RMIT School of Applied Communication
Encyclopedia
The RMIT School of Applied Communication is a former academic school in the College of Design and Social Context (DSC) of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University
), located in Melbourne
, Australia
. The school hosts RMIT's Advertising
, Communication Design
, Editing and Publishing
, Journalism
, Media
, Professional Communication (a specialised hybrid-degree covering Journalism, Media and Public Relations) and its Public Relations
programs. It merged with the RMIT School of Creative Media
on 6 July 2009 to form the RMIT School of Media and Communication
.
campus, located in the "RMIT Quarter" at the northern end of the Melbourne CBD. However, in recent years the school has begun to outgrow its home building, and parts of the school are now also located in buildings 4 and 7 at the City campus.
The school will receive a new home in 2009, when it relocates to Building 9 (RMIT's historical radio communications building) at RMIT's City campus, which is undergoing a A$
16.4 million refurbishment with two extra levels also being added to the building.
Contextual Studies Strand:
Undergraduates must undertake a study strand in either: Asian Media & Culture, Cinema Studies, Business & Politics or Literature & Philosophy.
's "industry-relevant" focus, the RMIT School of Applied Communication has appointed a number of leading figures from the communication industries to the position of Adjunct Professor. In addition to its regular full-time academic staff award-winning journalist Chris Masters
, former CEO of Australia's largest PR firm, Turnbull Porter Novelli
, Noel Turnbull, internationally-renowned designer Garry Emery, and leading Australian film and television producer Ewan Burnett are all part-time faculty members of the school.
In 2003, the school was chosen by Australia's peak body for professional Public Relations and Communication practitioners, the Public Relations Institute of Australia
(PRIA), as one of only two institutions nationally to deliver its annual series of professional development courses, lectures, seminars and events.
The school also hosts a renowned public lectures series by leading Australian and international speakers. Previous notable speakers have included: Professor Terrell Carver
, Director of the Global Media Research Center Professor John Downing, scientist and global warming activist Dr. Tim Flannery
, Wall Street Journal editor Robert Thomson
and Senator Judith Troeth
.
The school has hosted the XIIIth Biennial Conference of the Film and History Association in 2006 and the 2007 Asian Cities Symposium.
(AFI) Research Collection is a non-lending, specialist film and television industry resource. It opened in the mid-1970s as the George Lugg Library, and was a joint venture between the AFI and the Victorian Federation of Film Societies. In 2002 it became an auspice of the RMIT School of Applied Communication, in conjunction with the AFI.
The collection has particular strengths in screen history and theory and in Australian cinema, and features a diverse range of books, journals, film scripts, film directories, reports and film festival catalogues. A notable part of the original library was a rare collection of books on pre-cinema and early cinema history as-well-as early cinema artifacts, which were all part of the valuable David Francis Collection (David Francis
was the founder of the UK's National Film and Television Archive), and purchased by the Victorian
and Australian governments
in 1975. The early cinema artifacts of the collection are now housed at the Scienceworks Museum
, however, the rare books remain in the collection at RMIT.
In 2003, the Australian Broadcasting Authority
donated the Henry Mayer Collection to the RMIT School of Applied Communication. Over his many years as an academic, Henry Mayer assembled and annotated a massive collection of communications literature, which is now available through the AFI Research Collection. Also included in the AFI Research Collection is the Wayne Royal Levy Collection, the personal library of the internationally respected academic, author and documentary film maker; as-well-as a substantial number of film stills from the Australian and international film industries.
, and gained its international reputation during the 1980s through the publication of innovative and influential arguments and analyses in literary and cultural theory (eg: early articles by Tony Bennett
, Catherine Belsey, Terry Eagleton
, Stephen Greenblatt
, Ian Hunter, Colin MacCabe
, Christopher Norris). It moved from the University of Adelaide to the Communication Department of Monash University
in 1995, before finding its home in the RMIT School of Applied Communication in 2000.
RMIT University
RMIT University is an Australian public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. It has two branches, referred to as RMIT University in Australia and RMIT International University in Vietnam....
), located in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The school hosts RMIT's Advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
, Communication Design
Communication design
Communication design is a mixed discipline between design and information-development which is concerned with how media intermission such as printed, crafted, electronic media or presentations communicate with people...
, Editing and Publishing
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
, Journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
, Media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
, Professional Communication (a specialised hybrid-degree covering Journalism, Media and Public Relations) and its Public Relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
programs. It merged with the RMIT School of Creative Media
RMIT School of Creative Media
The RMIT School of Creative Media is a former academic school in the College of Design and Social Context of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology , located in Melbourne, Australia. The school hosted RMIT's Animation, Audio/Visual, Creative Writing, Film & Television, Music, Multimedia,...
on 6 July 2009 to form the RMIT School of Media and Communication
RMIT School of Media and Communication
The RMIT School of Media and Communication is an Australian tertiary school within the College of Design and Social Context of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology , located in Melbourne, Victoria....
.
Location
The school was headquartered in Building 6 on Bowen Street at the RMIT CityRMIT City
RMIT City is the original and flagship campus of the Australian public university and vocational education provider, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology ....
campus, located in the "RMIT Quarter" at the northern end of the Melbourne CBD. However, in recent years the school has begun to outgrow its home building, and parts of the school are now also located in buildings 4 and 7 at the City campus.
The school will receive a new home in 2009, when it relocates to Building 9 (RMIT's historical radio communications building) at RMIT's City campus, which is undergoing a A$
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
16.4 million refurbishment with two extra levels also being added to the building.
Undergraduate
- Bachelor of Communication (Advertising)
- Bachelor of Communication (Journalism)
- Bachelor of Communication (Media)
- Bachelor of Communication (Professional Communication)
- Bachelor of Communication (Public Relations)
- Bachelor of Design (Communication Design)
Contextual Studies Strand:
Undergraduates must undertake a study strand in either: Asian Media & Culture, Cinema Studies, Business & Politics or Literature & Philosophy.
Postgraduate
- Graduate Diploma in Editing and Publishing
- Master of Communication by Coursework (in chosen stream)
- Master of Design (Communication Design)
"Labsome"
Labsome is the RMIT School of Applied Communication's specialised honours program. Like most honours programs it is completed in one year (two semesters). Labsome is limited to a maximum of 20 students a year, who have completed a Bachelor of Communication in any stream offered by the school. Graduates must have reached the minimum academic standard of a Distinction average (70%) or better in their third year of undergraduate study to gain entry to Labsome.Industry and community links
In line with RMIT UniversityRMIT University
RMIT University is an Australian public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. It has two branches, referred to as RMIT University in Australia and RMIT International University in Vietnam....
's "industry-relevant" focus, the RMIT School of Applied Communication has appointed a number of leading figures from the communication industries to the position of Adjunct Professor. In addition to its regular full-time academic staff award-winning journalist Chris Masters
Chris Masters (writer)
Christopher "Chris" Wayne Masters PSM is a multi-Walkley Award winning and Logie Award winning Australian journalist and author.-Life:Chris Masters was born in Grafton, New South Wales...
, former CEO of Australia's largest PR firm, Turnbull Porter Novelli
Porter Novelli
Porter Novelli is a public relations firm that is part of Omnicom Group. Its original clients were primarily social causes and nonprofit organizations. Today, the company works in crisis management, health care, technology, corporate affairs, consumer marketing, and more. The company has...
, Noel Turnbull, internationally-renowned designer Garry Emery, and leading Australian film and television producer Ewan Burnett are all part-time faculty members of the school.
In 2003, the school was chosen by Australia's peak body for professional Public Relations and Communication practitioners, the Public Relations Institute of Australia
Public Relations Institute of Australia
The Public Relations Institute of Australia is the representation body for public relations and communication professionals in Australia. It was founded in 1949 and promotes high ethical standards in the public relations and communication industry in Australia through accredited membership and...
(PRIA), as one of only two institutions nationally to deliver its annual series of professional development courses, lectures, seminars and events.
The school also hosts a renowned public lectures series by leading Australian and international speakers. Previous notable speakers have included: Professor Terrell Carver
Terrell Carver
Terrell Foster Carver is a Professor of Political Theory at the University of Bristol.- Career :After receiving his B.A. from Columbia University in 1968, Carver went on to study in England. After finishing his BPhil and DPhil at Oxford University, he worked as a lecturer at the University of...
, Director of the Global Media Research Center Professor John Downing, scientist and global warming activist Dr. Tim Flannery
Tim Flannery
Timothy Fridtjof Flannery is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist and global warming activist....
, Wall Street Journal editor Robert Thomson
Robert James Thomson
Robert James Thomson is an Australian journalist and the managing editor of the Wall Street Journal. He is former editor of The Times newspaper in London, England. On 20 May 2008 News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch named Thomson as the paper's new managing editor, succeeding Marcus Brauchli...
and Senator Judith Troeth
Judith Troeth
Judith Mary Troeth has been a Liberal member of the Australian Senate since July 1993, representing the state of Victoria. She was born in Melbourne, Victoria, and was educated at the Methodist Ladies' College, and later at the University of Melbourne, where she graduated in arts and education...
.
The school has hosted the XIIIth Biennial Conference of the Film and History Association in 2006 and the 2007 Asian Cities Symposium.
AFI Research Collection
The Australian Film InstituteAustralian Film Institute
The Australian Film Institute was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry...
(AFI) Research Collection is a non-lending, specialist film and television industry resource. It opened in the mid-1970s as the George Lugg Library, and was a joint venture between the AFI and the Victorian Federation of Film Societies. In 2002 it became an auspice of the RMIT School of Applied Communication, in conjunction with the AFI.
The collection has particular strengths in screen history and theory and in Australian cinema, and features a diverse range of books, journals, film scripts, film directories, reports and film festival catalogues. A notable part of the original library was a rare collection of books on pre-cinema and early cinema history as-well-as early cinema artifacts, which were all part of the valuable David Francis Collection (David Francis
David Francis (film archivist)
David Francis is a British film archivist. He was the second curator of the UK's National Film and Television Archive from 1974 until 1989, when he was succeeded by Clyde Jeavons...
was the founder of the UK's National Film and Television Archive), and purchased by the Victorian
Government of Victoria
The Government of Victoria, under the Constitution of Australia, ceded certain legislative and judicial powers to the Commonwealth, but retained complete independence in all other areas...
and Australian governments
Government of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement among six self-governing British colonies, which became the six states...
in 1975. The early cinema artifacts of the collection are now housed at the Scienceworks Museum
Scienceworks Museum (Melbourne)
Scienceworks is a world renowned science museum in Melbourne, Australia. It is a venue of Museum Victoria which administers the cultural and scientific collections of the State of Victoria...
, however, the rare books remain in the collection at RMIT.
In 2003, the Australian Broadcasting Authority
Australian Broadcasting Authority
The Australian Broadcasting Authority was an Australian government agency whose main roles were to regulate broadcasting, radiocommunications and telecommunications....
donated the Henry Mayer Collection to the RMIT School of Applied Communication. Over his many years as an academic, Henry Mayer assembled and annotated a massive collection of communications literature, which is now available through the AFI Research Collection. Also included in the AFI Research Collection is the Wayne Royal Levy Collection, the personal library of the internationally respected academic, author and documentary film maker; as-well-as a substantial number of film stills from the Australian and international film industries.
Journals and publications
The school publishes a number of journals, most notably the Southern Review: Communication, Politics and Culture. The Southern Review is an internationally respected, interdisciplinary journal focusing on the connections between communication and politics, and is published three times a year. It was first published in 1963 (as the Australian Journal of Literary Studies) by the English Department of the University of AdelaideUniversity of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...
, and gained its international reputation during the 1980s through the publication of innovative and influential arguments and analyses in literary and cultural theory (eg: early articles by Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....
, Catherine Belsey, Terry Eagleton
Terry Eagleton
Terence Francis Eagleton FBA is a British literary theorist and critic, who is regarded as one of Britain's most influential living literary critics...
, Stephen Greenblatt
Stephen Greenblatt
Stephen Jay Greenblatt is a literary critic, theorist and scholar.Greenblatt is regarded by many as one of the founders of New Historicism, a set of critical practices that he often refers to as "cultural poetics"; his works have been influential since the early 1980s when he introduced the term...
, Ian Hunter, Colin MacCabe
Colin MacCabe
Colin MacCabe is a British writer and film producer. He is distinguished professor of English and film at the University of Pittsburgh, professor of English and humanities at Birkbeck, University of London, and a visiting professor at the University of Exeter....
, Christopher Norris). It moved from the University of Adelaide to the Communication Department of Monash University
Monash University
Monash University is a public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. Monash is a member of Australia's Group of Eight and the ASAIHL....
in 1995, before finding its home in the RMIT School of Applied Communication in 2000.
Notable alumni
- Julian de StoopJulian DestoopJulian de Stoop is an Australian journalist.de Stoop began his journalism career in 2002 with Inside Football magazine after completing a Bachelor of Arts at RMIT University....
- journalist and head of Fox Sports NewsFox Sports NewsFox Sports News is an Australian cable and satellite sports news channel. Owned by Premier Media Group and is the sister channel of Fox Sports.Fox Sports News launched on October 1, 2006. The channel runs live for 19 hours a day, broadcasting sports news...
(Melbourne Bureau) - Bob IsherwoodBob IsherwoodBob Isherwood is an Australian businessman, noted for his role as the Worldwide Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi from 1996 until he resigned in November 2008. He cited as his reason for resigning that, after helping reinvent the company, he needed to reinvent himself...
- Worldwide creative director of Saatchi & SaatchiSaatchi & SaatchiSaatchi & Saatchi is a global advertising agency network with 140 offices in 80 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in London in 1970 but now headquartered in New York. The parent company of the agency group was known as Saatchi & Saatchi PLC from 1976 to 1994, was listed on the London... - Nick JohnstonNick Johnston (journalist)Nick Johnston is an Australian journalist based in Melbourne, Victoria.Since completing a Bachelor of Arts at RMIT, Johnston has worked at The Age both in Melbourne and in Canberra and at the ABC where he held the position of state political reporter for three years...
- VictorianVictoria (Australia)Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
state political reporter with the Nine NetworkNine NetworkThe Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia... - Rebecca MaddernRebecca MaddernRebecca Maddern is an Australian journalist, news reporter and presenter.Maddern is currently a reporter for Seven News and fill-in presenter on a number of Seven Network programs including Seven News Melbourne, Seven Morning News, Seven 4.30 News, Sunrise, Weekend Sunrise, The Morning Show and...
- national news presenter with the Seven NetworkSeven NetworkThe Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach... - Chris MastersChris Masters (writer)Christopher "Chris" Wayne Masters PSM is a multi-Walkley Award winning and Logie Award winning Australian journalist and author.-Life:Chris Masters was born in Grafton, New South Wales...
, PSMPublic Service Medal (Australia)The Public Service Medal is a civil decoration awarded to Australian public servants for outstanding service. The PSM was introduced in 1991 and replaced the Imperial awards discontinued in 1975, supplementing the Order of Australia introduced that same year...
- WalkleyWalkley AwardsThe annual Walkley Awards, under the administration of the Walkley Foundation for Journalism, are presented in Australia to recognise and reward excellence in journalism. Finalists are chosen by an independent board of eminent journalists and photographers. The awards cover all media including...
and Logie AwardLogie AwardThe TV Week Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards, which have been presented annually since 1959. Renamed by Graham Kennedy in 1960 after he won the first 'Star Of The Year' award, the name 'Logie' awards honours John Logie Baird, a Scotsman who invented the television as a...
winning journalist - Louise MilliganLouise MilliganLouise Milligan is a reporter for Seven News in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.Milligan became State Political Reporter for New South Wales in October 2004, the same time she joined Seven News and moved to Sydney to become their state political reporter...
- New South WalesNew South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
state political reporter with the Seven NetworkSeven NetworkThe Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach... - Megan SpencerMegan SpencerMegan Spencer is an Australian documentary film maker who specializes in the 'guerrilla video' style of documentary portraiture. Based in Bendigo, she is also a prominent film critic, journalist and radio presenter.-Biography:...
- journalist and documetary film maker - James TaliaJames TaliaJames Talia is an Australian television reporter.Talia completed a journalism degree at the RMIT in 1995 before joining WIN TV in Ballarat in 1996 as a reporter and news presenter....
- award-winning journalist and EuropeEuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an correspondent with the Nine NetworkNine NetworkThe Nine Network , is an Australian television network with headquarters based in Willoughby, a suburb located on the North Shore of Sydney. For 50 years since television's inception in Australia, between 1956 and 2006, it was the most watched television network in Australia... - Robert ThomsonRobert James ThomsonRobert James Thomson is an Australian journalist and the managing editor of the Wall Street Journal. He is former editor of The Times newspaper in London, England. On 20 May 2008 News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch named Thomson as the paper's new managing editor, succeeding Marcus Brauchli...
- editor of the Wall Street Journal and former editor of The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...