Some of the most poignant images of the COVID pandemic emerged from St Catherine’s Media Studies classes, as students explored the societal impact of the lockdowns.

In 2020, Year 10 students investigated the genre of documentary photography, exploring their restricted five kilometre world, capturing the isolation and the impact on families and work.

VCE student Alice Menzies King re-wrote her Media film when she could not assemble her cast due to restrictions. The resulting film Stage 4 is a poignant and often funny reflection of how the pandemic affected her film making. Her short film is available for viewing here.

Media teacher Ms Julia West provides an insight into Media as a subject and why students have the depth and capacity to approach challenging themes such as the pandemic.

Julia West: “The study of Media is a relatively new area of academia. The development of the subject is influenced by the disciplines Sociology and Psychology, as well as Economics, the Law and the Humanities in general.

Early in the 20^th century, Sociology researchers began to see a trend whereby people were attracted and possibly influenced by what they viewed in the media. Interestingly, in the study of Media, the audiences are also known as consumers, with the premise that we are not just looking at media images and productions, but consuming them as well. Media affects the social fabric of society and is more than just an art form or entertainment, it is also a lucrative industry.

When students study Media, they do not just construct a series of photographs or create a film. They also study the effects of the media on our lives, the global media markets, media regulation in Australia, the effects of culture on media productions, the way women, men and race are represented and the way media in general is created and consumed from a legal perspective.

The study of media is broad and reasons for studying it can include:

• Enjoyment of media production and mastery in the skill.
• Creating a folio for interview-based courses featured at many universities.
• Passion for psychology and sociology and investigating the impact of ‘outside forces’ in our lives – the media being one of them.
• Strong interest in economics and financial markets, with media organisations some of the biggest and most successful companies in the world.
• Desire to study law and to learn about the tensions between governments, business and the legal frameworks employed to navigate issues such as privacy, copyright and regulation.

Past Media students from St Catherine’s School, have transitioned into a wide range of university studies including Criminology at ANU, Law at Deakin and Monash and Professional Communication at RMIT. Others have entered Media and Communications at RMIT and Deakin, Fine Art Painting at VCA, Design at Monash, Film and Television at VCA, Photography at RMIT and Arts at Melbourne to name a few. These courses range from ATAR entrance scores to folio interviews. In each case St Catherine’s alumnae have gained the appropriate skills and knowledge required for their tertiary pursuits from our Media Studies subjects in the Senior School.”

Current Year 12 student, Zara Carter is interested in a career in the media, with plans to study Film and TV courses. Zara loves the opportunity film making provides her to guide audiences through narratives – transporting the viewer into another world and evoking different emotional states. Zara is fascinated by how and why the media constructs and reflects reality and, how audiences engage with, consume and produce media products. She is also curious about how current technologies such as social media, have created a landscape in which anyone can be a viewer, producer and influencer of media content.

Zara’s VCE short film, examining the complex relationship between a father and daughter, along with other Years 9, 10, 11 and 12 Media products, will be exhibited during the St Catherine’s School 125 Art Show from 10 to 15 September in the Senior School Hall.