COM1514 Assignment 1 Semester 2 2026 – Due August 2026

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COM1514 Assignment 1 Semester 2 2026 – Due August 2026
2 MEDIA ARTEFACTS
2.1 What are media artefacts?
Media artefacts are the things that carry messages from one person to another. They
are the tools and products that we use to share information, ideas and entertainment.
Fourie (2017:50) defines a sign as something that stands for something else, and mediaartefacts are full of these signs. Examples of media artefacts include newspapers,
television programmes, radio shows, films, photographs, social media posts,
advertisements, and podcasts. These artefacts are created by people and organisationto send messages to audiences. They can be in many different forms, such as written
words, pictures, sounds or moving images. Media artefacts are important because theyshape how we see the world and understand each other.
2.2 Critically discuss media artefacts’ effectiveness in communicating and
conveying messages to audiences
Media artefacts can be very effective at communicating messages, but they also have
limits. They work well because they can reach many people at the same time. For
example, a television news programme can show the same story to millions of viewers
across the country (Fourie 2017:55). Media artefacts also use different ways to get theirmessage across, such as pictures, sounds and words, which can make the message
stronger and easier to understand.
However, media artefacts are not always effective. Sometimes the message gets
misunderstood because people interpret it differently based on their own experiences
and backgrounds. Prinsloo (2017:398) explains that media texts are informed by
ideology, which means they carry the beliefs and values of the people who created
them. This can make the message biased or one-sided. Also, media artefacts can be
manipulated to spread false information or to serve the interests of powerful people. In
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