Undergraduate - UnitAZA1280 - Media technology and everyday life

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	South Africa School of Social Sciences
Offered	Not offered in 2015
Coordinator(s)	Ms Marianne Louw

Synopsis

In the unit students will be introduced to key concepts in the study of communications, and will be asked to consider the social, cultural, economic and political implications of different communication technologies and associated practices. The unit aims to showdemonstrates that communication permeates everything from everyday domestic routines to large-scale processes of social and cultural change. It is divided into three modules: what is communication and why study it; the role of communications in social and cultural change; communications and everyday life. A central feature of this unit is that students are required to apply concepts and tools from the study of communications to their own everyday experiences.

Outcomes

Upon successfully completing the unit, a student will:

possess a basic understanding of the field of communications;
employ basic concepts in the study of communications;
analyze the role of communications in processes of social and cultural change;
be able to apply communication analysis to everyday life;
be informed about areas of industry and community life where the study of communications is applicable and relevant.4. Understand the concept of 'material culture';
be able to critically analyse the term 'information society' as applied to modern-day life.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 60%
Exam: 40%

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)

Ms Marianne Louw

Prohibitions

ATS1278, ATS1280