Communication
& Media Studies
At Murdoch…
Communication skills are among the most important and valuable skills for any person in any industry. The ability to understand and create media is becoming ever more important as communication and media technologies profoundly impact our lives. In this major, you’ll learn about the power of communication and its impact on society and culture, develop skills that enable you to both analyse and create media texts, and improve your ability to communicate effectively.
The advantage of studying Communication and Media Studies at Murdoch University is the flexibility it gives you. You can pursue your area of passion – whether that be that creativity (podcasting, photography, freelancing, games art and design), persuasion (strategic communication, web communication) or saving the world (journalism, politics, design thinking) – all while gaining the general communication skills that will help you stand out from the crowd. You will also have the opportunity to work on a communication project or take on a professional internship placement, to give you on-the-job, real-world experience.
Our Student’s Work
COM201
Playful, Social and Engaging Media
This unit will focus on the rapid rise and cross-platform integration of social media, mobile media and games. We will consider the exponential growth of social networking, hand-held media interfaces, and game platforms over the past decade, and critically explore how they have converged in everyday cultural practice. Students will be introduced to key approaches and concepts in the study of contemporary media culture and communication, and be given the opportunity to gain an understanding of contemporary media production through an interactive media assessment task.
The major assessment, and challenge for this unit, is to design a piece of interactive digital media that directs people’s playful engagement toward a positive public outcome. Students are tasked to create a project that aims to make the world a better place.
Container Creatures
Student Name: Aniela Cockerill
Containers for Change is a government funded initiative that incentivises environmentally responsible behaviour by providing a 10-cent refund for each eligible bottle or can returned at designated collection points. Container Creatures is a mobile application designed to encourage sustainable behaviour by gamifying recycling habits for younger audiences. To foster engagement among children, Container Creatures employs a ‘virtual pet’ gameplay model, seamlessly linking user interaction to their pre-existing Containers for Change account.
Container Creatures centres the player’s engagement with recycling by linking real world actions to in-game rewards. When users recycle, their virtual pet, known as a ‘Container Creature’, displays increased happiness and the recycled containers are converted into an in-game currency. This currency can be used to purchase accessories for customisation or food to support the Container Creature’s growth. The application employs a level-based progression system, wherein players must nurture their Container Creature to adulthood before customisation options are available. This mechanic not only incentivises continued interaction but also reinforces sustained behavioural engagement with the recycling process.
Anak2Pintar
Student Name: Adhelina Hatch
Anak2Pintar is an Australian-based non-profit organisation that integrates digital storytelling through blogs, two-way communication and selling goods to decrease educational barriers within Indonesia. Anak2pintar (A2P) translates to smart children in Bahasa, using this will attract both international and national audiences. This organisation will be displayed through a website platform and social media pages to showcase its various digital ecosystems and cross-platform strategies to attract different audiences. A2P highlights the impact social campaigning and interactive website designs have on promoting educational initiatives towards marginalised communities. The website is designed to be a two-way communication outlet to build a community. Community engagement is crucial for participatory culture and to enhance platform interactions. Prioritising this value results in higher customer satisfaction, trust and transparency.
Mind The Wealth Gap?
Student Name: Wyatt Siekman
Mind The Wealth Gap? is a satirical interactive media project that highlights Australia’s sheer wealth inequality. Consisting of a HTML5 video game, a website which houses the game, as well as a social media account, this interactive media project will make the world a better place through channelling people’s desire to interact, engage and express themselves through participatory culture and interactive storytelling.
The video game Mind The Wealth Gap? plays similarly to classic Atari games like Pong (1972) and Breakout (1976). Every time the player’s ball bounces against the wall their score will increase by a million points. Once the player misses hitting the ball, it will trigger a Game Over. When this occurs, the game will congratulate you, before comparing your score to the total wealth of one of two different Australian billionaires, those being Gina Rinehart ($29,000,000,000), as well as Harry Triguboff ($1,880,000,000). The official social media account would repost the top scores of the day, displaying how even the highest score of millions of dollars is but a small fraction for the wealthiest Australians. Players are free to further explore the website, with the design currently featuring an explanation of wealth inequality in Australia and a call-to-action.
We’ll Burn That Bridge When We Get To It
Student Name: Tara Radić
We’ll Burn That Bridge When We Get To It tackles the issue of media literacy through an interactive, narrative-based, short game to bring awareness to word-choice media bias through an educational and fun lens. The player acts as the only journalist in a region with two towns solely connected by a bridge. Through the gameplay, the player gets to choose how to word their own headlines and see how that affects the two towns based on the subtle (or not-so-subtle) implications of words they use.
The goal of this project is to bring awareness and educate people about media literacy through interaction and play. The format of a choose-your-own-adventure is particularly poignant because it’s the player who creates the headlines, sees the options, analyses the differences in meaning, compares them, purposefully makes a choice, and personally sees the consequence. It is important to mention that oftentimes these biases are implicit. Many people, both those who create and consume media, are not aware of these biases, which is precisely why bringing awareness and educating people about this issue helps in making the world a better place.
