A Level Media Studies Syllabus 1994

8/6/2019 A Level Media Studies Syllabus 1994

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MEDIA STUDIES AROUTES THROUGH THE SYLLABUSThe syllabus makes a number of requirements which demand attention in course design. There needs to be abalance between breadth and depth of study, indicated in the syllabus by the relations between general studyand case studies. Much study will understandably centre on the media in Britain, but there must be somerecognition of media in national cultures other than the UK, especially in 'Third World' cultures. By thesame token, although it is accepted that study will centre on the mainstream and dominant media, there mustbe some recognition of alternatives, produced outside as well as within the mainstream, for propercomparison. Due attention to an historical perspective is also required. Although there are good reasons whymodern or recent media will be studied, there must be recognition of change over time through comparativehistorical analysis. In this, study of selected periods and 'key moments' in media history is preferable to achronological approach.Overall, courses should foreground concepts to explore, resulting in study of a range of media. It is notexpected that all media be given equal attention. Emphasis on any one medium is acceptable.Within these requirements, the media and method chosen for study are matters for individual centres.Clearly, some choices and emphases will arise from principle or preference, but others may be determined byresources available. The syllabus attempts to meet a range of acceptable variables under this heading.Technical resources vary from centre to centre and no centre should be disqualified from entering candidatesthrough absence of advanced technology. All centres should have the facility to play back video Lp.r, ,"r"..tfilms on l6mm and project 35mm slides for study purposes. Production can taki piace with medii materialsas simple as storyboarding, graphic designs with found materials and image exercises or photoplays madewith basic cameras. All products of low or high technology, whether crash- or fine-edited viieos, ,,r"*rpup"r,printed on school copiers or local presses, etc, are encouraged but not essential.The syllabus requirements and the centre's resources provide an initial framework within which courses willbe constructed. Thereafter, a range ofcourse designs should be possible. Two proposals for course structuresare offered here as examples of approaches to course design. It is stressed that these are examples and notmodels. The object is to demonstrate the potential in designing a course from the syllabus, rather than tospecify outcomes. For the best results, process should be considered as important ai product.A Proposed Course Structure IThis course is designed by selecting topics to organise the syllabus content.This course structure should:* facilitate teaching (even of groups where some students have already studied Media to GCSE Level butothers come new to the field) by offering a gradual introduction to basic concepts and methodology in thefirst quarter of the course;* make it easier to construct coherent and integrated units of study from the potential breadth of material;* effect a transfer from enquiry-based GCSE styles of teaching to a more conventional academic approach,by integrating bodies of factual knowledge thematically into their conceptual framework;* offer coherent and integrated ways ofrelating the various objects ofstudy (texts, institutional structures,debates) and approaches to studying them (textual analysis, case studies, conceptual understanding ofdebates and practical production skills);* allow for a developmental pattern of learning, with a final term where students can consolidate their graspof concepts and adopt a more abstract, cross-media approach.Planning procedureSelect three or four major media topics on the basis of:* student interests/enthusiasms or topicality or teacher expertise/resources;* their connection with the media debates selected from the syllabus content section 3.

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18 MEDIA STUDIEs AMap out each topic diagrammatically to check that in combination they cover the appropriate range ofreading skills and institutional knowledge.Plan:* practical production activities appropriate to each topic and the point at which they are to be introduced;* the pedagogy and learning activities implied at each stage of each topic.

Diagrams of topicsThree introductory topics;* Representing Law and Order* The Youth Market* Global charity campaigns

N.B. Institutional concepts and data to be introduced throughout each topic.

l(a) ImageAnalysis l(d) Representation l(b) genre analysis(Photo-journalism (cop series,gangster

and crime film)tabloid press)

l(c) Narrative analysis(detection/retributionstructures)

3 CASE STUDYTV Drama

CASE STUDY2 USA HOLLYWOODStudio System

e.g. l(a) Image analysis

2(c) concepts of 'alternative'and 'independent'-CASE STUDYindependent film/video workshop

2(d) audience

2(d) Audiencefor youth

2 CASE STUDY

l(b) representation(Ms Taken ldentityetc and mainstreamexamples

3 DEBATE -RealismNarrativeanalysis(pop video)

3 CASE STUDY(teenage magazinese.g. Klcks vs.Smash hils,Shocking Pinkvs. Just 17 etc)

l(c)

REPRESENTING LAW AND ORDER

THE YOUTH MARKET

British record industry


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MEDIA STUDIES A1(a) image analysiscf NewInternationalist(July 1988)

2(d) Representations ofrace and Third Worldin Western media

2(a) Britishmedia organisations 2 CASE STUDYProduction andpresentation ofnews in Britain2(b) Internationalorganisations -news agencies 3 DEBATEFirst/Third Worldmedia relations

Course OutlineTerm IDevelopment of skills of textual analysis, and introduction to concepts of narrative, genre, audience, andinstitution.Materials selected with particular relevance to chosen topics, to include:* still image: genre recognition slides - film noir/crime drama; advertising from teenage comics, The Face,

Smash Hits, etc; Third World images from tabloid press, New Internationalist, etc:* image/text: Handsworth riots press images, Donald McCullin photographs, Metropolitan police adver-tising campaign, teenmag photostories; extracts from The Mediq Tapes (Team Video) and DevelopingImages (IBT); Press coverage of Notting Hill Carnival;* sequence/sound; analysis of TV ads - especially D-I-Y, beer/soft drinks and employment (agencies/schemes); TV title sequence - (introduction to institution/audience);* narrative analysis: comparative analysis of a news programme and press coverage of law and order issues,Third World Olympics contrasted to press coverage;genre analysis: fly-on-wall documentary (e.g. 'Police'), popular crime fictions, film noir/crime films;production: images in context.

Term 2Introduction to British media organisations;* news production and presentation - a cross-media focus on a current law and order issue;* structural organisation, scheduling and commissioning practices of rv drama.A case study on examples of UK single play, series, serial structures (Law and Order, Sweeneyf Gentle Touch,The Bill); relationships to US equivalents (Hill Street Blues, Cagney and Lacey) and other genres, especiallymelodrama and soap opera; international marketing and exporting (Alvarado and Stewart).A case study on the relation between audiences, gender/race representations (Widows), moral panics and'effects' debates.Debates: Realism - in film theory, extending examples from crime/noir films to TV drama.Production exercise: styles.

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Global charity campaigns(eg. Ethiopian famine andLive Aid)


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20 MEDIA STUDIES ATerm 3Production and presentation of news in Britain.International organisation of press and image markets.A case study of British press and TV coverage of families in Ethiopia (From Buerk to BandAid). Globalcoverage of Live Aid and associated events; the Olympics.Debate: First/Third World media relations.Production of non-fiction product.Term 4Representations of youth - genre film extracts: Rebel l4tithout a Cuuse, West Side Story, Rumblefish etc.Youth and the music industry: structure of British record industry and relationship of indies'; ownerships,economics, circulations, promotional strategies. Case study in Jamaican music industry. The organisation ofpirate radio. The role of pop videos.Analysis of mainstream representation of and for youth (especially gender) - intertextuality in TVprogramming, advertising, pop videos, magazines, etc.Organisation of production and examples from independent film/video workshops: Ms Taken ldentity,'DHSS', 'What they telling us its Illegal for', etc.Case Study: teenage magazines - Smash Hits, Just /7 vs histories/representations of Shocking Pink, Kicks.Production: free choice.Paper three for assessment.Term 5Historicising the debate about popular culture.Comparison of melodrama and soap opera forms.Consolidation of work on mainstream institutions and notions of 'alternative' and 'independence'.Term 6Review, especially recasting debates through new notions of audience.Completion of Practical Projects.Preparation for terminal examination.A Proposed Course Structure IIIn this design, the process of creating the course stems from selecting a method of working systematicallythrough the syllabus to compile a checklist of units of work. The course is then designed to sequence the unitsof work until the checklist is exhausted.This course structure starts with (3) Debates and covers the content in reverse order.Select four debates from Section 3: Melodrama and British (especially black) film and video practices,Popular Culture and First/Third World Media relations.Select from Section 2 institutions to complement and extend these choices:

CASE STUDY British broadcasting and news productionipresentation(c) alternative/independentasdemonstratedby(i) British independent film/video workshop movement (relates to selection of British film andvideo practices in 3)(ii) Latin American film and TV (relates to selection of First/Third World relations in 3)(b) international organisations as a context for 3 and 2(c)(a) UK organisations chosen to relate to the Case Study.

Keep in mind also under this heading (d) audiences for these very different choices.


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MEDIA STUDIES A 2ITexts for analysis are therefore selected to relate to or extend choices made in (3) and (2) above, eg.;(l) (a) image analysis

still, image andimage/text - magazines and newspapers relating to women and raceimages in sequence - photoplays, radio and TV newsand image/sound

(b) genres and(c,narrallveliterary-romanticnovelvisual - filmmelodrama, TV soap and crime seriesnon-fiction - TV newsnon-narrative - UKexperimental videos(d) representation - gender and race

PRODUCTION EXERCISESterm one/two productionterm two/three production - text analysisterm three/four production - institutional analysisterm four/five production - debate analysisCourse OutlineAssume four hours per week and ten weeks per term;Term One* Comparative study of magazine front covers (Selling Pictures) and race riot l(a)photojournalism (Pearson) for still image and image text analysis.* Photoplay exercises (The Visit) and image exercise production (Reading Pictures). l(a)* Radio News programmes (snippets from Radios I & 4) for images and sound exercises 1(a)

and prompt for channel/institutional differences.* Structural (narrative) analysis of news programme with items on civil disturbances l(c)(Pearson), soccer violence (Whannel, Buscombe) and monarchy/female glamour l(d)(Waites et al), preparing for* Gender analysis of male/female (Root, Goffman) and white/black (Husband) typing.* Genre/narrative analysis of film melodrama (Gledhill); films The Other Side of l(b)Midnight and Now Voyager, plus extracts from Broken Blossoms and romantic novel l(c)(Jane Austen, Mills and Boon, Jean Plaidy extracts) - history, mode of address, female 3'reader', to constitute introduction to the debate.Term Two* British broadcasting system (Garnham) and news production/presentation (Curran and 2Seaton).* International organisations (Tunstall, Boyd-Barrett). 3* Production of image exercise.


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22 MEDIA STUDIES ATerm Three* Case Study on TV soaps and telly novellas; US, UK and TV Globo - e.g. Dallas and l(b)Dynasty, Coronation Street and EastEnders, Malu Muhler (Buckingham and Ang). 2(c)* National/cultural differences, in forms of fiction (comparisons with melos and romantic 3

novels).* Comparison with 'cop' fiction and series format, in UK and in US (e.g. The Bill and l(b)Dixon of Dock Green, Dirty Harry and Hill St. Blues); male/female'audience' l(c)

historical differences (Criminal Records). 2(d)* Production of style exercise.Term Four* First/Third World media relations (Mattelart et al). 3* Notions of audience (Morley). 2(d)* Production of non-fiction product.Term Five* British (especially black) film and video practices 3- notions of 'alternative' in organisation 2(c)- commentary on fictional forms (cf London Video Arts catalogue and 'Ghosts in l(c)Machine' tv product)- 'alternative' representations ('Handsworth Songs') 'and newspaper debate on race/ 2(c)form) and Ceddo videos ('anti-racism' debate).* Free-choice production.Term Six* Popular Culture debate reviewed - high and low fiction, art and entertainment, signs 3and meaning, including exercise on Imitation of LifelCailing the Shots; Sirk films review/

(melodrama, narrative, US studio system, women and blacks) and student's own revisionvideo (anti-narrative) for review/revision.

Documents

A Level Media Studies Syllabus 1994