52700 Streaming Television
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Credit points: 6 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.
Description
Digital streaming services have radically changed the way we write, produce, and watch television today. Streaming Television investigates the social, economic, and creative forces as a key element of the Creative Industries. The subject explores how streaming services shape contemporary screen storytelling and production practices and examines shifts in audiences’ own changing relationships to televisual formats, franchises, and genres. By situating industrial practice in geographical contexts, the subject also considers the ways that local identities are represented for international audiences and identifies the challenges that Australian screen creatives face in telling stories on global platforms. Through linking industrial transformations to storytelling, screen aesthetics, sound design, and everyday viewing practices, this subject reveals the radical transformations of the post-broadcast era.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
| a. | Identify and explain key scholarly frameworks and concepts in the study of screen production, episodic storytelling, and creative industries |
|---|---|
| b. | Conduct independent industry research in relation to television streaming industries |
| c. | Develop a critical understanding of the creative approaches and storytelling elements of television texts |
| d. | Write clearly and cogently to effectively communicate scholarly ideas, arguments, and research |
| e. | Use audio-visual techniques to effectively communicate scholarly analyses and arguments |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject engages with the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs), which are tailored to the Graduate Attributes set for all graduates of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences:
- Apply theoretically informed understandings of communication industries to independent and collaborative projects across a range of media (1.2)
- Employ appropriate research and inquiry skills to independently gather, organise and analyse information across diverse platforms (2.1)
- Act as reflexive critical thinkers and innovative creative practitioners who evaluate their own and others' work (2.2)
- Exemplify effective and appropriate communication in different communication industry contexts (6.1)
- Utilise digital literacy and production skills across a range of media (6.2)
Teaching and learning strategies
This subject is delivered through a weekly lecture and tutorial, required scholarly readings, in-class and before-class screenings of television content available on popular streaming services. The lectures will provide an overview of the key concepts, issues, and debates relating to digital streaming services, including case studies of contemporary platforms, genres, and programs. Tutorials will include close readings of the required television texts of each week, student-led discussions of the scholarly readings, and group work activities. To prepare for tutorial activities each week, students will need to watch a specified television text, complete online activities, and read required scholarly articles. Students are likely to need to arrange access to at least one subscription service at their cost. Assessment tasks will require independent research around a television episode and/or series. Formative feedback will be provided by the tutor through in-class activities organised around assessment tasks. The video workshop will ensure that students have the technical abilities required to complete the video essay assessment task.
Content (topics)
The content of this subject is delivered in three modules. Module One will explore distinctions between broadcast television and subscription video on demand (SVOD) services, situate global SVOD services in the context of creative industries in Australia, and identify key debates around efforts to promote creative and cultural diversity across Australian television streaming content. Module Two will explore the impact of industrial changes on the content of streaming television programs by linking production processes, promotional logics, and audience metrics to innovations around episodic storytelling. Module Three will invite students to engage in close readings of streaming television texts by developing terminologies for screen analysis, exploring case studies of contemporary Australian television on streaming platforms, and scaffolding the creative skills required for producing video essays.
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Critical Essay
| Objective(s): | a, b and d | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight: | 40% | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Length: | 1200 words | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 2: Video Essay
| Objective(s): | a, b, c, d and e | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weight: | 60% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length: | 5 minute video + audio narration script with reference list | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Minimum requirements
Attendance at classes is essential in this subject. Classes are based on a collaborative approach that involves essential workshopping and interchange of ideas with other students and the tutor to build capacities towards meeting the subject learning objectives. A roll will be taken at each class (whether on campus or online). Students who have more than two absences from class will be refused marking of their final assessment (see Rule 3.8).
References
Beattie, M., & Mitchell, L. (2021). ‘The filthiest gutter of the realm’?: Negotiating and negotiated Australian identities in Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, 10(1-2), 123-140.
Cummings, K. (2022). Queer seriality, streaming television, and She-ra and the Princesses of Power. Global Storytelling: Journal of Digital and Moving Images, 2(1), 39-55.
Cunningham, S., & Scarlata, A. (2020). New forms of internationalisation?: The impact of Netflix in Australia. Media International Australia, 177(1), 149–164.
Gilbert, A. (2022). Algorithmic audiences, serialized streamers, and the discontents of datafication. Global Storytelling: Journal of Digital and Moving Images, 2(1), 109-130.
Herche, V. (2021). Queering the Dreaming: Representations of the 'Other' in the Indigenous Australian speculative television series Cleverman. Gender Forum, 81, 30-44.
Huelin, T. (2022). Sounding local? The use of music in original Australian streaming productions. In M. Samuel & L. Mitchell (Eds.), Streaming and Screen Culture in Asia-Pacific (pp. 265-283). Palgrave Macmillan.
Jenner, M. (2018). Netflix and the re-invention of television. Palgrave Macmillan.
Khoo, O. (2022). Picturing diversity: Netflix’s inclusion strategy and the Netflix recommender algorithm (NRA). Television & New Media, 24(3), 281–297.
Lobato, R. (2019). Netflix Nations: The geography of digital distribution. NYU Press.
Lotz, A. D. (2022). Netflix and streaming video: The business of subscriber-funded video on demand. Polity Press.
Lotz, A. D. (2013). House: Narrative complexity. In E. Thompson & J. Mittell (Eds.), How to watch television (pp. 22-29). New York University Press.
Mittell, J. (2015). Complex TV: The poetics of contemporary television storytelling. NYU Press.
O'Sullivan, S. (2013). The Sopranos: Episodic storytelling. In E. Thompson & J. Mittell (Eds.), How to watch television (pp. 65-73). New York University Press.
Scarlata, A., Douglas, J., & Lobato, R. (2022). Subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) original production in Australia: Evolution or revolution? Media International Australia, Online First, 1-16.
Tofler, M., & Batty, C. (2017). Not just for laughs: The role of the pilot in commissioning Australian television comedy series. Comedy Studies, 8(1), 81-92.
Turner, G. (2020). Dealing with diversity: Australian television, homogeneity and Indigeneity. Media International Australia, 174(1), 20-28.