Classes

A one-hour lecture every week throughout the semester, followed by a one-hour tutorial. Students are expected to attend every lecture. Lectures are also recorded on ECHO360 which can be accessed via ilearn. Students are expected to attend every tutorial.  If you do not attend tutorials or you do not prepare for them or you do not talk to others in tutorials it will impact on your participation mark for the unit. You should read the required readings for each week before the lecture — and certainly before the tutorial. See the timetable website for lecture details. www.mq.edu.au/timetables. Tutorials begin in week two.

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 the e-student website and try to change through that system. 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 eight hours each week outside of class time reading and preparing for assignments and tutorials.

Required Text:

You will be required to read two articles each week - a full list of topics and readings are below in the Unit Schedule section.

While most of the essential readings for the unit are available electronically via the library, we strongly encourage you to purchase the MAS105 reader which available via print on demand.  This reader includes most of the readings for the unit.  If you are find that readers have sold out, please contact Nicole immediately.Almost all of the readings in the unit are also available electronically via the "Course Readings" tab in the Library website.

Recommended Text:

Meikle, Graham & Young, Sherman (2012) Media Convergence: Networked Digital Media in Everyday Life, Palgrave is recommended and available in the Coop Bookshop.  Two chapters from the book are required readings for the unit, and for copyright reason, only one is reproduced in the MAS105 reader.  The other chapter will be made available via the library's electronic reserve.

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.  You may bring tablets and laptops to class if you wish but you will be expected to have completed core readings BEFORE tutorials.  It is not essential that you bring a device to tutorials.  Some computers are available for use in the Library.

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 10% per day, including weekends.

Email

Please record your tutor's email address at the beginning of semester and 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 tutorials, 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 quiz in Week 3 will come to fruition in the richer essay you submit in Week 10.  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.  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.

Opportunities for feedback in MAS105

There are many opportunities for feedback on your ideas and understandings in MAS105.  Sometimes you will be offered specific, direct feedback on your own individual work.  Individual feedback on your understanding of readings and lectures is provided when the results and answers to the quiz are released from Week 3 onward.  Written feedback and marks will be provided by your tutor on your essay outline, and your tutor will also give you individual verbal feedback on your final essay in the evaluation meetings.  At other times, you will have the opportunity to get more general feedback on ideas and understanding as part of a group, for example, when you listen to peers and your tutor in tutorials or participate in interactive elements of lectures. 

MAS105 Media Cultures, Semester 2, 2016

All listed readings are essential

Week 1: Convergent media, current contexts (Aug 4)

Meikle, Graham and Young, Sherman (2012) Ch 3 “From Broadcast to Social Media” in Media Convergence: Networked Digtial 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 (Aug 11)

Meikle, Graham and Young, Sherman (2012) Chapter 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 McKay and Tim O’Sullivan (eds) The Media Reader: Continuity and Transformation.  Sage, London, pp.12-27

Week 3: What makes media change? (Aug 18)

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.38-47

Week 4: Global media flows (Aug 25)

McChesney, Robert W (2001) Global Media, neoliberalism and imperialism in Monthly Review

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

Week 5: Regulating the media (Sept 1)

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

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

Week 6: Research and Writing (Sept 8)

Researching a topic: training course notes

Week 7: Ownership (Sept 15)

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

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

SEMESTER BREAK

Week 8: Regulating Australian media (October 6)

Ackland, Richard "Mass Surveillance makes us subjects of the state: That's chilling" Guardian Australia, 26/5/2015.http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/26/mass-surveillance-makes-us-subjects-of-the-state-thats-chilling?CMP=soc_567

Jaivin, Linda "The End of Secrets: Privacy is fast becoming a quaint old fashioned thing", The Monthly, June 2014. https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2014/june/1401544800/linda-jaivin/end-secrets

Meikle, Graham (2012) Continuity and transformation in convergent news: the case of WikiLeaks. Media International Australia, 144. pp. 52-59

Week 9: The end of public service broadcasting? (Oct 13)

Scott, Mark (2015) “The Future of the Australian Story” Brian Johns lecture at Macquarie University,   http://about.abc.net.au/speeches/the-future-of-the-australian-story/

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

Week 10: Social media, new public spheres? (Oct 20)

Marwick, Alice and boyd, danah (2010) “I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience” New Media and Society 13(1) 114–133

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

Week 11: Media audiences, marketing and convergence (Oct 27)

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

Gould, Liz (2009) “Beyond Media Platforms: talkback radio, technology and audience” Media International Australia Vol 131 No 95-105

Week 12: Vulnerable viewers? (Nov 3)

Ruddock, Andy (2001) “Cultivation analysis” in Understanding Audiences: Theory and Method, Sage, London, pp.1-11, 18-22

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 (2^nd edition) Routledge, London, pp.27-46

Week 13: Evaluation (Nov 10)

There will be no lecture or tutorials this week.  Students will meet on a one to one basis with their tutors for an evaluation meeting, in which students will reflect on their essays and tutors will provide feedback on performances in the essay.

Since the last time the unit was offered in Semester II 2015: * there have been some changes to weekly readings to reflect recent changes in the media * Following their successful introduction in 2014 and expansion in 2015,  multiple choice quizzes have weighted more heavily at 20% rather than 10% .  Quizzes start in Week 2 ensuring student understanding of key lecture and reading material and providing early feedback on students' level of understanding, in the first 1/3 of the course. * the lecture on reading and writing has been moved to Week 6 to offer students timely support in writing. * two new guest lecturers have been introduced to provide fresh areas of expertise within the course * the group assessment activity has been removed from the schedule to enable students to focus on their major writing assignment and to give opportunities for free flowing discussion in class time

Assignments which are submitted late without a previously negotiated extension will incur a 10% penalty per day or part day, including weekends.

Please contact the co-convenors via email BEFORE the due date if you have health and serious family difficulties that mean you are unable to submit one of the assessed items by the due date.  You may be given a short extension.

If you are unable to attend a tutorial due to a brief illness such as a cold or flu, please contact your tutor by email to explain the circumstances.  Your tutor will record the reason for your absence.

If you have a health or personal situation that is likely to cause serious and ongoing problems (more than 3 days) please complete a Disruption to Study request on ask.mq.edu.au.  Disruption to study requests should not be completed for brief periods of illness that merely prevent you attending lectures or tutorials.

If you have an ongoing disability or chronic health condition that means you require continuing support, please in the first instance contact Campus Wellbeing.  Feel free to contact the co-convenors if you would like to discuss support or accommodations you may need in order to be successful in your studies.