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Media, Culture and Technology - MECTA13931

Plan Summary

 
Faculty: ARTSC - Faculty of Arts&Social Science
 
  
 
Contact: http://empa.arts.unsw.edu.au
 
 
Program: 3931 - Advanced Science/Arts
 
 
Award(s):
 
 
Bachelor of Arts (Major)
 
  

Plan Outline

This plan is only available to students commencing from 2009

The aim of this major is to provide students with a progressive understanding of the social, cultural and phenomenological impacts of media and communication technologies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The sequence starts with an accessible introduction to ways of thinking about the emergence and consequences of two technologies that most students take for granted: television and telephony. Students then progress through a number of pathways and perspectives that move towards the present reality of 'intermedia'; that is, complex global media, information and communication systems and networks that people access through a variety of increasingly digital technologies.

In short, the focus of Media, Culture and Technology Major is on media in a period of transition. In terms of learning skills, the major develops conceptual frameworks and modes of analysis through which students can understand and explain not only changes in the media, but also reasons for those changes and their social and affective consequences.

Aims of the Major
The subject-specific aims of the BA Major in Media, Culture and Technology are:
• Student outcomes at the end of Level 1:
• students will have competencies in key concepts in media theory
• the ability to critically analyse the social and cultural dynamics of media technologies and their impacts on everyday life and experience
• skills in basic research and analytical writing
• the ability to reflect on their own media practices and the ways in which their understandings of self and world are formed in relation to media.

Student outcomes by the end of Level 2:
• students will have an understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of media studies
• an ability to reflect on the relationship between media and cultural organizations and political, technological and economic processes
• an understanding of the networked nature of media and the balance between local and global media
• the ability to analyse different systems of representation and aesthetic practices and the role of diverse audiences and users in this process
• skills in reading and using media theory and researching media.

Student outcomes by the end of Level 3:
• students will be able to understand the dynamics of intermedia and emerging media forms as they are played out in relation to questions of aesthetics, politics, technology, transnational media and performance
• they will also have well-developed skills in analytical and critical thinking, independent and in-depth research methods and an appreciation of the pivotal role of media in contemporary social organization.
• be able to research and explore key areas of the media industries they are focussing upon.

Plan Structure

A student who wishes to complete a major in Media, Culture and Technology must complete 54 units of credit, including 12 uoc at level 1, at least 18 uoc at level 2 and at least 18 uoc at level 3 including the capstone course.

Level 1
Plus one of the following:

Level 2
Level 2 offers interdisciplinary introductions to key aspects of contemporary media and information: globalisation, technology, mobile media and cultures, media policy, audiences, reading and meaning-making, performance and the popular, and the Australian context.

Level 3
Level 3 offers courses that are more specialist in focus and more theoretically advanced around issues of the dynamics of intermedia and emerging media forms as they are played out in relation to questions of aesthetics, politics, technology, transnational media and performance.


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© The University of New South Wales (CRICOS Provider No.: 00098G), 2004-2011. The information contained in this Handbook is indicative only. While every effort is made to keep this information up-to-date, the University reserves the right to discontinue or vary arrangements, programs and courses at any time without notice and at its discretion. While the University will try to avoid or minimise any inconvenience, changes may also be made to programs, courses and staff after enrolment. The University may also set limits on the number of students in a course.