Media Studies Curriculum Intent and Values
The Benton Park Media Graduate possesses many qualities within multiple aspects of life. They are critical, analytical, aware and current. Media Studies at Benton Park provides opportunities for all to:
- find a pathway within the Media industry.
- have the ability to meet the demands of a changing Media climate.
- have the knowledge to tackle issues within society, past and present.
- be creative and work using industry standard equipment and software.
- be theoretical and critical, understanding the language and purpose of media.
Media Studies at Benton Park is more than content learnt for an exam. Students are regularly kept up to date with modern media affairs, often interlinking with their studies, in order to understand the value of the ‘real world’ media and provide a well-structured response to these examples. Students have access to a wide range of Media from music video to newspapers that further enhances their understanding of the collective media world.
As a department we promote a diverse range of sources through our teaching. As previously mentioned we often go beyond the required content to ensure students are able to contextualise aspects of life such as Black Lives Matter, FGM and Feminism. This diverse range of texts often comes from multiple media resources, presenting a spectrum of political opinion to ascertain a balanced view on how the media portrays groups, issues or events. Students’ critical and theoretical minds develop over time when understanding bias and construction throughout the course to make well informed judgements and decisions.
Having the opportunity for students to be creative allows them to fully access multiple areas of the media industry, harvesting curiosity as to career possibilities. Alongside this, students have opportunities to take trips to local and national media companies and listen to guest speakers to further develop their understanding of media processes and the possibilities they have post 16.
Values in Media Studies:
In Media, students:
- Develop Endeavour through challenging perceptions in media texts whilst also being exposed to new concepts, ideas and theoretical understandings.
- Collaborate through co-constructing responses to texts, actively conversing with others about studied and real-world media issues and through working on practical projects as production teams.
- Demonstrate Compassion by studying challenging, emotive and provocative texts. Students understand how the past has shaped perceptions of others and how modern world media is looking to shatter these ideas to be more fairly represented.
- Show Resilience through working to tight deadlines on practical projects, as well as learning high level challenging content which is completely new to them.
- Are Inspired to seek careers and further study within media by exposing them to a plethora of opportunities. Media Studies students are also politically and socially inspired to make changes in the way others receive the media and the messages they present, to create a fairer and more informed world.