Media Studies

Here at Whakatāne High School, Media Studies is an option subject available to students from Year 9 right through to Year 13. “What is media?” you might ask. Well, media surrounds us! We watch films and television, read magazines and books and spend hours checking and updating our social media accounts. In Media Studies, students learn about how media affects our lives and shapes the world around us. They also have the chance to make their own media (like short films), getting a taste for directing, acting and/or editing.

Media Studies Auckland Trip - April 2021

On the last three days of Term One, Mrs Kelly and Ms Napier’s Year 10, 11 and 12 Media Studies classes went on a three-day trip to Auckland to checkout various media businesses in the city. They left bright and early on Wednesday morning in a big bus - ready for great fun! The 38 students were lucky enough to visit the Auckland branch of Weta Workshop (where they completed both an interactive tour and a horror special effects workshop) and made up the live audience for TV3’s ‘The Project’ on Thursday evening (15th April). The students were also fortunate to have Q&A time with the show’s producer after the show. The activities on offer helped showcase where Media Studies can take students, highlighting an abundance of opportunity in the field - including producing, directing, set and costume design, animation, digital design, acting, editing, presenting, scriptwriting and much, much more! Students were surprised to learn that NZ’s own Weta is very readily involved with Hollywood cinema - they even did the CGI in the film they went to see, ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’. The trip was certainly a great success and students descended from the bus at WHS on Friday afternoon exhausted - and ready for their holiday! Mrs Kelly and Ms Napier were incredibly impressed with the students’ conduct on the trip and hope that the experience has opened up their eyes to the wealth of opportunity in this growing sector.