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Study masters degree online with Curtin University through Open Universities Australia. Explore all degrees, subjects and short courses now.

This degree was previously known as Master of Internet Communications.
The Master of Digital and Social Media provides you with an opportunity to learn in detail about the human dimensions of the Internet: how people network, collaborate, and share information through Internet communications, media and design. You will develop advanced skills in creating, maintaining and managing online communications for personal and commercial interactions, as well as gaining knowledge of the social and cultural contexts within which those interactions occur. You will also gain advanced research skills through a substantial independent research project. The approach is interdisciplinary: you develop skills in websites, public communication, social network management, collaboration via virtual organisations, and web media production. At the same time you will understand the political, economic and social changes associated with the Internet. By taking this degree, you will add to your existing qualification the knowledge and skills needed for you to become an astute, engaged professional communicator via the Internet.

Broaden your appreciation of the communicative power of the world wide web. Punctuate your ongoing digital communication studies with an in-depth research project. Place an emphasis on creativity in digital writing, design and interaction practices.

Master of Digital and Social Media

Web Communications

Culture to Cultures

Online Games, Play and Gamification

Digital Culture and Everyday Life

The Digital Economy

Web Media

Social Media, Communities and Networks

This subject is the second of two Masters project subjects involving supervised independent research in/of a discipline-relevant topic. This subject focuses on the completion and presentation of the research commenced in HUMN600 Masters Research Project 1, and will be taken in the next available study period following that subject. The specific nature of the project, the methods of research and the submission format will be determined in consultation with a discipline supervisor and may include professionally orientated tasks or components. The chosen research work involves supervised completion of a dissertation.﻿Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject, you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.Find out more about the <a href="https://academicintegrity.curtin.edu.au/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Masters Research Project 2

The first of two supervised independent Masters project subjects involving detailed research in/of a topic to be chosen in consultation with the relevant discipline supervisor. This subject focuses on the preparation and design of that research, and must be taken prior to HUMN610 Masters Research Project 2. The specific nature of the project, the methods of research and the submission format will be determined in consultation with a discipline supervisor and may include professionally orientated tasks or components.Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject, you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.Find out more about the <a href="https://academicintegrity.curtin.edu.au/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Masters Research Project 1

For at least twenty years, we have seen a trend towards &#39;convergence&#39; in the media, as new social understandings and new business models emerge that break down the distinction between traditional media forms (print and broadcast news, films and games, and so on). We have also seen the development of social or participatory media, without rigid boundaries between consumers, creators and producers. The Internet has played a critical role in these processes, becoming the key frame of reference for discussions of the future of converging and participatory media. In particular, the World Wide Web enables the production, distribution, remixing and remediation of an extraordinary array of digital media content and the linking together of otherwise separate media forms. In this subject, you will investigate why and how media are transforming in the era of convergence and participation, and then put these insights into practice by creating web-based media content.
Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Create digital content and understand how the Internet has blurred the boundaries between media production and  consumption. Get to know the new business models and how participatory media has remixed and redistributed traditional media forms.

This subject explores the broader spaces and nature of play online, and how it relates to the development of digital forms of gaming. The nature of immersion is questioned and the role of interactivity investigated, along with critical perspectives on the popular but controversial notion of &#39;gamification.&#39; It examines a series of gaming tropes and themes, games as texts, and the ways that games enter social frameworks to convey, refract, engage with, and resist power structures. An ongoing focus is on the function of rules in framing play, particularly in relation to how players cheat, hack and mod their games to break those rules.
Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Love it or hate it, the idea of ‘gamification’ has taken root. Examine what it means to play online, and how gaming can both resist and reinforce traditional power structures. Explore the function of rules, and how hacks and mods change the game.

Digital and social media offers many opportunities for people to share their lives with others and engage in social interaction and dialogue. Initially digital and social media seemed to be about &#39;virtual&#39; community; but these days, online and offline networking and community practices merge. Social media now plays a major role in &#39;being together&#39; - whether to maintain relations with friends and family, to advance political causes, to escape into fantasy worlds, or to strengthen communal belonging. In this unit, you will investigate the excitement, the scepticism, the possibilities and the pitfalls of communities, networks and digital and online social interaction and become more effective in managing and facilitating them.Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Surf online worlds, communities and sub-cultures. Explore the relationship between technology and social bonding. Plug into gaming, social and Indigenous online networks. Analyse how on and offline ways of communicating are beginning to blur.

This subject was previously known as Power, Politics and the Internet.The Internet has had a massive impact on our political systems, from grassroots activism through to global politics. This subject helps you to understand how and why this has happened, and why it matters. It explores the new challenges and possibilities for governance created by the Internet, as well as attempts to control the Internet by governments and others. Ultimately, you will come to understand how networked communications are intertwined with long-running political struggles around control and resistance.Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Understand the ways in which people try to exert, and resist, power online. Explore why algorithms, censorship, surveillance, and infrastructure matter, and how they might be reshaped.

Online Power and Resistance

For many people, everyday life now involves constant interaction with the Internet via digitally networked platforms and devices. As cyberspace and real space come together, it can be easy to miss the impacts of the Internet on us and on our society and culture. Students will explore how their own experiences and ‘everyday Internet’ may be different from others, and the implications of this for studying digital culture. Through specific topics such as entertainment, politics, sex, and relationships students will analyse digital culture conceptually, towards better understanding how technology and society are intertwined.
Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Explore where digital life ends and real life begins. Identify ways in which every day social activities like dating and praying have become digitised. Look into the causes and consequences of our increasing social connection with the online world.

Curtin University Masters Degree Media studies Courses & Degrees | Open Universities Australia

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