Why Study Film, Television and New Media
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Film, television and new media are our primary sources of
information and entertainment. They are important channels
for education and cultural exchange. They are fundamental
to our self-expression and representation as individuals
and as communities. Moving-image media enable us to
understand and express ourselves as Australian and global
citizens, consumers, workers and imaginative beings. They
also provide a means to connect with and learn about our
own and other cultures and practices.
Critical literacy skills, used within the techniques and
processes of moving-image media production and use, enable
students to think, question, create and communicate by
designing, producing and critiquing film, television (TV)
and new media products. These skills are not only of
vocational value, but they also facilitate informed and
social participation.
Moving-image media production and use has always been an
evolving field with continual changes in practices and
processes. The latest evolutions have occurred as a result
of digitisation and the new practices of repurposing
content, producing non-linearity, sampling, interactivity
and manipulation. While it does not replace the many ways
people create and consume analogue media, digitisation has
contributed to the field through blending and converging
analogue and digital practices and processes to provide
some new media forms and extend the possibilities available
to producers and users.
Investigating ‘new’ media is more than just investigating
changes in technology and the ways it is used — it deals
with existing technologies and developments in formats,
genres and ways of representing the world. It also involves
examining the ‘new’ ways in which local and global
communities interact with and through the media as well as
‘new’ issues associated with access, ownership, control and
regulation. To reflect these continuities, changing
practices and processes of production and use, the title of
this course of study, is
Film, Television and New Media.
The ‘information’ and ‘creative’ industries that produce,
distribute and exhibit entertaining, informative and
educational content are already among the largest employers
and drivers of the economy in many countries. Their
significance in our lives seems set only to increase, given
that moving-image media will play an increasingly prominent
part in our work and leisure. Students, therefore, need to
be equipped with the necessary critical and creative
skills.
Students study Film, Television and New Media through five
key concepts that operate in the contexts of production and
use. These key concepts, which draw on a range of
contemporary media theories, are: technologies,
representations, audiences, institutions, and languages.