Technological talespinning : new media and higher education in the USA : an examination of technological determinism

This thesis examines the theory of technological determinism, which espouses the view that technological change drives social change, through an analysis of the impact of new media on higher education models in the United States of America. In so doing, it explores the impacts of new media technologies on higher education, in particular, and society in general. The thesis reviews the theoretical shape of the discourse surrounding new media technologies before narrowing in on utopian claims about the impact of new media technologies on education. It tests these claims through a specific case study of higher education in the USA. The study investigates whether 'new' media technologies (eg the Internet) are resulting in new forms of higher education in the USA and whether the blurring of information and entertainment technologies has caused a similar blurring in education and entertainment providers. It uses primary data gathered by the author in a series of interviews with key education, industry and media representatives in North America in 1997. Chapter 2 looks at the literature and history surrounding several topics central to the thesis - the discourses of technological determinism, the history of technology use and adoption in education, and impacts of new media technologies on education. Chapter 3 presents the findings of the American case study on the relationship between media and higher education and Chapter 4 concludes and synthesises the investigation.

AIDS and pro-social television : industry, policy and Australian television drama

This thesis examines the intersection of popular cultural representations of HIV and AIDS and the discourses of public health campaigns. Part Two provides a comprehensive record of all HIV related storylines in Australian television drama from the first AIDS episode of The Flying Doctors in 1986 to the ongoing narrative of Pacific Drive, with its core HIV character, in 1996. Textual representations are examined alongside the agency of "cultural technicians" working within the television industry. The framework for this analysis is established in Part One of the thesis, which examines the discursive contexts for speaking about HIV and AIDS established through national health policy and the regulatory and industry framework for broadcasting in Australia. The thesis examines the dominant liberal democratic framework for representation of HIV I AIDS and adopts a Foucauldian understanding of the processes of governmentality to argue that during the period of the 1980s and 1990s a strand of social democratic discourse combined with practices of self management and the management of the Australian population. The actions of committed agents within both domains of popular culture and health education ensured that more challenging expressions of HIV found their way into public culture.

Visual arts, technology and education : how can teaching and learning in high school visual arts classrooms be enriched by the use of computer technology?

Whilst a variety of studies has appeared over the last decade addressing the gap between the potential promised by computers and the reality experienced in the classroom by teachers and students, few have specifically addressed the situation as it pertains to the visual arts classroom. The aim of this study was to explore the reality of the classroom use of computers for three visual arts highschool teachers and determine how computer technology might enrich visual arts teaching and learning. An action research approach was employed to enable the researcher to understand the situation from the teachers' points of view while contributing to their professional practice. The wider social context surrounding this study is characterised by an increase in visual communications brought about by rapid advances in computer technology. The powerful combination of visual imagery and computer technology is illustrated by continuing developments in the print, film and television industries. In particular, the recent growth of interactive multimedia epitomises this combination and is significant to this study as it represents a new form of publishing of great interest to educators and artists alike. In this social context, visual arts education has a significant role to play. By cultivating a critical awareness of the implications of technology use and promoting a creative approach to the application of computer technology within the visual arts, visual arts education is in a position to provide an essential service to students who will leave high school to participate in a visual information age as both consumers and producers.