Undergraduate - UnitATS3763 - The second media age

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 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.

print version

6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	Communications and Media Studies
Offered	Not offered in 2014
Coordinator(s)	Dr David Holmes

Notes

Previously coded COM3020

Synopsis

What is the 'second media age'? Does it offer new insights into what was the 'first media age? The different kinds of social, political and communication dynamics which can be found in cyberspace demands a reassessment of the methodologies used to explore media, as well as new understandings of interaction as they relate to old and new media. The difference between information and communication, interaction versus 'integration', analogue versus digital culture, cyberspace and virtual reality is also explored. Numerous theoretical perspectives will be introduced including the work of Adorno, Ang, Baym, Bennett, Baudrillard, Calhoun, Carey, Hall, Innis, McLuhan, Mellencamp, Meyrowitz, etc.

Outcomes

On successful completion of this subject students will be able to demonstrate:

An understanding of the formal difference between Communications Studies and Media Studies which define the program that this subject is a part of
An appreciation of the difference between first media age and second media age
A knowledge of the social, economic and political impact of television and the internet
An understanding of how new communication technologies have changed the nature of modern audiences
An understanding that traditional media also provide for the formation of 'virtual communities' just as new media do
A sociological understanding of 'advertising' and why it does not work on the internet and how this led to the dot.com crash of the late 1990s
An understanding of the different ways in which media, old and new condition influence cultural globalisation
An appreciation of the difference between being an audience member of broadcast media and a 'user' of new media technology.