Rationale

The Media Production and Analysis ATAR course aims to prepare all students for a future in a digital and interconnected world by providing the skills, knowledge and understandings to tell their own stories and interpret others’ stories. Students learn the languages of media communication and how a story is constructed using representations. Students are encouraged to explore, experiment and interpret their world, reflecting and analysing contemporary life while understanding that this is done under social, cultural and institutional constraints. Students as users and creators of media products, consider the important role of audiences and their context.

Digital technologies have impacted upon and extended the capacity that the media play in Australian lives. Through new technologies, the role of the audience has shifted from a passive consumer to a more active participant, shaping the media through interaction and more accessible modes of production and dissemination of media work. Students’ interaction and opportunity to use technologies enables them to engage with current media and adapt to evolving media platforms.

The creation of convergent and hybrid media means that the system of communication changes as new media are developed. The local and global media contexts are continuously interacting, making audiences global consumers of media products. Through the consumption of global media work, awareness of global issues creates a collective consciousness and sense of responsibility, giving rise to the notion of audiences also being global citizens. Through the process of investigation, students engage with topics, issues and themes which have global and local relevance, and artistic movements and styles which in turn, create new notions of media aesthetics.

The production of media work enables students to demonstrate their understanding of the key concepts of media languages, representation, audience, production, skills and processes as well as express their creativity and originality. When producing media work, students learn to make decisions about all aspects of production, including creative choices across pre-production, production and post-production phases. This provides an opportunity for students to reflect on and discuss their own creative work, intentions and outcomes. Within this process, skills are developed enabling students to manipulate technologies which simulate industry experiences.