Media and Society

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. This course has on-campus and distance options. It includes weekly written exercises and requires active in-class engagement on campus, or in the distance stream to develop core university skills and learn effectively from the teaching staff and from each other.

15 points

Language and Society in New Zealand and Beyond

When we hear somebody talk, even for the very first time, we make a split-second judgement about them. That’s because a speaker’s language tells us something about them. We not only receive a linguistic message - the content of what is being said - but we also receive social information. Is the speaker male or female? Where are they from? How old are they? Are they Maori or Pakeha? In this course, we examine the relationship between language and our social lives, exploring topics such as language use in multilingual communities, the impact of attitudes, and the role of identity. As the course progresses, we focus more closely on our local context, exploring the use of and relationship between New Zealand English and te reo Maori.

15 points

ENLA102

Education, Culture and Society

This course provides an introduction to foundational theories, concepts and processes in the study of education. The course explores theories about power, justice and fairness in society, with a particular focus on how they relate to education. It also examines what part factors such as class, genders and sexualities, disability, and race may play in maintaining unequal forms of education. An important feature of the course will be analysing the role played by education in the development of colonial relations between Maori and Pakeha, and how that continues to shape contemporary New Zealand society.

15 points

EDUC120 and TEDU111

Violence in Society

This course will introduce students to the issue of violence in society and its impact on communities. The course will introduce the concept of structural violence and explore the links between interpersonal violence and structural violence. Key topics include economic violence, colonial violence, cultural violence, gendered violence, political violence and family violence.

15 points

Introduction to New Zealand Politics and Policy

How are decisions made in New Zealand? Who has how much power in this process? How can citizens, businesses, iwi, and a diverse range of groups have a say? This course is an introduction to New Zealand politics and public policy. The course examines the core features of New Zealand’s political landscape: The constitution, how MMP works, the roles of leaders, cabinet and parliament, and then explores issues that matter to the public, and asks how citizens can participate in politics, what role powerful groups including the media play in decision making and how new, diverse voices can be heard, including your own. The course includes a field day working in local communities learning about leadership and public attitudes.

15 points

Te Patu a Maui : The Treaty of Waitangi - facing and overcoming colonisation

Through focus on the themes of Power, Property and Citizenship, this course examines the historical realities of the Treaty, enabling an understanding of the modern colonial nation state and its processes with respect to Indigenous peoples. The course examines Maori responses, engagement with, and resistance to the colonial project leading to a critical understanding of colonialism.

15 points

CULT114, MAOR113 (prior to 2006)

People, Places and Environments

This course draws on the insights of human geography to deepen your understanding of how people make places and shape environments. We examine the economic, social and cultural processes that create contemporary places and also consider their possible futures. Through practical work, you will learn some of the key methods and techniques available for describing and analyzing how places change.

15 points

GEOG107