ATS2439 Youth media: Understanding media research

The unit focuses on youth media as part of young people’s everyday lives and media industries, but its other significant purpose is to offer an introduction to doing independent media research. It's crucial that you identify, as soon as you can, what you would like to research in the area of youth media - focusing on their cultural meanings, social uses and impacts. Lectures will cover selected concepts, methods and case studies, but the most rewarding way for you to learn is to identify your own topic of interest that you would like to explore in detail. Tutorial exercises will assist you in investigating your chosen topic in a systematic, critical and iterative way - as relevant to media and communications studies.

The unit involves a lecture delivered online and 2-hour on-campus tutorial per week (if you’re allocated into LiveStream classes, your 2-hour tutorial will be delivered on zoom). Lectures will discuss a selection of key concepts and theories, and introduce important research methodologies and methods used in media and communications studies. Tutorials are designed to facilitate meaningful conversations and to help you develop the skills required to successfully complete the unit assignments – guiding you through the process of designing, practising and executing your own small-scale media research. The assignments are connected and build on each other; they include: conducting a literature review, delivering presentation slides about your research, completing and writing up your own research project. To prepare for the tutorials, you are expected to do the required readings and complete scheduled activities.