Monash University Handbook 2010 Postgraduate - Unit

Synopsis

This unit will explore how media users experience and participate in key political issues that define public life. The course is grounded in audience research. It assesses how different ideas about media influence have developed in relation to changing media environments. It will draw from case studies on politics and celebrity, media violence and public health issues. The course will contain a strong methodological component, assessing techniques for gathering and interpreting evidence on what people do with media.

Objectives

Students successfully completing this subject should have developed:

1. An appreciation of the political, cultural and institutional factors that influence the questions scholars ask and the methods they use to analyze media and cultural influence
2. A broad understanding of key questions in the field of media influence, and knowledge of how and why these questions have emerged. An ability to connect these questions to broader issues of ordinary communication in everyday settings
3. An ability to critique scholarship on both conceptual and methodological bases
4. The ability to perform scholarly literature reviews in a manner leading to original research questions
5. The ability to select appropriate data gathering methods for exploring questions of particular relevance to the student.

Assessment

Literature review (3500 words): 40%
Class presentation: 10%
Project proposal (4500 words): 50%

Chief examiner(s)

Andy Ruddock

Contact hours

One 2- hour seminar per week

Off-campus attendance requirements

2 hours per week MUSO participation. Two 6 hour weekend seminars

Prerequisites

A major sequence in an Arts discipline

Prohibitions

COM5230