Course overview and specification

Y12 Units 

Unit 1 Media Representation 

You will study a range of media from different sectors, such as music videos, short film extracts, animation, news programmes, websites, digital games and print adverts in order to explore how meaning, messages and values are constructed through formal and stylistic elements. All media express messages through representations that shape perceptions and beliefs about what is valued and undervalued in society. Interrogating media representations through a critical framework will expose underlying values inherent in those representations and lead to an understanding of how audiences can resist preferred readings and negotiate their own meanings. 

Unit 1 Assessment - This unit is assessed through a two hour examination onscreen set and marked by Pearson. The exam will be sat in June 2020.  

Unit 1 Weighting - Unit 1 is 90 guided learning hours (GLHs) and is worth 25% of the extended certificate grade. 

Unit 14 Digital Magazine Production 

You will learn about the codes and conventions that magazine producers use to communicate with their target audience, and how they generate, select and prepare materials to produce a completed magazine cover and double-page spread.  

Unit 14 Assessment - This unit is assessed through coursework 

Unit 14 Weighing - Unit 14 is 60 guided learning hours (GLHs) and is worth 17% of the extended certificate grade. 

Y13 Units 

Unit 4 Pre production Portfolio 

You will study the requirements of planning and delivering a digital media product, carrying out essential pre-production tasks and creating a pre-production portfolio. 

Unit 4 Assessment - This unit is assessed through coursework.  

Unit 4 Weighing - Unit 4 is 90 guided learning hours (GLHs) and is worth 25% of the extended certificate grade. 

Unit 8 Responding to a commission 

You will understand how to respond to a commission brief with ideas based on the required content, style, audience, purpose and approach proposed by the client. You will work within the requirements and constraints of the client’s specifications and consider your response in terms of ethos, format, budget, platform and duration. 

Unit 8 Assessment - This unit is assessed through a task set and marked by Pearson, you will receive a commission for a media production. It will be released two weeks before a supervised assessment in order to carry out research activities into the subject. The supervised assessment period will be a maximum of six hours. 

Unit 8 Weighing - Unit 8 is 120 guided learning hours (GLHs) and is worth 33% of the extended certificate grade.