COMS101-20S1 (C) Semester One 2020

Media and Society

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 17 February 2020
End Date: Sunday, 21 June 2020
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 28 February 2020
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 29 May 2020

Description

COMS101 explores the relationship between society and media - including social media, print, broadcasting, and all kinds of online spaces. It asks how our understandings of the world and people around us are mediated, how media have shaped society, and how society is reflected and produced through media. We will explore topics like media audiences, technologies, ownership and work; the frames of representation, power, and identity; and analytical tools like semiotics, discourse, and narrative. COMS101 is a stage one course that does not require any prior media study, but it builds on everything you have ever watched, listened to, interacted with, and produced.

Naku te rourou nau te rourou ka ora ai te iwi.
With your contribution and my contribution, the people will thrive.
If we all contribute to COMS101, the class will thrive!

COMS101 explores the relationship between society and media - including social media, print, broadcasting, and all kinds of online spaces. It asks how our understandings of the world and people around us are mediated, how media have shaped society, and how society is reflected and produced through media. We will explore topics like media audiences, technologies, ownership and work; the frames of representation, power, and identity; and analytical tools like semiotics, discourse, and narrative. COMS101 is a stage one course that does not assume any prior media study, but it builds on everything you have ever watched, listened to, interacted with, and produced.

COMS101 is a core course in the Bachelor of Communication, and it will lay the groundwork for the rest of your degree in whichever major you choose. It is also an option for a BA major or minor in COMS, and there we hope you will find productive interconnections with other arts subjects.

Learning Outcomes

  • By the end of the course, you should be able to demonstrate the following knowledge and skills:
    Knowledge: you should be able to…
  • understand the value of media literacy
  • understand the broad media environment of Aotearoa New Zealand
  • recognise the continuities and discontinuities between 'old' and 'new' media forms
  • recognise the critical possibilities of media analysis
  • describe how media discursively construct versions of the real
  • identify the understanding of audiences underlying arguments about media
  • define power, hegemony and ideology in media
  • recognise the role of media in producing and circulating ideas about identity, culture, and nation
  • produce arguments about media concentration and global ownership
  • identify arguments for a free media and individual choice
  • identify processes in the construction of media texts

    Skills: you should be able to…
  • research media issues using books, journals, and online sources
  • analyse a media text
  • write a well-structured academic essay confidently and with clarity
  • discuss the ideas and processes shaping the media
  • explain impacts of ownership on media
  • discuss the challenges of expanding media perspectives
  • interpret media content in terms of production processes, audiences, and technologies
  • relate critical theories of society to media content
  • read media critically using semiotic and discourse analysis

    Attributes: you should feel more confident about…
  • Researching and writing an academic essay
  • Writing in a range of styles and using a range of sources
  • Reflecting on your own experience as a media audience member and producer
  • Talking with your peers and lecturers
  • Your own abilities and aptitudes in university study
  • What you need more help with, and where to find it.

      • University Graduate Attributes

      This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attributes specified below:

      Critically competent in a core academic discipline of their award

      Students know and can critically evaluate and, where applicable, apply this knowledge to topics/issues within their majoring subject.

Course Coordinator

Zita Joyce

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage  Description
Library exercise 5% This exercise will test your knowledge of accessing and retrieving information through online library resources.
Tutorial Assignments 30% Seven assignments designed to extend your media writing skills. If you submit eight, the best seven will be counted.
Essay 20 Apr 2020 35% 1,500 word limit (excluding references).
Final exam (online) 30% Take-home exam tasks will be given out at end of semester. There will be a 24-hour window to submit your take-home exam on Learn during the official examinations period.

Textbooks / Resources

The readings listed in the lecture outline are available on the Learn page for each lecture.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $777.00

International fee $3,375.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Language, Social and Political Sciences .

All COMS101 Occurrences

  • COMS101-20S1 (C) Semester One 2020
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