Media in English Curriculum

In Queensland, media education is part of the English curriculum in years 1-12 as well as being a separately recognised curriculum area in its own right, within the Arts.

The review of the Senior phase of learning in Queensland raises some questions about the form media should take if it continues to be part of the English curriculum. As part of the English field, media studies is always going to have a focus on textual analysis, because that’s how English is defined. The focus is on languages, representations and sometimes audiences. There is no focus on critical responses to institutions or technologies. There is no articulation between production and critical response. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that students who wish to specialise in Film/Media in senior can cover the “theory” component in English - as it has sometimes been suggested.

Given political pressures to go back to basics in English, the media element within English may also be at the mercy of the political preferences of the day. It is possible that it might simply disappear from English curriculum at some stage. Another concern/possibility is that so-called “non-academic” students may be streamed into the media electives, and the “academic” students encouraged to select the literature electives. This would demonstrate a significant misunderstanding of contemporary media education.

Any move to have students study media across different curriculum areas to make up a kind of "Media" major will be flawed if it does not recognise the need to closely intergrate the production and critical response / reflection aspects of media education.