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. Loan equipment is also available.

Course Description

In this unit students develop an understanding of audiences and the core concepts underpinning the construction of representations and meaning in different media forms. They explore media codes and conventions and the construction of meaning in media products.

Students analyse how representations, narratives and media codes and conventions contribute to the construction of the media realities that audiences read and engage with. Students gain an understanding of audiences as producers and consumers of media products. Through analysing the structure of narratives, students consider the impact of media creators and institutions on production.

Students work in a range of media forms and develop and produce representations to demonstrate an understanding of the characteristics of each media form, and how they contribute to the communication of meaning.

Students develop an understanding of the features of Australian fictional and non-fictional narratives in different media forms. They develop research skills to investigate and analyse selected narratives, focusing on the media professionals’ influence on production genre and style. They experience the voices and stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creators to gain an understanding and appreciation of how their stories contribute to our cultural identity.

Areas of Study

Media representations

How do we see ourselves and our world in media products?

Students are introduced to the concept of audience. They consider different readings of media products and how meaning is suggested through the complex relationships between content creators and producers, media forms and audiences. They consider how audiences engage with the media to construct and negotiate understandings of the world and themselves through their participation in the consumption, reception, production, curation and distribution of media products. Students also gain an understanding of audiences as producers of media products, who create and share their own representations. Notions of identity and self are implicit in the ways that audiences select, create, share, engage with and read media products. Through the examination of a range of media forms and products, students consider how representations of self and identity are constructed, distributed, engaged with, consumed and read.

Media forms in production

How can we manipulate media codes and conventions to create representations?

Students will design, produce and evaluate media productions that represent concepts covered in Media Representations. They will work through the media production process stages and explore media technologies and techniques to produce media content in two or more media forms for specified audiences.

Australian stories

How are Australian stories structured in fictional and non-fictional media narratives?

Students study a range of Australian narratives that reflect our local, national and global cultural histories, exploring the factors, context and features of their construction and how they are consumed and read by different audiences. They experience the voices and stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creators to gain an understanding and appreciation of how their stories contribute to our cultural identity.

Assessment

Outcomes	Assessment Tasks
Outcomes	(school-assessed coursework)
Outcome 1. Identify and explain the construction of media representations in different products, forms and contexts, including how audiences engage with, consume and read these representations.	Report/Annotated documents
Outcome 2. Use the media production process to design, produce and evaluate media representations for specified audiences in a range of media	SAT: Creation of two media products in various media forms such as video documentary and online film promotional material.
Outcome 3. 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.	Test that analyses how audiences read, engage with and consume Australian narratives and the factors, context and features of their construction.

Overall Final Assessment

End of Semester Examination – 1.5 hours.