Course Guide - Edith Cowan University

CMM4124
15 Credit Points
Media and Nation
FACULTY OF EDUCATION & ARTS
This unit examines the ways in which National Identity is
represented and promoted through the media. It uses Benedict
Anderson’s concept of the Imagined Community (1991) as a
foundation and will focus on issues such as: the Public Sphere,
Mediasphere and Banal Nationalism; National Myths and
Legends; Representations of the Landscape; Advertising and
Tourism; Film and Television; Music and Sport; Museums and
Commemorations; Difference and Otherness; and the Local and
the Diaspora in order to discover the importance placed on the
concept of National Identity. The areas of focus are also related
historically and thematically to their impact on human interaction
and the formation of the Individual and the Citizen, Community
and National culture.
CMM4125
15 Credit Points
Popular Music and Culture
FACULTY OF EDUCATION & ARTS
This unit introduces students to a number of approaches and
attitudes to Popular Music from a Cultural Studies perspective.
The starting point is the high-culture critique of mass culture (and
Popular Music) originating in the Frankfurt School. From there
culturalist perspectives (including sub-cultural analysis) and the
cultural capital of Popular Music will be addressed. Other areas of
investigation will be: Subjectivity and Identity; the semiotics of
the texts; Gender and Sexuality; Performance and Authenticity;
World Music; and the Artist and the ‘Star’.
CMM4131
15 Credit Points
Reading Media Texts
FACULTY OF EDUCATION & ARTS
The unit offers an overview of critical approaches used within
media and film studies as forms of media textual analysis. It
examines a variety of media texts including film, television,
advertisements, photography and the press. It introduces students
to a number of key theoretical perspectives and approaches
including: examination of the 'language' of the media, semiology,
theories of narrative structure and binary oppositions and genre
theory. It aims to develop student skills in studying written critical
analyses of the media and in writing their own critical essays on
the media.
CMM4137
15 Credit Points
Project Preparation
FACULTY OF EDUCATION & ARTS
This unit is the first stage in the preparation of a project
submission. Students will develop a range of skills necessary for
independent project work, including an understanding of the role
of supervision, the phases of project development, the acquisition
of research skills, the processes of research, the management of
time and resources and the responsibilities involved in
independent project activity.
CMM4208
15 Credit Points
Communications and Digital Technology
FACULTY OF EDUCATION & ARTS
This unit provides an introduction to multimedia and digital
technologies. The unit includes: an introduction to the various
technologies associated with multimedia development and
delivery, including hardware, software and human components;
an introduction to the Internet and World Wide Web; using the
Web as an information and communication resource; visual
communications and design; and issues associated with these
developing technologies. The unit also includes an introduction to
multimedia development processes.
CMM4209
15 Credit Points
Cyberculture Studies
FACULTY OF EDUCATION & ARTS
This unit explores the interface between new technologies and
contemporary culture. Students will gain an understanding of the
way that new and emerging technologies have changed the way
we interact, communicate and imagine our world. Key
technologies will be examined (the Internet, computer gaming,
SMS texting, virtual reality systems, “cyborg” technologies),
within their historical, social, philosophical and aesthetic contexts.
The unit provides a history and theory of the Internet; emerging
forms of the interface and interactivity; new theories of
subjectivity in cyberspace; a history of computer gaming; theories
of the network; complexity, chaos and emergence as new methods
of understanding within the humanities. A particular emphasis of
the unit will be concerned with strategies to strengthen the
interface between theory and the practical skills required while
living within a computer-mediated cyberculture, all the while
emphasising a humanities approach to the study of humantechnology
interaction. Students in this unit will begin to develop
the critical, communicative and aesthetic tools they will need to
use as individuals within the “digital age”.
CMM4215
15 Credit Points
Cultural Matrix
FACULTY OF EDUCATION & ARTS
The main aim of this unit is the investigation of the study of
Popular Culture from a Cultural/Media Studies perspective. It
seeks to provide a detailed summary of the developments and the
key theories that have been used to explore Mass/Popular Culture
in contemporary times. The unit will offer a broad discussion that
ranges from Benjamin to Baudrillard; from a Structuralist to Poststructuralist
perspective; from Modernity to Postmodernity.
CMM5110
20 Credit Points
Globalisation, Cultural Diversity and Innovation
FACULTY OF EDUCATION & ARTS
The rapid development of communication technologies has had a
profound effect on global communications, business, innovation,
cultural convergence and leisure choices. This unit explores these
changes with a view of raising awareness of how these factors can
be used to help promote innovation in industry and society.
Evolving new media, technology, political and economic factors
will be discussed that impact on globalisation, as well as the
social, cultural and historical factors that mediate the
interpretation of emergent international trends.
CMM5111
20 Credit Points
Convergences
FACULTY OF EDUCATION & ARTS
This unit examines the history of technology from the medium
theory perspective, which argues that it the medium rather than
the content that shapes communication patterns and their
associated social institutions. It takes as it starting point the
current situation associated with the digital revolution. It sees this
development as a recent example of convergence. The
characteristics of the digital revolution are shown to be similar to
other revolutions in the means communication and that
technologies in a social context play a significant part bringing
about convergence. Workshops allow students to apply these
ideas to a number of case studies.
CMM5112
20 Credit Points
Media and Social Issues
FACULTY OF EDUCATION & ARTS
This unit examines the relationship between the media and a
specific social issue of contemporary importance. In particular, it
will provide students with a framework within which to consider
the representation and reportage by the media of an issue of their
own choice, and audiences’ consumption of the resulting
narratives. Students will examine the relationship between the
media and (e.g.) particular community attitudes, values, beliefs or
practices relating to an issue within one of the following domains:
law and order, ‘the family’, local or global ecology, sexual
identity, consumer rights, (alternative) healthcare, gene
technologies, traditional/New Age spiritualities, new
communication technologies, immigration and refugee policies,
censorship and privacy, gender roles, and so on. Students will
explore future directions and develop proposed policy outcomes,
where appropriate.
ECU Postgraduate Course Guide 2007 201