Macquarie University

Visual Media and Communication - WMCO100

This unit brings together theories, practices and texts that explore the relationship between visual media and the way people act in their everyday lives. This unit introduces critical concepts to analyse visual texts, technologies, and communication practices. From film, television, photography and advertising, to social media applications and sites, we look at the ways media and communication shape (and are shaped by) our social worlds, our bodies and identities, changing technologies and online communities. We focus on visual communication and social norms, contemporary politics, events, embodiment, digital cultures, globalisation and social networking. Within these frameworks, we explore the production and reproduction, performance and use of identity and subjectivity. We survey key media and cultural studies notions of genre, discourse, power and textuality through the application and testing of methods of visual analysis. Finally, we place visual communication within personal, sensory and everyday experiences through the practical exploration of social media use.