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

  Media and Social Context

• Unit Code

  CMM1113

• Year

  2015

• Enrolment Period

  1

• Version

  2

• Credit Points

  15

• Full Year Unit

  N

• Mode of Delivery

  On Campus
  Online

---

Description

Introduces students to the main theories and methodologies for understanding and analysing a range of communications media in their social and cultural contexts. The unit considers theories and issues of representation in how media discourses construct ways of understanding the world and our place in it, within modernist, postmodernist and globalised contexts.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. Analyse the role of the media in postmodernist and globalised contexts.
2. Discuss a range of theories informing contemporary media studies.
3. Discuss the concepts of the individual, ideology and the social subject.
4. Discuss the interactions between media and their social and cultural contexts.

Unit Content

1. Essay writing skills.
2. Ideology as a textual process.
3. Postmodernist and globalised contexts structuring media discourses.
4. Subjectivity, audiences and spectatorship
5. The social power of the media.
6. Theories of representation.
7. This unit includes:

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

• ^ CMM1113 Media and social context reader
• Shirato, T., & Yell, S. (1996). Communication & cultural literacy: An introduction. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
• Rayner, P., Wall, P., & Kruger, S. (2001). Media studies: The essential introduction. London: Routledge.
• O'Shaugnessy, M., & Stadler, J. (2005). Media and society. (3rd ed.). London: Oxford.
• McLuhan, M. (1987). Understanding media: The extensions of man. London: Ark.
• McHoul, A., & Grace, W. (1993). A Foucault primer: Discourse, power and the subject. Carlton, VIC: Melbourne University Press
• Hall, S. (Ed.). (1997). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices. London: Sage.
• Guantlett, D. (2002). Media, gender and identity: An introduction London and New York: Routledge.
• Gamble, S. (2001). The Routledge companion to feminism and postfeminism. London: Routledge.
• Flew, T. (2002). New media: An Introduction. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
• Cunningham, S., & Turner, G. (Eds.). (1997). The media in Australia: Industries, texts, Audiences. (2nd ed.). North Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
• Croteau, D., & Hoynes, W. (2002). Media/society: Industries, images and audiences. (2nd rev. ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif: Pine Forge Press
• Connell, R. (2002). Gender. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers
• Beck, A., & Bennett, P. (2001). Communication studies: The essential introduction. London: Routledge.
• Ang, I. (1990). Desperately seeking the audience. London: Routledge.
• Watson, J., & Hill, A. (2000). Dictionary of media and communication studies. (5th rev.ed.). London: Arnold.
• Sturken, M., & Cartwright, L. (2001). Practices of looking: An introduction to visual culture. New York: Oxford University Press.

^ Mandatory reference

---