IND206 - Indigeneity and the Media

Unit details

Year:

2024 unit information

Enrolment modes:Trimester 2: Online
Credit point(s):1
EFTSL value:0.125
Unit Chair:Trimester 2: Jessamy Gleeson
Cohort rule:Nil
Prerequisite:

IND101 or IND102

Corequisite:Nil
Incompatible with: Nil
Typical study commitment:

Students will on average spend 150-hours over the teaching period undertaking the teaching, learning and assessment activities for this unit. This includes practicals and seminar time, designated activities, assessment tasks, readings, and study time.

This will include educator guided online learning activities within the unit site.

Educator-facilitated (scheduled) learning activities - online unit enrolment:

1 x 1-hour weekly lecture per week and 1 x 1-hour online seminar per week

Content

This unit critically examines how Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are discursively constructed and represented in the mainstream media, and how these constructions are subsequently resisted and undermined. The unit will analyse and critique the power structures of the media, how these have been used to perpetuate neo-colonial outcomes, and how creative alternatives can and should be used to recentre First Nations voices and experiences. Students will explore histories of representation and the importance of voice across global, national, and local spaces in order to better understand the underpinning and continuing effects of colonisation, and the role of resistance. The unit will also explore the techniques used to construct and represent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and draw attention to these processes in order to emphasise and anticipate unconscious bias. The unit is self-reflexive, and covers topics including the deficit discourses, social media, First Nations media, and the 1967 and 2023 referendums. 

ULO These are the Learning Outcomes (ULO) for this unit. At the completion of this unit, successful students can: Deakin Graduate Learning Outcomes
ULO1 Critically analyse and discuss the power structures of the mainstream media and how these construct representations of First Nations people and subsequently perpetuate neo-colonial outcomes.

GLO1:  Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities

GLO2: Communication

GLO4: Critical thinking

GLO8: Global citizenship

ULO2 Identify and critically discuss techniques used by the mainstream media to racialise First Nations contexts and to construct First Nations people, issues, and events and present alternative methods used to resist these constructions.

GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities

GLO2: Communication

GLO3: Digital Literacy

GLO4: Critical thinking

GLO8: Global citizenship

ULO3 Analyse, assess, and suggest creative alternatives to media portrayals of First Nations peoples, issues, and events, including accuracy, language, characterisations, positioning, aims, and outcomes.

GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities

GLO2: Communication

GLO5: Problem solving

GLO8: Global citizenship

ULO4 Reflect on the significance and impact of the mainstream media’s historic and contemporary constructions of First Nations people and events with respect to the student’s own experiences.

GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities

GLO2: Communication

GLO6: Self-management

GLO8: Global citizenship

Assessment

Assessment Description Student output Grading and weighting
(% total mark for unit)
Indicative due week
Case study 1200 words 30% Week 5
Critical report 1200 words 30% Week 9
Creative output and reflection

3-5-minute creative output & 500-word reflection

40%
(Part 1: 30%
Part 2: 10%)

Week 12

The assessment due weeks provided may change. The Unit Chair will clarify the exact assessment requirements, including the due date, at the start of the teaching period.

Learning Resource

There is no prescribed text. Unit materials are provided via the unit site. This includes unit topic readings and references to further information.

Unit Fee Information

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