ARTS1090 from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, UNSW

Hey everyone~ as I think I might have mentioned at the beginning of one of the recent lectures, I’m looking at ways of delivering the course material more “flexibly”. So, here is the bulk of what I wanted to say in Week 11 as a youtube video. Please note: I will still be at both Lectures in Tuesday and Thursday to talk briefly about this, but I’d like you to watch the clip and comment with any feedback. During the lecture this week I will directly address any questions you have about the last assignment. So please, even if you are not attending, send in your questions via email (arts1090@gmail.com) OR Twitter them (#arts1090). Hope to see ya there~!

There was an equipment malfunction with the iLecture system in Mathews A last week. This means that the lectures on Networks, which took place on 27th & 29th of April, were not recorded. I reported this to the IT service desk last week, and the response was that repairs have been carried out but they will continue to monitor the venue. I guess we will know tonight if it is working again or not.

In the meantime, I can provide access to a recording that was made of this lecture in 2009. The quality of the recording is poor and there are long gaps of discussion that are not audible because I created it myself with my phone. Maybe it will be slightly useful to those of you who missed out on last weeks lecture ~ you can download it by clicking here (19MB)

There will be another 24-hr strike on Wednesday 31st March. This will affect some of the Arts1090 tutorials that day, but not all. The following tutorials will be held as normal that day

• W12A Wed 12-1pm Webst 137
• W13B Wed 1-2pm Gold G05
• W14B Wed 2-3pm Webst 251

The following tutorial sections will be cancelled:

• W11A Wed 11-12 Quad G026
• W13A Wed 1-2pm Quad G025
• W14A Wed 2-3pm Quad G025

Students affected by the strike are more than welcome to sit in on other tutorials during the week. Here are the classes available on Tuesdays and Thursdays:

• Tue 10-11am Webst 137
• Tue 1-2pm Webst 137
• Tue 3-4pm MorvB G3
• Thu 12-1pm MorvB G4
• Thu 1-2pm Webst 335
• Thu 1-2pm Webst 250
• Thu 2-3pm Webst 250

Hey everyone… just wanted to make a post to help everyone relax about the Weekly Readings Blog assignment. Hopefully your blog is up and running already, but if not, don’t panic just get it happening this week. Here’s a few tips to help you on your way…

The idea behind the blog aspect of this assignment is that you’ll be able to collaborate, discuss and support your other group members in the period between the lecture (when the readings are first introduced) and the tutorial (where you discuss the readings in the following week).

So, the blogging can be fairly informal and oriented toward collaboration and discussion with your peers. Think of it as a ‘book of the month club’ for our weekly discussion of the readings.

You’ll need to post on the blog, weekly, for nine (9) weeks of the course. There are lots of ways to meet the criteria listed on the course outline, but keep in mind we want you to be tuning in to the core or most central arguments from the readings each week. Take a stab at stating these in your own words. Try to engage with them by posting youtube clips or discussing other examples from the media that illustrate or complement the authors claims. Avoid writing an essay or merely summarising the readings point by point. This will not stimulate your group’s deliberations about what the key points are each week.

Your tutor will collect your blog URLs, in class, the next time you meet. They will pass them on to me, so you do not need to mail these to me. Just get started and if you have any questions leave a comment here. cheers, Scott

Hey there… if you want the lecture recordings to download automagically into your itunes (or whatever rss feed reader you like) then here is the link

http://lectopia.elearning.unsw.edu.au/lectopia/podcast.lasso?ut=1429&feed=1&key=77b2cad5a41522679c686d527351fb80

In itunes, you can copy and paste the link. Find “Advanced” from the menus across the top and select “Subscribe to Podcast..” … you can paste the above link in there.

Many students find the reading by Nick Couldry, called “Media Rituals: The Long and the Short Route“, a challenging read. But, its a good example of the sort of scholarly readings you will be asked to understand over your University career. So if you find this reading difficult and have difficulty grasping his main points ~ here’s a few tips.

1. In the first instance, look at the reading as a whole. Ask questions such as “what is the title?” What is the context of its publication (e.g. journal article?, book chapter?, chapter from a textbook?)? Get out a sheet of paper, and write down the title and each of the section headings in order to see the structure of the reading as a whole. What do these things suggest about the authors argument? What is the argument likely to be about. If I sit down and first just try to read directly from the first word to the last word, highlighting as I go, I fall asleep or lose interest or I look back and see that I’ve highlighted the whole page. Knowing what’s coming is your best defense against this.

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2. Look for a direct statement of what the auther intends to argue. This will come earlier in the piece… could be even the first paragraph … or could be as late as three pages into it … but it will be there somewhere. More often than not it will be prefaced with the phrase “What I want to argue here is…” Always try to extract this core argument first. Then STOP. Think about it. Go make some tea and keep thinking about it while you do. You are not allowed to check your facebook yet.

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Here’s one of Couldry’s clearer statements of his aims:



Here is also one of his initial attempts to define the concept of media rituals and why they are important.~



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3. Next, look up any key concepts or words you do not understand in a dictionary, even if you think you know what it might mean. Academics sometimes use words in a very specific sense. Sometimes, it will be the ninth or tenth definition given for the word ~ in other words, not the normal meaning we associate with it. DO NOT try to read through words you don’t quite grasp… you’ll fall asleep or lose interest.


online dictionary

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4. Also, reflect as you read. Most of these readings are about the connections between media and everyday life. Well, you use media… you have an everyday life … can you see the argument operating in your own life? Do you have any rituals around the way you use media? Do you wake up, check your email, then your facebook, then switch on the radio or TV while you get ready to come to uni? Who are these media connecting you to? What type of broader social connectedness do they encourage you to identify with?

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5. Lastly, when making a theoretical argument such as in this piece, academics will invoke the ideas and concepts of other famous scholars. Do a google search on these people and skim through their wikipedia entry. This is usually enough to locate the key ideas of that scholar and how they fit into the authors argument.



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Here’s a few pointers to help you set up the Weekly Readings Blog for Assignment One.

This is a group assignment and groups will be assigned during tutorials in Week 2. You receive an individual grade, but you will work in groups of 4 (or 5) to complete the assignment.

Only one blog needs to be created. All 4 or 5 group members will join this blog as ‘administrators’. When you set up the blog, you should nominate which group member will create the blog and invite the other members to join it, as per the instructions below.

1. Sign up at the Website Wordpress.com by clicking the “sign me up” button on the front page. If by chance you have already joined this website, you will not need to do it again.
2. Fill out the next screen with your desired username, password and email address. IF you are the person who was nominated to create the blog you will need to make sure you’ve selected the “Gimmie a blog!” option.
   

   If you are not the group member selected to create the blog, you only need to select “Just a username, please”. You can create your own blog as well, but you do not need to, nor should it be set up to act as the group’s blog. It’s just your own bizness, which is fine.

   

3. After this, you will need to open your email and click the link in the message from wordpress.com in order to activate your account.
   
4. Next, the person that created the group’s blog will need to invite the other members to become administrators of the blog. From the blogs dashboard, look for the word “Users” along the left-side column of the dashboard (as shown below). Once you locate it click it.
   

5. Next, in the section titled “Add User from the community” type in the email addresses of your group members. These email addresses MUST BE the email addresses they signed up with at Wordpress.com.

   

You will need to read all the articles listed in the week by week section of the course outline. Most of these articles have been reproduced as a Study Kit that you can purchase from the University Bookshop. Just go in and ask for the Arts1090 Study Kit. This is by far the easiest way to keep up with the readings in the course and it usually only costs around $15-20 dollars.

However, the Bookshop usually only prints about half the number of kits required. So, after they sell out they will start to take your names and add them to a waiting list. If this happens to you, you can still keep up with the early weeks of the course.

Many (but not all) of the readings have been digitized for online access through the Library’s website. To access these… follow these simple steps.

1. Go to the Library Website ~ http://www.library.unsw.edu.au/
2. Click on ‘Mycourse’ underneath the search box on the front page.
   
3. On the next page, select search by ‘course code’ and type arts1090 in the search box as depicted below.

   

On the next page you will see all the readings that are available online through the Library’s website.

Welcome to ARTS1090! This course is the first year gateway to the study of media at UNSW. We currently have over 700 students enrolled from across the University of New South Wales. There are two lecture streams and over 28 tutorial sections, this blog and a blackboard course module to support communication, learning and teaching in this course. I hope you find the course interesting and a rewarding first look at contemporary issues in media studies.

A printed copy of the course outline will be given to you in your first tutorial. In the meantime you can download an electronic copy of the outline and read it before the first lecture by clicking the link below.

ARTS1090 Course Outline

In the interests of accuracy and transparency, I’ve begun to email your individual assessment results for Arts1090 to your unimail accounts. In this email you will be able to see the mark awarded for each of the three assessment components and the final grade you were awarded.

Here are some important points to make note of:

1. Your official result and grade will be released to you by the University on 10th July 2009.
2. It will take me a few days (from now) to email everybody. I’ve started with the end of the alphabet.
3. An explanation of UNSW Grades can be found on this page ~ https://my.unsw.edu.au/student/atoz/Results.html
   
4. If you scored a non-whole number on any individual assessment component it is usually indicates a late penalty was applied. Extensions were only granted if you followed the procedure described on the outline. No extensions were granted to applications that failed to provide official documentation and were not received before the due date.
5. A significant percentage of students received a UF grade. This stands for Unsatisfactory Fail and was awarded to students who numerically passed the course but failed to meet the minimum blog post requirement of nine blogs over the session AND/OR failed to meet the minimum attendance requirement of the course as described on the outline. If you received a UF grade the last column in the email, labelled “Issues” describes what you were missing and how many were missed.
6. If you received a UF grade, you should contact me to see if it is possible to still submit the work. In most cases, I can accept work so that you meet the minimum requirements of the course, however no additional points will be awarded to your score.

If you have any questions about your results please email me at s.shaner@unsw.edu.au. I wish you all a relaxing enjoyable break and success with the rest of your studies at here UNSW! Thanks for taking part in the course.

~Scott