Recommended Study Sequence

This unit explores the changing shape of communication in the information age, focusing on the shift from the interpersonal and individualistic to the renaissance of the collective and communal in post-industrial society. The unit aims to contextualise these changes through the study of globalisation and its impacts and to identify, define and investigate the communication challenges for civil society and political action.

The principles and practice of crisis communication will be examined. This examination will be informed by the concepts surrounding crisis within capitalist and command economies. A critical understanding of the elements of crisis and the balance between crisis and emergency planning will be pursued. Developing, executing and evaluating a crisis management plan will occur. Managing issues before they become a crisis and incorporating crisis communication into a communication management strategy for an organisation will be reviewed.

Students work with selected community organisations and external agencies to research, develop, and define specific strategic communication objectives, and then to produce communication tools and outcomes, which reflect contemporary professional communication practices. Students engage with a range of real-world scenarios, and have the opportunity to fully engage with the complexities of practice-based professional communication within an organisational and community-based context.

This unit focuses on developing competence in producing written communication which is purposeful, clearly structured, reader-centred, appropriate for its social context and creatively realised. In the editing component, students will apply these skills to enhancing the work of others. In addition, this unit introduces students to collaborative approaches in developing writing skills.

Candidates engage in a self-directed elective outside of the formal electives on offer. With the broad range of interests and specialisations possible in new media, it is important to enable candidates to identify a particular topic, possibly introduced in another unit, and to pursue this in more detail. This unit allows research and theoretical investigation of a particular topic of interest, as agreed by the course coordinator.

This unit explores the practical and social aspects of the phenomena of electronic writing and hypermedia, from the standpoint of rhetoric and communication.

The unit introduces the Internet as a publications medium. Students will be introduced to the specific design characteristics of this emerging medium, and work towards the design and development of a web site. This unit is designed to enable students to explore and examine the evolving current and future opportunities for visual communication using online digital technologies. The unit will introduce students to current digital technologies for communication, commerce and publication. These technologies currently include the world wide web, the Internet more generally, and the broadband technologies of interactive television. Students will design and produce material in, and for, the world wide web; examine and critique current styles and trends in online communication; consider the impact of these emerging technologies on the practice of design; and investigate the potential social and cultural context of such developments.

In this unit students will be introduced to fundamental visual (screen) design skills and concepts, alongside design production literacies. Students will engage in critical analysis of content to be communicated and in practical exploration of content structure, information architecture and layout. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the role of process in the design and production contexts, (including screen design) and a broader understanding of the roles and responsibilities inherent in production processes. Design situations are examined in light of the background of shifting production languages, convergent technologies and professional contexts.

Communication across national boundaries is becoming more common and complex. To be effective such communication involves an understanding of the challenges associated with transcultural communication, cross-linguistic communication and cross-cultural communication. This unit provides an overview of these issues, with particular attention to relations between Australia and its Asian neighbours. Related topics including communicating development, communication flow, national and international communication policies and regulation will be critically analysed.

This unit considers the areas of advertising, publicity and promotion from the perspective of the professional communicator's role and organisational goals, including the relationship with corporate, sales, marketing and media agendas. The integration of public communication areas will be critically analysed.

This unit fosters an appreciation of the range of traditions of enquiry which have been brought to bear, historically, on the problem of audience/text relations. A multidisciplinary approach to these relations is used, drawing on ethnography, literary theory and theories of discourse, with particular emphasis on texts and audiences produced or affected by audio-visual media and computers. This unit seeks to develop varied research skills appropriate to the audience - text interface, and to explore implications for communication produced by textual attempts to limit the variability of interpretation and audience participation in the social and leisure worlds.

Students work with selected community organisations and external agencies to research, develop, and define specific strategic communication objectives, and then to produce communication tools and outcomes, which reflect contemporary professional communication practices. Students engage with a range of real-world scenarios, and have the opportunity to fully engage with the complexities of practice-based professional communication within an organisational and community-based context.

This unit extends students' knowledge of the communication ideas that inform and support effective professional communication. Current work in the fields of organisational, public, mass, speech, computer mediated and visual communication will be investigated in order to improve workplace practice and outcomes. New research that supports professional communication will also be explored.

Candidates engage in a self-directed elective outside of the formal electives on offer. With the broad range of interests and specialisations possible in new media, it is important to enable candidates to identify a particular topic, possibly introduced in another unit, and to pursue this in more detail. This unit allows research and theoretical investigation of a particular topic of interest, as agreed by the course coordinator.

In this unit students will be introduced to theoretical and critical understandings of new media design issues. Students will engage in critical analysis of new media products and in case study exploration of design process and application. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the context of new media practice, including precedents and historical understandings. New media design projects are examined in light of the background of shifting production languages, convergent technologies and technical contexts.