Media and Cultural Studies as well as Social Sciences - any feedback? (1 Viewer)

[illodous]

Okay, here's the deal - I didn't want to waste space by creating two seperate threads just on myself, as I thought that would be a little bit selfish.

But anyway, these are my two big course choices for 2006 though I don't have much of a knowledge save for the brief course descriptions given on each..

I was hoping someone doing the courses could give me a run down on the day-to-day stuff they are involved with, basically what I can expect to get from them.

B Arts - Media and Cultural Studies
B Social Sciences (looking at both at Mac)

One major question I wished to ask is if Media and Cultural studies has any kind of Psychology units, or if it is worth my time adopting a B Arts - Psych. or sticking with my B Social Sciences.

Sorry, it's all a bit confusing

 

[*~Dazed~*]

Depends what you want to get into. If you want to do psychology your best bet is do do a barts psych (there are numberous people doing this on here so they can fill you in more) because media and cultural studies doesn't have any psych units. Although there is room for a couple of electives each year so you can always choose them. BUT i think a lot of psych units require you to be enrolled in a psych degree (i could be mistaken, best to ask those doing the course),

Media and cultural studies is good. As much as every says they hate cultural studies because it is an extremely wanky area of study, i still find it enjoyable. Great if you love discussions and debates and what not. Great if you love listening to/having verbal diorrhea. With the media side, well this course is good if you don't know exactly what you want to do with media and what you want to specialise in because apart from first year, you can basically structure the course however you like as long as you complete a certain amount of credit points from both media and cul units.

Ask more specific questions and i can try to answer otherwise ill just keep crapping on about random stuff you may already know or not care about.

I

 

[illodous]

Depends what you want to get into. If you want to do psychology your best bet is do do a barts psych (there are numberous people doing this on here so they can fill you in more) because media and cultural studies doesn't have any psych units. Although there is room for a couple of electives each year so you can always choose them. BUT i think a lot of psych units require you to be enrolled in a psych degree (i could be mistaken, best to ask those doing the course),

Media and cultural studies is good. As much as every says they hate cultural studies because it is an extremely wanky area of study, i still find it enjoyable. Great if you love discussions and debates and what not. Great if you love listening to/having verbal diorrhea. With the media side, well this course is good if you don't know exactly what you want to do with media and what you want to specialise in because apart from first year, you can basically structure the course however you like as long as you complete a certain amount of credit points from both media and cul units.

Ask more specific questions and i can try to answer otherwise ill just keep crapping on about random stuff you may already know or not care about.

I

Haha well there's the problem - I'm not entirely sure what I do want.

I know that I'm very much a humanities person and humans and discussions about development and discourse interest me. So what would I expect to find in this course? What kind of areas could I tailor myself to? It does sound appealing to pick up the psychology units as electives too. In a nutshell, what am I likely to be learning in the degree? Please feel free to "crap" on - every bit of detail is useful.

 

[*~Dazed~*]

What will you be learning... hmm thats a hard one haha- is it ok if i say not much?

Im just doing my first cultural studies unit this semester even though im second year- long story. Anyway this one is visual culture and its about exactly that... basically the meanings we make from the things we see. Ads, artworks, signs, consumer culture, movies blah blah blah.

Media is media. It tends to overlap with cultural studies a bit and both first year units that you can do are very general. Media in australi, media policy, globalisation etc. But its good because you get that crap over with in the first year and then you can do writing, multimedia, radio, etc etc etc as well as other general ones such as news and current affairs then pr blah blah blah.

Cultural studies is what you make of it. I mean the only way for you to see is to grab the undergraduate book and have a read through the units it offers because there is a wide range.. from introductory ones which you have to do to be able to do other level units otherwise you wont know half the crap they are talking about to grafiti, performance, gays and bis.. i cant even remember.

I basically chose the course because i have no idea what i want to do and this course offers subjects from the two disciplines that i found i most enjoyed in my first year. Media for me to feel grounded and feel like i have SOME direction (because quite frankly the cultural studies part isn't going to get you shit) and cultural studies because its interesting and fun (sometimes when you dont fall asleep in lectures) and makes you question things.

The only other area that i can find units which i want to do is philosophy so ive just done them as electives, hence me not picking a barts because i thought hey if im predominantly gonna study media and cultural studies subjects i may as well do the course.

 

[AsyLum]

If you want to do Psych units, i recommend you do a BA-Psych and then take up the first year Media core units and give them a bash.

Cores:
PSY104 Introduction to Psychology I (3) (Sem 1)
PSY105 Introduction to Psychology II (3)(Sem 2)
STAT170 Introductory Statistics (3) or (Can be taken either semester)
STAT171 Statistical Data Analysis (3) (Sem1)

That means you have two cores for first semester:
PSY104 and STAT171

With your electives you can take:

CUL100 Text, Image, Culture (3) (Sem 1)
MAS104 Australian Media (3)(Sem 1)
MAS105 Media Cultures (3)(Sem 2)

With the only pre-requisite for MAS105 being that you Pass MAS104.

And then, you can decide what you want to pursue in 2nd year, by transferring and not missing out on the cores for either degree.

This gives you access to:

a) B Arts - Psych if you want to continue in that
b) B Media and Cultural Studies and further Media units
c) a specialist B Media degree (such as specialising in Screen Production (film), Writing, or Multimedia.

Neither of those choices miss a beat, so you don't waste a year if you wish to transfer the next year (provided you have the marks).

As dazed said, most psych units are unavailable unless you are enrolled into a psych degree, so the best option is to enrol in that, and use the others as electives.

Re: the subjects themselves.

Media: I have found it to be fairly theory driven but at the same time applicable to the general media as an introduction. MAS104 is Australian Media and focuses upon the structuring of meaning and identity within the Australian landscape, while MAS105 focuses more upon a general/global atmosphere of practical skills and methodologies and ideologies.

Cultural studies: If you enjoyed post-modernism in high school, then this is for you. It explores those same concepts but in a very theoretical manner. So be prepared to delve through ideologies, paradigms et al. I had no problem with the content as such, more so how it was taught and my shit tutor

Sociology: If you disliked that method, and wanted something a bit more relevant to popular culture the SOC subjects are an excellent alternative, and focus more upon 'grounded' ideas and concepts.

Philosophy: Depending on which area you focus on, it can be a) very abstract (metaphysics) b) practical and relevant to modern situations (more general and ethics based) c) logical and useful for developing analytical skills (logic based units).

 

[bscienceboi]

From memory you can do Psych if you have a UAI of 87 (2003) or 12 Credit Points (something along those lines).

EDIT: Entry Requirements ----> Equivalent Admission Rank or entry to Psych degree, BBA, BA-Psych/BSc-Psych

; 12 Cp with overall GPA of 2.5 for continuing students.

 

[AsyLum]

There wouldn't be much point, if you really want to do psych units, to not enrol into it as your degree, and then use the freedom of the BA for electives.

 

[illodous]

Oh wow, thank you very much for helping out - my head is still stuck in Ancient History (having just finished my last exam today - God forbid, I haven't gone out celebrating yet).

I think that's pretty much summarised what I could have asked about doing Psych and Media units - thank you again very much for clarifying

Sorry again to sound very selfish, but to consider my other side of the spectrum, would there be any knowledge on the B Social Sciences course? *smiles*

 

[AsyLum]

http://www.handbook.mq.edu.au/degree.php?edition=2005&id=21079

Depends on what you want to specialise in.

 

[illodous]

Sorry to sound like I'm absolutely pulling teeth - is there any way I can find individual descriptions for each of the subjects? I quite like the social/developmental psychology, sociology and philosphy units...

 

[cpjeeves]

Just a warning about CUL100:
CUL100 may or may not suck your soul out and leave you with nothing but the frail shell of a uni student, only able to mutter incoherently "Everything's a cultural construct..there is no truth! No truth! Your archaic conventions and values are meaningless! Bah!" at family, friends, and various potted plants until the mid semester break and a whole lot of drinking sets you right again.
(And this is coming from someone who was really into postmodernism and other artsy concepts in Year 12).
But anyway, good luck in your choices and have a crazy mad post HSC celebration.

 

[AsyLum]

Sorry to sound like I'm absolutely pulling teeth - is there any way I can find individual descriptions for each of the subjects? I quite like the social/developmental psychology, sociology and philosphy units...

On that page, it should have the various 'paths'

Now click on that, and it should list the various subjects.

http://www.handbook.mq.edu.au/units.php?edition=2005&level=ug

use that to see a short description