Media Unit 1: Media Forms, Representations and Australian Stories

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this unit, however, it is recommended that students undertake Year 10 Media.

Students will find it helpful to have their own digital camera (still and/or video) and tripod.

Course Description

In this unit students develop an understanding of audiences and that the construction of representations can create different meanings in different media forms. They explore and analyse how representations, narrative and media codes and conventions contribute to the construction of media products. Students gain an understanding of audiences as producers and consumers of media products. They develop research skills to investigate and analyse narratives focussing on the influence of media professionals on production, genre and style. Students develop an understanding of the features of Australian fictional and non-fictional narratives in different media forms. Students create media products in a range of media forms, including video, photography, print and digital media.

Areas of Study

Media representations

The media plays an important role in shaping society and the values and beliefs of the audience. Students will analyse, compare and discuss how the media constructs representations within and across a variety of media products and forms, and from different periods of time, locations and contexts.

Media forms in production

Students will design and create media productions that represent concepts covered in Media Representations.

Australian stories

Students study a range of Australian narratives in two or more media forms, exploring the context and features of their construction and how they are consumed and read by audiences.

Assessment

Outcomes	Assessment Tasks
Outcomes	(school-assessed coursework)
Identify and explain how media representations in a range of media products and forms, and from different periods of time, locations and contexts, are constructed, distributed, engaged with, consumed and read by audiences.	Written task that focusses on representations from a range of media products and forms, and from different periods of time, locations and contexts.
Design and create media exercises or productions that represent concepts covered in Area of Study 1.	Creation of media products in a range of media forms, including audio-visual, photography, print and digital media.
Analyse how the structural features of Australian fictional and non-fictional narratives in two or more media forms engage, and are consumed and read by, audiences.	Report that analyses how audiences read, engage with and consume Australian narratives.

Overall Final Assessment

End of Semester Examination – 1.5 hours.