St Catherine's Catholic School

Media Studies

Head of Department (HOD): Mr J. Looney


At St Catherine’s we have a small but very enthusiastic and dedicated Media Studies department. We offer the OCR GCSE j200 Media studies course. It is taught by Mr J Hayter and Miss N Holsgrove.

KS3:

Although Media studies is not a separately taught subject in years 7,8 and 9 , some media activities are embedded in the KS3 curriculum and students have the opportunity to engage in media related activities (e.g. the School radio station and the creation of video resources and assemblies).Sound and video production skills are a good preparation for a possible GCSE option choice.

KS4:

Exam board and full GCSE course name: OCR J200 Media Studies GCSE

There are 3 components of the J200 course:

Component 01: Television and promoting media 35%

Television, students engage with an in-depth study of one contemporary and one historic television products, responding to questions covering the whole of the theoretical framework and a range of media contexts. We study the Police TV drama Cuffs

Promoting media, students study media products from the same global conglomerate producer illustrating the media forms of film, advertising and marketing, and video games. We study Warner products like The Lego Movie and music videos by artists like Bruno Mars, Tiny Tempah, Beyonce and Little Mix
 

Component 02: Music and news 35%

There are two sections:

Music, students engage with one in-depth study covering magazines, a comparative study of music videos and a study of contemporary radio. We study Mojo Magazine in detail and a range of its competitors

News, students engage with one in-depth study of online news, including its social and participatory media. Students also study contemporary and historical newspaper front pages and how they illustrate changing social, cultural, historical and political contexts.

Component 03/04: Creating media 30%

Students apply their knowledge and understanding of media language and representations to create media products of their own, using the theoretical framework to express and communicate meaning to an intended audience. This is announced by the exam board in March but and will be a children’s’ TV program pilot, a music video a website or a video game or a lifestyle magazine

Components 1 and 2 are assessed by two exams in June of y11

Component 3 (worth 30% of the total mark) is non-exam assessed but moderated by the exam board; in the past this was commonly called “coursework”.

Examples of this year’s hobby magazine coursework:  

 

How to Support your daughter in this Subject:

Watch a wide selection of TV programs including documentaries and dramas,

Listen to news programmes on the radio

Read a newspaper once a week

Listen to “The Media Show” on BBC Radio4  each Weds 4.20. You can listen on catch up here: BBC Radio 4 - The Media Show

Careers Information:

 

 

 Useful Weblinks:

There are so many, but in terms of preparing for the course and becoming familiar with the terminology and concepts this is a good start: