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COMM423 New Media

Credit Points 6
Offering Not offered in 2010
Intensive School(s) None
Supervised Exam There is no UNE Supervised Examination.
Pre-requisites candidature in a postgraduate award
Co-requisites None
Restrictions COMM123 or COMM223 or COMM323
Notes

offered in odd numbered years
Combined Units COMM323 - 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 No text required
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 40% Off Campus 2500
Assessment Notes
Web Analysis and Proposal
Relates to Learning Outcomes (LO) and Graduate Attributes (GA)
LO: 1-6 GA: 1, 2, 3, 6
Assignment 1 35% On Campus 2000-2500
Assessment Notes
Web Analysis and Proposal
Relates to Learning Outcomes (LO) and Graduate Attributes (GA)
LO: 1-6 GA: 1, 2, 3, 6
Assignment 2: Essay 60% Off Campus 3500
Relates to Learning Outcomes (LO) and Graduate Attributes (GA)
LO: 1-6 GA: 1, 2, 3, 6
Assignment 2: Essay 50% On Campus 3000
Relates to Learning Outcomes (LO) and Graduate Attributes (GA)
LO: 1-6 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

Learning Outcomes (LO) Upon completion of this unit, students will be able to:
  1. identify and use selected new media forms;
  2. comprehend theoretical approaches to communications and compare and apply them in the extended analysis of digital media in a range of contexts;
  3. apply techniques to enable them to conduct effective research online and offline;
  4. recognise diverse expressions of culture and identity in the electronic media and analyse these in depth in the context of relevant disciplinary approaches and debates;
  5. understanding the directions of current developments in communications techniques and technologies and of relations between 'new-media' and other literacies; and
  6. differentiate complex methods of new media research and analysis and apply and evaluate them coherently in large-scale writing tasks.

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. 		True True True
2 Communication Skills
COMM 423 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. 		True True True
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. 		True True True
4 Information Literacy
Information literacies are at the heart of COMM 423. 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. 		True True
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. 		True True
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. 		True True True
7 Social Responsibility
COMM 423 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. 		True True
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. 		True
   

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