Undergraduate - UnitATS2561 - Sex and the media

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Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Offered	Clayton First semester 2012 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Amy Dobson

Notes

Synopsis

Sex and the media will examine contemporary media and the implications these have for gender, identity, relationships, communities and social policy. Critical interdisciplinary approaches are used to address the following key questions:
How is sex, gender and sexuality created and produced by popular culture?
How are cultural meanings around sex and gender made, circulated and reinforced?
What roles do consumers have in determining and defining the product?

Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit students should have:

1. A grounded working knowledge of the major theoretical and methodological approaches on sex and the media;
2. An informed theoretical critique of how gender and sexuality is constituted in popular culture;
3. An interdisciplinary approach to media analysis;
4. Library-based research skills and a working knowledge of the major data-bases used in the field;
5. The ability to think critical and analytically, and to be able to articulate those thought processes in a high standard of written and oral expression;
6. The production of thoroughly researched, well documented and presented written work.

Third-year students will be expected to demonstrate greater capacity for independent research and will be required to answer questions of a more conceptually challenging nature.

Assessment

Written work: 90%
Class participation/presentation: 10%

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Amy Dobson

Contact hours

One 2-hour seminar per week

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Sociology
Politics
Gender studies
Comparative literature and cultural studies
Communications
Journalism studies

Prerequisites

A first-year sequence

Prohibitions

ATS3561, WMN2030, WMN3030