Students

MECO345 – Social Media

2018 – S1 Day

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Senior Lecturer
Theresa Senft
Contact via email
Thursdays 12-1 pm
Credit points Credit points
3
Prerequisites Prerequisites
39cp at 100 level or above
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description
This unit will offer students an understanding of the key role social media now plays in media practice and culture. The ways in which social media impact and influence public debate will be explored. The unit will involve students in integrating existing and emerging online platforms and technologies into media practice. Students will analyse the way media organisations, corporations and individuals utilise social media to produce narratives and participate in public discourse. They will also examine the way social and online media have opened up new possibilities for building audiences and communities using a wide variety of social media platform and practices.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • Understand a range of theories related to digital media studies, including but not limited to connection versus connectivity, context collapse and moral panics, platform vernaculars and governance, interactivity versus algorithmic determinism, “playbour,” and micro-celebrity.
  • Understand a range of theories related to visual studies, including but not limited to vision, seeing, connotation, denotation, index, visuality, networked images as “secondary visuality”, visibility, framing and re-framing, counter-visuality, and neo-visuality.
  • Appreciate and evaluate the ontological, epistemological and ethical differences between how networked computers, humans, and institutions experience perception, knowledge and action.
  • Learn to deploy the “walk-through method” to illustrate and unpack the visible and invisible governing structures of a social media platform, application, or practice.
  • Learn to deploy the “theme, question, object, lens, method, presentation” approach to assessing case studies in global social media culture.

General Assessment Information

  • Classes and tutorials begin Week 1. Students will be expected to have read material assigned for Week 1 before arriving to tutorials. Be aware that for this class, viewing of lectures is mandatory, as is your physical attendance in tutorials. Your participation mark (30% of your total grade for this class) will be assessed through a combination of tutorial attendance, participation in discussions and group work, and your timely submissions of draft and other materials online prior to tutorials.

  • All assessment submissions are online via Turnitin. No paper or emailed submissions will be accepted. See individual assessment instructions for details.

  • Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, (a) a penalty for lateness will apply – two (2) marks out of 100 will be deducted per day for assignments submitted after the due date – and (b) no assignment will be accepted more than seven (7) days (including weekends) after the original submission deadline. No late submissions will be accepted for timed assessments – e.g. quizzes, online tests
  • You will need to supply appropriate documentation to  your unit convenor for any missed tutorial or lack of pre-tutorial materials  (if less than three consecutive days). You will need to apply for Special Consideration to cover any absences more than three consecutive days.

  • The MMCCS Session Re-mark Application can be found here: http://www.mq.edu.au/pubstatic/public/download/?id=167914

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Class participation 30% No Week 1 and thereafter
Walk-through Project 20% No week 5
Case Study/News Item Analysis 25% No Week 9
Comparative Project 25% No Week 12

Class participation

Due: Week 1 and thereafter
Weighting: 30%

Our tutorials begin Week 1. They are mandatory sessions where we discuss assigned readings and case studies, engage in interactive exercises and workshop draft versions of essays together.

Assessment Criteria

Your grade for this class will calculated out of 100 points, and at 30%, tutorial participation will constitute the largest part of that.  There will be 12 mandatory tutorials this semester (for the final class, there will be optional office hour visits in lieu of tutorials) In each tutorial, participation will be measured using a 3 point system:

  • Your physical attendance in class (1 point)
  • Your preparation in advance for the tutorial (1 point) (evidenced via materials submitted in our online forum.)
  • Your engagement while in class (1 point) (evidenced via in-class conversations, and/or by in-class responses sent through our online forum)

You may be the sort of student who is thinking, "Wait--If my participation mark this semester will calculated at 30 points, and I have the  possibility to earn 36 points for tutorial participation, isn't something off, here? The answer to that question is "yes." I've designed this system so that you need to earn a minimum of 30 points of of 36 to get a perfect participation grade.

 This system allows you 2 full absences from tutorials with nothing submitted, no questions asked. Personally, I wouldn't use up my 2 days on absences, because there are also times where your body is present, but that's about it. If you turn up for tutorial without having submitted materials in advance of class, you'll get 1 point for attendance, but  be penalized by 1 point for not being prepared. If we are working on peer edits that day and you can't participate because you have nothing for someone else to read, that's another 1 point gone for the day on the "engagement" side of things. See how this works?

Now that we've covered the negative aspects of this system, let's talk about the positive one: any points collected beyond your initial 30 will be extra credit to put toward your other assessment scores. The reasoning for this is as follows: our tutorials will include a fair amount of writing workshops designed to help you with your longer assessments. If you show up to tutorials prepared, and participate in the tutorials to the best of your ability, you will almost certainly fare better on your assessments than students who do not do these things.

Since our system doesn't allow for re-writes after an assessment mark is submitted, tutorial "extra credit" is my way of making sure you get the best mark you can by practicing your writing and getting peer edits during class time.


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Understand a range of theories related to digital media studies, including but not limited to connection versus connectivity, context collapse and moral panics, platform vernaculars and governance, interactivity versus algorithmic determinism, “playbour,” and micro-celebrity.
  • Understand a range of theories related to visual studies, including but not limited to vision, seeing, connotation, denotation, index, visuality, networked images as “secondary visuality”, visibility, framing and re-framing, counter-visuality, and neo-visuality.

Walk-through Project

Due: week 5
Weighting: 20%

This exercise is designed to get you to think about social media in terms of technological environments that almost always reference visuality in some way. Using a traditional or creative format, you are going to create a project that uses the “walk through method” (detailed at length in class) to consider how visibility and invisibility impact your capacity to access, navigate, search, explore, express, create and communicate through a platform, app or technology of your choosing.

Format

Your assignment can take one of three formats:

  1. You can produce an illustrated essay that runs between 1500-1800 words.
  2. You can produce a short video or animated slide show running between 2-3 minutes.
  3.  You can produce an audio essay that runs between 2-3 minutes.

Submission procedures:

  • If you have written an essay, submit  a pdf or word doc via Turnitin. (See iLearn for help creating this record).
  •  If you have created a video or audio piece, details for submission will follow via iLearn.

Assessment criteria:

  • Capacity to execute the elements of the “walk through” methodology.
  • Capacity to recognize your advantages and limits as a user/researcher.
  • Capacity to speculate on the perspectives of others.
  • Presentation of a clear and concise narrative in which claims are supported with evidence.
  • Articulation of possible avenues for comparative research going forward.
  • Understanding of appropriate citation conventions for material found online.
  • This is a formative assessment. Feedback will include a grade out of 100, a qualitative rubric and comments from your marker.

Grading Note:

Assessment standards in this unit align with the University's grade descriptors, available at: https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policies/assessment

 


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Appreciate and evaluate the ontological, epistemological and ethical differences between how networked computers, humans, and institutions experience perception, knowledge and action.
  • Learn to deploy the “walk-through method” to illustrate and unpack the visible and invisible governing structures of a social media platform, application, or practice.
  • Learn to deploy the “theme, question, object, lens, method, presentation” approach to assessing case studies in global social media culture.

Case Study/News Item Analysis

Due: Week 9
Weighting: 25%

 This assignment has been designed to help assess your knowledge of and comfort level with some of the concepts we’ve covered class to date. During our tutorials, we will work together to keep a running list of theories and arguments introduced during lectures and in readings. For this assignment, you will evaluate a few items on the list (you will pick which ones), using a case study or news item of your own choosing. In tutorials, we’ll discuss places you might want to look for appropriate case studies and news items, as well as what makes for a compelling choice in terms of the focus of our class.

Format

Your assignment can take one of three formats:

  1. You can produce an illustrated essay that runs between 1500-1800 words.
  2. You can produce a short video or animated slide show running between 2-3 minutes.
  3.  You can produce an audio essay that runs between 2-3 minutes.

Necessary Elements

  1. A section that lets us know where you found the case study or news item you are addressing  and provides a summary/recap of the phenomenon/events you’ll be discussing .
  2.  A section that discusses the sorts of evidence used by people in the article/case study are using to make their point or illustrate something about their situation.
  3.  A section where you let us know what you find interesting about this case/item  and how you perceive its larger impact (or potential impact)  using two specific perspectives beyond your own.
  4. A section where you show us how these cases illustrate at least one concept or theory we’ve covered in class.
  5. A section where you show us how this case/story complicate at least ONE concept or theory we’ve covered in class.
  6. A section where you summarize some things you learned from undertaking this analysis, and discuss one or two concepts from class you didn’t choose, but that could have yielded interesting results applied to your case study/news item.
  7.  A section where you consider a future comparative element to this project by hypothesizing TWO other types of case studies or news reports to compare to the one you’ve been describing for this exercise.

Submitting this assessment

  • If you have written an essay, submit a PDF or Word doc via Turnitin. (See iLearn for help creating this record).
  • If you have created a video or audio piece, details for submission will follow via iLearn.

Assessment Criteria:

  • Note: this is a formative assessment. Feedback will include a grade out of 100, a qualitative rubric and comments from your marker. You will be assessed on:
  • Capacity to explain concepts and theories we've discussed in class, and to apply these to your case study/news item.
  • Capacity to explain your own scholarly position/interest in the case study/news item, and to speculate on the perspectives of others.
  • Presentation of a clear and concise narrative in which claims are supported with evidence.
  • Articulation and appreciation of possible avenues for comparative research going forward.
  • Understanding of appropriate citation conventions for material found online.

Note: Assessment standards in this unit align with the University's grade descriptors, available at: https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policies/assessment


On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Understand a range of theories related to digital media studies, including but not limited to connection versus connectivity, context collapse and moral panics, platform vernaculars and governance, interactivity versus algorithmic determinism, “playbour,” and micro-celebrity.
  • Understand a range of theories related to visual studies, including but not limited to vision, seeing, connotation, denotation, index, visuality, networked images as “secondary visuality”, visibility, framing and re-framing, counter-visuality, and neo-visuality.

Comparative Project

Due: Week 12
Weighting: 25%

This assignment has been designed to assess your comfort level with the “theme, question, lens, method, presentation” approach to social media studies, which we will discuss at length in class. Using a traditional or creative format, you will be asked to compare two social media related events, phenomena, news developments, or user experiences. The research question, methodology and theoretical lenses for this project will be yours to choose, provided they reflect in some way on our class. The cases/stories/phenomena under comparison will also be yours to choose, with final approval from Terri. There is a bit of a trick to picking things that yield interesting results when compared, which is something we’ll be discussing at length in tutorials.

Format

Your assignment can take one of three formats:

  1.  You can produce an illustrated essay that runs between 2000-2500 words.
  2. You can produce a short video or animated slide show running between 3-5 minutes.
  3.  You can produce an audio essay that runs between 3-5 minutes.

Necessary Elements

  1. A section that lets us know where you found the materials you are addressing and provides a summary/recap of the phenomenon/events you’ll be discussing.  
  2. A section where you let us know what you find interesting about these cases and how you perceive the larger impact (or potential impact), of these cases, using two specific perspectives beyond your own.
  3. A section where you introduce your research question and explain its rationale relative to a larger theme that interests you.
  4. A section where you explain your methodology for this project.
  5.  A section where you introduce your theoretical lenses by showing us how your cases illustrate at least TWO concepts or theories we’ve covered in class.
  6. 6. A section where you sharpen your theoretical lenses by showing us how these cases complicate at least ONE concept or theory we’ve covered in class.
  7.  A section where you summarize some things you learned from undertaking this comparison.
  8. A “Works Cited” section (note: in a screen project, this can come on a final slide)

Submitting

  • If you have written an essay, submit a PDF or Word doc via Turnitin. (See iLearn for help creating this record).
  • If you have created a video or audio piece, details for submission will follow via iLearn.

Assessment:

  • Note: this is a formative assessment. Feedback will include a grade out of 100, a qualitative rubric and comments from your marker. You will be assessed on:
  • Understanding of the “theme, question, lens, method, presentation” approach to social media study.
  • Capacity to explain concepts and theories we've discussed in class, and to apply these to your case study/news item.
  • Capacity to explain your own scholarly position/interest in the case study/news item, and to speculate on the perspectives of others.
  • Presentation of a clear and concise narrative in which claims are supported with evidence.
  • Articulation and appreciation of possible avenues for comparative research going forward.
  • Understanding of appropriate citation conventions for material found online.
  • Note: Assessment standards in this unit align with the University's grade descriptors, available at: https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policies/assessment

On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Appreciate and evaluate the ontological, epistemological and ethical differences between how networked computers, humans, and institutions experience perception, knowledge and action.
  • Learn to deploy the “walk-through method” to illustrate and unpack the visible and invisible governing structures of a social media platform, application, or practice.

Delivery and Resources

Start of classes and tutorials

  • Classes and tutorials begin Week 1.
  • Students will be expected to have read material assigned for Week 1 before arriving to tutorials.

Delivery of unit

  • This unit will be delivered as one hour lecture with one hour interactive seminar. It will combine lecture-style material with guided inquiry, production tasks, writing workshops,small group activities and discussions. For current updates, classrooms and times please consult the MQU Timetables website: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au
  • Lecture portions of the class will be recorded for review purposes only. See Echo block on iLearn for filmed weekly lectures. .Any workshops, discussions, activities or media viewed or listened to will not be available for review.

Readings and Other Media

  • Please consult the iLearn site for weekly readings and media  

Laptop Policy

  • Please DO bring your own devices for use in class (laptops or tablets + mobile phones).
  • The library has laptops and iPads available for lending if you don't have your own. http://www.mq.edu.au/about/campus-services-and-facilities/library/facilities/computer- facilities and there are other computer labs on campus.
  • Please also bring a pen or pencil and paper to class.  

Other Technology Matters

  • Students are expected to make use of everyday information technologies to complete their assignments (i.e. Personal Computers, mobile Phones, freely available editing software and online publishing platforms).
  • As this is not a production unit, students should not contact the department's technical staff for equipment or support. Feel free to challenge yourself but work within your technical abilities.  

 

 

Unit Schedule

SEEING SOCIAL MEDIA Description

This is a class devoted to social media culture: the personal, social, political and economic ramifications of living in a time dominated by social media. As you might expect from our class title, we will spend a substantial amount of time thinking about life online in terms of networked images.

This can put us in contentious territory. If it is true that the internet is a trash fire, networked images provide a fair amount of its garbage, and most of its gasoline. Be they 'stupid' reaction GIFs, 'narcissistic' selfies, 'confusing' memes, 'serious' displays of evidence (as in photographed protests) or 'horrifying' displays of depravity (as in live-streamed executions), networked images tend to figure heavily into debates about what social media 'has done' to notions of identity, community, creativity, privacy, news, ethics, and pleasure around the world.

In this class, we will consider some of these debates, but we will also consider how the hyper-visibility of digital images contrasts with the opaqueness and transparency of platforms, apps, and technologies. This matters, because at the platform level, social media includes nearly every site or app we access each day. Everyone knows social networking services like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat "count" as social media. But we should also be thinking in terms of knowledge-building platforms like Wikipedia, shopping platforms like Amazon, travel platforms like TripAdvisor, streaming platforms like Spotify, Netflix , and Twitch, fitness platforms like FitBit, plagiarism detection platforms like TurnitIn, gaming platforms like XBox Live, baby monitoring platforms....the list goes on.

We should also be aware that even platforms that aren't explicitly social can be driven by technologies that create socially networked effects. We've probably all heard of algorithmic manipulation on social networking sites like Facebook with "personally designed news feeds," but the most notorious company deploying algorithmic "recipes" to sort, rank and target its users is actually Google. Companies like Uber that gather our geographical data are also key players in the tracing and tracking game. Even if you never go online at all, your phone is already designed to work like a drone, collecting and reporting your movement patterns back to the companies that built them (and sometimes to the governments where they are located.)

The class will take up these issues, framing them in terms of what can be seen, known, enforced, and resisted in social media culture. Throughout, we'll continue to return to the question: What are the best ways to learn, advocate, create, love and protect ourselves in social media culture, when both visibility and invisibility offer promise and threat?

WEEKLY CLASS BREAKDOWN WITH READINGS AND CASE STUDIES

CLASS 1: SEEING SOCIAL MEDIA

Required Reading:

  • Mirzoeff, N. (2016). Chapter One, How to See the World: An Introduction to Images, from Self-Portraits to Selfies, Maps to Movies, and More. Basic Books.

To Discuss:

CLASS 2: SEEING WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT

Required Reading: 

  • Barnes, S. B. (2011). “The Language of Images” in An Introduction to Visual Communication: From Cave Art to Second Life. Peter Lang.

To Discuss:

CLASS 3: SEEING CONNECTION & CONNECTIVITY

Required Reading:

  • Dijck, J. van. (2013). "Connectivity" from The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. OUP USA.

To Discuss:

WEEK 4: SEEING OURSELVES & OTHERS

Required Reading:

  • Rettberg, J. W. (2017). Self-Representation in Social Media. In Burgess, Jean & Marwick, Alice (Eds.), Sage Handbook of Social Media. London; New York.  
  • Marwick. A (2017). Identity in Social media. In Burgess, Jean & Marwick, Alice (Eds.), Sage Handbook of Social Media. London; New York.

To Discuss:

  • Images and exerpts from Jennifer Deger. (2016). Thick photography. Journal of Material Culture, 21(1), 111–132.

 

WEEK 5: SEEING PLATFORMS & USERS

Required Reading:

  • Bivens, R., & Haimson, O. L. (2016). Baking Gender Into Social Media Design: How Platforms Shape Categories for Users and Advertisers. Social Media + Society.

To Discuss:

WEEK 6: SEEING SPEECH

Required Reading:

For Discussion:

WEEK 7: SEEING PANIC

Required Reading:

  • Fleur Gabriel. (2014). Sexting, Selfies and Self-Harm: Young People, Social Media and the Performance of Self-Development. Media International Australia, 151(1), 104–112.

To Discuss:

WEEK 8: SEEING POLITICS

Required Reading (Choose One):

  • Mette Mortensen. (2017). Constructing, confirming, and contesting icons: the Alan Kurdi imagery appropriated by #humanitywashedashore, Ai Weiwei, and Charlie Hebdo. Media, Culture & Society, 39(8), 1142–1161.  
  • An Xiao Mina. (2014). Batman, Pandaman and the Blind Man: A Case Study in Social Change Memes and Internet Censorship in China. Journal of Visual Culture, 13(3), 359–375.

To Discuss:

  • We’ll examine the visual material in the readings during discussion.

WEEK 9: SEEING WORK

Required Reading:

  • Fuchs, C. (2015). “Social Media’s International Division of Labour.” In Culture and economy in the age of social media. New York: Routledge,Taylor & Francis Group.

To Discuss:

WEEK 10: SEEING SURVEILLANCE

Required Reading: (Pick One)

  • Elias, A. S., & Gill, R. (2018). Beauty surveillance: The digital self-monitoring cultures of neoliberalism. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 21(1), 59–77.  
  • Morris, J. W., & Powers, D. (2015). Control, curation and musical experience in streaming music services. Creative Industries Journal, 8(2), 106–122  
  • Moser, G. (2011). Exhaustive Images: Surveillance, Sovereignty, and Subjectivity in Google Maps Street View. Fillip Magazine Retrieved February 2, 2018, from https://fillip.ca/content/exhaustive-images

To Discuss

WEEK 11: SEEING STRATEGIES: HYPER-VISIBILITY

Required Reading (Choose One)

  • Mark Wood, Evelyn Rose, & Chrissy Thompson. (2018). Viral justice? Online justice-seeking, intimate partner violence and affective contagion. Theoretical Criminology  
  • Abidin, C. (2016). “Aren’t these just young, rich women doing vain things online?”: Influencer selfies as subversive frivolity. Social Media+ Society, 2(2)

To Discuss:

  • TBD per class vote

WEEK 12: SEEING STRATEGIES: INVISIBLITY

Required Reading (Choose One)

  • Maddox, A. (2018) “A Digital Bermuda Triangle: The Perils of Doing Ethnography on Darknet Drug Markets.” Retrieved January 27, 2018, from https://anthrodendum.org/…/a-digital-bermuda-triangle-the-…/  
  • Kath Albury, & Paul Byron. (2016). Safe on My Phone? Same-Sex Attracted Young People’s Negotiations of Intimacy, Visibility, and Risk on Digital Hook-Up Apps. Social Media + Society, 2(4), 2056305116672887.

To Discuss:

  • TBD per class vote

Learning and Teaching Activities

Lectures

Lectures begin WEEK 1. You are expected to have watched the lecture prior to your tutorial attendance. See Echo block on iLearn for filmed weekly lectures. For current updates, classrooms and times please consult the MQU Timetables website: http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au.

Readings

Each week, there will be at least one required reading, which you can access via iLearn. As the semester goes, there will also be optional readings available for students interested in deepening their knowledge on a topic.

Links to case studies, videos, news coverage

It's hard to have fruitful discussions as a group without all having seen the same thing, which is why each week will also include links on iLearn to online case studies, videos or news coverage relevant to our topic for the day.

Tutorials

Tutorials begin in WEEK 1 of classes. Activities will vary, but almost always will involve discussions of the readings and case studies, an interactive exercise of some sort, and/or time for workshopping draft versions of essays. Students will be expected to demonstrate they are prepared for to work together for the day by posting online prior to tutorials their responses our readings for the week and/or draft versions of class essays for peer review.For more information regarding tutorial structure, expectations and grading rubrics, please see iLearn.

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Undergraduate students seeking more policy resources can visit the Student Policy Gateway (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/student-policy-gateway). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

If you would like to see all the policies relevant to Learning and Teaching visit Policy Central (https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policy-central).

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/getting-started/student-conduct​

Results

Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au.

ATTENDANCE POLICIES

  •  You are required to view all lectures, and attend all tutorials. As participation in tutorials is part of the the process of learning is linked to and underpins the unit Learning Outcomes, you will need to either apply for Special Consideration (formerly Disruption of Studies, see above) to cover any missed seminar (if the disruption is greater than three consecutive days) or supply appropriate documentation to your unit convenor for any missed seminar (if less than three consecutive days).

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

Learning Skills

Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.

Student Services and Support

Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.

Student Enquiries

For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Graduate Capabilities

Creative and Innovative

Our graduates will also be capable of creative thinking and of creating knowledge. They will be imaginative and open to experience and capable of innovation at work and in the community. We want them to be engaged in applying their critical, creative thinking.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Learn to deploy the “walk-through method” to illustrate and unpack the visible and invisible governing structures of a social media platform, application, or practice.
  • Learn to deploy the “theme, question, object, lens, method, presentation” approach to assessing case studies in global social media culture.

Assessment tasks

  • Class participation
  • Walk-through Project
  • Comparative Project

Capable of Professional and Personal Judgement and Initiative

We want our graduates to have emotional intelligence and sound interpersonal skills and to demonstrate discernment and common sense in their professional and personal judgement. They will exercise initiative as needed. They will be capable of risk assessment, and be able to handle ambiguity and complexity, enabling them to be adaptable in diverse and changing environments.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Appreciate and evaluate the ontological, epistemological and ethical differences between how networked computers, humans, and institutions experience perception, knowledge and action.
  • Learn to deploy the “walk-through method” to illustrate and unpack the visible and invisible governing structures of a social media platform, application, or practice.

Assessment tasks

  • Walk-through Project
  • Case Study/News Item Analysis
  • Comparative Project

Commitment to Continuous Learning

Our graduates will have enquiring minds and a literate curiosity which will lead them to pursue knowledge for its own sake. They will continue to pursue learning in their careers and as they participate in the world. They will be capable of reflecting on their experiences and relationships with others and the environment, learning from them, and growing - personally, professionally and socially.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

  • Learn to deploy the “theme, question, object, lens, method, presentation” approach to assessing case studies in global social media culture.

Assessment tasks

  • Class participation
  • Walk-through Project
  • Comparative Project

Discipline Specific Knowledge and Skills

Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards. They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Understand a range of theories related to digital media studies, including but not limited to connection versus connectivity, context collapse and moral panics, platform vernaculars and governance, interactivity versus algorithmic determinism, “playbour,” and micro-celebrity.
  • Understand a range of theories related to visual studies, including but not limited to vision, seeing, connotation, denotation, index, visuality, networked images as “secondary visuality”, visibility, framing and re-framing, counter-visuality, and neo-visuality.

Assessment tasks

  • Class participation
  • Walk-through Project
  • Case Study/News Item Analysis
  • Comparative Project

Critical, Analytical and Integrative Thinking

We want our graduates to be capable of reasoning, questioning and analysing, and to integrate and synthesise learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments; to be able to critique constraints, assumptions and limitations; to be able to think independently and systemically in relation to scholarly activity, in the workplace, and in the world. We want them to have a level of scientific and information technology literacy.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Understand a range of theories related to digital media studies, including but not limited to connection versus connectivity, context collapse and moral panics, platform vernaculars and governance, interactivity versus algorithmic determinism, “playbour,” and micro-celebrity.
  • Understand a range of theories related to visual studies, including but not limited to vision, seeing, connotation, denotation, index, visuality, networked images as “secondary visuality”, visibility, framing and re-framing, counter-visuality, and neo-visuality.
  • Appreciate and evaluate the ontological, epistemological and ethical differences between how networked computers, humans, and institutions experience perception, knowledge and action.
  • Learn to deploy the “walk-through method” to illustrate and unpack the visible and invisible governing structures of a social media platform, application, or practice.
  • Learn to deploy the “theme, question, object, lens, method, presentation” approach to assessing case studies in global social media culture.

Assessment tasks

  • Class participation
  • Walk-through Project
  • Case Study/News Item Analysis
  • Comparative Project

Problem Solving and Research Capability

Our graduates should be capable of researching; of analysing, and interpreting and assessing data and information in various forms; of drawing connections across fields of knowledge; and they should be able to relate their knowledge to complex situations at work or in the world, in order to diagnose and solve problems. We want them to have the confidence to take the initiative in doing so, within an awareness of their own limitations.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcomes

  • Learn to deploy the “walk-through method” to illustrate and unpack the visible and invisible governing structures of a social media platform, application, or practice.
  • Learn to deploy the “theme, question, object, lens, method, presentation” approach to assessing case studies in global social media culture.

Assessment tasks

  • Class participation
  • Walk-through Project
  • Case Study/News Item Analysis
  • Comparative Project

Effective Communication

We want to develop in our students the ability to communicate and convey their views in forms effective with different audiences. We want our graduates to take with them the capability to read, listen, question, gather and evaluate information resources in a variety of formats, assess, write clearly, speak effectively, and to use visual communication and communication technologies as appropriate.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

  • Learn to deploy the “theme, question, object, lens, method, presentation” approach to assessing case studies in global social media culture.

Assessment tasks

  • Class participation
  • Walk-through Project
  • Case Study/News Item Analysis
  • Comparative Project

Engaged and Ethical Local and Global citizens

As local citizens our graduates will be aware of indigenous perspectives and of the nation's historical context. They will be engaged with the challenges of contemporary society and with knowledge and ideas. We want our graduates to have respect for diversity, to be open-minded, sensitive to others and inclusive, and to be open to other cultures and perspectives: they should have a level of cultural literacy. Our graduates should be aware of disadvantage and social justice, and be willing to participate to help create a wiser and better society.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

  • Appreciate and evaluate the ontological, epistemological and ethical differences between how networked computers, humans, and institutions experience perception, knowledge and action.

Assessment tasks

  • Walk-through Project
  • Case Study/News Item Analysis
  • Comparative Project

Socially and Environmentally Active and Responsible

We want our graduates to be aware of and have respect for self and others; to be able to work with others as a leader and a team player; to have a sense of connectedness with others and country; and to have a sense of mutual obligation. Our graduates should be informed and active participants in moving society towards sustainability.

This graduate capability is supported by:

Learning outcome

  • Appreciate and evaluate the ontological, epistemological and ethical differences between how networked computers, humans, and institutions experience perception, knowledge and action.

Assessment tasks

  • Walk-through Project
  • Case Study/News Item Analysis
  • Comparative Project

Changes since First Published

Date Description
20/02/2018 Added parameters for participation grades, using the phrase "online forum" where I originally had the word "Slack" (waiting for faculty approval on waiver to use Slack.)