Handbook : Unit informationEdith Cowan University

Faculty of Education and Arts

School: Communications and Arts

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

• Unit Title

  Representation and Interpretation

• Unit Code

  CCA1102

• Year

  2015

• Enrolment Period

  1

• Version

  1

• Credit Points

  15

• Full Year Unit

  N

• Mode of Delivery

  On Campus
  

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Description

This unit looks at the ways in which contemporary culture is constructed and the ways in which its meanings can be revealed. A history of communication and its texts, images and objects is established, drawing particular attention to the transition from analogue to digital communication. The lecture programme develops a range of critical methodologies necessary for cultural analysis.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. Apply concepts of communication theory to cultural images, objects and texts.
2. Describe ideological structures and their impact on the production and consumption of culture.
3. Discuss the idea of reflexivity in relation to individual cultural practices.
4. Identify the relationships between form, content and context.

Unit Content

1. Reflexivity and the role it plays in the production and consumption of culture.
2. The development of digital technology and its consequences.
3. The history of globalised culture.
4. The processes and terms of communication theories and their function in critical analysis.
5. The processes and terms of critical thinking.
6. The relationship between form, content and context and its connection with ideology.

Additional Learning Experience Information

Lectures and Tutorials.

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.

Text References

• Adorno, T. (1994). `The stars down to earth? and other essays on the irrational in culture. New York: Routledge.
• Barrett, E. (ed) (1995). Contextual media: Multimedia and interpretation. Cambridge, Mass: M.I.T. Press.
• Cubitt, S. (1998). Digital aesthetics. London: Sage.
• Dainton, M., & Zelley, E. (2005). Applying communication theory for professional life: a practical introduction. California: Sage.
• Lutterbie, J. (1997). Hearing voices: Modern drama and the problem of subjectivity. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
• Giddens, A (1991). Self and society in the late modern age. Cambridge: Polity.
• Honneth, A. (Ed.) (1991). Communicative action: Essays on Jurgen Habermas's The theory of communicative action. Cambridge: Polity.
• Hawkes, D. (2003). Ideology. New York: Routledge.
• Jarvis, S. (1998) Adorno: A critical introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press.
• Fiske, J. (1990). Introduction to communication studies. London: Routledge.

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