COMS303-17S1 (C) Semester One 2017

Visual Media and Communication

This occurrence is not offered in 2017

30 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 20 February 2017
End Date: Sunday, 25 June 2017
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 3 March 2017
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 19 May 2017

Description

This course examines how different visual media are used to tell both factual and fictional stories drawing on documentary, photography, ethnographic film, cinema and the internet.

This course examines how visual media are used to tell both factual and fictional stories, drawing examples from documentary, photography, cinema, television and street art. Our focus is on the debates around the function, politics, aesthetics and ethics of visual texts. We explore the role of images within struggles over power, meaning, morality and identity. We consider the role of the visual in the articulation of cosmopolitan and communitarian identities; explore who particular images are for; identify what images can do to and for us; examine how visual texts frame our access to the world, signify desire and assign meaning to ‘difference’ and evaluate the forms of knowledge visual media can produce.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of the course students should be able to:
- identify and critique key technical and aesthetic features, and the political and cultural contexts and implications, of a range of visual media including photography, documentary and cinema.

- understand debates regarding the role of visual media in facilitating practices of witnessing

- understand the role of visual media in re-presenting the world and rendering ‘selves’ and ‘others’ - understand fundamental principles of effective visual communication and utilise these to create a visual text - produce a sustained analysis of an aspect of visual media which combines primary research with relevant theory and cultural criticism

Prerequisites

30 points at the 200 level in COMS. Students without this prerequisite, but with at least a B average in 60 points of relevant courses, may enter the course with the approval of the Department Coordinator or the Undergraduate Coordinator for COMS.

Course Coordinator

Sue Tait

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Assignment 1 04 Apr 2016 25%
Assingment 2 11 May 2016 25%
Assignment 3 13 Jun 2016 35%
Presentation 5%
Tutorial participation 10%


You are NOT required to submit any of your assignments to turnitin for this course. Your essay must be submitted to the appropriate COMS essay box, on the ground floor of the Locke building, by 1 pm on the due date. An essay cover sheet must be signed and stapled to the front of your essay.

The cover sheet will be handed out in class so that you know the criteria you will be assessed on
before your work is due. Spare copies will be in the course box in the COMS foyer, and it will also be available on Learn.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $1,464.00

International fee $5,950.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see Language, Social and Political Sciences .

All COMS303 Occurrences

  • COMS303-17S1 (C) Semester One 2017 - Not Offered
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