POLS220 - Politics and the Media

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Unit rationale, description and aim

This unit explores the complex interplay between politics and the media. It examines how the media impacts politics - through topics such as election coverage, political journalism and media effects; how politics impacts media - through topics such as press regulation and public broadcasting; and how this interaction plays out by looking at issues around mediatisation, globalisation and populism. The unit plays particular attention to what the move from traditional to digital media has meant for democratic politics. At a time when the media seems more pervasive in political life than ever before, this unit will help students make sense of the shifting media and political landscape in Australia and beyond.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Describe the nature and significance of the relationship between politics and the media (GA5) 

LO2 - Critically discuss diverse political perspectives in regards to the relationship between politics and the media, particularly with respect to marginalised, disadvantaged, and vulnerable peoples and communities (GA1) 

LO3 - Apply concepts and theories used in the study of political science to the analysis of interests, ideas, institutions and political behaviour in a way that informs students’ own practices of engaged citizenship (GA4, GA6) 

LO4 - Demonstrate the capacity to gather and analyse ethical solutions to political problems through evidence-based argument and evaluation of secondary sources (GA7, GA8, GA9). 

Graduate attributes

GA1 - demonstrate respect for the dignity of each individual and for human diversity 

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA6 - solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account

GA7 - work both autonomously and collaboratively 

GA8 - locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information 

GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media 

Content

Topics will include: 

• Print media and news production 
• Digital media 
• Communications theories 
• Political communications 
• Political journalism 
• Public broadcasting 
• Ownership of media 
• Press regulation 
• Social media and activism 
• Processes of mediatisation 
• Populism and media 

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit engages students in active learning activities, such as reading, writing, discussion and problem-solving to promote analysis, synthesis and evaluation of class content. Students encounter ideas through lectures and discuss and assimilate material through tutorial classes. Students will also act collaboratively to deliver tutorial presentations. Collaborative learning is an important component of active learning and sits within a community of inquiry theoretical framework. It provides opportunities for a group of individuals to collaborate in purposeful critical discourse and reflection to construct personal meaning and mutual understanding. 

The unit will consist of face-to-face teaching using lectures and tutorials or equivalent.  

This 10-credit point unit has been for 150 hours in total across the semester. To achieve a passing standard in this unit, students will find it helpful to engage in the full range of learning activities and assessments utilised in this unit, as described in the learning and teaching strategy and the assessment strategy. The learning and teaching and assessment strategies include a range of approaches to support your learning such as lectures, tutorials, reading, reflection, discussion, webinars, podcasts, video etc. 

Assessment strategy and rationale

The assessment tasks for this unit have been designed to contribute to high quality student learning by both helping students learn (assessment for learning), and by measuring explicit evidence of their learning (assessment of learning). Assessments have been developed to meet the unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes consistent with University assessment requirements. These have been designed so that they use a variety of tasks to measure the different learning outcomes at a level suitable for second year study in politics and international relations.  

The unit is assessed via two take-home essays and one tutorial assessment task. 

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Boczkowski, Pablo J. and Papacharissii, Zizi (eds.) (2018) Trump and the Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 

Chadwick, Andrew (2017) The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power. 2nd edition. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Esser, Frank and Stromback, Jesper (eds.) (2014) Mediatization of Politics: Understanding the Transformation of Western Democracies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Hallin, Daniel C. and Mancini, Paolo (eds.) (2011) Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Highfield, Tim (2016) Social Media and Everyday Politics. Cambridge: Polity. 

Iyengar, Shanto (2015) Media Politics: A Citizen’s Guide. 3rd edition. New York: W.W. Norton. 

Kenski, Kate and Jamieson, Kathleen Hall (2017) The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

McNair, Brian, Flew, Terry, Harrington, Stephen and Swift, Adam (2017) Politics, Media and Democracy in Australia: Public and Producer Perceptions of the Political Public Sphere. New York: Routledge.  

Papacharissi, Zizi (2014) Affective Publics: Sentiment, Technology, and Politics. Oxford: Oxford Unviersity Press. 

Young, Sally (2011) How Australia Decides: Election Reporting and the Media. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.