Media Analytics and Visualisation
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
Rule
50 credit points of Level 2 Units
OR
MDA10018 Content Creator Lab OR JOU10007 Media Content Creation
01-June-2025
08-February-2026
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 |
| TOTAL | 150 |
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 |
| TOTAL | 300 |
Assessment
| Type | Task | Weighting | ULO's |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feature Article Research and Writing | Individual | 30% | 1,2,3,4,5 |
| Project | Group | 40% | 1,2,3,4,5,6 |
| Test | Individual | 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.