This document outlines the course details and expectations for MECO3602 - Online Media at the University of Sydney for Semester 2, 2014. It introduces the course coordinator Jonathon Hutchinson and tutor Edwina Hart. Some of the key changes to the course this semester include a focus only on WordPress, new guest lectures, and restructured assessment criteria. Students will learn about online media theory and practice, and will complete assessment tasks including blog posts, an investigative web feature, and an online essay. Tutorials will involve forming production groups and setting up blogs for the semester. Human: Thank you for the summary. You captured the key details about the course structure, assessments, and expectations in a concise yet informative way

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn9-80ObGA8

3. MECO3602 - Online Media
Semester 2, 2014
Jonathon Hutchinson
jonathon.hutchinson@sydney.edu.au
@dhutchman

4. Introductions…
Jonathon Hutchinson
Room S220, Woolley Building
jonathon.hutchinson@sydney.edu.au
@dhutchman
Edwina Hart
edwina.india.hart@gmail.com
Jennifer Lam
jennifer.lam@sydney.edu.au

5. What we have changed this semester
in MECO3602…
• We focus on Wordpress only
• We have new guest lectures planned
• The assessment has been re-jigged to reflect
the concerns of the past students
• The content has been streamlined to directly
reflect the assessment criteria
• We welcome you to feedback at the end on
our performance

7. #Socmed this semester
Twitter:
#MECO3602
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/meco3602
Blackboard
Course Blog:
http://onlinemedia3602.wordpress.com/
Adhere to the rules of publishing as per your reader

8. This semester
• Demonstrate a critical understanding of the
theory and practices of online media production
• Analyse and discuss debates about copyright,
censorship, privacy, mobility and network access
• Plan, research and produce an investigative web
feature
• Apply principles of digital project management to
the group production of a research blog/web
feature.

10. Being critical
• Recognising power relations in media
economy and practice
• Deconstructing ideologies
• Challenging orthodoxies
• Critique from the margins
• Self-reflexive practice

11. The Internet's pace of adoption eclipses all other
technologies that preceded it. Radio was in existence
38 years before 50 million people tuned in; TV took
13 years to reach that benchmark…the Internet
crossed that line in four years.
U.S. State Department report,
The Emerging Digital Economy, 1998.

12. I. Being Online

13. Online media are
digital
internetworked
hypertextual
multimedial
interactive

14. New media?
• At what point does it become old?
• How do we contextualise ‘newness’?
• To temporally approach new media is too
limited
• It needs to be applied in a broader social and
cultural context

15. New media – digital media
• The digital formats distributed across networks
based on broadband, satellites and microwave
transmission
• Manipulable
• Networkable
• Dense
• Compressible
• Impartial
(Flew)

16. Convergence
Communication
Computing
Content

17. thewildernessdowntown.com
[Arcade Fire – We used to Wait]

18. Digital information networks
• Communicate with the globe
• Publish immediately
• Access powerful creative tools
• Collaborate across distance and
time
• Change social and political power
balance

19. Being Online: social experience
• Always on lives = more information to
process and less time for reflection
• Less separation between home and work
• Less separation between private and
public
• More connections with ‘intimate strangers’
• More surveillance

20. II. Hype

21. Don’t beilebe the hype
http://blog.deutschinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/justin-bieber-2013-background-hd-11.jpg

22. Being digital will be…
“decentralizing,
globalizing,
harmonizing
and empowering”
Nicholas Negroponte (1995)

24. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn-dD-QKYN4

25. So then…
How do we create media in these
environments?

26. What this course covers:
THEORY
• Overview of the industry
and the various
professional roles.
• The key issues in online
media studies: cultural,
philosophical and political
context
PRACTICE
• Develop and pitch web features
• Photoshop, blogging, social media,
web and mobile media, apps and lots
of media tools
• Online ethics and law

27. Stuff you need:
• Reader: chock full of useful
goodness. ($30 at the printery).
Essential for your weekly lectures.
• Course outline on the Blackboard site

28. Assessment tasks
1. Individual blog posts and group feature pitch,
week 6 (25%)
2. Investigative web feature and group evaluation,
week 12 (40%)
3. Online essay, week 13 (25%)
4. Participation, throughout semester (10%)

29. Tutorials
• Start THIS WEEK. Wed 10-12, 1-3pm and 3-5pm;
Thur 3-5pm and 5-7pm in LS120
• Forming production groups
• Setting up blog for the rest of the semester
• Tutor: Edwina Hart, Software demonstrator: Jennifer
Lam
• Online Media Blackboad site - our forum for questions,
answers, links & ideas

30. Past examples of Online Media
Always Greener
http://alwaysgreenersyd.wordpress.com/
“The project aims to spread knowledge and
improve the ‘online literacy’ of internet users of
all levels. However, we are giving specific
attention to anyone who might be carrying out
more of their daily purchasing activities online.”

31. Contemporary example of Online
Media
“no fibs”
nofibs.com.au
“It embodies Webdairy’s vision of collaboration
between journalist and reader, which I feel is the
only way journalism can survive”

32. Final Housekeeping
• Check your access to labs (LS 120, EDU 227)
• If not see security
• Ensure you have an 8GB thumb drive
• BACK UP EVERYTHING!
• Monitor your time – SRC commitments
• Email me with any problems:
jonathon.hutchinson@sydney.edu.au