Description

Higher education studies in Australia require students to have the skills and knowledge to successfully complete academic writing tasks. In this unit you will acquire a solid foundation in grammar, punctuation, spelling, usage and style. You will develop research techniques, as well as skills related to referencing, quoting, and paraphrasing (to avoid plagiarism). Academic writing, drafting, editing and proof-reading skills will be developed.

This is a core unit in the Monash College Diploma of Arts, Part 2 (Psychology and Human Behaviour streams).

Prerequisites

Nil

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit, students are expected to be able to:

1. Employ techniques to generate ideas, overcome writer's blocks, and structure argumentation.
2. Acquire or revise basic concepts of grammar, punctuation, spelling, use and style, and be able to apply these in correcting faults and in developing exposition, authorial voice and expression in essays.
3. Develop research skills in relation to primary, secondary and tertiary sources, both in hard copy and online sources.
4. Develop professional practice in the skills of referencing, quoting, paraphrasing, and the avoidance of plagiarism.
5. Develop techniques of argumentation by studying logic, fallacies, and techniques of persuasion and influence.
6. Acquire skills in the genre of academic writing, such as expositional sequences, rhetorical strategies, register, audience, and authorial voice.
7. Develop skills in drafting, redrafting, editing and proofreading. 

Description

In this unit, you will be introduced to the core concepts and schools of thought within media studies, including conducting a textual analysis. These are aligned with historical and contemporary examples of social, economic and political debates about media industries and audiences. You will also examine the way in which power and influence are exercised through media in cultural and social life.

We will also be considering to what extent new technology has changed the media landscape and the communication practices that dominate our everyday lives. We will explore how the media contributes to your sense of national identity, ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and to communities with which you identify.

We examine some of the theories that have dominated the field of media studies and how they try to explain the construction of ideology, the way audiences engage with the media and its impact or influence.

This is a core unit in the Monash College Diploma of Arts, Part 2.

Prerequisites

Nil

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit, students are expected to be able to:

1. Demonstrate an appreciation of the historical development of media industries.
2. Recognise and be able to apply available frameworks for critically understanding the relationship between media, culture and society.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the social, economic, political and cultural factors that shape the production, distribution and consumption of media.
4. Demonstrate an appreciation of the ways that the mass media contribute to understandings of the world.

Description

In this unit you will be introduced to key issues in International Relations (IR), from traditional preoccupations – such as international security, arms control, war and peacebuilding, and political violence and terrorism – to more recent concerns, including the climate crisis, migration, inequalities and development challenges. You will also be looking at the role of states and supra-state organisations, such as the United Nations; nations and nationalism; world order and global governance; and globalisation and the international political economy. You will engage with key IR concepts and theories to understand these issues, including Realism and Liberalism and critical theories, such as Feminism, Marxism, Postmodernism and Postcolonialism. You will draw from contemporary and historical events to further explore these issues and apply these theories.

Prerequisites

Nil

Learning Outcomes

When you have completed this unit, you should be able to:
1. Recognise, interpret and analyse traditional and critical theoretical perspectives, and conventional and alternative concepts in the study of International Relations across its four subfields (security studies, international political economy, foreign policy and global governance).
2. Comprehend and engage constructively with current affairs, scholarly articles and books in the field of International Relations, and place them in an appropriate theoretical and empirical context.
3. Apply these theoretical perspectives and concepts to illuminate and examine a new or existing problem in the study of International Relations.
4. Communicate orally, and in writing, using clear and persuasive language appropriate for an international academic community. 

Description

Sociology is a rich and diverse discipline in the social sciences. Policy makers, politicians, the community sector, those in the media and creative industries – to name a few – draw on sociology understandings of social life to help them address social problems and understand the world. The unit introduces students to the concepts and approaches used by sociologists to analyse the contemporary social world. In particular, students will learn to apply sociological frameworks to the key debates and dilemmas we face in contemporary life and to examine various patterns of diversity, inequality and social change in society. This unit also considers the role that class, gender, age, culture, religion and other structural factors play in shaping the lives of everyday people in society.

This unit is taught in two ‘modules’ with the first one focused on sociological foundations and the other on gender.

This is a core unit in the Monash College Diploma of Arts part 2 (Sociology stream). 

Prerequisites

Nil

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit, students are expected to be able to:
1. Identify and explain the key concepts and perspectives used in sociological analysis.
2. Critically reflect and analyse the structural factors that influence how people experience everyday life.
3. Locate and evaluate scholarly sociological sources.
4. Communicate ideas and arguments in a variety of formats.
5. Use evidence to construct coherent and organise written assignments on sociological topics. 

Description

This unit will introduce the key components of contemporary media challenges. We will address a range of questions to help us interrogate the nature of these challenges and the potential repercussions for cultural practices, social interactions, and political and/or economic circumstances. The aim here is to map out and analyse some key media challenges.

Some of the questions we will consider are: What do we mean by the term’s “media’ and “challenges”? What are the greatest media challenges of our time that we face globally? How and where do we get our news? Which media are used as crucial news sources? And what does it all mean? How do we articulate or describe these challenges? What theories and studies can assist us in understanding their dynamics? How do these challenges impact our everyday media communications? What are some of the ways that these challenges may be overcome?

This course aims to map out and analyse the very challenging circumstances that define a new age and era of media communications.

This is an elective unit in the Monash College Diploma of Arts, Part 2. 

Prerequisites

Nil

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit, students are expected to be able to:

1. Explain a contemporary global media challenge using interdisciplinary approaches
2. Manage, evaluate and interpret sources of information relevant to issues in the media
3. Communicate coherent and persuasive arguments both orally and in professional presentation formats
4. Utilise strategic and interdisciplinary thinking to analyse media challenges
5. Work independently and collaboratively with peers to investigate, analyse and report on a 'real-world' contemporary media challenge.

Description

The unit introduces principles of professional writing, such as genre, style, rhetoric, register and persuasive discourse. It also emphasises the importance of understanding audiences when writing in business and governmental contexts. To develop your skills in non-academic writing, most of the tasks are practical, although they also require related academic knowledge. Writing well involves an awareness of language principles and the various contexts of professional writing. 

Prerequisites

MCD6010 Academic Writing

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit, students are expected to be able to:
1. Recognise, analyse and appraise different genres of professional writing.
2. Plan and design effective professional documents applying linguistic features such as register, style and rhetoric.
3. Identify expectations of communication for different professional audiences and contexts and apply these in written documents and presentations.
4. Use essential skills of English usage (grammar, spelling, punctuation and structure) in writing and editing documents. 

Description

MCD6050 Communications and Society is a unit designed to give you insights into the way that contemporary media technologies shape the way that we act and communicate within contemporary society.

When we communicate with others, the communication technologies that we choose to use influence the meaning of what we wish to say. Communication technologies shape what we can say, what we cannot say, and what we must say. This same principle applies to the films and television programs we watch, the music we listen to, the podcasts and radio broadcasts we listen to, the newspapers and books we read and the games we play. But the communication technologies themselves are also subject to influences that are political, social, cultural, and economic as well. These various forms of communication expand beyond the very literal messages of speech, audio-visual symbols and text, and extend to forms of non-linguistic communication, non-verbal forms of communication, as well as social effects that may not have a single source. By studying these different forms of communication between society and technology, we can start to understand how contemporary society shapes - and also is shaped by – communication technologies. 

Prerequisites

MCD6020 Media and Culture

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit, students are expected to be able to:
1. Possess a basic understanding of the field of communications.
2. Employ basic concepts in the study of communications.
3. Analyse the role of communications in processes of social and cultural change.
4. Apply communication analysis to everyday life.
5. Identify and explain the economic, technological, political and cultural influences of communications technologies.
6. Work collaboratively with peers to formulate and present solutions to hypothetical problems and debatable issues surrounding communications technologies 

Description

This is a particularly complex time to study our region, particularly as the US and China engage in intense geostrategic competition in the South China Sea, the Pacific and the Indian Ocean region. What is striking about the 21st-century world is that the expansion of military power continues to rank as the major powers’ chief objective. As a response to this, both regional powers and middle are rapidly modernising their forces and increasing their defence budgets, which are at their highest since the 1980s. States are devoting more resources to conventional and nuclear forces; and the global arms trade is burgeoning. But Indo-Pacific security is not only about arms races. It is not only one of the biggest sectors of the global economy, but it is also fraught with potential flashpoints. Both traditional and non-traditional security approaches influence regional actors' geostrategic conspectus. Energy security, food security, climate security and human security are central issues in the region. Economic competition, hegemony and uneven development all represent major challenges to the existing order in the Indo-Pacific.In response to these developments, state and regional actors, such as Australia with AUKUS, and ASEAN, with its ASEAN Community, are undertaking significant renovations of their armed forces and security policies and developing strategic partnerships with the aim of integrating their defence and industrial capabilities. We will analyse these issue areas in this unit. 

Prerequisites

MCD6180 Introduction to International Relations

Learning Outcomes

When you have completed this unit, you should be able to:

1. Investigate the Indo-Pacific as a contested geopolitical territorial and maritime space.
2. Identify and contextualise the core conventional and human security challenges in the Indo-Pacific in the 21st century.
3. Apply the knowledge and literacy you have gained on Indo-Pacific regional organisations; bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral agreements and regional governance; flashpoints for conflict; and the perspectives of major regional actors, including Australia’s growing role in the region, and apply these skills to specific issues and problems.
4. Apply international relations theories and perspectives to the major challenges in the region, through critical written and oral engagement with scholarly analysis and case-study material. 

Description

This unit is the second unit in sociology stream sequence, it builds on the skills and knowledge developed in the first unit Introduction to Sociology. It includes three important areas of sociological research and theoretical endeavor: Thinking Intersectionaly, Sustainability and society & Families and relationships.

This is a core unit in the Monash College Diploma of Arts, Part 2 (Sociology stream).

This unit aims to deepen your understanding of the relationship between individual and society, drawing on a wide range of sociological theories, concepts and research. 

Prerequisites

MCD6120 Introduction to Sociology

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit, students are expected to be able to:

1. An understanding of the nature of social relationships and institutions; patterns of social diversity and inequality; and processes that underpin social change and stability.
2. Have an ability to apply sociological theories, concepts and evidence to sociological questions.
3. Have an ability to develop arguments by using evidence, evaluating competing explanations and drawing conclusions. 

Description

Digital media are rapidly becoming the atmosphere through which we move – literally, in the case of mobile phone signals; figuratively in the sense that our communications, our entertainment practices, our work lives, and our information seeking and sharing practices are increasingly migrating onto online platforms. Digital storytelling is now a crucial part of messaging across a diverse range of industries, from journalism, PR, marketing to non-profit administration and filmmaking.

This unit provides theoretical and practical knowledge of the evolving digital “grammar” of video production, broadcasting, news reporting, advertising, and social media, as an essential skill for media communication professionals of the future. This “hands on”, project-based unit provides students with a collaborative learning space where they can combine analytical skills in digital literacy with practical skills in media production to develop digital fluency.

This course aims to explore the ongoing popular discourses surrounding the emergence of digital media, but also to think about these in new and different ways, to put them in historical perspective, and, ultimately, to evaluate the claims with which we are inundated.

This is an elective unit in the Monash College Diploma of Arts, Part 2.

This unit is recommended for students planning to complete the Bachelor of Media Communication or Bachelor of Arts (with a major or minor in Communications and Media studies) at Monash University. 

Prerequisites

Nil

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit, students are expected to be able to:

1. Identify and discuss the communicative role of specific digital media and different uses of digital storytelling;
2. Analyse key elements of a variety of digital communication;
3. Think critically about the legal and ethical issues of digital communication;
4. Work reflectively, independently and collaboratively with peers to develop and demonstrate technical proficiency and digital literacy skills;
5. Apply digital literacy skills to create a digital story that critically reflects on the evolving languages of digital communication.