Media Studies

Major/Minor at Hawthorn

Description

The study of the media and its place in the technological revolution is an increasingly significant issue. Questions about the nature of communication and its social and ethical consequences are crucial, whether we are dealing with the Internet or with TV news. Swinburne offers a uniquely broad-based education in the media and associated industries. The Media Studies major is taught primarily by people who have had extensive workplace experience (in publishing, the print media and radio) and who share the belief that the student best equipped to face the vagaries of the workplace is the one who has a general as well as a specialised appreciation of how it operates.

Students need to understand how the media works and be able to recognise the place they occupy within the broader social context. They also need to be skilled at thinking for themselves, and to be informed and flexible in their approaches to the kinds of problem solving crucial in the development of a professional career. Media Studies can incorporate a wide range of academic and production units of study.

At Swinburne, they fall into three overlapping groups:

Textual analysis, which is concerned with the various ways in which we make sense of film and media materials (TV, print, new media).
The study of the political economy of media and telecommunications, dealing with issues such as ownership and control of the media and the cultural impact of new technologies.
Hands-on units of study in which the emphasis is on publishing, radio production and workplace experience (these are available only after successful completion of the appropriate prerequisites).

Career opportunities

Media Studies students gain employment directly in media industries as well as in media related work. Media Studies is a vital prerequisite for careers in print journalism, radio, television, film distribution and public relations. Positions are increasingly emerging in the exciting telecommunications industry, with telecommunications carriers, suppliers, resellers and service providers. Some specialised opportunities also exist in broadcasting and communications research. The experience of past students has been that, even if they are not always directly employed in a media industry, the knowledge acquired about the media during the course has had many useful applications for them, both professionally and personally.

Structure

A Media Studies major must include two Stage 1 units of study and six post Stage 1 units of study. At least three units of study must be taken at Stage 3. The remaining post Stage 1 units of study may be taken at Stage 2 or Stage 3. A minor in Media consists of one unit of study at Stage 1 and four post-Stage 1 units of study, at least one of which must be at Stage 3

Units

Units of study offered in the Media Studies major are as follows:

Stage 1
HALM104 Media Literature Film: Texts and Contexts*
HAM105 The Media in Australia*
HAM113 Professional Communication Practice

* These units of study must be completed as part of Media Studies major unless the student is also completing an Electronic Society or Literature major.

Stage 2
HALM200 Reading, Writing and Criticism
HALM202 Journalism: Processes and Practices
HALM207 Network Cultures
HAM210 Popular Culture
HAM211 New Media: The Telecommunications Revolution
HASM201 eSociety: Sociology of the Electronic Age
HAC213 Intercultural Communications

The following unit of study may be taken at Stage 2 or Stage 3 but not both:
HAPM226/HAPM326 Making News and Making Policy: The Media and Politics

Stage 3
HALM312 Cinema Studies
HALM315 Network Literacies
HALM317 Literature/Media Project**
HAM313 Radio Production and Criticism A
HAM315 Information Society: A Global Perspective
HAM316 Radio Production and Criticism B

** HALM317 Literature/Media Project is a compulsory unit of study.

Further information

Faculty of Life and Social Sciences
Tel: +61 3 9214 8859
Fax: +61 3 9214 5921
Email: lssinfo@swin.edu.au
Website: www.swinburne.edu.au/lss/

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