Pre-requisites

None

Co-requisites

None

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, the student will be able to:

Unit Description

Purpose of this unit is to explore the role of media in the development of the learner’s own ethical framework and ethical frameworks existent in our culture.

Learners will be encouraged to reflect theologically upon the practice and process of moral and ethical formation. The unit will challenge practitioners and learners to converse on the role that media and communications play in shaping or reinforcing major ethical and religious beliefs significantly influencing our culture.

This unit explores various biblically based worldviews and ethical frameworks applied to Christian vocations in various media. The unit therefore should facilitate intellectual, ethical, creative and spiritual development as learners reflect critically and constructively on the theory and practice of work in different media contexts.

This field of study comprises many areas of study, professions and vocational roles. There are many theories and approaches that will be explored. A focus on narrative will be used as an organizing motif in this unit of study since we all are storytellers. Some scholars contend that all human communication can be explained in narrative terms. This unit will explore challenges and opportunities for authenticity and integrity through narrative.

This unit therefore aims to examine ways in which our personal, collective and varied worldviews and theory and practice of ethics can and do shape the stories we tell and the effects they have on individuals, groups, audiences and cultures and on our efforts to express the Christian faith to them. More important, it is designed to help integrate faith and practice as a media professional.

Teaching Strategies

The learning process consists of three phases: Reading, Residential, and Research. Each phase has a blend of individual and group learning, and subsequent phases build upon the learning of those that come before.

The first phase is a Reading phase, and lasts for 12 weeks. The learner, as part of a small cohort study group (3 to 5 members), is guided through a reading program to explore the current scholarship on the practice of “Truthfulness in media”

Reading assignments are compiled with the help of the librarian, the educational technologist, and administrative support staff. Required weekly readings are posted to the unit website once a week for downloading, utilising Tabor Victoria’s Moodle platform.

Students are also required to read the prescribed textbooks in this phase.

During this first phase learners in cohort groups embark on a guided social inquiry, resulting in a research project . Hands-on research conducted in context by each participant allows him/her to gain an understanding of specific, emerging ministry concerns/questions encountered by persons working in media.

Second phase is a residential phase: Equipped with the reading and research, learners then undertake a Residential phase of 40 hours’ worth (one week, full-time) of residential study. During the residency, all cohort groups gather in Media companies and/or organisations chosen because of a leader who is known as a thoughtful practitioner, and because the agency has a proven track record in integrating “Truthfulness in media”.

In the third Phase students complete a personal theology in which issues related to “Truthfulness in media” are explored. Cohorts also plan and implement an intervention at a media company or organisation. The intervention is a professional presentation that summarises findings and proposes a number of ways the agency might go about addressing the emerging questions. The intervention invites thoughtful practitioners into theological reflection and constructive thinking about the concern and what might be done to begin addressing it. Following the intervention, the small cohort study group reflects upon and assesses their collaborative work.


Unit offerings

Please note

The Unit Offerings listed above are a guide only and the timetable for any year is the final authority. The College may vary offerings based on demand, regulatory requirements, continual improvement processes or other conditions.

This unit may be available in different modes of delivery i.e. online and face-to-face as listed above. The unit content will not differ between these modes of delivery. There will possibly be a difference in the schedule and/or the prescribed assessment tasks, however both will cover and assess the same content.