Eng. Lit. or Media Studies for GCSE?

[klm4765]

DD is in Yr. 9 and choosing GCSE options. She has to choose between English Literature and Media Studies and at the moment is saying she would prefer Media Studies. She is good at English, and loves reading, so I was quite surprised - also I have always viewed Media Studies as a 'soft' subject, which won't be well-regarded by employers/ university admissions depts.
However, Eng. Lit seems to have changed a lot since I did it - they will 'study' 1 short novel, and an anthology of poetry and a collection of short stories. They start the book in Year 9, and are not allowed to take it home and 'the teachers tell them which passages to read, and what to write'.
So, I would welcome views on whether a 'dumbed-down' English Literature GCSE is really worth more than Media Studies, and if so, how do I convince DD? TIA

Is she doing Englisg Language as well? There is a media section in that.
I would try to get her to choose Eng Lit.

I wanted to add that, even if she says that she wants to do academic film studies at university (and this can be an entirely serious part of many arts and humanities degrees), English Lit will still give her a better training in analysis and will be better regarded.

Thanks so much for all your replies. Seems to be unanimously for Eng. Lit then!
She definitely has a choice - we've seen the form they have to fill in - (though of course they may give her different advice when it comes to the point). Eng. Lang. is compulsory, but then they can opt between Eng. Lit and Med. Studies, and apparently about half do each. She is in the top stream at the moment, and I'm sure there is no question of her ability - she just thinks Media Studies will be more interesting. I haven't formed a very high opinion of her English teacher this year, but maybe I'm just trying to pass the blame. There is certainly no mention of Shakespeare in the information we've had from the school, but maybe I'll look into this further.
Btw, DH went to a good university without doing Eng. Lit. (decades ago), but then he studied Engineering, which DD definitely won't be doing!

My son struggles and he is doing literature (he is dyslexic and finds reading hard). He is studying MacBeth, An Inspector Calls, A Christmas Carol and some poetry. Your daughter should definitely be doing literature.

Its things like this (making "core" subjects optional) that is one of the major reasons why too many children from non selective schools fail to get into the good unis

I might as well say it. Re GCSE choices she should take

English Lit AND Lang (if available)
Maths
as many of the 3 sciences as poss
at least one language
a humanity
free choice of whatever's left - art/music/drama etc.

Honestly - unis and employers are getting MASSIVELY judgemental about GCSE choices. Traditional subjects are considered to be better than 'new' subjects like Media Studies and Health.

A levels are the same - Cambridge has put up a list of subjects it prefers. It's not just Cambridge who feel this way - other good unis are the same.

Shakespeare is part of the NC and students have to study him for GCSE: they do this through the English Lang (or English) GCSE which is still compulsory - so don't worry - the bard will still be studied! Your daughter should still opt to do Lit though.

Herbietea - DD1's friends now think I am a controlling cow because she told them I wouldn't let her do Media Studies. She didn't mention that she had no intention of doing it anyway!

I hated Silas Marner at first, but grew to like it after a while. Sometimes when I'm trying to remember other things, random quotes from it pop into my head. "the demon opium to whom she was enslaved", for example. I think there must be a part of my brain that just stores quotes from GCSE texts and refuses to let them go. I just want to forget them!

English Language has a section on Media, and I'd say both English courses are more interesting than Media Studies. I reckon most people just choose it because it's a new subject to them and seems easy. In actual fact it's quite uninspiring.

I teach English - and it's not dumbed down! What it is is skills based, compared to the majority of us on here who can recite whole texts back to front because that's how we were taught, but might not have been able to transfer these reading skills to other texts.

Shakespeare is government directed - he is one of our 'heritage' authors - so he'll be in there - never fear! I'm confident in saying that I think this applies to all boards.

And whoever said they'd read about two two hour exams and one controlled assessment - I'd love to know which board that is! I'm two Controlled Assessments down with my Y10s with one more to complete by the end of this term - on Shakespeare!

I think the CAs are hard - we expect them to be much more independent than we ever were.

We did the Media option for a couple of years, but nobody enjoyed teaching it and the parents were a bit horrified.

Just typed all this and read back and see that my points have all already been made. Ah well.

Danebury, the board is WJEC. If it's any compensation to get GCSE English Language there appears to be a million and one CA's

Definitely do English Lit. Rightly or wrongly, media studies is really looked down upon by our society and she will have to put up with lots of derogatory comments about it.

There was an here article about "soft" subjects at A level earlier on this month. Basically it echoes what everyone else on here has said. I realise you were asking about GCSEs, but I suspect that universities, especially the Russell group ones, would take the same view over them as well.