58102 Language and Discourse
UTS: Communication: Language StudiesCredit points: 8 cp
Result Type: Grade, no marks
Handbook description
This subject introduces three key communication concepts, develops a thematic study and teaches skills in the medium of sound. The concepts are Discourse, Genre and 'Multimodality'. Through multimodal analysis and practice, students understand communication as combinations of representations, cultural forms and specific communicative resources (verbal and non-verbal, visual and auditory, etc), assembling complex relations of thoughts and feelings. The thematic research explores the different ways in which important social and cultural issues are represented in a range of media. Students extend their learning by experimentation in multimodal writing in different genres, such as 'report', 'story', argument', 'appeal', etc, and they reach out for different audiences with sound practice. The subject equips students with the concepts and methods to reflect critically on their own experience of language phenomena through the issues systematically explored.
Subject objectives/outcomes
At the completion of this subject, students are expected to be able to:
- explain how language, music and sound are used in various forms of discourse
- analyse a variety of texts using the concepts of genre, discourse and multimodality
- create and edit sound files
- reflect on their own experience of language and discourse
- justify arguments and statements.
Contribution to graduate profile
This subject makes a significant contribution to the students' capacities to apply their knowledge and skills in order to think analytically, to evaluate their own work and to communicate effectively. It makes a minor contribution to the students' capacity to inquire critically.
Teaching and learning strategies
Lectures will introduce the key theoretical terms which students will discuss further in weekly tutorials. In the latter part of the course the teaching in tutorials will turn to the practice of making a sound text where technicalities are mastered (use of mikes, recording, software editing), working as part of a creative team.
Content
The functions of language, critical discourse analysis and Foucauldian genealogies of discourses; the recognition of a broad range of genres, especially in sound media; theories of representation and difference; modes of analysis of multimodal texts where the use of sound is highlighted; ways of conceptualising time (duration, repetition, rhythm) and associated sound aesthetics. reaching and holding an audience.
Assessment
Assessment item 1: Discourse analysis essay
| Objective(s): | a, b, d |
| Weighting: | 30% |
| Task: | Identify and analyse two different texts that manifest two different discourses about a given subject |
| Assessment criteria: |
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Assessment item 2: A script developed from the discourse analysis essay
| Objective(s): | b |
| Weighting: | 25% |
| Task: | To select a radio genre and write a script for a 2.5 minute sound piece that will convey one (or both) of the discourses discussed in the essay. |
| Assessment criteria: |
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Assessment item 3: An edited sound text of 2.5 minutes
| Objective(s): | c, d |
| Weighting: | 45% |
| Task: | A 2.5 minute sound piece recorded with an appropriate digital application to a requisite quality level, plus a 500 word post-face analysis of the aims of the piece. |
| Assessment criteria: |
|
Minimum requirements
Attendance is essential in this subject. Classes are based on a collaborative approach which involves workshopping and interchange of ideas. Students are required to attend a minimum of ten classes.
Required text(s)
These core readings are all available via e-readings on the UTS Library website
Week 1: Discourse
Theo van Leeuwen Introducing Social Semiotics, pp 94-104
Norman Fairclough Analysing discourse pp 26-31; 87-88, 98-100
Aries, P. Centuries of Childhood, pp 98-116
Week 2: Discourse — Power/Knowledge
Fairclough, Norman (1992) 'Michel Foucault and the Analysis of Discourse' in Discourse and Social Change, 37-61
Foucault, Michel (1984) 'What is an Author?' In Rabinow, Paul (1984) The Foucault Reader London; Penguin Books, 101-120.
Paltridge, Brian (2008) 'Critical Discourse Analysis' in Discourse Analysis London: Continuum.
Week 3: Discourse in Research, Work and Everyday Life
Marken, Lise. (2007) 'Culture + Power: Synthesizing Hall, Carey and Foucault for a Cultural Understanding of the Power of the Press' Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, The Renaissance, Washington, DC, Aug 08, 2007.
Olsson, M. (2007) Power/Knowledge: The Discursive Construction of an Author. Library Quarterly, 77 (2): 219-240.
Tuominen, K. (2004) Whoever increases his knowledge merely increases his heartache.' Moral tensions in heart surgery patients' and their spouses' talk about information seeking. Information Research, 10(1) paper 202, available at http://InformationR.net/ir/10-1/paper202.html
Week 4: 'Visual communication and discourse'
Theo van Leeuwen Discourse and Practice, pp 136-148
John Berger Ways of Seeing, pp. 45-64
Liz Wells, ed. Photography: A Critical Introduction, 2nd ed. Pp. 68-82 and 102-113
Week 5: Genre
GGunther Kress Literacy in the New Media Age pp 84-88; 93-105
Theo van Leeuwen Introducing Social Semiotics pp 122-131
Norman Fairclough Analysing discourse 32-4; 71-6
Week 6: Interpreting Genre: Romance and Beyond
Frow, John (2006) 'Genre and Interpretation' in Genre, New York: Routledge, pp 100-123.
Martin, Fran (2008) 'Comics as Everyday Theory: The counterpublic world of taiwanese women fans of japanese homoerotic manga' in Cultural Theory in Everyday Practice (ed) Nicole Anderson and Katrina Schlunke, Melbourne Oxford University Press, pp 164-175
Radway, Janice 'Romance and the Work of Fantasy' in Feminism and Cultural Studies (ed) Morag Shiach, Oxford:Oxford University Press, pp 395-415.
www.mannythemovieguy.com/images/Twilight_Poster_by_evenstarre01.jpg
Week 7: Radio Histories
Paddy Scannell, Radio, Television and Modern Life, pp 6-18, 75-80, 93-98.
Jane Chapman and Marie Kinsey (eds) Broadcast Journalism A critical introduction, pp 8-10
Bertolt Brecht, Radiotexted, The Radio as an Apparatus of Communication, pp 15-17.
Andrew Crisell, Understanding Radio pp 42-63
Week 9: Radio Futures and case study of documentary
Michele Hilmes, Foreword: Transnational Radio. in the Global Age, Journal of Radio Studies , vol 11, no. 1, 2004, pp 3-6
Steve Buckley (2000) Radio's new horizons, Democracy and popular communication in the digital age, International Journal of Cultural Studies, vol 3(2) pp 180-187.
Enrico Menduni (2007) Four steps in innovative radio broadcasting: From QuickTime to podcasting. The Radio Journal – International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media, Vol 5 Number 1. pp 9-18
Michelle Arrow (2007) Review of Eurydice Aroney and Sharon Davis' The Search for Edna Lavilla, History Australia, Volume 4, No. 2, December.
The Search for Edna Lavilla is available for listening at www.abc.net.au/rn/radioeye/stories/2007/1928449.htm
Week 10: Multimodality
Theo van Leeuwen 'Multimodality, genre and design' in S. Norris and R.H.Jones, eds. Discourse in Action – Introducing Mediated Discourse Analysis, London, Routledge, pp 74-88.
Theo van Leeuwen Speech, Music, Sound, pp 92-115
R. Murray Schafer The Soundscape 43-44; 71-74; 108-119, 155-160
Week 11: Embodiment, identity and the voice
Justine Coupland and Richard Gwyn (2003) Introduction Discourse, the body, and identity, 1-16. (Library has available as an e-book)
Olsson, M (2009) 'All the World's a Stage: Theatre Professionals Make Sense of Shakespeare' Information: Interactions and Impact (i3) Conference to be held at The Department of Information Management, Aberdeen Business School, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK, 22-25 June 2009.
Week 12: Music
Susan McClary Feminine Endings pp 7-17; 53-67
Claudia Gorbman Unheard Melodies 70-91
Recommended text(s)
Anderson, Nicole & Schlunke, Katrina (2008) Cultural Theory In Everyday Practice,OUP Australia & New Zealand.
Chion, Michel. (1994) Audio-Vision. Translated by Claudia Gorbman. New York: Columbia University Press.
Fairclough, Norman (2003) Analysing discourse - textual analysis for social research. London, Routledge.
Frow, John. (2006) Genre (New Critical Idiom. Routledge.
Jewitt, Carey & Oyama, Rumiko (2001) Visual meaning - a social semiotic approach, in Theo van Leeuwen and Carey Jewitt, eds, Handbook of Visual Analysis. London, Sage, 134-157.
Lakoff, Robin T. (2000) The Language War. Columbia University Press.
McHoul, Alec & Grace, Wendy (1993) A Foucault Primer. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Rabinow, Paul (1984) The Foucault Reader London; Penguin Books.
Silberstein, Sandra (2004) War of Words: Language Politics and 9/11. Routledge.
Sterne, Jonathan (2003) The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction. Durham: Duke University Press.
Thorne, Steve (2006) Language of War (Intertext) Routledge.
van Leeuwen, Theo (1999) Speech, Music, Sound. London, Macmillan.
van Leeuwen, Theo (2005) Introducing social semiotics. London, Routledge
Indicative references
Baudrillard, Jean (2002) Screened Out translated by Chris Turner, Verso, London.
Foucault, M. (1972). The Archaeology of Knowledge. London, Tavistock.
Foucault, M. 1977. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. London: Allen Lane.
Foucault, M. (1980). Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972- 1977. London, Harvester Press.
Olsson, M. (2007) Power/Knowledge: The Discursive Construction of an Author. Library Quarterly, 77 (2): 219-240.
Talja, S. (2001): Music, culture, and the library: an analysis of discourses. Lanham. Md.: Scarecrow Press.
Radio Television and Modern Life A phenomenological Approach. Paddy Scannell, Blackwell Publishers, 1996, 302.2301
The Auditory Culture Reader edited by Michael Bull and Les Back, Berg Publishers, 2003, 306.4
Radiotext(e) Editor Neil Strauss A classic collection of commentaries and thoughts on radio from Brecht and Benjamin to Guattari and Morrow. 302.2344
Understanding Radio, Andrew Crisell, Routledge, 1994 (second ed) 384.540941
Radio in Context, Guy Starkey
The Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media
Audio websites: For listening examples across a wide range of formats and genres and related research such as archived talks and discussions with audio producers, journalists, sound designers and engineers. Text based resources on radio and audio are relatively scarce and so this site is crucial starting point for anyone wanting to discover the theory and practice of audio producers and writers.
http://soundportraits.org/ on-air/ ghetto_life_101/
http://thirdcoastfestival.org/ 99ways.asp
http://thirdcoastfestival.org
http://www.abc.net.au/ rn/
Technical sites lists of audio recorders and editing software necessary for students and teaching staff, also workshops and tutorials on same.
http://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/ tutorials/ audio/ audio-recorders/
http://www.transom.org/ tools/ recording_interviewing/ 200703_recorder_reviews/
http://www.transom.org/ tools/ editing_mixing/
http://www.transom.org/ tools/ editing_mixing/ 200404.audacity.html
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
