COM5204 - Communication economies and society

Leader: Peter Murphy

Offered

Caulfield Second semester 2008 (Day)
Caulfield Second semester 2008 (Evening)
Gippsland Second semester 2008 (Off-campus)

Synopsis

The unit examines the development of communication and information economies, the social forces driving their expansion, their social and economic impact, and the role of communication systems and practices in social development. The unit looks at how communication networks, organizations, arts, and processes impact on and are in turn shaped by regional, national and global patterns of economic and social development. The relationship between communication, creativity, and knowledge economies will be addressed.

Objectives

1. Knowledge, skills and attributes necessary for the understanding of communication economies, the development of institutions and organizations in these economies, and their impact on society;
2. Increased understanding of and competency at dealing with the convergence between communications, economy, and society;
3. Increased understanding of the large-scale and long-term context in which communications, economies, and societies interact;
4. Increased knowledge, skills, and attributes necessary for independent research, enhanced capacity to formulate and research communication economy issues, to analyse and evaluate arguments, and to understand critical approaches to the social-economic dimension of communications;
5. Enhanced intellectual independence, and greater self-reliance and critical distance in intellectual and professional activity;
6. Significantly increased strategic understanding of the medium and long-term economic and social patterns affecting, and affected by, modern information/ knowledge/ ICT-based organizations and processes;
7. Significantly increased strategic understanding of the emergence of communication-driven knowledge and creative economies;
8. In comparison with Level 4 students, greater fluency in the use of rhetorical, written, and visual forms.

Assessment

Assignment 1 Research Essay (4000 words): 40%
Assignment 2 Research Essay (5000 words): 60%

Contact hours

Two hours (1 x 2 hour seminar) per week.

Off Campus Attendance Requirements

Students will be expected to participate for a minimum of one hour per fortnight in on-line discussion.