Availabilities:
Unit Summary
Unit type
UG Coursework Unit
Credit points
12
AQF level
Level of learning
Intermediate
Former School/College
Pre-requisites
72 credit points in any SCU units
Unit aim
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
- Contemporary factual media practices
- News discourses
- Objectivity, ethics and the public sphere in the digital world
- Media panics
- Social media, celebrities and privacy
- Public relations and social campaigns
- Podcasts and the world of audio documentary
- Documentary film and change agents
- Citizen journalism and the factual
- Comedy, satire and political debate
- Journalism beyond news and current affairs
- Sport media and social values
Learning outcomes
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 | 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:
-
critically evaluate contemporary factual media theories and practices
- GA1:
- GA4:
-
discuss the social and cultural construction of factual media texts
- GA4:
- GA5:
-
identify the rhetorical, linguistic, ideological, and other representational strategies used in various entertainment and news media practices
- GA1:
- GA5:
-
research and analyse factual media content and production within media industry contexts.
- GA1:
- GA4:
Prescribed texts
- This is the Unit Textbook : Bainbridge J, Goc N & Tynan L , 2011, Media and journalism: new approaches to theory and practice , 2nd edn, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne.