Television, Lifestyle & Consumer Culture (CULS20014)
Undergraduate level 2Points: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
Overview
| Availability | Semester 2 |
|---|---|
| Fees | Look up fees |
What is lifestyle? When and how did the concept develop, and what functions does it serve in consumer culture today? How is it represented and constructed through television? How does it relate to parallel concepts like taste, style and identity? This subject frames lifestyle as the site where consumer culture and individual identity intersect, where identities are produced through our interactions with the commodities and media we consume. It approaches lifestyle as the relatively recent invention of advertising, marketing, popular media and related institutions and discourses, contextualizing it within the broader rise of modern consumer culture, in order to provide a historical framework for understanding the rise and global spread of lifestyle culture today. The subject engages key theories for understanding consumer culture and media from Marxist accounts of commodity fetishism and alienated labour to contemporary television studies and social theories of DIY-selves and reflexive individualism. On completion of this subject, students should be able to analyse the complex relations between contemporary consumer culture, lifestyle discourse, popular media and individual identity formation, and to trace the workings of these relations through selected cultural sites that may include advertisements, television programs, and Internet sites, and everyday practices like shopping.
Intended learning outcomes
On successful completion of the subject, students should have:
- an understanding of the historical, social, and cultural dimensions of modern consumer culture;
- the ability to comprehend how modern consumer culture has produced the concept of 'lifestyle' as an amalgam of consumption, taste and individual identity;
- the ability to appreciate the complex relationships between the economic structure of late capitalism and the cultural phenomenon of 'lifestyle'; and
- familiarity with some of the major critical approaches to the study of consumer culture and be able to use these approaches in their own work.
Generic skills
At the completion of this subject, students should gain the following generic skills:
- acquired advanced research and analytic skills;
- developed critical and ethical self-awareness;
- acquired an ability to develop and communicate effective arguments in both oral and written form; and
- acquired basic skills in media and information literacy and management.
Last updated: 14 March 2025
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
None
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
CICU20017 Lifestyle and Consumer Culture; 106-226 Lifestyle and Consumer Culture
Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)
The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.
Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home
Last updated: 14 March 2025
Assessment
Additional details
- A 1,000 word essay (25%), due mid-semester
- A 2,000 word essay (45%), due in the examination period
- A multimedia exercise (blog/wiki) equivalent to 1,000 words (30%), done throughout the semester
- This subject has a minimum hurdle requirement of 80% attendance and regular participation in tutorials. Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 10% per day. In-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked. All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass this subject.
Last updated: 14 March 2025
Dates & times
- Semester 2
Principal coordinator Lachlan MacDowall Mode of delivery On Campus (Parkville) Contact hours Total 30 hours: a 1.5-hour lecture and a 1-hour tutorial per week. Total time commitment 170 hours Teaching period 23 July 2018 to 21 October 2018 Last self-enrol date 3 August 2018 Census date 31 August 2018 Last date to withdraw without fail 21 September 2018 Assessment period ends 16 November 2018
Time commitment details
170 hours
Last updated: 14 March 2025
Further information
- Texts
- Related Handbook entries
- Breadth options
This subject is available as breadth in the following courses:
- Bachelor of Biomedicine
- Bachelor of Commerce
- Bachelor of Design
- Bachelor of Environments
- Bachelor of Music
- Bachelor of Science
- Links to additional information
- Available through the Community Access Program
About the Community Access Program (CAP)
This subject is available through the Community Access Program (also called Single Subject Studies) which allows you to enrol in single subjects offered by the University of Melbourne, without the commitment required to complete a whole degree.
Please note Single Subject Studies via Community Access Program is not available to student visa holders or applicants
Entry requirements including prerequisites may apply. Please refer to the CAP applications page for further information.
- Available to Study Abroad and/or Study Exchange Students
Last updated: 14 March 2025