Kicking off 2007!!!!

January is a busy month at the Media Centre. AS re-sits have been taken in Media and Film Studies. Students have de-constructed the magazines 'Sugar' and 'Men's Health' in order to compare how they create an appeal to audiences. A2 students are now focusing on exam preparation for summer topics including World Cinema, Censorship and the Magazine Industry. AS students are completing screenplays or thriller films for coursework.

A2 Documentaries are all but finished and some real successes include Rihaan and Natalie's 'Food Glorious Food' about the dangers of school dinners. These will be shown at the end of March in the lecture theatre and are being compiled on to a DVD.

BTEC projects carry on apace including creating a video promoting the College and a radio package using interviews to promote a subject area within the College. The Radio broadcasts are about to begin online and students are submitting proposals for their shows. Editing is underway on a number of projects including factual programme production for Ian Rivers.

Big Brother has been an unavoidable topic this week with a number of issues raised; the representation of British youth, the obsession of the media in promoting itself and feeding off divisive cultural issues. The fact that the front pages of newspapers have obsessed about the programme and vilified Jade Goody using unflattering images to re-enforce monstrous representation. We discuss the audience for the programme and the tabloid press. Is there an ironic readership of The Sun and their titles such as 'world crisis' over Big Brother, who are laughing along with the paper rather than passively believing the message? Most importantly the show has raised discussions about the cultural issues of our day and allowed for much informed and impassioned debate. Painful to watch (and of course I don't watch it myself!!) but fantastic material for the media student.