In the digital age, the principles of media education are the same as they’ve always been, but the existence of cyberspace is adding new and challenging questions. How does technology affect how we relate to others? Is new technology enriching or undermining culture, learning and a sense of community? What roles do ownership, control and access play? What are the challenges in regulating a global, borderless medium like the Internet? Media education isn’t about having the right answers: rather, it’s about asking the right questions. Because media issues are complex and often contradictory and controversial, the educator’s role isn’t to impart knowledge, but to facilitate the process of inquiry and dialogue.

Media education is the process through which individuals become media literate – able to critically understand the nature, techniques and impacts of media messages and productions.

Course Outline

Year 10 Media Production is an engaging and focused year for students to further develop their Media Production skills. Students will further their understanding of production processes using appropriate technical skills, scripts, storyboards and layouts. Media forms from contemporary and past times will be analysed to explore differing viewpoints in Australian and International Media. Team skills and specific role responsibilities will be developed through a focus on problem-solving skills. Media education is the process through which individuals become media literate – able to critically understand the nature, techniques and impacts of media messages and productions.

Course Content

  • Codes and conventions for constructing meaning

  • Media works that manipulate narrative conventions

  • Construction of cultural stereotypes; stereotypes as short cuts to meaning; the construction of stereotypes through selection and oversimplification; the values presented in the Media.

  • Representation of ideas, issues and people in the media now, and in the past, and the values they represent

  • Role of ethics and social issues in media regulation and its impact on the producers of media work

  • Media production skills to integrate and shape codes and conventions in media work for a specific purpose, meaning and style

  • Media conventions, social and cultural beliefs and values, local and global, that construct representations

  • Values presented or challenged by celebrities, stars and heroes

  • Past and current popular media trends and audience use