1997 Swinburne Higher Education Handbook

indigenous people will be canvassed. Special attention will
be riven to maior social and communications trends in
0
Australia, and to the methodologies of future studies. Some
modelling of strategic planning and strategic thinking will be
offered, especially in the construction of possible scenarios
for the future of Australian communications.
Recommended reading
ABC 2000 (Australian Broadcasting Coporation)
Australia As An Information Society: Grasping New Paradigms.
Report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee for
Long Term Strategies, Canberra, AGPS, 1991
Information Society 2000. Telecom Australia (forthcoming)
Alternative - AM407 Information Society 2000
Wilson, L. 'The State of Strategic Planning', Technological
Forecasting and Social Change. vol. 37, No. 2, April 1990
Note -Course attendunced based on AM307: Information Society
Promises and Policies, but with more substantial assessment
requirements.
AM502 Asian Communications
3 hours per week Hawthorn Prequisite: nil
Assessment: seminar paper 40%, final paper 60%
A subject in the Master of Communications
Obied'ves and Content
This subject will offer a panorama of print, broadcasting and
telecommunications issues, policies and practices in Asia and
SE Asia. It will examine the relevance of western
communications perspectives on Asia, and the complexity of
issues such as media freedom, satellite TV and development
journalism, in an Asian context. The changing scene in
Asian broadcasting will be analysed, with special reference
to debates about new communications technology -
especially cable, pay and Star television - as well as about
multi-media systems and the prospect of a Pan-Asia
broadcasting network. In telecommunications, the
significance of network modernisation will be analysed,
especially in the context of the drive for privatisation and
deregulation, and of the staggering levels of contemporary
investment in new systems. Vexed issues will include the use
of alternative media for social development, and the cultural
impact and access of western media throughout Asia.
National development models, especially those of Singapore,
Malaysia and Thailand, will be analysed as comparative
studies for desirable communications systems and
development for Asia and SE Asia.
U
5' Recommended reading
2 A Vision of an Intelligent Island. National Computer Board,
Singapore, March 1992.
Jussawalla, M. and Hukill, M. 'Structural Change of
Telecommunications in South East Asia', in Media Asia. vol. 19,
No. 1, 1992
Peterson, N. 'Asian News Values: Challenges and Change', in
Media Asia. vol. 19, No. 4, 1992
Sussman, G. and Lent, J. Transnational Communications: Wiring
the Third World. Newbury Park, Calif., Sage Publications, 1991
Syed Salim Agha. Sustainability of Information Systems in
Developing Countries, An Appraisal and Suggested Courses of
Action. Ghana, IDRC, 1992
AM503 Interrogating Texts: Cultural Dreaming
3 hours per week Hawthorn Prerequisite: nil
Assessment: seminar paper 40%, final paper 60%
A subject in the Master of Communications
Obiedives and Content
This subject will explore issues attendant upon those in
AM500 Globalisation, using as a launching pad the study of
a variety of texts selected from film, television, literature,
and mint and sound media. Ouestions . to be ex~lored will be
chosen from amongst: the function of theories of language
and society in making 'sense' of texts; the representation of
journalism and the media on screen (in film and television);
the depiction of the Third World in western fiction and
nonifiction: the representation of technology in and through
film and literature (with special emphasis on science fiction);
the American entertainment industry's representation of the
US in film and on television; images of Australia offered in
the arts and the media; Australian film, television and
literature into the '90s.
Recommended reading
Dittmar, L. and Michaud, G. (eds) From Hanoi to Hollywood The
Vietnam War in American Film. U.S.A., Rutgers University Press,
1990
Hartley, J. The Politics of Pictures. London, Routledge, 1992
Parrinder, P. Science Fiction, Its Criticism and Teaching. London,
Methuen, 1980
Selden, R. Practising Theory and Reading Literature. New York,
Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1989
Turner, G. National Fictions: Literature, Film and the Construction
of Australian Narrative. 2nd edn, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1993
AM504 Professional Production
3 hours per week Hawthorn Prerequisite: nil
Assessment: production of a radio program or short film or
television script
A subject in the Master of Communications
Obiedives and Content
This subject is aimed at students including those working in
the industry who have above average radio and print media
skills. It has three areas of focus - radio, writing for the
print media, and writing for film and television.
The radio stream consists of a series of seminars dealing with
key management issues including station operations,
audience research and analysis, marketing, human resources,
the impact of new technology, and broadcast policy issues.
Students taking the radio stream may produce broadcast
quality programs during the semester. This could be, for
example, a major documentary or drama, or a multi-track
production which draws on the student's production,
research and writing skills, and creative ability.
The print stream will focus on advanced investigative
reporting and feature writing skills. Students taking the film
and television stream will develop a script proposal, and a
script for a short film or television program.
Students taking either the print or the film and television
writing streams will also attend seminars which address
different forms of writing.