Overview

In information-saturated communication environments, data analysis and visualisation techniques are crucial to understand social, cultural and economic patterns of media production and use. Data is also crucial to many forms of storytelling - including professional communication and journalism. Students will learn about using data to tell stories, including data analytics and visualisation, and tools and techniques required to collect, clean, analyse and visualise qualitative, quantitative and social network data.

Requisites

Prerequisites
MDA10018 Content Creator Lab

Rule

50 credit points of Level 2 Units
OR
MDA10018 Content Creator Lab OR JOU10007 Media Content Creation

Teaching Periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Critically evaluate the concepts of data analytics and visualisation and apply the appropriate tools and techniques to implement data analytics and visualisation strategy.
  • Apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills to resolve complex data and visualisation problems
  • Collect, analyse and visualise structured, unstructured and network data
  • Apply theories of news value to identify diverse perspectives and stories within datasets.
  • Implement foundational visualisation and news-writing techniques to produce a data-driven story.
  • Communicate effectively as a professional and function as an effective leader or member of a diverse team

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
On-campus
Lecture		1.00 12 weeks 12
On-campus
Lab		2.00 12 weeks 24
Specified Activities
Various		3.00 12 weeks 36
Unspecified Activities
Various		6.50 12 weeks 78
TOTAL150

Sarawak

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
Online
Directed Online Learning and Independent Learning		12.50 12 weeks 150
On-campus
Lecture		1.00 12 weeks 12
On-campus
Lab		2.00 12 weeks 24
Specified Activities
Various		3.00 12 weeks 36
Unspecified Activities
Various		6.50 12 weeks 78
TOTAL300

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
Feature Article Research and WritingIndividual 30% 1,2,3,4,5 
ProjectGroup 40% 1,2,3,4,5,6 
TestIndividual 30% 1,2,3 

Content

  • The evolutionary process of media analytics implementation
  • Strategic planning and evaluation of data analytics projects
  • Data visualization, dashboard design, storyboarding with analytics
  • Data analytics lifecycle, tools and techniques
  • Story identification and the news values in data
  • Newswriting for interactive, socially-optimized stories
  • Visual story production and optimization for social media and web audiences

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.