CULT3024 Crime, Media and Culture
Assignment 2: Presentation

Due:	11:59 pm AEDT Monday 9 March 2026 (Week 6)
Weighting:	40%
Submitting:	a file upload
Word/time limit:	1000 words (+/- 10%)
Individual/team task:	Individual

After you have read this information, go to the Assignment 2 Q&A discussion board to ask any questions and see what your peers are saying about this assignment.

Assignment Overview

To pass this subject of study, you must achieve an aggregated grade of at least 50%. Although this assignment is not a mandatory submission, completing this assignment will give you the best chance of achieving this minimum requirement.

This assignment supports Subject Learning Outcomes 2 and 3.

Use of generative artificial intelligence

In this assessment task, you will not be able to meet the learning outcomes related to satisfactory demonstration of understanding the learning materials by using generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Working with another person or technology in order to gain an unfair advantage in assessment or improperly obtaining answers from a third party, including generative AI, to questions in an examination or other form of assessment may lead to sanctions under the Student Misconduct Rule (Western Sydney University, 2023). Use of generative AI tools may be detected. More information is available on the Library web page Turnitin's AI writing detector (Library Study Smart, 2023). 

If your studies have been adversely affected by circumstances beyond your control, you may request an extension using the following options.

Note: A request must be made within 48 hours of the assignment due date.

Assignment Details

In this assessment, you are required to create a keynote presentation that explores the relationship between crime, media, and culture through the lens of cultural criminology. Your presentation should integrate two relevant concepts from the course, analyse specific media examples from the Australian context in the last 5-10 years, and propose broad policy implications based on your analysis. The target audience for your presentation comprises professionals working in local government, NGOs, and community sectors.

Keynote Presentation Requirements:

Slide Format: Your keynote presentation must comprise exactly 10 slides.

Written Speech in Notes Section: Provide a written speech of approximately 1000 words in the Notes section of each PowerPoint slide. The written speech should elaborate on the content of the corresponding slide, offering in-depth explanations, analysis, and persuasive language to support your arguments.

Slide Contents:

Slide 1: Introduction

Slide 2: Understanding Cultural Criminology

Slide 3-5: Concepts from the Course (Concept A; Concept B; Summary/Reflection)

Slides 6-8: Applying Concepts from the Course to Media Examples (Example A; Example B; Summary/Reflection)

Slide 9: Policy Implications

Slide 10: Conclusion

Media Examples: Analyse specific media examples from the Australian context in the last 5-10 years that illustrate the intersection of crime, media, and culture. Use your chosen concepts or theories to interpret these representations and their influence on public perceptions of crime. It is strongly recommended to use one media example per concept.

Policy Implications: Develop a few broad policy implications based on your analysis. For example, address the impact of media portrayals of crime on public perceptions, the role of community engagement in challenging negative cultural representations, and the potential for interventions such as restorative justice.

References: Support your analysis with credible academic sources and references from the last 5-10 years. There must be a reference list at the end of the written speech. You must use a minimum of 5 peer-reviewed references.

In summary, this assignment includes:

1. 10 slides

2. 1000 words in the Notes section

3. What is cultural criminology generally

4. Two specific concepts with relevant examples

4. Suggested concepts include lived experience, spectacle, hyper-reality, cultivation theory and moral panic (note - if using this concept in your assessment, you cannot use Cohen's Mods and Rockers as an example. It is not relevant to the Australian context, and it is an ancient example).

5. Potential policy applications

6. At least five academic sources/references.

Assignment details

Read through the following information and steps to understand and meet the requirements of this assignment:

Step 1: Read the following scenario on which you will base your assignment

Scenario

The scenario is imaginary and serves as a prompt for you to respond to and should direct the way you complete this assignment.

Imagine that you are a consultant criminologist.

The Australian Government has just sent out a 'Call for Papers' for the 'Culture and Criminal Justice Summit' and have asked you to deliver the opening keynote presentation.

The keynote should tell the audience of policymakers and politicians what cultural criminology is, and how key concepts from the field can be beneficial to criminal justice or similar policy.

Before you present, the keynote presentation materials must be submitted to the organising panel of experts on the culture and criminal Justice Summit organising committee for review.

The review panel’s decision will determine if the presentation is accepted to be presented at the Summit. This means that the point of your submission is to convince the peer review panel that your argument would be a good way to open the conference and introduce the crowd to cultural criminology.

Step 2: Breaking down the scenario

You are required to produce a PowerPoint presentation that tells the audience of policymakers and politicians what cultural criminology is and convince them of its key benefits for policy. This presentation is intended to be submitted to a panel of experts on the Culture and Criminal Justice Summit Committee for peer review. This means you will not be physically present, but you must produce a polished and professional PowerPoint that contains a logical argument in the notes section of the slides.

A 'summit' is a gathering of researchers and experts with heads of government. In the scenario provided, this is a federal government initiative.

The summit is titled the 'Culture and Criminal Justice Summit', meaning that government officials in attendance may include ministers in charge of portfolios relevant to both culture and criminal justice. To provide a clear focus, you may want to write your argument with one of these ministers in mind. Relevant ministers may include the:

▢ Attorney General ▢ Minister for Home Affairs

▢ Minister for Social Services ▢ Minister for the Arts

▢ Minister for Urban Infrastructure and Cities.

‘Peer review’ means that a group of scholars in the field will be reviewing the presentation to assess whether it is in line with current research.

Step 3: Preparing your presentation

The presentation

A policy presentation involves presenting ideas about issues of public concern to people who make or enact public policy. This means that you should use visual prompts (pictures, headings, notes, etc.) in the slides themselves, which then complement the explanation, examples and argument you provide within the notes.

Your presentation will be produced in Microsoft PowerPoint and will need to be exported as a PDF with notes showing for submission.

When creating your slides, it is important to produce a professional final product. The slides should be free of grammatical errors and should provide a clear connection to what you are going to discuss. You can do this by minimising the number of words you put on the slides and by making the slides visually appealing:

Minimising the number of words on the slides will focus the viewer’s attention on what is important. For example, you could include just a heading and then a visual prompt on your slide, or you could convey large chunks of information in dot points rather than full sentences.

As a way to complement minimal words, make the slide visually appealing through the use of a relevant image or graphic. This also helps to focus the audience’s attention on the key point you are trying to make as part of your broader argument.

Your presentation will include 10 PowerPoint slides.

Note: The words found on the slides themselves do not count in this total, as the slides are separate from the main argument you will be producing in the ‘notes’ section.

Use the Assignment 2 PowerPoint template example (PPTX 336 KB) to help you plan out and structure your keynote presentation.

Notes

You will annotate your slides with notes explaining what cultural criminology is and its benefits to social policy. Your notes will be distributed across all of the slides in the presentation and will need to be constructed in full sentences. You should aim to provide a logical progression of ideas that lead to a conclusion. If you need help, you may wish to watch How to add speaker notes in Microsoft PowerPoint (Slidenest, 2018).

Audience

Be mindful of your audience, who in this scenario are policy-makers. This means that you should explain your points in simple but professional language. You are communicating to an intelligent audience that does not know the topic.

Think carefully about the type of information you need to explain to get your audience to understand what cultural criminology is and why it is relevant to policy.

You need to explain cultural criminology to the audience in a way that they will understand it and tell them why it relates to them in their role.

Know what you want

To do well on this assignment, you should make sure that you have a clear idea of what you want from your audience.

Ask yourself:

1. What is the most significant thing that policy-makers should know about cultural criminology?

2. What kind of problem would provide a good illustration of the importance of this aspect of cultural criminology?

Call to action

Once you know what you want from your audience, convince them to do something about it.

Convince the audience that they are not paying enough attention to that problem, or recommend a potential solution to that problem.

Tell them that more attention or a different type of approach is required.

Academic sources and referencing

Include in your keynote presentation at least three academic sources that support and back up your claims and that help to strengthen your ideas.

In-text references should be placed on the slide they are used in and a reference list should be provided on a separate slide at the end of your presentation.

Note: The reference list is not included in the word count.

You may find the following resources helpful in creating your presentation:

Papers & Essays: Crash Course Study Skills #9 (CrashCourse 2017).

Hemmingway editor (n.d) this website rates how readable your writing is.

Grammarly (n.d.) a free grammar checking app, website and plugin.

Step 4: Submitting your presentation

Before you submit your keynote presentation, you will need to:

Step 1: Convert your PowerPoint presentation into a PDF document. Assignment 2 PDF template example (PDF 592 KB) is an example of a PowerPoint that has been converted to a PDF document.

For PC

Navigate to 'File' on the top bar menu and select 'Save as'

Under the 'Save as type' drop down, select 'PDF'

Select 'Options'

Under the 'Publish what:' drop down, select 'Notes pages' and select 'OK'

Choose the file location and select 'Save'

For MAC

Navigate to 'File' on the top bar menu and select 'Print'

Under the 'Layout' dropdown select 'Notes'

Under the 'PDF' dropdown (bottom left-hand corner of the window) select 'Save as PDF'

Choose the file location and select 'Save'

Step 2: If you are unsure of how to convert your PowerPoint presentation into a PDF document, view the following guide: Save PowerPoint presentations as PDF files (Microsoft 2021).

Step 3: Submit your keynote presentation as a PDF document via this assignment's submission point.

Assignment tip

View the marking guide under 'Assignment criteria' to see a detailed breakdown of how your work will be assessed. This is an excellent place to start your preparations for this assignment.

Refer back to the marking guide frequently to make sure you are meeting the requirements.

Supporting resources: Harvard WesternSydU referencing style guide (PDF 199 KB) (Western Sydney University Library 2019).

Submission details overview

This assignment will be submitted through Canvas. When you are ready to submit your assignment, select the 'Start Assignment' button at the top of this page. You will be taken to the 'File Upload' tab, where you can choose your file or submit your URL.

Please note: When you submit your assignment through Canvas, you are also submitting the assignment through Turnitin, which is a text-matching service that compares your work with an international database of information sources. You will need to agree to using it.

Once you have submitted your assignment, select 'Submission Details' on the right of your screen to view your originality report if you haven't already done so.

Please allow a 24-hour turnaround for an originality report to be generated.

Resubmissions after the due date without prior approval from your Subject Coordinator may not be marked.

Assignment support

In addition to your OLAs who provide discipline-specific content advice, consider using the Assignment Feedback Tool for a final review before you submit. The tool is available 24/7 to help you refine your grammar, referencing, writing style and more.

Assignment criteria

You will be assessed on the following criterion:

Conceptual: How well the submission explains key concepts from the Subject.

Policy relevance and application: How relevant the submission is to a policy audience.

Implications: How well the submission presents a critical consideration of how to apply knowledge in the field.

Presentation: How well the submission organises, presents, and references its content.

Academic literacy: How well the presentation adheres to the expectations and conventions of referencing.

Select 'View rubric' for more detail about this assignment's marking criteria.