The media plays a central role in our world. It affects society at all levels, from economics, politics, community, culture and individual.
In this course you will analyse the media and its role in everyday life. You will develop your analytical and critical skills through looking at various examples of texts from newspapers, TV, film, radio or the internet. And, you will improve your creative and expressive skills when you learn to create your own media content.
The skills you learn in this course are useful in many career areas. This includes writing, the performing arts, journalism and publishing.
Career Pathways
To see what career areas this subject could lead to and the routes to get there, download and view these career pathways:
Entry is at the discretion of the school or college, but you would normally be expected to have achieved:
The course consists of two areas of study.
Analysing media content
You will learn how and why media content is constructed in particular ways, the potential use or effect of media content, the relationship between media content and context(s) and the similarities and differences between different pieces of media content.
Key areas: media content, media contexts, role of media in society, analysis skills.
Creating media content
You will learn about creating media content relevant to particular purposes, audiences and contexts. You may make such content as a short film or trailer, a print or moving-image advertising campaign, a poster campaign, or a few pages of a magazine.
Key areas: Planning and research, Production processes, evaluation, application of key aspects of media literacy.
The course assessment has three components totalling 130 marks:
For the assignment component, you will be asked to plan and develop media content in response to a negotiated brief.
Both the question paper and the assignment are set and externally marked by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).
The grade awarded is based on the total marks achieved across course assessment.
The course assessment is graded A-D.
If you complete the course successfully, it may lead to:
Further study, training or employment in:
Your school will give your parents an Options or Choices information booklet, which has detailed information on the curriculum and the individual subjects or courses you can study. It will also invite them along to a Parents’ Information Evening.
They can also read the information leaflet(s):
