The individual experiences of the worlds we live in make it seem obvious that these worlds are highly mediated, but this experience also indicates our need to think seriously about the process of mediation and how we can develop strategies that allow us both to reflect on and develop skills that enhance our own media practices. By focusing on the act of representation in all its multiplicity this paper establishes practices that develop both a conceptual awareness of the notions of representation as well as facilitates the development of skills that allow us to engage with representational practices themselves. Ideally then this will develop our own ways of representing as well as experiencing research of different representational practices.

Students will develop skills in the representation of their own ideas through the focus on written work in the form of the academic essay and presentation skills utilising a variety of media as well as blogsites. They will experience active research of areas of representation through visual, sign and discourse analysis, which are three important methods of research in media studies programmes. There is an investment in representation of ideas through academic essays as well as an investment in research process and creative presentation through the methodological skills they will develop as they focus on particular areas of representation.

This paper is a compulsory paper for media students and acts as a base for specific academic skills development in the media programme. This investment will be an important platform for higher level study in both the third level papers as well as for those students investing in longer term postgraduate study.

Initially examining the notion of the representation of ourselves, this paper will then explore different fields of representation and offer methods of critique that will enhance reflection on the multiple approaches to representing the worlds of discourse, image and the associated affects that we experience.

There is an online Moodle community for this course. Moodle can be accessed via iWaikato. Reading lists, assignment guidelines, important dates and the paper outline are all available from this site. Occasionally, basic lecture slides may be made available for download after a lecture. In this event, these slides will only provide basic bullet points of the topics covered, so it is strongly advised that students do not rely solely on these slides for their learning or for assignment preparation. In order to gain the best learning experience from this course, and to prepare adequately for all assignments, students will need to attend all the scheduled lectures and tutorial sessions. An attendance register will be taken at the start of each lecture to monitor student attendance.

Attendance at lectures and tutorials is expected of all students, and an attendance register will be taken at the start of all lectures and tutorials to monitor student attendance. Students are expected to keep up with the required readings, which are linked from Moodle. Some of these will be discussed in the lectures and tutorials. Evidence of your engagement and understanding of specified readings will be required in order to meet the assessment criteria for each assignment.