No offerings have been identified for this subject in 2015
COM216 Media Audiences & Public Opinion (8)
Abstract| The subject examines contemporary theoretical approaches to media audiences research, and public opinion research, and traces their historical roots. Audience and public opinion research methods, including survey research designs, quasi-experimental design, focus groups, ethnography, and interviewing techniques are examined in terms of their underlying assumptions about audiences and public opinion. |
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+ Subject Availability Modes and Location
Continuing students should consult the SAL for current offering details prior to contacting their course coordinator: COM216
Where differences exist between the handbook and the SAL, the SAL should be taken as containing the correct subject offering details.
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Subject information| Duration | Grading System | School: |
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| One session | HD/FL | School of Communication and Creative Industries |
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Learning OutcomesUpon successful completion of this subject, students should:
Demonstrate an understanding of historical approaches to media audiences and public opinion research;
Identify contemporary approaches to media audience theory, recption theory, and to public opinion research;
Understand the critical differences and debates about differing approaches and methods;
Have a beginning understanding of the limitations of a variety of methods appropriate to media audiences research, reception theory, and to public opinion research. |
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SyllabusThe subject will cover the following topics:
Nature of theory, and method, in approaching 'audiences' and 'public opinion'; classical notions of 'mass'; urban audiences, newspapers and radio in the pre World War II period. Propaganda and mass opinion.
American and British 'effects' research. Voting: methods; issue salience and social class. 'Uses and gratifications' research in the 1950's. Institutional radio research. Critical theory critiques. Contemporary approaches: uses and gratifications; knowledge -gap research; cultivation analyses.
Ideology, subjectivity and decoding: 'Screen theory' and critque; Hall's encoding/decoding model. 'British' media studies and contemporary debates and approaches.
Text/Reader relationships: Nationwide; the 'public knowledge' strand. Gendered viewing; family routines. 'New' Audience Research, and critique. Media in daily lives: The 'social uses' of media. Content and ethnographic practice. Case studies: public health campaigns; music and popular culture; romance novels; youth magazines; cultural indicators projects.
Cognitive and information processing approaches: Contemporary agenda-setting; spiral of silence theory; news framing; priming; macro third-person effects. Case studies: declining newspaper readership; television violence; WEB violence and pornography; political campaigns and advertising; media diversity and audiences.
Institutional audience research, and public opinion research. Methods critique. Notions of 'audience' and 'opinion'; underlying theoretical frameworks; infrastructure, rationality and control.
News and public opinion: mass media polling and 'framing'; advertising, and public relations, and public opinion; critique of methods; the researcher's position. Re-examining the 'public sphere'; cognitive approaches. 'Manufacturing consent' and public mediated discourse. 'Civic' community journalism. Alternative pathways to public opinion research. |
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The information contained in the 2015 CSU Handbook was accurate at the date of publication: 01 October 2015. The University reserves the right to vary the information at any time without notice.
