Postgraduate - UnitAPG4018 - Celebrity, fashion, publicity

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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12 points, SCA Band 1, 0.250 EFTSL

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Level	Postgraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	National Centre For Australian Studies
Offered	Caulfield First semester 2013 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Associate Professor Mark Gibson (semester 1); Dr Jinna Tay (semester 2)

Synopsis

The unit introduces students to theories and fields of practice organised around 'getting attention' in and through the media. It focuses particularly on celebrity and fashion as two paradigmatic fields in which this is central. It provides students with a theoretical and historical understanding of publicity as a general field, from the emergence of the movie star and the development of magazine journalism to celebrity Twitter feeds and contemporary public relations. It will consider arguments about the 'noise' or 'clutter' of contemporary media and the increasing importance of an 'attention economy'. It will also introduce some of the major fields of professional practice which have developed around publicity.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

demonstrate a theoretical understanding of the way in which attention is gained in communication and the media.
show a knowledge of the historical development of celebrity and fashion.
identify a range of professional practices organised around publicity.
recognise arguments about increasing 'noise' and 'clutter' in contemporary media and the relevance of the concept of an 'attention economy'.
develop practical responses to problems of gaining attention in the media, including its ethical dimension.