MDIA2012
Promotional Cultures
Term Two, 2024
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Assessment Task Two: Inquiry Summary
Below is the key information about the assessment task.
Due date • The assignment is due by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday July 2, 2024.
• Please note that the time is in Sydney time.
Deadline • The deadline is the return of the feedback. No further submissions will be
accepted after the deadline (in other words, after the feedback has been
returned).
Weighting • The assessment task is worth 25% of the final course mark.
Submission • The assignment needs to be submitted through the Turnitin submission portal
on the course Moodle site.
Word limit • The word limit is 1,200 words.
• You may go 10 percent over the limit if necessary (i.e., up to 1,320 words)
without being penalised at the rate of one mark per increment of 10 words.
• There is no penalty for going under the word limit.
• Everything except the reference list counts towards the word limit.
Outcomes This assessment task is aligned with two of the course learning outcomes. In
completing it, you should be able to show that you can:
1. appraise concepts relating to promotional cultures, and
2. analyse promotional cultures using relevant promotional culture-related
theories.
Below is further information about the assessment task.
Summary
This assessment task involves applying theory from weeks one to three (inclusive) in order to
produce a professional inquiry summary of a current promotional culture.
Details

Here are the steps you need to take in order to complete the assessment task successfully.
First, choose a promotional culture that you would like to analyse. In 2024, we are using Aotearoa
New Zealand to select promotional cultures for this assessment task. This means that you need to
select an organisation from Aotearoa New Zealand whose promotional culture you would like to
analyse. The organisation can be large or small, new or old. If you’re unsure about your choice of
organisation, check with your tutor (during one of the tutorials before week six).
Second, head to the organisation’s website. (Aim to access the local website, rather than an
Australian version of the website. If the local website can’t be accessed, then access the Australian
version of the website.) Immerse yourself in the organisation’s currently available, online content to
begin your investigation of its promotional culture. This means that you need to look at the
organisation’s website, the videos that the organisation has produced, publications (such as
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brochures) published online, and so on. What sorts of promotion-related activities does the
organisation undertake and what do those activities tell us about the organisation’s promotional
culture? What sorts of promotional collateral or materials does the organisation produce and what
do they, too, tell us about the promotional culture of the organisation?
Third, undertake your inquiry into the promotional culture drawing on the approaches covered in
weeks one to three, especially using: (1) qualitative content analysis or thematic analysis and (2)
semiotic analysis. These two sets of approaches provide the fundamentals for your analysis.
Qualitative content analysis or thematic analysis will help you to identify what is in the content.
Semiotic analysis will help you to uncover meanings. Once you can see what sorts of things are in the
organisation’s promotional culture, and what those things mean, you’ll have a much better
understanding of the promotional culture.
Fourth, write the summary of your inquiry. In a nutshell, the inquiry summary provides the results
of, or findings from, the analysis that you have undertaken. In line with real inquiry summaries (used
in industry), your summary should have, at minimum, the following components:
• a title page,
• an introduction (that briefly states the purpose of the document, succinctly introduces the
organisation and promotional culture, notes the scope of the inquiry summary, states its
limitations in terms of the methods and data, and outlines the structure of the remainder of the
summary),
• a methods section (that succinctly outlines the methods used to undertake the inquiry),
• a ‘discussion’ or ‘insights’ section (that will be the main or longest part of the document,
discussing the different things that have been found in the inquiry), and
• a reference list.
If you wish to incorporate other components into your inquiry summary (such as an appendix, a list
of figures, and the like), you may; those other components are up to you. Recommendations should
not be provided in this summary. The intended audience of your summary is a general readership.
For this reason, you’ll need to provide brief explanations or definitions of key terms or theories.
Fifth, submit your inquiry summary. You’ll find the submission portal on the assessment task two
section (of the course Moodle site).
Minimum requirements
This assessment task has minimum requirements. Your submission needs to:
• be an inquiry summary (and not some other text type or genre),
• provide an analysis of a promotional culture of an organisation from Aotearoa New Zealand,
• use currently available, online content in the inquiry (rather than old or archival content),
• be comprehensible (i.e., be able to be read and understood),
• contain the minimum structural components (for inquiry summaries, as outlined above), and
• adhere to academic integrity principles and, in particular, be free of plagiarism.
The outcomes for not meeting these minimum requirements are detailed in the marking rubric.

Formatting
Please remember to use 1.5-line spacing or double-spacing. Turnitin accepts most standard
document types: Word (.doc and .docx), plain text (.txt), PDF, etc. It is best to submit this assignment
as a PDF (because Turnitin sometimes distorts the formatting of Word documents slightly). (You’ll
likely find it helpful to make use of the template provided in the assessment task two section of the
course Moodle site.) It is best to submit work early in order to check to ensure that Turnitin hasn’t
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altered the formatting of your document (and, if it has, submit the assignment again in a different
format ahead of the due date).

Advance feedback
Although questions will happily be answered about the assessment task, advance feedback will not
be given about drafts, as this would be unfair to everyone.
Extensions
If you find that you need to apply for an extension, lodge an application through the central UNSW
Special Consideration portal. (The link is: https://student.unsw.edu.au/special-consideration.) All
applications need to be lodged through the portal, as individual teachers (lecturers and tutors)
cannot give extensions. Please be aware that the Special Consideration team does its best to review
applications quickly, but the turnaround times are usually three to five working days. Hence, you are
strongly advised to start writing your reflection, if possible, while waiting for the team to send you
the outcome of your application.

Meeting the due date and deadline
As mentioned on page one, the due date and the deadline are two different things. The due date is
the time by which a piece of work should be submitted without penalty. However, it can still be
submitted after the due date, though it will attract a penalty. (If a piece of work is late, but is
covered by an extension or an academic adjustment, no penalty will be applied.) The deadline is the
absolute final time by which a piece of work can be submitted. Here, the deadline is the return of
the feedback; in other words, no further submissions will be accepted after the feedback has been
returned. This applies to original assessment tasks and alternative assessment tasks, as well as
extensions and academic adjustments. A notification will be sent to anyone who has not submitted
ahead of the return of the feedback (to give anyone with an extension or alternative assessment
tasks the opportunity to make a submission shortly before the deadline).

Generative artificial intelligence content
As the assessment task requires you to undertake an analysis of a promotional culture using
currently available, online content, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to use generative artificial
intelligence (AI) to obtain an existing analysis. Indeed (and needless to say), you should always
develop your own work and build your own skills in thinking, writing and research. At the same time,
UNSW recognises that it is possible to use generative AI, such as ChatGPT, for tasks including simple
planning assistance. In line with the UNSW guidelines relating to the use of generative AI to
formulate initial ideas, you must develop or edit those ideas to such a significant extent that what is
submitted is your own work. That is, only occasional AI-generated words or phrases may form part
of your final submission. (It is a good idea to keep copies of the initial prompts in case there is any
uncertainty about the originality of your work.) If the outputs of generative AI form a part of your
submission, it will be regarded as serious academic misconduct and subject to the standard
penalties, which may include 00FL, suspension and exclusion.
Submission and completion

As with all assessment tasks, it is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that work is successfully
submitted in its correct format/version. Not completing all assessment tasks will result in the
awarding of a UF (Unsatisfactory Fail) grade for the course.