ATS2784 - News and power - 2018

6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Undergraduate - Unit

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

Faculty

Arts

Organisational Unit

Journalism

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Stephanie Brookes

Coordinator(s)

Dr Stephanie Brookes

Unit guides

Offered

Caulfield

  • Second semester 2018 (On-campus)

Prerequisites

Twelve credit points of first-year Arts units. It is highly recommended that students only take this unit after they have completed two first-year level units in Journalism.

Synopsis

This unit provides students with an opportunity for a critical engagement with contemporary scholarship on the sociology and political economy of news production; news organisations and practices in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors; news media formats and representation. It asks students to think critically about industrial and post-industrial news media; journalism, public relations and politics; journalism and social diversity; journalism and the public sphere; technologies, time and space in news media. The unit takes a comparative approach to historical and geographical contexts.

Outcomes

On successful completion of the unit, students should be able to:

  1. demonstrate a satisfactory knowledge and capacity to make effective usage of the academic literature in the sociology and political economy of journalism;
  2. demonstrate an ability to research, discuss and analyse issues in a clear, concise and rigorous way;
  3. collaborate constructively with fellow students in learning and discussion processes, including online forums;
  4. produce their written work to deadline making effective use of the conventions of scholarly presentation(references, bibliography, etc);
  5. work independently and in groups to achieve their learning outcomes;
  6. demonstrate a critical awareness of the strengths, limitations and socio-professional implications of scholarly practice in journalism studies.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 100%

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.

See also Unit timetable information

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