MEDIA 332 : Eco/media

Arts

2020 Semester One (1203) (15 POINTS)

Course Prescription

Eco/media introduces students to the increasingly important and varied role that nature, environment, and ecology play in media, film, and television studies. Students explore how environmentalism is communicated through various media, how the mediation of flora, fauna and the earth’s atmosphere offers powerful new insights into media texts, and how media production and consumption can be analysed using ecological frameworks.

Course Overview

We are becoming increasingly attuned to how humans are agents of irreversible planetary change. Today, the environment is one of society's most pressing concerns. This course seeks to understand how the environment is and has been conceptualised and communicated in various media including but not limited to feature films, documentary, television, advertising, and games. Using the emerging field of ecocriticism, we will look at how environmentalism is communicated in film, on television and (to some extent) on-line, how we think, feel and act in response to images of environmental crisis, and how gazing at animals simultaneously reminds us of our connection to them and what it means to distinguish ourselves as human. We will read ecocritical scholarship and write analytical essays but we will also experiment with making ecomedia using mobile media technologies (smartphones). Environments and ecologies are not simply literary, cinematic or televisual tropes or images we might make but we will use ecological frameworks to think about the factors that shape media and to think about the materiality of cultural products we have become accustomed to think of as ‘weightless’ and ephemeral. We will study media production and consumption as material practices, connected to and indeed grounded in resource extraction, energy and pollution. 

Course Requirements

Prerequisite: 30 points at Stage II in Media, Film and Television or Global Environment and Sustainable Development Restriction: FTVMS 231, 332, MEDIA 231

Capabilities Developed in this Course

Capability 1: Disciplinary Knowledge and Practice
Capability 2: Critical Thinking
Capability 3: Solution Seeking
Capability 4: Communication and Engagement
Capability 5: Independence and Integrity
Capability 6: Social and Environmental Responsibilities
Graduate Profile: Bachelor of Arts

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
  1. Comprehend major issues in the environmental humanities, media studies and communication literature. (Capability 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3)
  2. Perform accurate and insightful close readings of media texts. (Capability 1.1, 1.2 and 2.2)
  3. Develop the capacity to understand and appreciate different points of view. (Capability 5.2)
  4. Evaluate and reflect upon one's analysis and argument in relation to a range of ecocritical issues. (Capability 1.2, 2.3, 3.2 and 6.3)
  5. Communicate carefully conceptualised and/or researched arguments in written and audiovisual form. (Capability 4.2)
  6. Understand how the environment is mediated for New Zealanders (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) as well as for communities in other nations. (Capability 6.1 and 6.3)

Assessments

Assessment Type Percentage Classification
Tutorials 10% Individual Coursework
Quizzes 20% Individual Coursework
Essay 15% Individual Coursework
Project 10% Individual Coursework
Research 45% Individual Coursework

There is no plussage in this course

Learning Resources

Course readings are available on TALIS from the University of Auckland Library.
Where possible, media texts will be available via streaming, however several texts may be viewable only on DVD.
One exercise requires access to a smartphone and computer lab access. Students are welcome to use their own devices. However, there will also be a pool of smartphones available to check out. All students will have access to a suitably equipped computer lab.

Workload Expectations

This course is a standard 15 point course and students are expected to spend 10 hours per week involved in each 15 point course that they are enrolled in.

For this course, each week you can expect 2 hours of lectures, a 1 hour tutorial, 4-5 hours of reading, viewing course material and thinking about the content and 66 total hours working on assignments and/or test preparation.

Digital Resources

Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes reading lists and lecture recordings (where available).

Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.

Academic Integrity

The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. This requirement also applies to sources on the internet. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against online source material using computerised detection mechanisms.

Inclusive Learning

All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written form with the course coordinator, lecturer or tutor.

Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the Student Disability Services’ website at http://disability.auckland.ac.nz

Well-being always comes first
We all go through tough times during the semester, or see our friends struggling. There is lots of help out there - for more information, look at this Canvas page (https://canvas.auckland.ac.nz/courses/33894), which has links to various support services in the University and the wider community.

Special Circumstances

If your ability to complete assessed coursework is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, contact a member of teaching staff as soon as possible before the assessment is due.

If your personal circumstances significantly affect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page: https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.

This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.

Student Feedback

At the end of every semester students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching through a tool called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback and respond with summaries and actions.

Your feedback helps teachers to improve the course and its delivery for future students.

Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.

Student Charter and Responsibilities

The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other students and staff so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit Student Charter (https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/student-charter.html).

Disclaimer

Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for enrolled students in Canvas.

In this course you may be asked to submit your coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course online or through the use of computers or other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements may be used. The final decision on the completion mode for a test or examination, and remote invigilation arrangements where applicable, will be advised to students at least 10 days prior to the scheduled date of the assessment, or in the case of an examination when the examination timetable is published.

Published on 03/12/2019 03:58 p.m.