Credit Points 10

Coordinator Ben Fletcher Opens in new window

Description This subject examines the primary role played by data in determining how we live in the world. This includes how we interact with the world, its people, and digital artefacts, in terms of communication and meaning. The subject focuses on technologies of control and governance related to algorithmic architectures and data economies. Who benefits from data and mediation and what are the limits and possibilities of data? Ultimately, this kind of critical analysis invites us to think about what constitutes a just, democratic society and what constitutes an ethical media life.

School Humanities & Comm Arts

Discipline Communication And Media Studies

Student Contribution Band

Check your fees via the Fees page.

Level Undergraduate Level 1 subject

Equivalent Subjects COMM 1011

Restrictions

Students must be enrolled in an existing College Diploma program listed below:

• 7188 Diploma in Culture, Society and Justice
• 7189 Diploma in Health Science
• 7190 Diploma in Business
• 7191 Diploma in Information and Communication Technologies 
• 7192 Diploma in Building Design and Construction
• 7193 Diploma in Engineering Studies
• 7194 Diploma in Creative Industries and Communications 
• 7195 Diploma in Arts
• 7196 Diploma in Science
• 7197 Diploma in Education Studies

Learning Outcomes

After successful completion of this subject, students will be able to: 

1. Identify how data both influences and governs individuals and society
2. Discuss the impact of commercial interests in capture and use of data 
3. Analyse the ways in which data affects meaning (e.g., assessment of performance, analysis of texts, policy making informed by demographic modelling.)
4. Evaluate the limits and possibilities of data and its relation to the operation of power
5. Discuss ethical frameworks in relation to the gathering, use and transmission of data

Subject Content

1. Identify and critique the key features of network cultures, including an historical overview of the miniaturisation of technology.
2. Examination of cultural contexts and mobile media and assessment of the interrelation between mobile media, privacy, and public culture.
3. Overview of policy and the impact upon the availability of mobile media commodities and access to content 
4. Assessment of the impact of network cultures as emergent institutional forms that challenge more traditional, modern institutional forms (state, firm, union, university).
5. Critical investigation of concepts of freedom and the extent to which mobile media facilitate and/or restrict forms of social and cultural mobility.
6. Identification of the limits of mobility, media, and geo-cultural settings