Media Studies: Single Award Two Year

Course
Teachers will have five terms to deliver the course, with the final term being
dedicated to preparation for the set topic for the Unit 1 exam. In this model students
are introduced to the Key Concepts of Media Studies using a variety of texts linked to
the intended Assignment Bank choices. They will also reinforce their practical skills
via a series of mini workshop activities. The emphasis is on developing theoretical
and practical skills in the media forms chosen for assessment.

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For the single award, the course needs to cover:

• the four Key Concepts

• the three Controlled Assessments taken from set assignment banks
• the knowledge and understanding required for Unit 1.

Year One Year Two

Term 1 Term 4

Media Language & Pre-Production skills Unit 2: Assignment 3 [Film opening]

Audience Mock Exam for Unit 1

Term 2 Term 5

Unit 2: Assignment 1 [Magazines] Revision of Key Concepts

Representation Unit 1 Topic [e.g. Reality TV]

Term 3 Term 6

Institutions Unit 1 Set Brief preparation

Unit 2: Assignment 2 [Print and Radio Unit 1 Exam

advertising]

YEAR ONE

Term 1: Media Language, Pre-Production skills and Audience

• Film language, to include shot sizes, camera angles and movements, editing,
sound etc. Use film openings as the main texts for analysis – linking in to the
subject chosen for Assignment 3. How language creates meaning (denotation
and connotation). Narrative.
• Storyboarding and scripting skills.
• Print and Website language, to continue use of camera and framing, but also
fonts, layout, colour, graphic devices, navigation etc. Narrative in print.
• Deconstruct a magazine front cover and identify its audience.
• Targeting an audience, audience profiles, positioning. Mode of address.
• Genres and codes & conventions. How genres and audiences are linked. Why
codes and conventions are important.
• Print layout planning.

Term 2: Assignment Bank 1 and Representation

• Unit 2: Assignment 1, students to complete as individual coursework.

• Analyse the covers of two popular magazines. How do they appeal to their
audiences?
• Design the cover of one edition of a magazine aimed at a specific audience.
• Explain their intentions with reference to their use of media language and how the
cover appeals to its target audience. [total assignment approx 500 words]
• Mise-en-scène.

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• Representations of people, places and ideas: gender, social class, ethnic groups,
ideology.
• Analyse the opening of a major film for the representation of the protagonist (and
antagonist), social groups, the location and the issues within the film.
• Analyse the representation of people within a radio advert – vocabulary, syntax,
pace, casting and use of gender, accents, use of other sounds to convey
information etc.
• Scripting radio adverts.

Term 3: Institutions and Assignment Bank 2

• How media form influences product: adaptations to different media, how was the
radio advert’s campaign dealt with in other media?
• Synergy
• Production processes and industry roles
• Finance
• Scheduling, distribution
• Advertising Codes and legislation

Unit 2: Assignment Bank 2: students to complete as individual coursework.

• Compare two advertisements for the same product or service across two
media (one print, one radio).
• Produce a mock-up design for a billboard advert, and a script for a radio
advert for the same product.
• Explain how the adverts use a common idea in two different media, and how
they deal with representation and institutional issues [total assignment approx
1000 words].

YEAR TWO

Term 4: Assignment Bank 3 and Mock External Assessment

• Assignment Bank 3 Moving Image. Students to complete the practical work in

groups of no more than 4.
• Continuity editing – 180˚ rule, 30˚ rule, establishing shot, master shot, shot-
reverse-shot etc. Analyse a text to demonstrate.
• Skills workshop – using a video camera and editing to create a simple sequence
such as entering a room and sitting down.
• Evaluate sequences to learn from mistakes.
• Research and Planning (individual evidence needed): research into film opening
sequences and their audiences (inc. screen grabs?), planning inc. script and
storyboard (possibly set / location sketches). Group assessment of ideas and
checking for use of codes and conventions. Final group script and storyboard.
• Production – filming and recording sound.
• Post-production – editing, sound mixing and titles.
• Evaluation (individual work, 700-800 words).
• Students to select work for submission – maximum 12 pages of planning and
research.
• Mock exams are often timetabled in this term. If so, set a mock exam (written by
the teacher) on a film genre related to Assignment 3. A specimen paper is
available from AQA along with the mark scheme. These can be adapted to cover
the topic used for Assignment 3. This means that students should not need

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 additional preparation on the overall topic of the exam as they should already
have carried out research into this medium for their assignment.
• Two weeks for students to prepare their response to the mock exam brief before
sitting the exam itself.

During this term, teachers should be collecting resources to support the Unit 1 written
paper, e.g. newspaper / online news reports, reviews relating to the topic, DVDs,
podcasts, URLs.

Term 5: Revision of Key Concepts and Unit 1 Topic

• Revise the Key Concepts of Language, Representation, Audience and

Institutions, asking students to apply them to the medium for the Unit 1 written
paper.
• Introduce Unit 1 Topic, using guidance from AQA about the topic to inform the
delivery of the sessions.
• Investigate the topic in relation to the key concepts, ensuring that students have
access to a variety of texts. They will need to consider style, presentation, values,
audience and representation within these texts, and develop an understanding of
codes and conventions.
• How new technologies are involved in the consumption and production of the
specific media form.
• Current debates and audience issues, as well as issues of bias and
representation.
• Give opportunities to create pre-production and production work in response to
the topic. Revise scripting, storyboarding, print and website design skills.
• Bear in mind that AO2 Analysis and Response is not being tested in this paper.

Term 6: Preparation for Unit 1 Brief

Unit 1 External Assessment (Please note: the date of the exam will be set by
AQA. The provisional date is Friday 25 June 2010 a.m.)

End of course

Option Four: GCSE Media Studies (Single Award): One Year

Course
This delivery model would be undertaken over 2½ terms and would allow for
coverage of Units 1 and 2. The suggested choices from the 3 assignment banks is
intended to allow students to cover the requisite range of key concepts and media,
but is by no means the only possible combination.

YEAR ONE
Term 1
September: Introduction to the Single Award/ Understanding of Key Concepts
and Skills development

October: Unit 2 Assignment 1 (Web-based Media)

November: Assignment 1 completed; begin Unit 2 Assignment 2 (Film

Promotion)

December: Unit 2 Assignment 2 completed

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 Term 2
January: Begin Preparation for Unit 1
Begin Unit 2 Assignment 3 (Promotion of Music)

February/ Continue Unit 1 Preparation

March: Continue Unit 2 Assignment 3

Term 3
April: Unit 2 Assignment 3 completed
Final preparation for Unit 1 exam

May: Unit 1 exam

Term One:

Students will be introduced to the Key Concepts of Media Studies using a variety of
texts linked to the intended Assignment Bank choices. They will also reinforce their
practical skills via a series of mini workshop activities. The emphasis will be on
developing theoretical and practical skills in the media forms chosen for assessment.
Examples of coverage based on the Assignment Bank choices indicated in the above
model could be:

Web-based media

Deconstruction of a popular website home page, identifying the characteristic

features and audience appeal.

Film

Using a comparison of 2 campaigns (one blockbuster movie, one independent film)

identify how they differ in terms of production values and the representation of the
‘content’.

Popular Music

Examine two music videos (one using a ‘narrative’ style, one an ‘experimental’ style)
and their effectiveness in promoting the chosen track.

Unit 2 Assignment 1: Web-based media

Analytical Task:
‘Analyse the home pages of two popular entertainment websites. How does each site
appeal to its target audience?’
Research and Planning Task:
‘Design a home page for an entertainment website targeted at a specific audience.’

Unit 2 Assignment 2: Film Promotion

Analytical Tasks
‘Compare the impact and effectiveness of two promotional methods used by one film,
e.g. poster; cinema, television or viral trailer, web page, magazine article’
Research and Planning Tasks

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‘Print or web-based/new media – mock-up design for a poster, magazine article,
DVD case, internet home page, or other promotional material for a film’
‘Audio-Visual media – devise a storyboard for a trailer or a script for a television or
radio interview promoting the same film’

Term Two:

Preparation for Unit 1

Unit 2 Assignment Bank 3: Promotion of Music

Production Task
‘A three minute music video to accompany all or part of a track or campaign
consisting of at least three print or web-based advertisements to promote a band or
artiste’

Collaboration
‘For moving image work no more than four in the production team. For print and web-
based campaigns – three advertisements per individual’

Term Three

During the first half of this term all the internal marking and standardisation of
candidates’ work should be completed in order to meet the deadline for coursework
to be sent to the moderator which is 7 May.

Preparation for Unit 1

Prior to the release of the stimulus materials it would be advisable to recap the key
elements of the study already undertaken. The materials will be released 4 weeks
prior to the external assessment date, giving candidates time to research and plan
for the examination. Remember that during this period the teacher may advise, but
formal teaching should cease.

Unit 2 Assignment 3: Promotion of Music (continued)

Production Task
‘A three minute music video to accompany all or part of a track or campaign
consisting of at least three print or web-based advertisements to promote a band or
artiste’

Unit 1 External Assessment

Please note: the date of the exam will be set by AQA. The provisional date is Friday
25 June 2010 a.m.

End of course

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