Course Title: Terrorism, Media and Morality
Part A: Course Overview
Course Title: Terrorism, Media and Morality
Credit Points: 12.00
Terms
Course Code |
Campus |
Career |
School |
Learning Mode |
Teaching Period(s) |
COMM2317 |
City Campus |
Postgraduate |
335H Applied Communication |
Face-to-Face |
Sem 1 2006, Sem 1 2009 |
COMM2317 |
City Campus |
Postgraduate |
345H Media and Communication |
Face-to-Face |
Sem 1 2010, Sem 1 2011 |
Course Coordinator: Dr Jonathan Smith
Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 2177
Course Coordinator Email: jonathan.smith@rmit.edu.au
Course Coordinator Location: 9.5.29
Course Coordinator Availability: By appointment
Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities
None
Course Description
This course includes an overview and critical examination of media-oriented terrorism in the 21st century. You will study the ’ Theatre of Terror’ from an audience or media-user perspective.
The course will focus on three main questions:
- How is terrorism ‘framed’ by the media?
- What truths can be discerned in journalism on terrorism?
- What should media-users do with news about terrorism and related phenomena?
Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development
By the end of the course you will have used classic and contemporary moral theories to analyse examples of media-oriented terrorism and will have analysed the media’s portrayal of war in civilian areas.
Overview of Learning Activities
The course consists of lectures on moral philosophy and symposiums on applied ethics.
Overview of Learning Resources
The set text, Regarding the Pain of Others (Susan Sontag, Penguin, 2003), and the course reader will both be available from RMIT bookshop.
Overview of Assessment
You will:
1) design and deliver a seminar saper on media-oriented terrorism and our use of it;
2) engage in dialogues on Sontag’s text;
3) participate in seminar analyses of the media’s portrayal of terrorism as a moral phenomena; and
4) submit a 3000-word essay.