54002 Communicating Difference
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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 8 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
Anti-requisite(s): 52698 Communicating Difference AND 58103 Ideas in History
Description
This subject brings together a range of disciplines within communications to examine cultural difference, social identity, frameworks for promoting diversity, and contemporary community formation. In particular, case studies from contemporary Australian society are used to explore themes of racialisation, multiculturalism, gender, sexuality, and class-based inequalities, with a particular focus on Indigenous Australian and settler colonial identities. Case studies are drawn from a variety of cultural sites that engage with diversity and difference, from popular culture (such as film and television) to institutional diversity policies and social activism. This includes an opportunity to examine Sydney-based initiatives that seek to address marginalisation, promote activism, encourage community participation or extract commercial value from diversity. Through developing original ideas and projects for engaging with diversity and difference, students are invited to reflect upon their own identities from a cultural perspective. The subject also familiarises students with relevant theories and concepts, critical media studies, critical race and feminist theory, cultural geography, critical diversity studies and organisational studies. In developing frameworks for understanding inequalities, the subject equips students to evaluate the ethical dimensions of contemporary professional practices in diverse working environments.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
| a. | Compare and contrast scholarly frameworks to produce coherent and evidence-based arguments |
|---|---|
| b. | Critically reflect on their own values, beliefs, ethics and identities in relation to contemporary communication practices around social difference |
| c. | Demonstrate a critical and historically informed understanding of Indigenous politics in Australia |
| d. | Work critically and creatively to produce innovative, socially engaged projects around social difference |
| e. | Write clearly, cogently and concisely in order to effectively communicate to academic and non-academic publics |
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:
- Possess information literacy skills to locate, gather, organise and synthesise information across diverse platforms to inform the understanding of the communication industries (2.1)
- Be reflexive critical thinkers and creative practitioners who are intellectually curious, imaginative and innovative, with an ability to evaluate their own and others' work (2.2)
- Demonstrate an awareness and knowledge of global contexts and openness to cultural exchange (3.1)
- Possess a critical understanding of the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples within contemporary Australian politics, history and culture (4.1)
- Possess the awareness of ethical practice in the personal, political and professional contexts of civil society (5.1)
- Possess the skills to behave ethically in personal and professional contexts (5.2)
- Possess well-developed skills and proficiencies to communicate and respond effectively and appropriately across different contexts (6.1)
Teaching and learning strategies
Face-to-face classes will incorporate a range of teaching and learning strategies, including audiovisual material from communication media, critical discussions of case studies, and small-group discussions and activites. These will be complemented by formative tasks and independent student engagement with online learning materials, which may include videos, quizzes, newsmedia and online activist projects. Compulsory scholarly readings for each week will be made available through Canvas (there is no required textbook) and discussed during lectures, and in collaborative group activities during tutorials. Students will also be invited to participate in online activities that link directly to their social identities and everyday cultural experiences (further information about this will be provided through Canvas).
An aim of this subject is to help you develop academic and professional language and communication skills in order to succeed at university and in the workplace. To determine your current academic language proficiency, if you have never completed the OPELA, or this is your first session at UTS, then you are required to complete this online language screening task, OPELA (information available at https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/learning-and-teaching/enhancing/language-and-learning/about-opela-students). If you receive a Basic grade for OPELA, you must attend additional Language Development Tutorials each week from week 3 to week 11 in order to pass the subject. These tutorials are designed to support you to develop your language and communication skills. Students who do not complete the OPELA and/or do not attend 80% of the Language Development Tutorials will receive a Fail X grade.
Content (topics)
Communicating Difference will focus on the ways in which social identities and differences are experienced, represented and contested. Weekly lectures and readings will focus on the ways that these differences are communicated across a range of media platforms and institutions in Australian contexts, and will foreground Indigenous identities, gender and sexual identities, and social identities shaped by class, geography and ability. Correspondingly, examples in lectures will be drawn from contemporary politics, newsmedia and popular culture.
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Media Analysis
| Objective(s): | a, b, c and e | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type: | Essay | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Groupwork: | Individual | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 40% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length: | 1500 words | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 2: Critical/Creative Response
| Objective(s): | a, b, d and e | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type: | Project | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Groupwork: | Individual | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 45% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length: | 2500 words (or equivalent for creative works, please see Canvas for more detail and also discuss with your tutor) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 3: Participation
| Objective(s): | a, b, c and d | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type: | Reflection | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Groupwork: | Individual | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 15% | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Length: | Chit sheets must be submitted to your tutor at the end of your class each week from weeks 3-10. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 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).
Students who have not previously undertaken the OPELA (online post enrolment language assessment) screening tool must do so as part of this subject to ascertain their level of Academic English. Students are expected to complete OPELA during Orientation and Preparation Week(s).
Academic staff will review OPELA completions and students who do not undertake the screening tool by the end of Week 3 will be ineligible to have their assignments assessed (in accordance with Rule 3.8).
Students who receive a Basic grade in the OPELA are required to attend 80% of the Language Development Tutorials in order to pass the subject. Students who do not complete the OPELA and/or do not attend 80% of the Language Development Tutorials will receive a Fail X grade.