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Year:

COMM120 Media Studies: An Introduction

Credit Points 6
Offering
Responsible Campus Teaching Period Mode of Study Online Level
Armidale Semester 1 On line E - Wholly online unit
Armidale Semester 1 On Campus D - Comp/internet essential
Intensive School(s) None
Supervised Exam There is no UNE Supervised Examination.
Pre-requisites None
Co-requisites None
Restrictions COMM220 or COMM320
Notes None
Combined Units None
Coordinator(s) Paul Adams (padams3@une.edu.au)
Unit Description

This unit is an introduction to Media and Communication Studies. Our most pervasive media (including television, print and the Internet) are considered using a variety of contemporary approaches including formal analysis, textual analysis, gender, representation, semiotics and cultural analysis. The unit focuses on communications media modes and formats, theories and techniques, and considers many cultural and social aspects, practices, contexts and issues.

Prescribed Material
Mandatory
Text(s):

Note: Students are expected to purchase prescribed material

The Media Student's Book
ISBN: 9780415371438
Branston, G. and Stafford, R., Routledge 4th ed. 2006
Text refers to: Semester 1 , On Campus and Online
Recommended Material
Optional
Text(s):

Note: Recommended material is held in the University Library - purchase is optional

Introducing Cultural and Media Studies: A Semiotic Approach
ISBN: 9780333972472
Thwaites, T., Davis, L. and Mules, W., Houndmills 2002
Text refers to: Semester 1 , On Campus and Online
An Introduction to Communication Studies
ISBN: 9780415046725
Fiske, J., Routledge 2nd ed. 1990
Text refers to: Semester 1 , On Campus and Online
Communication and Cultural Literacy: An Introduction
ISBN: 9781865082622
Schirato, T. and Yell, S., Allen and Unwin 2nd ed. 2000
Text refers to: Semester 1 , On Campus and Online
Communication, Cultural and Media Studies: Key Concepts
ISBN: 9780415268899
Hartley, J., Routledge 3rd ed. 2002
Text refers to: Semester 1 , On Campus and Online
Referenced Material
Optional
Text(s):

Note: Reference material is held in the University Library - purchase is optional

Media Communication: An Introduction to Theory and Process
ISBN: 9781403901491
Watson, J., Macmillan 3rd ed. 2008
Note: Available from the Dixson Library, UNE
Text refers to: Semester 1 , On Campus and Online
The Media and Communications in Australia
ISBN: 9781741148220
Cunningham, S. and Turner, G., Allen & Unwin 3rd ed. 2010
Note: Available from the Dixson Library, UNE
Text refers to: Semester 1 , On Campus and Online
Disclaimer Unit information may be subject to change prior to commencement of the teaching period.
Assessment
Title Exam Length Weight Mode No. Words
Assignment 1: Essay 20% Online 1000
Relates to Learning Outcomes (LO) and Graduate Attributes (GA)
LO: 1-6 GA: 1-7
Assignment 2: Essay 40% 2000
Relates to Learning Outcomes (LO) and Graduate Attributes (GA)
LO: 1-6 GA: 1-7
Online Quizzes 20% Online
Relates to Learning Outcomes (LO) and Graduate Attributes (GA)
LO: 1, 3, 5, 6 GA: 1-5
Online Quizzes 20% On Campus
Relates to Learning Outcomes (LO) and Graduate Attributes (GA)
LO: 1, 3, 5, 6 GA: 1-5
Online Responses 20% Online
Assessment Notes
Online Topic Question responses
Relates to Learning Outcomes (LO) and Graduate Attributes (GA)
LO: 1, 4, 5, 6 GA: 1-7
Structured Tutorial Activities 10% On Campus
Relates to Learning Outcomes (LO) and Graduate Attributes (GA)
LO: 1-6 GA: 1-7
Tutorial Presentation 30% On Campus 1000
Relates to Learning Outcomes (LO) and Graduate Attributes (GA)
LO: 1-6 GA: 1-7

Learning Outcomes (LO) Upon completion of this unit, students will be able to:
  1. identify and comprehend today's information sources, as well as contemporary media technologies, forms, practices and genres;
  2. describe contemporary theoretical approaches to media and communications, and grasp the tools necessary to critically interpret and analyse a wide range of communications and cultural texts;
  3. communicate using skills that have been developed by examining, discussing, and writing about communications theories and techniques. These communications skills will extend beyond traditional literacies to those of contemporary screen media;
  4. appreciate diverse expressions of culture and identity;
  5. prepare for socially responsible professional and personal lives;
  6. understand and effectively respond in a world of dynamic technological innovation, especially in the fields of media and communications.

Graduate Attributes (GA)
Attribute Taught Assessed Practised
1 Knowledge of a Discipline
COMM120 enhances knowledge of communication and media studies, particularly in the study of media content and practises, in their cultural and historical contexts.
True True True
2 Communication Skills
COMM120 is a text-based unit. It is an introduction to many elements of communications studies including communications theories and techniques, media modes and formats, and the consideration of cultural contexts, practices and issues. Communication skills will be explicitly studied, practised and assessed.
True True True
3 Global Perspectives
COMM120 engages with a broad spectrum of commercial cultural products. It critically examines global organisations, infrastructures and communications, at the same time as considering local, gendered and inter-cultural texts. Many aspects of global phenomena, especially communications, will be explicitly taught and assessed, and may be practised.
True True True
4 Information Literacy
COMM120 connects with and interprets communications texts from the written word through the broadcast and narrowcast to daily data structures. Critical comprehension of many different kinds of information derived from a variety of sources is a priority, and that literacy is explicitly examined.
True True True
5 Life-Long Learning
Through the systematic dismantling and challenging of some of the most familiar things in our everyday lives, notably media products such as films and television programs, COMM120 aims to inspire and nourish the students' faculty of critical and innovative reasoning. These reasoning skills are taught, practised and assessed. At the same time, the study of successive media techniques and technologies should help open their perspectives to future communications developments.
True True True
6 Problem Solving
COMM120 applies logical, critical and creative thinking to a wide range of communications and cultural products. These modes of thought are explicitly taught and their application is demanded in the students' assessments.
True True True
7 Social Responsibility
COMM120 emphasises the critical understanding of media and other communications. The unit's critique focuses on both efficacity and ethics. Social responsibility is an ostensible and an implied constant in the unit. In the materials provided to them, and in their assessment exercises, students will be faced with questions concerning how, why, and what is and should be communicated. In these ways social responsibility will be taught, questioned, practised and assessed.
True True True
8 Team Work
Students undertaking COMM120 will regularly undertake team work tasks. Students will divide into groups (either in tutorials or online) for the analysis and discussion of media products and other communications texts, then report the group's findings to the seminar as a whole.
True
   

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