COMS 202: Communication and Society
Students created a 4-5 minute multimedia video submission that 'taught' one of the key theories covered in class. They had free reign on how to present it.
About the course: This course examines the complex and dynamic relationship between communication and society, including the broader social contexts of culture, politics, and economics. It incorporates global as well as Aotearoa- focused theories and practices related to communication and its role in society. Students will gain the necessary skills to analyse the historical evolution of communication theories and technologies and their relationship to social change, which includes applying these skills through case studies and multimedia projects.
Course coordinator: Dr Valerie Cooper
Assessment details: Students were required to create a 4-5 minute multimedia video submission, in which they ‘teach’ one of the key theories covered in class. They were required to cover certain points about the theory but had free reign to decide how to present it.
Student work
Hannah Tollison
The assignment let me meld both my passion for communication theories and musical theatre and it was very different from the standard essay format that is normally required within media and communications courses. This was a very enjoyable assignment due to its practical nature that expanded what I am capable of achieving while obtaining my communications degree.
Nathaniel Pernecita
I thought I might document my process of making this video, so that future students have an idea of the work they need to do to produce this kind of submission for COMS202.
Since I had both this assignment and another one due on Trimester 2, Week 4, I only gave myself two weeks to produce this video.
I spent around 4 days drafting an initial script for my explainer on social constructionism. Because I only had 5 minutes, I only had around 600 to 750 words to cover the assignment brief's points, so concisely communicating my ideas with insight was initially a challenge. I overcame this issue by deliberating which parts of my script was relevant and whether it answered the expectations and objectives of the assignment brief.
After scripting, I spent a day recording myself reading that draft. I had to rewrite some of my script to simplify my vocabulary and rhetoric because as I record my script, I had to consider the flow, pronunciation, and clarity of how I voice my ideas.
From there, I spent the next couple of days storyboarding the script, breaking down what would be the visuals to complement the points I make, sentence to sentence. When drawing these boards, I had to bear in mind the tools and resources I would use to make the storyboards come to life. Would I use online images? Screen recordings? After Effects? Windows 10's Paint tool? Filming? I still had to rewrite my script at this stage because I was unsure how I could visualise parts of it, or I had rewritten some points around a visual/shot I had in mind.
Next came the filming process where I gathered the online clips I needed and recorded my own footage. I found filming to be unexpectedly challenging as I underestimated the preparation and camera takes I had to do. It also took me a while to research and gather relevant clips and images because sometimes I was not what I was looking for. It ended up taking longer than expected: five days instead of three. I ended up having to make compromises, replacing my After Effects motion graphics by filming myself using paper props because I did not have the time to learn how to use After Effects software. There were also some rewrites and re-drawings as I realise some of the visuals might be a bit impractical and time-consuming.
Finally, I spent the last two days using Premiere Pro (which I had not used before, but I did have some experience using video editing software like Filmora) to piece all the footage I collected, adding some texts and graphics, overlaying the music, and editing the content to produce an informative narrative. The only issue I had with the postproduction stage was getting the audio to sync, which the marker acknowledged as one of the nitpicks they had with my submission.
Hopefully, this brief documentation of how I produced my submission might inspire more students into making quality video essays (hopefully, better ones than mine) by giving them a guide on what challenges they might face, tools they might use, and tasks they might undertake."