Screen and Media Histories

Subject CICU20011 (2011)

Note: This is an archived Handbook entry from 2011.

Credit Points: 12.50
Level: 2 (Undergraduate)
Dates & Locations:

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2011:

Semester 1, Parkville - Taught on campus.
Pre-teaching Period Start not applicable
Teaching Period not applicable
Assessment Period End not applicable
Last date to Self-Enrol not applicable
Census Date not applicable
Last date to Withdraw without fail not applicable

On Campus

Timetable can be viewed here. For information about these dates, click here.
Time Commitment: Contact Hours: 2.5
Total Time Commitment: 102
Prerequisites:

None

Corequisites: None
Recommended Background Knowledge: None
Non Allowed Subjects: 106-009 Screen and Media Histories
Core Participation Requirements: For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry. The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

Coordinator

Assoc Prof Chris Healy

Contact

Chris Healy clhealy@unimelb.edu.au
Subject Overview:

The subject will explore the intimate connections between screen and media technologies and changing understandings of culture in the 20th century. It focuses on how innovations in print and photographic technologies, telegraphy and telephony, sound recording, radio, film exhibition, TV and video, and the transformation of analogue by digital technologies, have enabled changing visions of culture. It studies terms such as mechanical reproduction and the culture industry, the optical unconscious and trauma, massification and broadcast, public sphere and media literacy, fragmentation and globalisation. Students will be encouraged, and given the confidence, to move between cultural histories and cultural studies. They will be introduced to the histories of key media technologies, and examine attempts to theorise the significance and influences of those technologies within cultural studies. As a result, students should have, on completion of the subject, a strong critical knowledge of how histories of media technologies are central to contemporary culture.

Objectives:

Students who successfully complete this subject will:

  • have a sound understanding of the cultural histories of post-print media technologies;
  • have a strong critical understanding of how cultural critics have interpreted, and been influenced by media histories;
  • have the ability and confidence to produce cultural studies of media history.
Assessment:

An essay of 1000 words 25% (due mid-semester) and a second essay of 3000 words 75% (due at the end of semester). This subject has a minimum hurdle requirement of 75%, regular participation in tutorials are required. Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 10% per day. In-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked. All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass this subject.

Prescribed Texts:

A subject reader will be available.

  • A Social History of the Media (2nd ed) (Asa Briggs & Peter Burke), Polity, 2005
Breadth Options:

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

Fees Information: Subject EFTSL, Level, Discipline & Census Date
Generic Skills:

Students who successfully complete this subject will:

  • have advanced research and analysis skills;

  • show critical and ethical self-awareness;

  • have the ability to develop and communicate effective arguments in both oral and written form;

  • develop advanced skills in media and information literacy and management.

Notes:

Formerly available as 106-009 Print to Pixels: Cultural Histories and as Media Histories and Cultural Studies. Students who have completed 106-009 are not eligible to enrol in this subject. This subject is available to students enrolled in the BA prior to 2008 at either 2nd or 3rd year level and can be credited to a major in either Cinema or Cultural Studies.

Related Course(s): Bachelor of Arts(Media and Communications)
Bachelor of Creative Arts
Diploma in Creative Arts
Related Majors/Minors/Specialisations: Cinema Studies Major
Cultural Studies Major
Screen and Cultural Studies
Screen and Cultural Studies
Screen and Cultural Studies

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