COMS201-21S2 (C) Semester Two 2021

Media Audiences

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 19 July 2021
End Date: Sunday, 14 November 2021
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 1 August 2021
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 1 October 2021

Description

How does our media consumption shape our opinions, actions, identities and lives? How do audiences influence the production and circulation of media? How do we create our own media presence online, and act as an audience for each other? This course will examine the relationship between audiences and media. We will discuss theory and research that represents audiences as passive consumers of media products, active decoders of media texts, producers of our own representations online, and participants in interactive media production. The course will look at a broad range of media forms (such as television, radio, film, the Internet, social networking, home theatre, cell phones and videogames), and content (including violence, music, reality television, soap operas, news, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs). “Media Audiences” will encourage you to reflect on your own relationship with media, and to consider the broader contexts that shape your listening, viewing, reading, and interaction. We will also be intertwining the theory of audiences with a ‘live' research exercise which will guide you through the necessary steps to conducting your own research.

How does our media consumption shape our opinions, actions, identities and lives? How do audiences influence the production and circulation of media? How do we create our own media presence online, and act as an audience for each other? This course will examine the relationship between audiences and media. We will discuss theory and research that represents audiences as passive consumers of media products, active decoders of media texts, producers of our own representations online, and participants in interactive media production. The course will look at a broad range of media forms (such as television, radio, film, the Internet, social networking, home theatre, cell phones and videogames), and content (including violence, music, reality television, soap operas, news, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs). “Media Audiences” will encourage you to reflect on your own relationship with media, and to consider the broader contexts that shape your listening, viewing, reading, and interaction.

We will also be intertwining the theory of audiences with a ‘live' research exercise which will guide you through the necessary steps to conducting your own research.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, you should be able to:
- understand how audience studies and research fits into the field of media & communication studies.
- describe a range of theories of the audience
- apply these theories to contemporary media issues and debates
- use audience research to discuss the relationship of media and culture
- reflect critically on your own media use
- use audience research methodologies to design and conduct your own research.

Prerequisites

Any 15 points at 100 level from COMS or CULT, or
any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.

Restrictions

Equivalent Courses

Course Coordinator

Zita Joyce

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage  Description
Essay 2000 words 27 Aug 2021 25% To write the essay you will need to include at least 6 scholarly publications, including a combination of theory and primary research (where someone has asked questions of the kind of audience you are writing about, or an audience you can relate to yours).The essay asks you to read primary research on an aspect of audiences, to get a sense of what has or hasn’t been researched, and the kinds of questions and research methods that can be used to understand media audiences. It encourages you to read and write about other research in a structured way, to read critically, and to make connections. It also provides the background reading for your own research, to help you make connections between your own observations and the work of other researchers.
Participation 10% This is both to encourage you to actually come to class, because the course is more rewarding for everyone if everyone comes, but also to recognise that fully participating in the course deserves recognition.
Reflections response 20% Responses to danah boyd’s book It's Complicated: The social Lives of Networked Teens, due throughout course, Using a free download pdf of this open access book (on Learn), write FOUR ~500 word reflections on chapters of your choosing, reflecting on the chapter, the course material, and your own experience, as relevant.
Report 18 Oct 2021 25% Collaborative research report 3000-3600 words in total (1500-1800 words each):
Final Exam 20% The COMS / CULT 201 exam will be a scheduled exam in the exam period, but it will be online. You’ll have a 48 hour window to complete it in, and once you log in you’ll have two hours up to the end time of the exam window.

Textbooks / Resources

There will be a compulsory reading set for each week of this course, and it is expected that you will read it before the lecture. The Learn page also contains extra material for each week, which will be referred to in the lectures, and should be useful for your own research and exam questions.

The course readings will be available as PDFs on Learn.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $785.00

International fee $3,500.00

* 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 COMS201 Occurrences

  • COMS201-21S2 (C) Semester Two 2021
  • COMS201-21S2 (D) Semester Two 2021 (Distance)
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