Course Title: Newsmakers and Australian Society

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Newsmakers and Australian Society

Credit Points: 12


Course Code

Campus

Career

School

Learning Mode

Teaching Period(s)

COMM2139

City Campus

Undergraduate

335H Applied Communication

Face-to-Face

Sem 1 2006

Course Coordinator: Josie Vine

Course Coordinator Phone: 9925 3506

Course Coordinator Email:josie.vine@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: 6.4.13

Course Coordinator Availability: Consultation times: Tuesday 9am 11am and 1pm 3pm


Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

This course is open to all students in the B Communicatons. There is no assumed knowledge or capabilities.


Course Description

The course offers students a way of understanding Australian governments, companies and other institutions, by examining the issues underlying specific news and current affairs as they arise during the semester.
Students will be able to trace the origin of a news story and see how it develops into a current affairs issue. They will also gain insight into how the communications industries interact with the institutions and events that shape civil society.

Beyond this, the course will look at some of the underlying forces that shape news and current affairs, including media ownership and control, as well as interest groups and other forces which seek to influence the media and communications industries.


Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

This course will:
- Follow news and current affairs issues as they occur.
- Develop awareness of the political, economic, social and cultural institutions and practices that are the subject of news and current affairs stories in the media during the semester.
- Develop a capacity to succinctly describe and analyse news and current affairs stories in the media as they happen
By the end of this course, students should have developed a general understanding of the forces that are at work in shaping the content and tone of news and current affairs coverage, and techniques used by a variety of groups seeking to influence this coverage.


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Overview of Learning Activities

Students need to reach a satisfactory standard in all components of the assessment to pass the course.
All assignments for journalism courses must be typed, double-spaced, and with a generous margin. Professional writers must write to length; marks will be deducted for work that varies by more than 10 per cent from any allocated word limit.


Overview of Learning Resources

Available in Part B of this guide


Overview of Assessment

Available in Part B of the Learning Guide