Understanding Audiences G (12340.1)

Effective communication starts with knowing your audience. This unit equips communication professionals, whether in government, corporate, marketing, or journalism, with the knowledge of and skills to understand audiences in a rapidly changing landscape. Students will learn about academic and industry approaches to audience research and how these have shifted over time in response to social, industrial, and technological change. Through engaging with unit material, students will critically reflect on the importance of understanding audiences to communication professionals, media industry, and policy makers. They will also develop insights into how ideas about and research on audiences are drawn upon in different areas of communication such as marketing, strategic communication and journalism.

Learning outcomes

1. Evaluate, interpret and reflect on how understandings of audiences and audience research are both shaped by and contribute to processes of technological, industrial and social change;
2. Synthesise knowledge of how audience research is conducted, analysed and used by contemporary communication industries, platforms and professionals;
3. Reflect on the practical, social and ethical implications and impacts of audience research; and
Demonstrate understanding of the strategic application and value of audience research in industry and professional settings.

Graduate attributes

1. UC graduates are professional - employ up-to-date and relevant knowledge and skills
1. UC graduates are professional - communicate effectively
1. UC graduates are professional - use creativity, critical thinking, analysis and research skills to solve theoretical and real-world problems
1. UC graduates are professional - display initiative and drive, and use their organisation skills to plan and manage their workload
2. UC graduates are global citizens - adopt an informed and balanced approach across professional and international boundaries
2. UC graduates are global citizens - understand issues in their profession from the perspective of other cultures
2. UC graduates are global citizens - make creative use of technology in their learning and professional lives
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - reflect on their own practice, updating and adapting their knowledge and skills for continual professional and academic development
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - be self-aware
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - evaluate and adopt new technology
4. UC graduates are able to demonstrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing - communicate and engage with Indigenous Australians in ethical and culturally respectful ways
4. UC graduates are able to demonstrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing - apply their knowledge to working with Indigenous Australians in socially just ways

Prerequisites

None.

Corequisites

None.

Incompatible units

None.

Equivalent units

None.

Assumed knowledge

None.