COMM1101 Human Technology: Debating Communication [UG]
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| Credit: 6 points Availability: Semester 2, offshore teaching period (See Timetable) | |
| Outcomes: Students are able to (1) identify, evaluate and utilise key methodologies and theoretical traditions in the field of Communication Studies; (2) identify, evaluate and utilise key approaches to analysing communication; (3) identify and critically assess the implications of changing communication forms and technologies across history; (4) critically engage with the concept and practice of interdisciplinarity; (5) demonstrate basic multimedia production skills; and (6) formulate, express and defend an argument. | |
| Content: This unit introduces students to the field of Communication Studies by examining a series of topical debates that exemplify key intellectual and methodological themes that animate communications research. By demonstrating how such debates, however contemporary, are rooted in historical arguments about the nature of communication and the purpose of communications scholarship, the unit demonstrates how modern Communication Studies has emerged out of a particular, and contingent, set of practices and concerns. For example, an examination of the concept of the 'information superhighway' provides an opportunity to think about the implications of new media, while also drawing attention to the analogy of communication with transport that underpinned early research into mass communication. Students also examine material by communication scholars on the threat of globalisation to cultural diversity. This debate, while topical, can also be linked back to the concerns raised by the Frankfurt School, which had a profound impact on Communication Studies. Similarly, an exploration of contemporary debates about the impact of media violence foregrounds debates about methodology that have arisen between communications researchers drawn from the humanities and social sciences respectively. Further, consideration of recent technological simulations of 'the human' provides an opportunity to examine the intellectual traditions associated with the field of 'human communication'. In this manner, the unit provides students with critical answers not only to the question 'what is communication?' but also to the question 'what is Communication Studies?' This unit is only available to students in the Bachelor of Arts (Communication Studies). | |
| Assessment: This comprises an essay, digital media project and an examination. Supplementary assessment is not available in this unit except in the case of a bachelor's pass degree student who has obtained a mark of 45 to 49 and is currently enrolled in this unit, and it is the only remaining unit that the student must pass in order to complete their course. | |
| Unit Co-ordinator(s): Dr Tauel Harper | |
| Location: UWA (Crawley), HK-ARTS | |
| Mode: on-campus | |
Unit Rules: | |
| Prerequisites: enrolment in the Bachelor of Arts (Communication Studies) pass or combined degree | |
| Contact hours—3 hrs per week | |
Unit Web Page: http://www.commstudies.arts.uwa.edu.au/ | |
| Note: Some unit web pages are still under construction and will be available in 2008. | |
Assistance with study skills, including English language skills, is available free of charge from Student Services for all enrolled students (see http://www.studysmarter.uwa.edu.au/). Student Services location: Second Floor, South Wing, Guild Village; telephone: 6488 2423. | |
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