MEDIA 224
Science Fiction Media
Please note: this is archived course information from 2021 for MEDIA 224.
Description
This course examines science fiction as a media genre. While sci-fi is hugely popular and entertaining, it also plays a unique role in contemporary public culture through its tendency to tackle big and controversial issues facing humanity, and to expand our political, philosophical, social and scientific imagination through creative world-building and futuristic speculation.
Some of the big themes of science fiction that we look at in this course include:
- Alien encounters
- Exploration and colonisation of outer space
- Post-human futures (robots, artificial intelligence and cyborgs)
- Scientific advances and bioethics
- Utopias and dystopias
- Apocalypse and the collapse of civilisation
- The real and the virtual
- Time travel narratives
These themes are approached through key examples of science fiction texts. These are usually films but examples may also be drawn from a range of other media such as TV, literature and computer games.
Assessment
Coursework only
Availability 2021
Semester 2
Lecturer(s)
Coordinator(s) Associate Professor Luke Goode
Points
MEDIA 224: 15 points
Prerequisites
15 points from COMMS 100, 104, FTVMS 100, 101, 110, MEDIA 101 and 45 points in BA courses
Restrictions
FTVMS 224, FTVMS 319, MEDIA 319