Our GCSE Media Studies course will begin in September 2025.

Why we teach Media at St Paul’s Academy

Media is about communication, particularly mass communication with lots of people. The media create products that are designed to entertain and inform, created for lots of people to hear, watch or read, often at roughly the same time. Whenever you are watching television, streaming films, scrolling through social media or listening to a podcast, you are consuming media.

The media play a central role in contemporary society and culture. They shape our perceptions of the world through the representations, viewpoints and messages they offer. The media have real relevance and importance in our lives today, providing us with ways to communicate, with forms of cultural expression and the ability to participate in key aspects of society.

Careers links

During the GCSE Media course you’ll develop and practise a range of skills which will equip you for progression to A-Level study. They will also help you hugely in other areas, such as film, English, humanities and social sciences. Looking further ahead, over one hundred universities offer courses in Media, Communications and Cultural Studies in the UK. An A-Level qualification in Media Studies, informed by study at GCSE level, helps you to move towards these courses, as well as to those in a range of other areas. If university isn’t for you, there is a huge array of career opportunities in the media, and it’s an industry that is growing very quickly. If you are interested in the idea of a career in TV and film production, advertising, journalism, interactive media, and digital marketing, technical production, special effects, web design and post-production, then studying Media at GCSE level is a great place to start.