Undergraduate - UnitATS1277 - Media studies

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 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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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.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	School of Media, Film and Journalism
Offered	Gippsland First semester 2015 (Off-campus)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Simon Cooper

Synopsis

Introduces techniques for describing and analysing the production, distribution and reception, as well as the formal properties, of media texts. Focuses on 'mass media' as a set of relationships between owners, producers, texts and audiences. Introduces these relationships in connection with studies of power and influence, focusing on particular dimensions of difference and inequality in social life. Areas of study include news production, textual analysis, media ownership and diversity, film and sport.

Outcomes

In this unit teaching staff aim to provide you with a range of readings and practical exercises that help you acquire conceptual frameworks for analysing media texts and media industries. Through close reading, oral discussion and writing exercises you should acquire various practical and conceptual tools for understanding not only the form and content of media texts,but also the structure and operation of the various industries and institutions that make up what we call mass media.On successful completion of this unit students should be able to:

Recognise and be able to apply available strategies for critically analysing media texts as tools for making meaning
Demonstrate an understanding of the various economic, political and cultural forces which shape the practical work of media production
Demonstrate an appreciation of the historical development of media industries
Demonstrate an appreciation of the ways that available frameworks for making sense of media texts contribute to the production of dominant, or common sense, understandings of the world.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 70%
Exam: 30%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Simon Cooper

Prohibitions

ATS1279, AZA1279