IN response to Yorkatt (August 16) and the endless news stories, I believe media studies is not an easy A Level.
Why do journalists automatically assume that just because a subject is modern it is easy? I am doing four A levels, one of which is maths, a "classic" subject that must be more difficult because it is a long-standing subject - and I feel media studies is one of the more difficult subjects I am studying.
It is similar to English Literature but, instead of studying Shakespeare, I am study something more modern and relevant.
To pass media studies you have to be up to date in your knowledge of technology; be able to construct detailed essays; produce two large pieces of course work and do three hours of exams in one sitting - which is more than maths.
The exams cover such diverse topics as the representation of gender, codes and conventions of film and magazines, and how technology affects our everyday life.
Although I do not study it, many I have talked to say psychology, another subject that has come under fire recently, is the most difficult subject they do.
If anybody still thinks these A-Levels are simple and not worth the paper they are written on, I recommend they ring York College and sign themselves up for the courses. Then they will be entitled to judge the levels of difficulty.
Philip Lickley,
Wheatlands Grove, York.
...GIVEN most of the media's disregard for the Press Complaints Committee, and in the wake of criticism - even from its own journalists - of the BBC, we should not be surprised that there is such hostility to a media studies course which encourages young Brits to look critically at the medium.
Is it unrealistic for next year's A Level media studies paper to include the following questions:
Was the BBC correct to publish its criticism of the Government's Iraq dossier based on a single source?
Discuss the importance played by spin in the relationship between Government, the media and the public.
Because no one seems to know the answers to these, perhaps they are, in fact, more difficult questions than those posed in "traditional' subjects".
Surely the newspapers will be filled with Downing Street spokespeople denigrating the importance of political science.
Galtres Road,
Updated: 11:07 Tuesday, August 19, 2003
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