Media

Overview

Media studies provides students with a unique toolkit that allows them to interrogate and challenge the accepted values, truths and structures of a world that – outside of school – they inhabit all the time and from where most of their accepted ideas about that world are gathered. There is an idea that the media provide “windows on the world”; media studies students learn that, in fact, those windows very, very rarely show reality. Students of the media can see through the fiction and fantasies which are often presented as fact.

They can look beyond the surface to find deeper meanings within a range of media forms, from adverts to music videos. They can even use the ideas they have learned to make their own media products, understanding first-hand the role of a media producer as well as developing practical production skills. The creative industries in the UK alone are worth over $116 billion and employ over 2 million people; the media are one of the most powerful direct influences on what we think and how we act. Media studies provides a unique opportunity to interrogate, understand and challenge that influence.