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Course and Unit Catalogue 2010

Armidale, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA

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2007200820092010

COMM323 New Media

Unit Information
Additional Information

Credit Points	6
Offering	Not offered in 2010
Intensive School(s)	None
Supervised Exam	There is no UNE Supervised Examination.
Pre-requisites	12cp
Co-requisites	None
Restrictions	COMM123 or COMM223 or COMM423
Notes	Offered in odd numbered years
Combined Units	COMM423 - New Media
Coordinator(s)	Dugald Williamson (dwillia7@une.edu.au)
Unit Description	This unit explores today's new communications technologies. It focuses on the Internet and the World Wide Web and their cultural, economic and legal dimensions. Students investigate techniques of digital communications including principles of web site design. Through a series of case studies, they consider various industrial and community uses of digital communications, including the development of online websites by radio and television broadcasters and issues such as access to information and intellectual property. The unit provides an understanding of the global context in which digital communications are developing and debates about their social and cultural impact.
Materials	Text information will be published prior to commencement of the teaching period.
Disclaimer	Offer of some subjects is subject to viability. Information in these unit descriptions is subject to change prior to commencement of semester.

Assessment

Title	Exam Length	Weight	Mode	No. Words
Assignment 2: Essay		50%	On/Off Campus	2000
Relates to Learning Outcomes (LO) and Graduate Attributes (GA)
LO: 1-5 GA: 1, 2, 3, 6
Tutorial		15%	On Campus
Assessment Notes
Structured tutorial participation

Relates to Learning Outcomes (LO) and Graduate Attributes (GA)
LO: 1, 2, 4, 5 GA: 1, 2, 3, 6
Web Analysis and Proposal		50%	Off Campus	2000
Relates to Learning Outcomes (LO) and Graduate Attributes (GA)
LO: 1-5 GA: 1, 2, 3, 6
Web Analysis and Proposal		35%	On Campus	1500
Relates to Learning Outcomes (LO) and Graduate Attributes (GA)
LO: 1-5 GA: 1, 2, 3, 6

Learning Outcomes (LO)

Upon completion of this unit, students will be able to:

identify and use selected new media forms;
comprehend theoretical approaches to communications and apply them in the analysis of digital media;
apply techniques and methods to enable them to conduct effective research online and offline;
recognise diverse expressions of culture and identity in the electronic media;
understand the directions of current developments in communications techniques and technologies.

Graduate Attributes (GA)

	Attribute	Taught	Assessed	Practised
1	Knowledge of a Discipline This unit introduces students to an exploration of today's new communication technologies, as well as issues relating to the sociocultural and global context of their development. Discipline knowledge is assessed in all assessments.
2	Communication Skills COMM323 is a text and screen-based unit. It introduces many aspects of new communications, including communications theories and techniques. Both literary and digital communications skills will be explicitly studied, practised and assessed.
3	Global Perspectives While considering digital texts, the unit examines global organisations, structures and communications. Many aspects of global phenomena, especially recent communications modes, will be explicitly studied, practised and assessed.
4	Information Literacy Information literacies are at the heart of COMM323. The unit connects with and interprets communications texts from the written word to data structures. Accessing and evaluating different kinds of information (especially digital) is a priority.
5	Life-Long Learning By systematically analysing the construction and use of digital media products and studying successive media techniques and technologies, the unit fosters students' innovative reasoning faculties. These skills are taught, and practised.
6	Problem Solving The unit applies logical, critical and creative thinking to new media processes and products. These modes of thinking are explicitly taught and their application is demanded in the students' assessments.
7	Social Responsibility COMM323 considers the issues of ethical action and social responsibility in the use of communication technologies through the teaching and the learning activities, but this attribute is not explicitly assessed.
8	Team Work The social relationships negotiated in new media practices are analysed, and on-campus students have the opportunity to undertake group tasks in learning activities, but team work is not explicitly taught or formally assessed.