bachelor of communication honours

Sarah Lawry, 2009 labsome Professional Communication graduate, has recently commenced work at Telstra as part of their graduate program. Congratulations Sarah!

Current timetables for the Bachelor of Communication Honours students are available from the main School of Media and Communication website: 2010 student timetables. Note there is a first and second semester timetable (ie two files).

The Program Information Guide (affectionately known as the 'pig') contains information about the honours program structure, the available electives, and so on. The 2010 pig is available on the official school site, in the student section. You need to log in using your usual student id/password combo to get it. Try this link...

Below is the press release for the broadcast of One Blood. This documentary is the outcome of Jessica's 2008 Honour's project, "Walking with Ghosts".

ONE BLOOD

The story of William Cooper: a voice raised in the silence

First broadcast: 5 December 2009

In late 1938 an elderly, statesmanlike Aboriginal man called William Cooper delivered a letter of protest to the German consulate in Melbourne over the persecution of the Jews on the notorious Kristallnacht, or Night of Broken Glass. He was one of very few voices of protest – nationally and internationally.

Freelance producer, Jessica Noske-Turner, has produced a documentary about William Cooper (1861 – 1941) and his passionate advocacy for human rights. She was captivated by the spirit and humanity of the man from Cummeragunga, the former Aboriginal mission station on the Murray River in Victoria.

The documentary, One Blood, will feature during ABC Radio National’s Awaye! program on 5 December at 6pm and will include readings from Cooper’s letter, as well as a journey back to his final resting place, the cemetery at Cummeragunga and beautifully recorded audio from a ceremony in the Forest of Martyrs in Israel, where trees were planted in his memory of with water and soil from the Murray River.

A complementary feature website will also be available from the Awaye! website at abc.net.au/rn/awaye. The website will include the audio from the program to stream and download, copies of original documents including notes in William Cooper’s hand, photographs and video of the tree-planting ceremony in Israel.

Awaye! is presented by Daniel Browning. It is produced and presented by Aboriginal broadcasters and is
Australia's only national Indigenous arts and culture program.

Below you will find a link to the pdf of the slides to be used for this year's honours information session. It is much the same as previous years with minor changes.

An information session for students interested in the B.Comm Honours program in 2010 is being held on Wednesday, September 23rd at 5.30pm. It will be held in Building 4, Level 5, Room 6 on the city campus of RMIT University. The session will be run by the acting Program Director of the B.Comm honours program, Rachel Wilson. If you would like to attend please let Rachel know (rachel dot wilson at rmit dot edu dot au) so we have an idea of likely numbers. These sessions usually run for about an hour, we do a little slide show come presentation about honours, and then open it up to questions and answers from you.

week 2 - Sarah, Ana, Andrew, Jonathon, Tessa
week 3 - Ariel, Sarah, Rika, Fraser, Royce
week 4 - Sandy, Jim, Wye Keen, Emily, Harry
week 5 - TBC collaborative event with meanwhile
week 6 - work in progress (Rachel not here)

MID SEMESTER BREAK

week 7 - Sarah, Ana, Andrew, Jonathon, Tessa
week 8 - Ariel, Sarah, Rika, Fraser, Royce
week 9 - Sandy, Jim, Wye Keen, Emily, Harry
week 10 - drafting & finishing touches
week 11 - drafting & finishing touches
week 12 - Formatting and design templating
____________________________________________________________________

For the first set of presentations you might find it useful to focus on the following criteria;

1, Outline the research problem(s). If you haven't already tried putting it in the following way try -

I am working on the topic of ...............
because I want to find out .................
because I want my readers to understand better .......................

2, Outline any problems you have encountered - these MAY include: poor time management; difficulty gaining access to information, people, resources; difficulty in containing the scope etc

3, Outline your strategies for resolving these issues to date. These include how your 'projects' and your lit reviews, timelines fit in.

4, Outline any conceptual 'gaps' that you have identified and would like feedback on.

*** There are two main reasons we are proceeding with this structure. Firstly to make sure you are all tracking well and not leaving things to the last minute BUT more importantly it is so that you can access the skills, knowledge, insight and general good vibes of your peers. As we have discussed you are all making work for an audience and rather than leave the getting of feedback to the last minute when is to late to do anything significant with it ... we are trying to get in there early. It is a dialogue and a conversation. So that means you all need to provide feedback to each other at each stage (and not leave to the usual suspects).

____________________________________________________________________

Here is another way (somewhat more formal) that you might find useful to consider.
The problem –

Is the problem clearly and concisely stated, narrowed down into a researchable problem, significant enough to warrant such research and if you have identified what is unique about the research.

Scope –
Comment on the scope of the project and the evidence of background research relevant to the topic, if the gaps in knowledge were identified and whether you have included relevant references.

Research design –
Comment on how well the research design relates to the problem as stated and how well the research design was described.

Data collection & analysis –
Comment on the chosen data collection methods and if they were appropriate for the study and how well the results are organised and communicated.

Outcomes –
Comment on the appropriateness of the report format in communicating the findings, the distinction between fact and interpretation and if any generalisations are warranted and adequately defended.

The current program director of labsome, Adrian Miles, is on research leave for the second half of 2009. This means he gets to do a lot of reading, writing, editing, and publishing, without the demands of teaching and administration. Yes, it is quite a luxury. Since he's nicking off, Rachel Wilson will be acting program director.

The postgrads and Laurene Vaughan are having an informal discussion around interviewing as research and similar things:

The interview session will be held at 1pm - 3pm on Tuesday June 9.

It will be up in our neck of woods. All of you are welcome to join in,
and for those of you wanting to interview, very highly recommended.

This is a pdf that contains the abstracts and speculative word clouds for the 2009 labsome research for each student. We used this in a presentation to the meanwhile design studio students, and as an exercise in redefining what is being done.