Classes

A two-hour lecture every week throughout the semester plus a one-hour tutorial. Students are expected to attend every lecture. Students are required to attend every tutorial. You should read the required readings for each week before the lecture — and certainly before the tutorial.

Please note that we are unable to assist with changes of tutorial time. If you want to change to a different tutorial time you will need to go to student admin. All changes to tutorial enrolment need to be made in this way by the student concerned - you will not just able able to turn up at the tutorial you want and hope the tutor lets you stay, as this is likely to cause unacceptable overcrowding. 

Students should expect to spend approximately seven hours each week outside of class time reading and preparing for assignments and tutorials.

Required Text:

The MAS105 reader is mandatory and available at MQC reception.

Recommended Text:

Meikle, Graham & Young, Sherman (2012) Media Convergence: Networked Digital Media in Everyday Life, Palgrave is recommended and available in the Coop Bookshop.

Technology Used and Required

MAS105 uses iLearn and it is expected that students will regularly check iLearn for details about lectures, assessments and further readings.

Assignment submission

Written assignments will be submitted to turnitin via the links on the MAS105 iLearn website. Please make sure your full name, student number and tutor's name appears on the first page of your document. Assignments submitted late will be penalised 5% per day.

Email

Questions about MAS105 should first be directed to your tutor. Students should ensure that they can receive emails sent to their MQ email addresses.

What you can expect in MAS105

Our strategy in MAS105 is to get you to deepen and broaden your interest in media studies by exposing you to some critical theoretical frameworks that will help you understand the contemporary media landscape. 

A lot of nonsense is written and talked around the media, and media studies can help you excavate the assumptions people (scholars and civilians) make when they pronounce on the media.  You will have an opportunity to critically interrogate those assumptions, compare different perspectives on related issues, and test the evidence that is offered to support some of the big statements people make about ‘the media’ and especially ‘new media’.  In short we’ll expect you to come out at the end of the unit able to be critical of others’ (and your own) preconceptions about new media. 

We will ask a lot of you in this unit – you won’t be able to slowly fall asleep in lectures and tutorials and then regurgitate hastily memorised material in a final exam.  To pass the unit you will need to consistently attend and participate in lectures and tutorial, read every week, and start working towards your major essay right at the beginning of semester.  While there are a lot of assessments in the unit, most of them build on each other, so the work you put in to prepare for a response in Week 3 will come to fruition in the richer essay you submit in Week 9.  However, you will need to be organised.  We will remind you of upcoming deadlines, but you also need to keep close track of them yourself.

You’ll also need to talk to your fellow students, right from the beginning – we think you learn as much from each other as from listening to lectures and tutors.  Group work, tutorials and also the iLearn site give you an opportunity to discuss administrative and intellectual issues with your peers.

Even though some of the ideas, readings and tasks we’ll ask you to engage with are really challenging, we will give you lots of help and support in building towards (and then planning beyond) your major essay.  You will have opportunities to get feedback on your plans, and to get extra marks for a thoughtful reflection, even on a major essay that doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped.

Week 1: Convergent media, current contexts

Meikle, Graham & Young, Sherman (2012) Ch 3 ‘From Broadcast to Social Media’ in Media Convergence: Networked Digital Media in Everyday Life. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, pp. 59-78.

Manovich, Lev (2001) The Language of New Media, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, pp. 19-61.

Week 2: How did we get here?

Meikle, Graham & Young, Sherman (2012) Ch 7 ‘Time, Space and Convergent Media’ in Media Convergence: Networked Digital Media in Everyday Life. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, pp. 148-171.

Thompson, John (1999) “The Media and Modernity” in Hugh Mackay and TimnO'Sullivan (eds) The Media Reader: Continuity and Transformation, Sage, London, pp. 12-27.

Week 3: What makes media change?

Winston, Brian (1995) “How are media born and developed?” in John Dowling, Ali Mohammadi, Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi (eds) Questioning the Media: a Critical Introduction, London, Sage, pp.54-74.

Flew, Terry (2008) “Approaches to new media” from New Media: An Introduction, 3^rd edition, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp.38-57

Week 4: Global media flows

McChesney, Robert W (2001) “Global Media, Neoliberalism and Imperialism” in Monthly Review, March 2001

Appadurai, Arjun (2000) [1990] “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy” in Frank Lechner and John Boli (eds) The Globalization Reader, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 322-30.

Week 5: Research and writing

'Researching a Topic' Training course notes, prepared by Macquarie University Library.

Week 6: Regulating 21st Century Media

Meikle, Graham & Young, Sherman (2012) Ch 8 ‘Regulation, Policy and Convergent Media’ in Media Convergence: Networked Digital Media in Everyday Life. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, pp. 172- 195.

Hesmondhalgh, David (2002) The Cultural Industries, Sage, London, pp. 107-33.

Lessig, Lawrence (1999) Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, Basic Books, New York, pp 85-99.

Week 7: Ownership

Croteau, David and Hoynes, William (2005) The Business of Media: Corporate  Media and the Public Interest, Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks, pp. 15-40.

Tiffen, Rod (2006) “The Press” in Stuart Cunningham and Graeme Turner (eds)The Media and Communications in Australia (second edition), Allen & Unwin, Sydney, pp. 97-112

Dwyer, Tim, Martin, Fiona, Goggin, Gerard (2011) “News Diversity and Broadband Applications: Challenges for Content and Distribution”, Telecommunications Journal of Australia 61:4, pp. 65.1-65.11

Week 8: Reading week to catch up and recap course content.

Week 9: The end of Public Service Broadcasting?

Jacka, Elizabeth (2006) “The Future of Public Service Broadcasting” in Stuart Cunningham and Graeme Turner (eds) The Media and Communications in Australia (second edition), Allen & Unwin, Sydney, pp. 344-56.

Scannell, Paddy (1997) “Public Service Broadcasting and Modern Public Life,” in Tim O’Sullivan and Yvonne Jewkes (eds) The Media Studies Reader, Arnold, London, pp. 60-71.

Andrejevic, Mark (2013) "Public service media utilities: rethinking search engines and social networking as public goods" Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy, 146, pp. 123-132.

Week 10: Social media, new public spheres?

Howley, Kevin (2007) “Community Media and the Public Sphere” from Devereux, Eoin (ed) Media Studies: Key Issues and Debates, Los Angeles, Sage, pp.342-360.

Van Djick, Jose (2009) “Users like you? Theorising agency in user-generated content” from Media, Culture and Society 31, pp.41-58

Week 11: Vulnerable viewers?

Ruddock, Andy (2001) “Cultivation analysis” in Understanding Audiences: Theory and Method, Sage: London, extracts from pp 97-116.

Barker, Martin (2001) “The Newson Report: a Case Study in Common Sense” in Martin Barker and Julian Petley (eds) Ill Effects: the Media/Violence Debate, (Second edition) Routledge, London, pp. 27-46.

Week 12: Media audiences, marketing & convergence

Turnbull, Sue (2006) “Audiences” in Stuart Cunningham and Graeme Turner (eds) The Media and Communications in Australia (second edition), Allen & Unwin, Sydney, pp. 78-93.

Balnaves, Mark & O'Regan, Tom (2010) “The politics and practice of television ratings conventions: Australian and American approaches to broadcast ratings” Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 24:3, pp.461-474.

Week 13: Essay evaluations

Evaluation week no readings.

Since the last time the unit was offered in Term 3, 2014: * Some readings for the unit have been updated. * Online multiple choice quizzes have been added, replacing in-class tests, to ensure student understanding of key lecture and reading material and prompt feedback on assessment. * An online video glossary has been developed for key concepts in the course.

Please make note of all due dates for MAS105 assignments. Assignments which are submitted late will incur a 5% penalty per day.