VCE Studio Arts + VCD

To access the current 2024-2028 Media Study Design

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Scope of study

The media is ubiquitous. Media is deeply embedded within life and culture at a local, national and global level. It entertains, teaches, informs and shapes audiences’ perception of their lives and the world in which they live.
Stories in all their forms are at the heart of the media and its relationship with audiences. Through stories, narratives are constructed that engage, and are read by, audiences. Representations of ideas, realities and imagination are constructed and deconstructed, remixed and reimagined with ever-increasing technological sophistication, ease and speed to engage audiences.
The context of media shapes both production and the audiences’ reading. Contextual influences such as time, place, culture, societal attitudes and values may be reflected explicitly and implicitly in media products. Audiences also read and consume media through this contextual lens. The relationship between media and audience is complex. Students will interrogate notions of influence, power, audience, agency and the role that media plays in shaping views and values.
Developments in technologies have transformed media at a rapid pace. The interplay between print and broadcast media and multinational-networked database platforms has enabled creative communication opportunities and reworked notions of key media concepts including audiences, forms and products, storytelling, influence, institutions and industries.
Media audiences are no longer constrained by physical, social and political boundaries. Audiences are consumers, users, creative and participatory producers and product. This has created a dramatic increase in communicative, cultural and creative possibilities. The greater involvement of audiences has generated enormous changes in the media economy and issues of content control.
The growth of social media platforms means information is produced, distributed and consumed with increased immediacy, raising questions about accountability, regulation and influence. This growth has led to competition with traditional media forms and established media institutions. Traditional media continues to have power and influence, competing, cooperating and evolving alongside social media platforms. Through the study of Media, students gain a critical understanding of media and understand their role as both producers and consumers of media products.
Students examine how and why the media constructs and reflects reality, and how audiences engage with, consume, read, create and produce media products.

 

Rationale

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 role of the media 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, and their critical and creative thinking and expression, and to strengthen their communication skills and technical knowledge. Students gain knowledge and skills in planning and expression that are 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.
 

 

Structure

The study is made up of four units.

Each unit deals with specific content contained in areas of study and is designed to enable students to achieve a set of outcomes for that unit. Each outcome is described in terms of key knowledge and key skills.

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Unit 1

Media forms, representations

and Australian stories

 

Unit 2

Narrative across media forms

 

 

Unit 3

Media narratives and pre-production

 

Unit 4

Media production; agency and control in and of the media