1996 Swinburne Higher Education Handbook

AM207 Cultural Representation in
Australia
(Not offered in 1996)
3 hours per week Hawthorn Prerequisite: AM1 04 or
AM105 , and AP116for students majoring in Australian
Studies Assessment: continuous
This subject is not available to those students who have
previously passed AM204 Media and Australian Society.
A subject in the Bachelor of Arts
Objectives and Content
This subject explores processes of construction and
maintenance of cultural identities in Australia. The first half
of the subject concentrates on the representation of
nationalism in film and television. The enquiry then
broadens to consider representations of cultural difference,
marginality and resistance. Included here is some analysis of
cultural representation from the point of view of Aboriginal
people, women and cultural minorities. Processes of cultural
construction and demarcation are of central significance in
this subject. The major visual texts to be analysed will be
Australian feature films, with some consideration of
Australian television and independent film.
V)
-. & Recommended reading
8 Murray, S. (ed.), Australian Cinema, St. Leonards, NSW, Allen &
G Unwin, 1993
ro_ O'Reaan, T. Australian Television Culture, St. Leonards, NSW,
E. ~llen-& Unwin, 1993
;r Derrnody, S. and Jacka, E. The Screening of Australia. 2 vol.s,
Paddington, Currency Press, 1987
Turner, G. National Fictions Literature, Film & the Construction of
Australian Narrative. Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1986
AM208 New Media: The
Telecommunications Revolution
3 hours per week Hawthorn Prerequisite: AM104 and
AMIOS, and AP112 for students majoring in Australian
Studies Assessment: continuous
A subject in the Bachelor of Arts
Objectives and Content
This subject examines the convergence of broadcasting and
telecommunications in the context of political, economic
and social change associated with new media. New
communications technologies, such as cable and pay
television, teletext and videotext, video-cassette recorders,
domestic and direct broadcast satellites, and video disc are
discussed in the context of changes to traditional
broadcasting systems. Notions such as technological
determinism, media plurality, information access and equity,
are related to an alleged new information revolution. The
effects of new communications technologies on content,
diversity and social needs in Australia are canvassed. As well,
the cultural implications of new choices of media, made
possible by technological change, are examined for special
groups.
Recommended reading
Barr, T., Challenges and Change, Melbourne, Oxford University
Press, 1987
Barr, T. l%e Electronic Estate. Ringwood, Penguin, 1985
Mosco, V., l%e Pay-per-Society - Computers and Communications
in the Information Age, Norwood, N.J., Ablex, 1989
Reinecke, I. and Schultz, J., The Phone Book, Ringwood, Penguin,
1983 -.--
Wheelwright, E. and Buckley, K., (eds), Communications and the
Media in Australia, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1987
Westerway, Peter. Electronic Highways, Sydney, Allen & Unwin,
1990
AM209 Media Voices, Media Style: The
Process of Journalism
4 hours per week Hawthorn Prerequisite: AM1 04 or
AMlOS and any stage two media studies subect or equivalent.
Students need to be competent in Word for Windows 6.
Assessment: continuous
A subject in the Bachelor of Arts
Objectives and Content
Newspapers, radio and television all report the news.
However, while they may report the same events, each
medium has a different 'news voice' resulting from its
particular set of institutional practises and constraints which
shape how events are reported. This subject takes both a
theoretical and practical approach to news writing by
looking at the different reporting strategies and practices of
newspaper, radio and television journalism. Students will use
a range of resources including a detailed Study and Learning
Guide which covers key issues, readings and computer
laboratory exercises, generic skills in independent learning,
team learning and peer assessment, using the Internet and
World Wide Web.
Recommended reading
Cunningham, S. & Turner, G. (eds), The Media in Australia:
Industries, Texts, Audiences, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1993
Taylor, M. and Saarinen, E. Imagologies, London, Routledge, 1994
News The Politics of Illusion, 2nd edn, New York, Longman, 1988
Newmuking, Chicargo, University of Chicargo Press, 1975
Tiffen, R. News and Power, Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1989
AM300 Cinema Studies
4 hours per week Hawthorn Prerequisite: AM104 and any
two stage two media studies subjects or equivalent
Assessment: continuous
A subject in the Bachelor of Arts
Objectives and Content
The viewing material for this subject is a selection of films
arranged generically (e.g. the musical, or the horror film, or
the western, or the science-fiction film), thematically (the
romantic drama, or the journey film, or the domestic
drama), or stylistically (the films noirs, or the problems of
realism, or 'to cut or not to cut?'). These films will provide
study samples for a pursuit of ideas introduced during the
previous two years of the course into a systematic analysis
of film.