Subject Area: Media, Culture and Technology

This course draws on contemporary theoretical and empirical work from the fields of media and cultural studies to address the questions of who uses media and how and why they use it. Several methodological and theoretical frameworks are used to explore the ways that media consumers/audiences have been understood by academic researchers, policy-makers and public commentators. Both media texts and media research will be examined to understand how they can shape opinions or behaviours, entertain or distract, form identities and build communities. Students will reflect on their own media consumption practices and their relation to values, attitudes and identity, as well as engaging with case studies of media uses in Australia.