Tarring all gingers with the same brush

Today students were given their MS3 Investigation and Production proposal forms. They must fill these in and prepare a presentation for Thursday's lesson with Mr Bourne. The presentation must answer the following questions: which key concept(s) am I going to focus on and why (genre, narrative and/or representation) and why, how am I going to research it and why, how my research will inform my production, what production I am considering doing and why. Students a free reign as to how this is presented: powerpoints, moviemakers and podcasts are preferred but anything goes as long as those questions are clearly answered.

We also looked at the Big Issue magazine and how that differs from other magazines in style, distribution and content, as well as briefly representation of homeless people in both the magazine and the wider media (e.g. a recent episode of the Inbetweeners). Some interesting, albeit rather sweeping, comments about homeless people were made. One student, who shall remain nameless, ventured that 'all homeless people wee in their shoes'.

Some controversial comments regarding women, homeless people and immigrants were made by Elliot- who is an unlikely candidate for the BNP, considering he's a Christian.

It's a bit like saying all gingers made sweeping comments. And all teachers are geeks.

Week: June 29th 2009 - July 3rd 2009

Introduction To Video Games

View more documents from RDBourne.

We began the week with an overview of video games and discussed how relevant it was to look at them in Media Studies, the changing nature of the video game audience and representation issues.

(If you were not at this session then make sure you look through the slides above and attempt the tasks included.)

Following the introduction, later in the week we focused on an investigation of 'Tomb Raider' in order to model the requirements for the MS3 Coursework task.

The main areas of focus were a traditional textual analysis, the application of media theory to a text and the planning of a production project. I hope you all gained a clearer idea of how the investigation is intended to inform the production for this project.

Click on the links to read more about the theories discussed this week: The Male Gaze , Effects Theories

Post number one!

Today's lesson could have been titled 'The history of documentaries and other important matters'. I recycled a couple of belting powerpoints that will shortly be available of the gateway, which launched into a reasonably impressive discussion on mediation and representation issues. Students are now more aware of issues surrounding the documentary form and realism. The students have been encouraged to start seriously considering options for their MS3 coursework tasks. At first glance, it appears that The Dude, Dale, Digger and Elliot have got promising initial ideas. Loathe as I am to admit it, Meaden was great today- contributed well etc (and even admitted he enjoyed the lesson). He only let himself down with one disparaging comment (which was swiftly met with one from me) and unsurprisingly his terrible use (or is it abuse?) of the English language resurfaced. During a brief chat about the origin of words, Elliot revealed that he 'hates words'- I suspect he would prefer it if we all went around grunting and making stupid noises to generate meaning. That's what happens when a mathematician takes Media Studies, I suppose.

Mr Lowe

MS3: Media Investigation and Production

Year 13 students' individual blogs for their projects:

Katherine Allen
Jack Barrie
William Bromley
James Cartwright
Gemma Clarke
Jake Dudas
Daniel Field
Leanne Goldsbury
Dale Harris
Michael Mahoney
Christopher Meaden
Victoria Parsons
Justin Preston
Jordan Rooke
Jamie Soady
Elliot Symons