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Unit of Study COM10081 - True Stories: Factual Media (2014)

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Unit Snapshot

  • Pre-requisites

    72 credit points in any SCU units

  • Enrolment information

    N/A

Unit description

Explores how we gain information about our world through a variety of contemporary media forms. This unit problematises the traditional differentiation of news from entertainment, and examines a range of media and cross-platform offerings. News and current affairs are explored, alongside hybrid media forms like 'reality' television, a range of documentary formats, and journalistic genres.

Unit content

  1. Contemporary factual media practices
  2. News discourses
  3. Objectivity, ethics and the public sphere in the digital world
  4. Media panics
  5. Social media, celebrities and privacy
  6. Public relations and social campaigns
  7. Podcasts and the world of audio documentary
  8. Documentary film and change agents
  9. Citizen journalism and the factual
  10. Comedy, satire and political debate
  11. Journalism beyond news and current affairs
  12. Sport media and social values

Availabilities

Location Domestic International
Lismore Session 1 Session 1
Online Session 1 N/A

Learning outcomes and graduate attributes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

GA1: Intellectual rigour, GA2: Creativity, GA3: Ethical practice, GA4: Knowledge of a discipline, GA5: Lifelong learning, GA6: Communication and social skills, GA7: Cultural competence
Learning outcome count Learning outcome description GA1 GA2 GA3 GA4 GA5 GA6 GA7
1 critically evaluate contemporary factual media theories and practices
2 discuss the social and cultural construction of factual media texts
3 identify the rhetorical, linguistic, ideological, and other representational strategies used in various entertainment and news media practices
4 research and analyse factual media content and production within media industry contexts.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

  1. critically evaluate contemporary factual media theories and practices
    • GA1:
    • GA4:
  2. discuss the social and cultural construction of factual media texts
    • GA4:
    • GA5:
  3. identify the rhetorical, linguistic, ideological, and other representational strategies used in various entertainment and news media practices
    • GA1:
    • GA5:
  4. research and analyse factual media content and production within media industry contexts.
    • GA1:
    • GA4:

Prescribed learning resources

Prescribed Texts
  • No prescribed texts.

Prescribed Learning Resources may change in future Teaching Periods.