GSC4421

Media, social relations and power

Cathy Greenfield

12 points
* 2 hours per week (seminar)
* First semester
* Gippsland
* Prerequisites: First degree with a major in mass communications or related discipline(s)

Objectives On successful completion of the subject students should be able to demonstrate a developed knowledge of the social conditions, material practices, products and outcomes of various media; an understanding of the capacity to utilise a post-representational approach in oral and written discussion of various media and a governmental approach in discussion of social relations of power.

Synopsis The subject focuses on the social relations of power entailed in and connected to various media (such as television, video, radio, press, other print media, computers, film and photography), and the presentation in these media of different sorts of social and political issues. It covers the distinction between ideology critique and analysis of power; media as social institutions and communications technologies variously connected to other institutions in a social network, rather than `representing' other institutions; concepts of agency, media workers and audiences; policy study as an intellectual framework and current policy issues surrounding communications technologies; media and the government of intercultural relations of power and knowledge. Examples may include media constitutions of politics of race and ethnicity, of class and work, of gender and sexuality; media and election campaigns; and media populism.

Assessment One minor essay (3000 words): 30%
* One major essay (6000 words): 70%

Prescribed texts

To be advised