Future students

Media are increasingly intertwined in our lives. Digital technologies mean we can access media at any time and in any place – from television programmes to radio shows, news, podcasts, popular music, social media and advertising. This course is an in...

This course examines relationships between media, society and politics in an era of technological change. Topics include the evolution of mass-media, the concentration of media ownership, the role of public media, digital media industries, news media...

This course is an introduction to the study of popular media culture, with reference to the relationship between cultural theory and selected popular media forms. The course centres on critically examining the production and consumption of popular me...

This fully online course analyses the profound impact of the rise of social media platforms on the media landscape, human communication and our understanding of the world. The course examines how social and interactive media have influenced different...

The course explores the media industries in Aotearoa New Zealand through a series of case studies, including television, radio, newspapers, telecommunications, and film. These are discussed in terms of how ownership, regulation, funding/revenue, cult...

This course examines TV industries and genres in today's digital and transnational contexts. Through the analysis of indicative platforms, providers, and programmes - examples drawn mainly from the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand - MDIA...

This course is concerned both with visual artifacts and with vision as a social and cultural process. Thus, it considers the relationship between different visual regimes, or ways of seeing, and visual technologies, texts, and genres. It is also conc...

This course examines how media contribute to understandings of place for individuals, groups and nations and how these mediated places are informed by discourses of race, ethnicity and the dynamics of cross-cultural encounters. Case studies include h...

A critical introduction to the study of popular music. Topics covered include: music audiences, subcultures and scenes; histories of technologies; genres and styles; race and ethnicity; gender and sexuality; international and New Zealand music indust...

This course examines the relationship between humans and digital technologies by providing an overview of how humanities and social science scholars define, study and make sense of digital cultures. We will unpack some key concepts, debates and metho...

This course provides students the opportunity to develop an understanding of how news content is shaped by politics, society, economics and culture. Rejecting the naive assumption that the news is an accurate and objective reflection of reality, the ...

In this course we address the most important theories and debates about media audiences. We focus on the cultural studies paradigm, which analyses media use in the context of everyday life and sees audience members as active interpreters of the media...

This course is designed to develop the analytical techniques required to make sense of the ways in which advertising and consumer culture affect us. The course will cover the history of advertising and consumer culture but will also focus on how they...

This course examines the early history of the USA as it expanded across the North American continent, became an industrial power, emancipated slaves, and dispossessed native peoples. It looks at the effects of the United States' origins in an age of ...

In this course you will examine the ways media and environment are intertwined. You will learn how we can all contribute to building sustainable media practices in an age of ecological crises and why that is important. The course covers media theorie...

This course examines how media contribute to understandings of place for individuals, groups and nations and how these mediated places are informed by discourses of race, ethnicity and the dynamics of cross-cultural encounters. Case studies include h...

The proliferation of digital media is pushing the boundaries of literary and creative communication in Oceania. This course is grounded in the digital and environmental humanities as it asks students to navigate Indigenous transformations of writing ...

This course focuses on the relationship between critical social theory and the impact of the media on the production of culture.

This course examines narrative strategies and tendencies in contemporary primetime television programming, both fictional and factual. Applying screen narrative theory and using textual analysis, we will examine what kinds of stories TV tells us and ...

This course examines the theories and concepts around the communication processes that are employed in and through the media to understand the social, political and policy efforts in responding to disasters and crises. Students will be encouraged to ...

This course initially introduces students to the history, theories, genres, and culture of news media; thereafter, it considers contemporary news texts and practices in terms of the contexts of globalisation, changes to the cultural field of journali...

A social history of popular music, from the appearance of the gramophone in the nineteenth century to the laptop in the twenty-first. Topics will include changes in technology, historical dimensions of the production, distribution and consumption of ...

This course examines the representations, contexts, and politics of gender, sexuality and the media. By interrogating the discourses of gender and sexuality as they are 'mediated' in a variety of forms (including television, film, popular music, soci...

This course examines the idea of Māori media from a range of perspectives. Broadly defined, Māori media includes the creative works of Māori media practitioners; however, the course also examines representations of te ao Māori more generally. Drawing...

This course examines the definition, development, and normalisation of ubiquitous media. Students will trace the genealogy of ubiquitous media by examining the emergence of the network society, the development of social media, mobile media and apps, ...

This course examines how media technologies, texts, institutions and audiences engage with, help shape and regulate cultural and ethnic identities. We draw on a range of media genres to explore the different ways in which discourses of cultural and e...

The course examines the interplay between the media, government, and markets from different political economic perspectives. Topics here include government and advertiser influence, tensions between public service and commercial goals, and the impact...

This course examines surveillance culture in an age of technological expansion and ubiquitous media. Photography, CCTV, reality TV, social media, mobile phones and other media/technologies are considered in relation to their impact on a range of soci...

This course examines the US from 1975 to the present, exploring the interaction between media and major events including the conservative counteroffensive, the undermining of Detente, the Reagan and Bush I eras, the end of the Cold War, the Clinton s...

This course examines the politics of self-representation online. By drawing on case studies of celebrities, influencers, and ‘ordinary’ producers, we will critically analyse how key discourses in media representation influence the presentation of one...