1. Understand key issues affecting the contemporary media industry and how these are studied in the Bachelor of Media program
2. Conduct critical media analyses to examine technical, institutional and cultural arrangements through which media are created, distributed and consumed in contemporary societies globally
3. Produce insightful discursive and semiotic analysis of texts, visual and audiovisual media content
4. Manage individual and collaborative work, especially through effective use of time and communication (both face-to-face and via different media)
5. Put into practice essential principles for professional conduct of work at university and in the media industry
6. Produce effective written and oral communication to the standard expected at university and in the media industry using different digital platforms
7. Develop research skills required to solve complex problems and creative challenges
8. Get to know what university life and study are like, including familiarity with the different study plans available to Bachelor of Media students

There are NO REQUIRED resources for this course, although regular access to the Internet is essential due to the online content and modes of assignment submission used in this course. All sources are made available to students via links on MyUni that lead students to either the Barr Smith Library digital resources or to external websites.

Students may wish to purchase a media studies textbook to support their learning, BUT this is NOT essential. The following textbooks are recommended, but there are many more available:

• Branston, Gill and Stafford, Roy 2010, The Media Student’s Book, 5th ed., London: Routledge. [UK text]
• Cunningham, Stuart and Turner, Graeme 2010, The Media and Communications in Australia, 3rd ed., Crows Nest, NSW: Allen and Unwin [Australian text]
• Hirst, Martin and Harrison, John 2007, Communication and New Media: From Broadcast to Narrowcast, South Melbourne: Oxford University Press [Australian text; note publication date]
• Pavlik, John P. and McIntosh, Shawn 2011, Converging Media: a New Introduction to Mass Communication, 2nd ed., New York: Oxford University Press [US text]
• Turow, Joseph 2011, Media Today, 4th ed., New York: Routledge [US text; Barr Smith only has 3rd ed.]
• Vivian, John 2010, The Media of Mass Communication, 10th ed., New York: Allyn and Bacon/Pearson [US text; Barr Smith has on order]

NOTE: All these books are available through the Barr Smith Library collection.

This course makes extensive use of MyUni and some external websites. All assignments are submitted via MyUni using a combination of wikis, blogs and TurnItIn.

Lectures for this course are delivered live and recorded using the university’s MyMedia system. Lecture recordings are automatically loaded to the MyMedia module following delivery. Tutorial classes are held in a Media Lab (Schulz 407 and 408) in order to facilitate students’ access to online resources and completion of assignments. Readings and other sources are provided using the Barr Smith Library Digital Resources Management Service or through externally hosted websites. Assignments and course participation involve a mixture of individual and collaborative work in class and online.

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements:

• Lectures (live or online): 2 hours per week
• Tutorial Attendance: 1 hour per week
• Tutorial Preparation: 4 hours per week
• Assignment Preparation: 3 hours per week

Note that these are expectations of the approximate amount of time required in an average week to complete all elements of the course successfully. Actual workload is likely to vary depending on the assignment deadlines.

NOTE: This outline of course topics is provided as a guide only. Students enroled in this course must consult the complete Course Outline available via MyUni.

TOPIC 0: Course summary and Media program information
Taught in O' Week, this topic summarises the themes, content and organisation of the course, including important information about assignments and how we use MyUni in this course. We will explain what you’re going to learn in the coming semester, and how the course helps you develop essential study skills for success and university and beyond. We’ll look at some of the links between the course and other parts of the Bachelor of Media degree. There’s also an opportunity to meet the people from the Discipline of Media who will teach you throughout your time at uni’.
 
TOPIC 1: What are media? Why ‘digital revolutions’?
Before embarking on your studies of the media it helps to know what you’re examining! Media are highly complex phenomena and in this lecture we begin to look at their different components. We also examine how these components vary between different media and how they relate to each other to form the things we regard as distinctive about various industries. It’s common to speak of ‘digital revolutions’ that are transforming media industries, but in this lecture we ask what’s actually changing and offering challenges because of these transformative technologies. We will also provide vital information about the course assignments and essential research skills needed to complete your work for this course.

TOPIC 2: Media technologies: Beyond ‘techno-determinism’
People often talk of a digital revolution in the media industries as if information technologies themselves cause such changes to happen. In a crude sense, of course, this is true. But many researchers and industry professionals argue that this leads us to deny the vital role that people play in making such changes happen or actually resisting such changes. Can our studies find a reasonable balance between accepting the influence that technologies certainly play in these transformations and acknowledging the other social, cultural, economic and political elements that help form our media?

TOPIC 3: Sustaining media industries in a time of digital revolution
A consistent theme in this course is the analysis of change in the media industries. We loo in particular a how industries are changing in order to sustain media as an essential part of our social, cultural, economic and political lives. Imagine what we would miss if did not have our media! The world as we know it would cease to exist! In reality media will never disappear, but much that we know and love is likely to be transformed or become only a memory in the coming years. So we ask, how do we make our media today, how does this differ from previous times, and what do we need to do to continue producing the things that sustain our vital institutions and (let’s not deny it) keep us entertained?

TOPIC 4: Print journalism versus social media, and the impact on democracy
A free press is critical to liberal democracy, because news media anchor public life. They act as the platforms for national conversations, eventually shaping the ways that power is distributed and redistributed in a society. But newsprint journalism is losing readers and dying; on the other hand, social media commentary is vibrant and subscription rates are exploding. Social media is said to increase the transparency and accountability of governments and other authorities, yet it has simultaneously been accused of ‘dumbing down’ democracy. Twitter, for example, speeds national conversations, but its trending topics are quickly replaced. The platform does not lend itself to long deliberations.
 
TOPIC 5: Consumers, privacy & calls for tighter independent media regulation
Competition for consumers in a digital mediascape is fierce. In print news especially, tabloidization of content has been the result, along with 'gotcha' journalism, the pursuit of celebrity gossip, give-aways and an increase in opinion pages: all signs of the struggle to maintain reader interest. The impact of free access to diverse online news, the decline in advertising revenue, competition for readers, monopolies in media ownership have led to led to unprofessional and unethical practices by journalists in a largely self-regulated industry. The now defunct News of the World (UK) was accused of illegal activities including phone-hacking and other invasions of privacy, and this triggered the Leveson Inquiry into journalists' practices. The proceedings revealed that a questionable nexus of media, police and political elites existed, and the findings led to criminal indictments of high-profile people. The setting up of the UK investigation was followed immediately by the Australian government's announcement of the Independent Media Inquiry. The inquiries contrasted in key ways.

TOPIC 6: Mods, mashups, remixes and the crisis of expertise
Interactivity and the ability of users to copy, rework, and redistribute creative work as well as to publish more original work of their own creates opportunities – for expression and innovation, as well as challenges – to entrenched institutional forms such as copyright and intellectual property. The lecture this week looks at the ways in which the new structures of interactive media disrupt media professions and media institutions. What new forms of expertise are emerging and what new kinds of labour? How can intellectual property and copyright regimes work in this new environment? We will consider game mods, youtube mashups and music remixes to explore how these issues play out and what the impact on media professionals might be.

TOPIC 7: Creative ‘produsers’, crowdsourcing, and affective connections
As users of online, cross platform, globalised media, we have access to many new ways of engaging with creative practices, and new ways to create viable projects through avenues such as crowdsourcing. Harnessing the energy, wisdom, and money of the crowd through a wide variety of channels, from Wikipedia to Kickstarter. We also now socialise with our friends and families through media platforms that can log, mine and trade our interactions for commercial purposes. This shifting terrain of opportunities and costs will be examined in these two lectures as we consider the changing functions and forms of media in terms of creativity, culture and social relations.

TOPIC 8: A global media revolution? Globalising entertainment TV
Despite the rise of the Internet, television is still one of the major sources of entertainment for people around the world. Networks like HBO are drawing directors and actors away from film to create ‘quality’ entertainment for the small screen. This week we look at how television is becoming one of the great export industries through the use of new technologies allowing audiences (globally) to become even more selective with their viewing choices.

TOPIC 9: An Unruly Revolution? Challenging the West through global cinema
The themes explored this week include that of how cinema (and TV) industries from China and India are able to defend themselves against the power of Hollywood and the US film/TV industry. By looking at the strong cultures of these two increasingly powerful and influential countries we can see that new technologies allow for more efficient production (and greater distribution) of locally made films.

TOPIC 10: Conclusions: Studying media sustainability, sustaining media studies
It’s time to reflect on what you’ve learnt in the course and look ahead to your final assignment and future studies. Above all this lecture allows us to consider the current state of our media as we move ever further into the digital era. Do our media have a bright future or will the challenges prove too much for some industries that we previously took for granted? There is much at stake in this question for everyone in our society, but especially those seeking to make a career in the media industries. Success will depend on how well we can meet these challenges and this requires a generation of media professionals that can think clearly about the choices we must make as the digital revolution reaches its peak. By now you should be developing the skills and knowledge to sustain your own studies of the media so you can play your role in sustaining not only your chosen profession but a vital part of our way of life.

There are no specific course requirements.

Tutorial classes held in the Media Labs form an integral part of learning in this course. Students will work in a combination of whole class and smaller groups to debate key questions raised by each topic and complete assignments. Each assignment requires students to conduct independent research about the media industry and prepare reports on their findings using a variety of online platforms, including blogs and wikis, as well as more conventional essay-style writing. Tutorial classes provide an opportunity for students to receive advice and support in the completion of this work from the academic staff who coordinate the course.

	Assignment 1	Assignment 2	Assignment 3	Assignment 4
Name	MyWritingLab	Digital Media Content Wiki and Evaluation	Media Industry Essay and Sources Blog	Participation
Type	Diagnostic Exercise	Online Project	Essay and Creative Exercise	Participation
Overall Value	10%	30%	50%	10%
Workload	Approximately 6-18 hours	750 words total (approx’ 18-24 hours work)	1,500 words total, plus additional preparatory journal notes and e-publication (approx’ 72-80 hours work)	Based on work completed throughout the semester
Submission Mode	Online via external website	Online via MyUni wiki, test and TurnItIn module	Online via MyUni blog, test and TurnItIn module	Tutor-moderated self-assessment test

MyWritingLab (10%): MyWritingLab is an online writing course that enables students to revise essential elements of writing at the start of their studies. Accurate and stylish writing is students and future media industry employees’ most important skill. Needless to say it is also vital for self-employed media workers.

750 word Digital Media Industry Wiki and Platform Evaluation (30%): Completed via a self-assessed wiki and tutor assessed report.

1500 word Media Sustainability e-publication and Sources Journal (50%): this is evaluated via a self-assessed blog that contains research articles identified by students that are then used to write an essay in response to one from a number of set questions.

Participation (10%): attendance and participation in tutorials.

Assignments are submitted via the tests, wikis, blogs and TurnItIn modules available on the MyUni course site. Feedback is provided through test responses, rubrics, comments in assignment text and in class.

NOTE: Students who achieve an overall course mark of between 45% and 49% overall (i.e. a Fail mark within 5% of a Pass mark of 50%) will be offered an opportunity to resubmit a revised version of Assignment 3 (see above). The deadline for resubmission will be one week from notification of the overall course mark. The maximum overall course mark possible following resubmission will be 50%.

In response to feedback provided last year we have made the following changes:

1. Revised course topics,
2. Revised use of wikis and journals/blogs in the course,
3. Revised use of MyWritingLab,
4. Added a number of practical activities,
5. Provided further advice on assessment criteria for assignments,
6. Revised system for providing feedback on assignments.

We hope these changes will make this course even better than last year, but please provide your honest evaluation at the end of the course. We always pay careful attention to your evaluation and look for way to act on your advice and comments.