ATS1119 Communicating in the digital era
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · S2 2026ATS1119 Overview
- Undergraduate unit
- Six credit points
- Semester Two offering
- Digital media practice
Communicating in the digital era treats media competence as more than operating software. Digital literacy is a set of situated social practices: people interpret interfaces, judge sources, compose for audiences and negotiate the norms of communities.
- Situate literacy Ask who can participate, through which device, platform and convention.
- Read form closely Connect wording, image, sequence and interface to an intended audience effect.
- Treat AI critically Verify outputs, disclose use and retain responsibility for evidence and authorship.
- Build audiovisual claims Make every edit, quotation and image perform a named argumentative job.
How ATS1119 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Pitch | 10% | Current Moodle: video essay plan presentation, due 16 October 2026 |
| Practical worksheets | 10% | Current Moodle: weekly practical exercise across Weeks 2–11 |
| Multimedia journal I | 20% | Current Moodle: digital newsletter, due 19 August 2026 |
| Multimedia journal II | 20% | Current Moodle: infographic, due 16 September 2026 |
| Video essay | 40% | Current Moodle: video essay and exegesis, due 2 November 2026 |
The official handbook repeats the label Multimedia journal for both 20% artefacts. The current Semester 2 Moodle guide distinguishes them as the digital newsletter and infographic, and describes the Pitch as the video essay plan presentation. This guide preserves the handbook labels and weights while showing that mapping; Moodle controls current briefs, due times and submission instructions.
Assessment structure
The handbook labels are retained here; the current Moodle names map the two multimedia-journal rows to a digital newsletter and an infographic.
What ATS1119 covers
The guide moves from literacy and storytelling to participation, then slows down to compare visual choices before assembling a defensible video essay.
Digital Literacy, AI and Storytelling
Literacy as situated practice, generative media verification, narrative movement and audience-centred newsletter writing02Participation, Platforms and Publics
Participatory culture, spreadability, convergence, fandom negotiation, context collapse and social-media publics03Visual Grammar, Images and the Self
Denotation, connotation, composition, photography, infographic hierarchy and the social work of self-images04Video Essay, Representation and Production
Argument through audiovisual evidence, diversity, editing, copyright choices and the reflective exegesisAccess, skill, identity and platform design shape who can speak and whose speech becomes visible. Generative AI belongs inside that analysis because it can accelerate drafting while obscuring provenance, reproducing patterns from training data and tempting a writer to outsource judgement. The unit therefore joins practical production to critical verification and acknowledgement.
Storytelling supplies a bridge between ideas and artefacts. A digital story selects a change, orders events, gives the audience a position and uses links, images or sound to manage attention. Participatory culture complicates the old producer-audience split: fans, creators and publics circulate, remix and contest media, but participation remains uneven and platforms retain power over visibility and data.
Visual communication then asks how denotation, connotation, salience, framing, vectors and layout organise meaning. Photographs do not merely copy reality; selection, caption, circulation and context guide what counts as evidence. The final movement develops the video essay as an audiovisual argument. Voice, image, screen capture, quotation, music and editing must add interpretive evidence rather than decorate a spoken script.
Representation requires attention to who is visible, who speaks and which stereotypes or absences the sequence repeats. The exegesis makes production decisions accountable by linking them to unit concepts, sources and reflection.
Across newsletter, infographic, pitch and video tasks, the strongest work names a public, establishes a purpose, selects evidence, makes deliberate formal choices and then tests whether the artefact actually produces the intended relation with its audience. The 2026 handbook uses the labels Pitch, Practical worksheets, two Multimedia journal tasks and Video essay.
Current Moodle gives those components operational names: video essay plan presentation, weekly exercise, digital newsletter, infographic, and video essay with exegesis. Because the handbook warns that details can change, use Moodle for live instructions and due times while retaining the official weights and component identities stated here. This undergraduate unit carries 6 credit points.
The official assessment weights are 10%, 10%, 20%, 20% and 40%.
Turn a platform observation into a media claim
- 1Describe the observable form: edited speech, caption, interface and visible comment sequence.
- 1Name the participating actors and the platform affordance that lets comments become part of the encounter.
- 1Interpret how the juxtaposition changes the implied audience position without assuming every viewer responds identically.
- 1State what additional evidence would test the claim, such as circulation context or a comparison with the original post.
Key terms
- Affordance
- A possibility for action made easier or harder by a medium, interface or social convention.
- Connotation
- Cultural associations activated by a sign beyond its most direct depicted subject.
- Context collapse
- The convergence of audiences with different expectations around one mediated performance.
- Exegesis
- A reflective written account that explains and evaluates creative decisions through concepts and evidence.
- Participatory culture
- A media environment in which people create, circulate, respond to and organise around shared cultural material.
- Salience
- The visual prominence that makes one element likely to attract attention before another.
ATS1119 FAQ
Is digital literacy just technical confidence?
No. Technical operation matters, but literacy also includes interpretation, source judgement, ethical participation, audience awareness and the ability to compose across modes. A person can operate an app fluently while misunderstanding its data, conventions or public consequences.
Can generative AI replace source evaluation?
No. A fluent output may still invent evidence, flatten disagreement or reproduce bias. The student remains responsible for checking claims against credible sources, following the task's AI rules and acknowledging use in the required form.
What makes a visual analysis specific?
Point to a formal choice such as framing, colour, gaze, vector, scale, placement or sequence, then explain how it positions a viewer in this context. Avoid treating a possible connotation as a universal psychological effect.
How do the two Multimedia journal rows map to Moodle?
The handbook repeats the official label at 20% twice. Current Moodle identifies the first as the digital newsletter and the second as the infographic. Check Moodle before submission because operational details may change.
Does this unit have a final examination?
The official assessment record lists within-semester tasks totalling 100% and no final examination. The last large task is the video essay and exegesis; live submission details remain in Moodle.
Which source controls current submission details?
Moodle controls the live artefact instructions, due times and submission settings. Keep the handbook component labels and weights visible, then check any operational change against the current Moodle task before producing or uploading work.
How to prepare for the assessments
Keep an evidence-form-effect notebook rather than a definition list. For each example, record what is directly observable, which concept clarifies it, what interpretation follows and what evidence would challenge that reading. Rework one idea across prose, image and audiovisual form so you can see what each mode adds or removes.
Before an assessment, audit audience, purpose, source trail, AI acknowledgement, copyright status, accessibility and the relationship between creative choices and unit concepts.
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