Media, culture, power: theories of mass communications
BT BW BB BS DT GA PA BC BP BDT BJ BY
Cathy Greenfield
Subject value of 1.0 (6 points) * Second semester * 3 hours per week (1-hour lecture, 2-hour tutorial) * Gippsland/Distance * Prerequisites: GSC1401 and GSC1402 or with permission of subject adviser. Business students may substitute GBU1401 for GSC1401. GSC2411 is available for the English and mass communication majors
The subject considers nineteenth and twentieth-century accounts of the relations between media, culture and power, in particular as these amount to theories of mass communications. These accounts, or the discourses from which they arise, are examined as both forming and contextualising various social and cultural practices. Such analysis enables discussion of the way media contribute to the organisation of social relations and the government of populations. Students will examine arguments from a range of writers, including Arnold, Eliot, Leavis, Adorno, Brecht, Althusser, Hall, Foucault, Bourdieu, Woollacott, Johnson and Hunter, and the different approaches they offer to cultural issues such as television, radio, the economy and public opinion.
Assessment
Essay one (2500 words): 50% * Essay two (2500 words): 50%