Handbook home
Doing Media Ethnography (CULS90010)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 6.25On Campus (Parkville)
About this subject
- Overview
- Eligibility and requirements
- Assessment
- Dates and times
- Further information
- Timetable(opens in new window)
Contact information
March
Overview
| Availability | March |
|---|---|
| Fees | Look up fees |
Ethnography — the descriptive and long-term study of peoples and their communities — is one of the most challenging, and rewarding, approaches to media research. This elective will help students interested in ethnography to engage with the key conceptual and practical issues found when using it as a method in media and cultural research. Students will be introduced to the history of the approach, from early anthropological studies to contemporary practices in film production ethnography and digital ethnography. They will confront key conceptual issues along the way, engage with central texts, and establish the basic tools to start building ethnography into their own research plans. Particular focus will given to how ethnography can be integrated with other research methods, so as to create strong and well-rounded research projects.
Intended learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this subject should have:
- An enhanced knowledge of the benefits and challenges of doing ethnography in media and cultural research
- An ability to think deeply about the critical and philosophical implications of research methodology
- An ability to think deeply about the critical and philosophical implications of research methodology
- Eexperience with working complex methods into a practical research plan
- Knowledge of contemporary concerns of self-reflexivity, subjectivity and the blurring of the lines between 'researcher' and 'research subject' in humanities research today
Generic skills
This subject will contribute, through teaching and discussion with academic staff and peers, to developing skills and capacities including those identified in the University-defined Graduate Attributes for the PhD, in particular:
- The capacity to contextualise research within an international corpus of specialist knowledge
- An advanced ability to engage in critical reflection, synthesis and evaluation of research-based and scholarly literature
- Aan advanced understanding of key disciplinary and multi-disciplinary norms and perspectives relevant to the field
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
None
Corequisites
None
Non-allowed subjects
None
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: 3 November 2022
Assessment
Additional details
- Written outline (1,000 words) of an ethnographic research plan, Due between weeks 5-6 of the intensive teaching period. [40%]
- Essay (1,500 words), covering one of the particular conceptual or practical issues covered in the subject, Due 3 weeks after the end of the intensive teaching period. [60%]
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Dates & times
- March
Principal coordinator Joshua Mcnamara Mode of delivery On Campus (Parkville) Contact hours 6 x 2-hour seminars delivered weekly Total time commitment 85 hours Teaching period 4 March 2019 to 12 April 2019 Last self-enrol date 12 March 2019 Census date 22 March 2019 Last date to withdraw without fail 12 April 2019 Assessment period ends 10 May 2019 March contact information
Last updated: 3 November 2022
Further information
- Texts
Prescribed texts
There are no specifically prescribed or recommended texts for this subject.
Last updated: 3 November 2022