WMST2014 Media and Cultural Identities: Gender, Race and Sexuality

2019

4.5

1 x 1-hour lecture weekly
1 x 1-hour tutorial weekly

1 of WMST2008, WMST3015, WMST9025 has been successfully completed

Associate major: Women's Studies

The topic will critically explore representations of gender, race and sexuality in a number of media and popular culture genres. It will investigate the ways that interaction with media both reproduces and challenges existing social and cultural relations of power. Students will be introduced to contemporary approaches to analysing the production of media, the interpretation of media texts by audiences and the multiple meanings that all media texts embody, in relation to the formation of cultural identities. Students will have the opportunity to develop specific skills in media analysis and will undertake collaborative research projects.

This topic aims to:

• understand relationships between the production of and engagement with media representations and cultural identities (especially those related to gender, race and sexuality)
• identify and analyse key discourses and genres in media representations and the ways in which power relations are challenged as well as reproduced in the ways we interact with media
• develop skills in analysing media texts
• to develop skills in researching and communicating about a specific media form
• develop oral presentation skills

After successfully completing this topic you should:

• be able to distinguish a number of feminist approaches to a range of social problems and issues
• have developed the skills and confidence to relate readings in feminism to your own experience and to social life more generally
• be able to critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of competing feminist perspectives on a range of issues
  In the process you should also:

  • Improve your ability to think critically and form independent judgements
  • Improve your written and verbal communication skills
  • Improve your research skills
  • Gain confidence in your ability to analyse issues and ideas