Handbook

Note: The course code for this course was previously ARTS1091

To intervene in media – to communicate clearly or change people’s minds – you need to understand how media actively shapes and reflects social and political forces in our daily lives. In this course, you will learn and apply media studies frameworks for understanding the power dynamics between audiences, symbolic resources for communication, institutional regulations, and the experiential qualities of different mediums. You will be asked to critically reflect on your own media practices by actively engaging with media tools and infrastructures as you study the ways socio-political norms are challenged or reproduced through the media. How have historical shifts and continuities in the mediascape informed the ways socio-political processes are understood and practiced in global and local contexts? How has the contemporary commercial, technological and regulatory mediascape impacted the roles of media professionals, politicians, and everyday media users? You will develop a foundational tool-kit for analysing media experiences, sites of social belonging, and informational diets, helping you to better understand your roles as up-and-coming communications professionals, and participants in the socio-political realities of media life.