Art at Macquarie University

The Department of Media, Music and Cultural Studies combines the academic disciplines of Media, Contemporary Music Studies, Critical and Cultural Studies and International Communication. Situated in the Y3A building the department offers a range of undergraduate, Honours and postgraduate coursework and research opportunities.

Media offerings cover a range of traditional media theory studies as well as production units. The undergraduate units prepare students to understand, analyse, critique and produce diverse forms of media from screen to print to multimedia forms. The Media discipline emerged from Macquarie’s Department of Media, the oldest such department in Australia. Media production units are taught by experts in the field and utilize state of the art facilities housed in Y3A. Contemporary Music Studies is dedicated to the study of various forms of 20th and 21st Century music (popular, folk/indigenous, electronic, avant garde etc.) Music staff is actively engaged in research, publication and recording projects and is Australia’s leading centre of activity in these fields. It publishes Perfect Beat – The Pacific Journal of Research into Contemporary Music and Popular Culture and runs Coral Music – a label dedicated to recording artists from Western Pacific communities.

Critical and Cultural Studies investigates everyday life for what it reveals about who we are and how we live. From art to the iPod, literature to fashion, high theory to pop culture, graffiti to multimedia, and from tattooing to writing, performance, film and television, all our cultural practices reveal how we make meaning, how we organise our social and political relationships and how we identify ourselves.

The analysis of culture provides insights into how ideas arise, how meanings are made and how they are communicated. In the Information Age, everyone is a "content provider", whether it's at work or on MySpace. Both rigorous and creative, Critical and Cultural Studies will help you understand the day-to-day practices of communication and representation.

Drawing on a wide range of traditions in the humanities and social sciences, Critical and Cultural Studies trains students in the analytical techniques and skills in research and argument that will prepare them for careers in fields like the media, public and private sector administration and policy development, education, the creative arts and digital communication. International Communication offers cutting edge degree programs for those seeking an advantage in the dynamic fields of media, public affairs, international relations. International Communication is at the forefront of research in the field of International Communication and Media.

Undergraduate Studies

The Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies administers the following majors within the Bachelor of Arts program:

• Contemporary Music
• Creative Arts
• Cultural Studies
• Dance
• Interactivity and Games
• International Communications
• Media, Culture and Communication
• Writing

POSTGRADUATE BY COURSEWORK

The Department of Media, Music and Cultural Studies administers the following Masters degrees by coursework:

• Contemporary Improvisation (as a major within the Master of Arts)
• Media, Law and Culture (as a major within the Master of Arts)
• Master of International Communication
• Master of Recording Arts

Master of Arts - Media, Law and Culture

The Master of Arts - Media, Law and Culture is a new program beginning in 2012.

New media course addresses major gap

Macquarie is set to be the first university in the country to offer a program that teaches media, law and culture. The Master of Arts specialising in Media, Law and Culture is an interdisciplinary program that will be run by the Macquarie Law School in conjunction with the Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies. “We developed this program because there was a national gap in this area,” explains course coordinator Dr Joseph Pugliese.

“There are other universities teaching media/law but not media, law and culture. “Rather than just looking at the rules, governances, restrictions, prohibitions, censorships and legislations that enable what gets screened on the media, we want to ask what is the social context in which these legislations are made?”

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