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Media

Year 12 - Elective

Length of Course: Full Year
Department: Performing Arts and Media
Head of Department: Ms Karen Sunderland
Year Available: 2025

This study provides students with the opportunity to examine the media in both historical and contemporary contexts while developing skills in media design and production in a range of media forms. VCE Media provides students with the opportunity to analyse media concepts, forms and products in an informed and critical way. Students consider narratives, technologies and processes from various perspectives including an analysis of structure and features. They examine debates about the media’s role in contributing to and influencing society. Students integrate these aspects of the study through the individual design and production of their media representations, narratives and products.

VCE Media supports students to develop and refine their planning and analytical skills, critical and creative thinking and expression, and to strengthen their communication skills and technical knowledge. Students gain knowledge and skills in planning and expression valuable for participation in and contribution to contemporary society. This study leads to pathways for further theoretical and/or practical study at tertiary level or in vocational education and training settings; including screen and media, marketing and advertising, games and interactive media, communication and writing, graphic and communication design, photography and animation.

Curriculum focus

This study enables students to:

  • investigate and analyse their and others’ experience of the media

  • examine the relationship between audiences and the media

  • understand the codes and conventions that are used to construct media narratives and products

  • develop an understanding of traditional and contemporary media forms, products, institutions and industries through theoretical study and practical application

  • develop an understanding of the nature, roles, structure and contexts of creation and distribution of media forms and products

  • analyse media stories and narratives to understand how meaning is constructed and how audiences are engaged

  • develop an understanding of the relationship between the media and audiences that produce and engage with it

  • develop the capacity to investigate, examine and evaluate debates around the role of contemporary media and its implications for society

  • develop skills in critically understanding the significance and aesthetics of the media

  • develop and refine skills in the design, production, evaluation and critical analysis of media products in a range of contexts and forms for different audiences.

Unit 3 - Media Narrative and Pre-Production

Outcome 1: Narrative and their contexts

Students analyse how narratives are constructed and distributed, and how they engage, are consumed and are read by the intended audience.

Outcome 2: Media Production Development

Students research aspects of a media form and experiment with media technologies and media production processes to inform and document the design of a media production.

Outcome 3: Media Production Design

Students develop and document a media production design in a selected media form for a specified audience.

Unit 4 - Media Production and Issues in the Media

Outcome 1: Media Production

Students produce, refine and resolve the media product they designed in Unit 3.

Outcome 2: Agency and Control in and of the Media

Students discuss issues of agency and control in the relationship between the media and its audience.

Assessment

Unit 3 School-assessed coursework: 10 per cent

Unit 3 School-assessed coursework: 10 per cent

Units 3 and 4 school-assessed task: 40 per cent

Units 3 and 4 end-of-year examination: 40 per cent

Links

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Key Resource

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