The purpose of this area on the site is to provide you with a more detailed summary of the content we have available in the subscription area. The link next to each resource entry will take you to the resource itself, once you have purchased a subscription. To view the resources in our Sample Area click on the link. To Subscribe, click on the link.
A Level
The 2009 and onwards two part AS level, and two part A2 Level, courses in media studies for all three boards, AQA, OCR and WJEC are fully covered in terms of understanding the specifications, and suggested schemes of work.
The basic concepts of the new courses such as AQA’s media platforms and media forms, OCR’s audiences and institutions, are fully explained, and all the schemes have student activities, ideas for class work and homework suggestions. Some topics such as the magazine industry, with reference to Kerrang, is comprehensively explored for instant classroom use.
To help teachers prepare teaching materials, topics such as OCR’s contemporary media regulation and post modern media, and AQA’s Cross Media studies, are considered in relation to the exam spec. New topics such wemedia, critical identity, and the impact of digital media are unpacked for teachers to work with in the classroom.
Production Zone
Mediaedu Production Zone is an essential resource for teachers and students in creating and producing media products for course work. The resource provides easy to follow comprehensive workshops on making videos, understanding and being creative with a digital camera, and creating radio and print media products. Starting with basic skills in digital photography and video camerawork, and core skills in creating layout, content and graphical input for print, the zone offers a wide variety of examples and activities for use in the classroom.
If you are thinking about using radio for he first time, there is an excellent introduction to making radio.
Written by media professionals the zone provides the best possible start for students and teachers embarking on media production work at all levels - Diploma, GCSE and A level.
Social Networking
The popularity of social networking websites is a welcome addition to media studies, as it is so much a part of modern students’ lives. Already the concept of social exchange is part of theoretical and practical A level work, as well as new digital media and Web 2.0.
For anyone worried they are not fully up to speed, or who needs reassurance and background knowledge, Rod Munday provides an in depth exploration of the whole area of social networking. He unpicks the jargon, digs out the relevant theories and comprehensively covers the viral concepts unleashed by Facebook, Twitter and Myspace among others.
He suggests for example that social networks are ‘primarily organized around people and not content. This is in complete contrast to newsgroups, bulletin boards, websites, etc. whose communities grew up around shared interests or activities (content not people) (quoted Lister et al. 2009, 216).’ Absolutely indispensable.
