 | COMMUNICATION STUDIES: COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
Communication Studies 40-101 is required of all majors and is to be taken in the first year. For non-majors, this course is recommended prior to taking even those upper-level Communications Studies courses for which no specific prerequisites are listed. This introductory study of the media and its operations, within a rich context of history, theory, and cultural policy, is designed to enhance media literacy.
Students may register in upper-level courses if specific prerequisites are met, or with consent of the instructor or program advisor.
Not all courses listed will necessarily be offered each year. All courses are three hours per week (3.00 credit hours) unless otherwise indicated.
40-101. Introduction to Communication Studies
An overview of the major themes, issues and schools of thought informing the field of communication studies. Topics include: the political, economic, historical, and cultural contexts of communication; policy issues and concerns; communication technology; media representation; the role of media in the social construction of reality; and the broad interaction between media and society. (2 lecture, 1 tutorial hour per week.)
40-110. Production Planning and Design
Practical study of how ideas are created, developed, expressed, proposed and acted upon in various media. Through lectures, laboratory activities, and class assignments students will gain skill and knowledge in the techniques of outlines, treatments, storyboards, shooting scripts, proposals, budgets, and resource management. Required course for students pursuing courses in film and video. (Restricted to first-year students in Communication Studies or combined four-year Honours programs.) (2 lecture, 2 laboratory hours a week.)
40-200. Foundations of Communications History
Relations between evolving media of communication and changing political-economic and socio-cultural structures and practices, from a social justice perspective. Addresses the various media (oral communication, writing, print, electronic media) of various societies (ancient Greek, Egyptian, Sumerian, modern industrial and postmodern societies).(Prerequisite 40-101) (3 lecture hours or 2 lecture hours and 1 tutorial hour a week.)
40-202. Foundations of Cultural Studies
An introduction to contemporary theories and methods of cultural studies which focuses on the study of society's communicative practices, artistic productions, beliefs, and institutions. This approach incorporates a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives, including semiotics, social constructionism, structuralism, neo-Marxism, psychoanalysis, postmodernism, ritual analysis, and ethnography. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which race, class, and gender are constituted in a variety of cultural texts. (Prerequisite: 40-101.) (3 lecture hours or 2 lecture hours and 1 tutorial hour a week.)
40-205. Introductory Photography
This introductory course in chemical and digital photographic processes provides an opportunity for students to explore techniques and concepts within the medium of photography. Students will learn the basic technical skills of operating cameras, processing film, making black and white prints, and digital imaging. Through a series of assigned projects discussions and readings, students will be exposed to a variety of concerns specific to photography. (Prerequisite: 40-101 and 40-110 and Communication Studies Major) (Cross-listed as Visual Arts 27-253.)
40-211. The Film Making Process I
Theoretical and practical examination of the technical, communicative and aesthetic considerations in black-and-white 16mm film making. Topics include optics and exposure, cinematography, picture editing, and double-system, non-synchronous sound recording, and editing. (Credit for this course will be allocated only after successful completion of 40-212.) (Prerequisites: 40-101, and 40-110.) (2 lecture, 2 laboratory hours a week.)
40-212. The Film Making Process II
A continuation of 40-211 with increased emphasis on practical exercises and an examination of aesthetic and communicative factors. Included will be a study of the basic approaches to film and their implications for the film making process. (Prerequisite: 40-211) (Credit for this course will be allocated only after successful completion of 40-211) (2 lecture, 2 laboratory hours a week)
40-214. Sound in Media
The course deals with three major topic areas: writing for the ear, voice improvement, and sound production technology. Students will write and deliver short messages, learn how to operate radio equipment, and produce audio messages. Other topics covered include audiovisual synchronization, MIDI, the digitizing process, and copyrights. (Prerequisites: 40-101 and 40-110.) (2 lecture, 2 laboratory hours a week.)
40-216. Video Production I
This project-based course, integrating theory and practice, introduces students to studio and location work with emphasis on the knowledge and skill essential to produce a program. A variety of production techniques are presented appropriate for fiction, non-fiction, education, and training programs. (Credit for this course will be allocated only after successful completion of 40-217.) (Prerequisites: 40-101, and 40-110.) (2 lecture, 4 laboratory hours a week.)
40-217. Video Production II
Post-production editing and the creative integration of sound and image are explored. Emphasis is on the constraints imposed and the enhancements made possible by technology and the consequences for the effectiveness of the program. (Credit for this course will be allocated only after successful completion of 40-216.) (Prerequisite: 40-216.) (2 lecture, 4 laboratory hours a week.)
40-225. Media Literacy
An introduction to important concepts concerning news media and popular culture. The intent is to help students to develop the skills, knowledge, and background necessary to interpret how the media contribute to the social construction of reality. (3 lecture hours or 2 lecture hours and 1 tutorial hour a week.)
40-234. Foundations of Research Methods in Communication Studies
An introductory overview of research approaches, methods, and designs in communication studies. Students will learn about the theoretical grounding of quantitative, qualitative, and interpretive methods, and practice various methods to explore communication issues. (Prerequisite: 40-101.) (3 lecture hours or 2 lecture hours and 1 tutorial hour a week.)
40-240. Cinema History I (Pre-War)
The course charts the early history of the cinema from its inception to World War II: film shorts at the turn of the century, the silent film era, the introduction of sound, and the decline of the studio system. Films are examined as technical, industrial, commercial, artistic, and, most importantly, as historical artifacts. Industry, audience, and the development of cinematic language are viewed within an international framework and their local cultural context.
40-241. Cinema History II (Post-War)
The course examines films from the post-War period to the present: the heyday of the classical Hollywood narrative and challenges to its dominance from European neo-realism and the avant-garde film movement are considered. Films are viewed as influenced by and reflective of social upheaval of the sixties, as well as their consolidation within distinct but mutually influencing categories of mainstream and alternative cinema. An important consideration is how films can either paper over or expose social fractures along the lines of gender, race, sexuality, and nationalism.
40-243. Media Aesthetics
The course provides a basic set of principles and tools to understand the formal qualities of visual signification. Students learn aesthetic and technical terms, rules, conventions, and social assumptions used to construct meaning through sound, images, or graphics in stills, film, and television. The course offers a grounding useful for both the producers and consumers of still and moving images. (Prerequisite: 40-101 or 40-110.)
40-245. Communication and Cultural Policy in Canada
The history and development of cultural policy and cultural production in Canada. Topics include: the role of the State in cultural production; national culture, citizenship, identity and multiculturalism; the structure, performance and regulation of the culture industries; globalization and the new technologies.(Prerequisite: 40-101.)
40-250. Basic Processes in Media Writing
The practice of fundamental media writing and organizational skills, research methods and information-gathering techniques for the preparation of copy and/or scripts for print, broadcast, film and/or new media. Students will use microcomputers in this course but previous typing experience is not necessary. (Prerequisite: 40-101) (1 lecture hour and 2 lab hours a week.)
40-257. Foundations of Political Economy of Communications
Communication, democracy, and the public interest; political economy of mass media; frameworks and models for media and telecommunications policy and regulation; international trade and national culture; patterns of media ownership; audiences and marketing systems. (Prerequisite: 40-101).(3 lecture hours or 2 lecture hours and 1 tutorial hour a week.)
40-262. Intercultural Communication
Intercultural communication is explored through attention to issues such as race, ethnicity, nationality, language, non-verbal codes, class, gender, sexual orientation, and religion. Students explore local and global perspectives on peace and conflict, social justice, and intercultural ethics, employing both critical and interpretive approaches.
40-272. Theory of Message Design
An exploration of theories affecting message analysis and communication. Topics include persuasion, ethics, perception, attention, memory, and message analysis. Students will learn how to recognize formal features of messages and how to apply theory to practical message design situations. (Prerequisite: 40-101. Recommended: prior completion of a first-year Psychology course.)
40-275. Foundations of Communications Theory
Introduces theoretical approaches to communication forms, processes and contexts, and explores a variety of underlying philosophical perspectives, assumptions and paradigms of inquiry in communication theory. (Prerequisite: 40-101.) (3 lecture hours or 2 lecture hours and 1 tutorial hour a week.)
40-302. Popular Culture
Examines the relationship between popular culture and questions of economics and social and cultural politics, through an exploration of struggles over knowledge, power and authority manifest in popular cultural artifacts and processes. Intended to provide students with tools for critical evaluation of contemporary popular culture, including the constitution of social ideologies, values and representations through cultural artifacts. (Prerequisite: 40-202.)
40-310. Digital Media for Advanced Production
An Introduction to historical, aesthetic, theoretical and practical issues in digital media production. Class will emphasize hands-on practice with digital graphics and editing through directed exercises. (Prerequisites: admission to advanced production courses or permission of instructor.)(1 lecture hour, 2 laboratory hours a week.)
40-315. Radio Broadcasting
An examination of current and future trends in radio broadcasting, with the focus on the social implications. Lab exercises will deal with the production of radio programs in various formats. (Prerequisite: 40-214.) (2 lecture, 2 laboratory hours a week.)
40-321. Organizational Cultures and Communication
A detailed examination of the relationship of communication and culture in organizational settings. Several theoretical approaches are used, including social constructionist, semiotic, interactionist, and interpretive. Several aspects of organizational communication and culture are considered, including: verbal and nonverbal behaviour; entering and adjusting to organizational cultures; creating, maintaining, and changing organizational cultures; sub-cultures and super-cultures; foreign organizational cultures; the influences of technology and growth on organizational cultures; and the relationship of organizational theory to organizational culture.(Prerequisite: 40-101and semester 5 standing.)
40-325. The Sociology of News Media
This course explores the role played by the mass media in the social construction of reality. Concepts that may be given particular emphasis include: legitimation, hegemony, power, propaganda, objectivity, stereotyping, and alternatives. (Prerequisite: 40-225.)
40-333. Mass Media and Audience Research
An overview of current practices and issues in mass audience research, including the measurement of audiences by rating services, audience response assessments, and research regarding how audiences use the media.
40-337. Qualitative Methods in Communication Research
An examination of interpretive, cultural, and historical methodologies utilized in contemporary communication research. A variety of possible research strategies will be explored, such as: cultural studies, interpretive interactionism, ethnography, narrative analysis, interpretive biography, interview techniques, and discourse analysis. (Prerequisite: 40-202 or 40-234.)
40-344. Cinematic Discourses
Using film or critical theory, historical or cultural studies, cinematic discourses are approached with a shifting focus on a range of topics, such as genres, the stars, film movements, or national cinemas. For example, the course may focus on a genre (such as melodrama or comedy), or the star system's influence at a particular historical moment (e.g., the Depression), or offer an overview of a specific national cinema. (May be repeated for credit more than once with consent of the Department Head.) (Prerequisite: 40-202 or 40-240 or 40-241.) (2 lecture, 2 screening hours a week.)
40-360. Public Opinion
The formation of public opinion and its role in democratic society. Theories of attitude and opinion formation and persuasion. Study of propaganda. Current issues in public opinion and the "manufacture of consent." (Prerequisite: at least Semester 5 standing.)
40-362. Gender and Communication
Gender, culture, and communication, with an emphasis on the socio-symbolic construction and re-construction of gender, sex, and sexuality. Themes of gendered identity, feminist and masculinist social movements, stereotyping, communication dynamics, media representations of gender, gender and social justice. (Prerequisite: 40-262.)
40-367. Communication, Environment, and Development
Environmental stresses and Third World development problems from a communication perspective. The roles of information and technology. Information theory, systems theory, and concepts of cultural ecology. Media coverage, advertising, and the ecological crisis. The rhetoric of environmentalism and growth. (Prerequisites: 40-257.)
40-370. Alternative Media
A critical examination of the structure, operation, and function of the mass media in contemporary society from a number of major ideological perspectives, with an emphasis on the assessment of possible alternatives. Innovative, small-scale communication approaches will be examined as one such alternative, with particular attention being paid to the media's role in, and potential for, encouraging or impeding social action. (Prerequisite: 40-225.)
40-374. Information Technology and Social Change
Theories of the "Information Society": economics of information; management of knowledge in organizations; surveillance and identity in digital environments; Canadian information policy. (Prerequisite: 40-257.)
40-381. Advertising in Social Context
Contextualizes the world of advertising within consumer culture and mass media. The course draws upon approaches from Critical Theory, Marxism, feminism, semiotics, critical multiculturalism, and other perspectives. Topics include: the historical and social roots of consumerism; the evolution of the 'branded' society, issues of representation and meaning; the ideological and economic functions of advertising. (Prerequisites: 40-101 and second-year standing.)
40-385. Mass Media and the Law
An examination of the effect which law has on the content of media. The course concentrates on the impact of the Canada Act, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and statutory and common law upon the dissemination of information. (Prerequisite: 40-245 or 40-257.)
40-398. Communication Practicum I
Application of communication skills and knowledge in work experience situations approved by the Co-ordinator of Communication Practica. Admission to the course is by consent and is available only to four-year Honours students. The course is graded by a faculty advisor on the basis of a written report plus other references. (Prerequisite: Third-year standing and consent of a program advisor in Communication Studies.) (6-8 weeks.)
40-399. Communication Practicum II
(Same description as 40-398.)
40-402. Advanced Cultural Studies
An advanced study of communication and culture, including ethnographies, language, semiotics, narrative, ideological analysis, psychoanalysis, structuralism, social constructionism, and postmodernism. (Prerequisites: 40-202, and 40-302 or 40-337.)
40-411. Advanced Film Making I
This course emphasizes multi-track sound editing, colour cinematography, and other technical and aesthetic issues in the creation of the motion picture. (Prerequisites: 40-212 and admission to advanced production courses or permission of the instructor; Corequisite: 40-310 must be taken prior to or concurrently with this course) (Credit for this course will be allocated only after successful completion of 40-412.) (2 lecture hours and 2 lab hours a week.)
40-412. Advanced Film Making II
This course emphasizes the skill and knowledge necessary to produce a complete colour film with multi-track synchronous soundtrack, including the conceptualization and budgeting of the film as well as the techniques of digital editing. (Prerequisites: 40-411.) (Credit for this course will be allocated only after the successful completion of 40-411.) (2 lecture hours and 2 lab hours a week.)
40-416. Advanced Video Production I
An exploration of advanced work in digital video technology and aesthetic principles in the areas of pre production (design, writing, production management, budgeting); production (digital camera, lighting, sound); post-production (non-linear editing) and distribution/exhibition. Students will apply theory based criteria in the development, production and analysis of projects. (Prerequisites: 40-217 and admission to advanced production courses or permission of the instructor; Corequisite: 40-310 must be taken prior to or concurrently with this course.) (Credit for this course will be allocated only after successful completion of 40-417.)
40-417. Advanced Video Production II
A continuation of digital media technology, aesthetics and production. This course focuses on specific genres, production challenges, distribution, professional development, multimedia and hyper media production planning and writing from critical production perspectives which include developing a sense of the ethical and social role in creating media forms for dissemination to audiences.(Prerequisites: 40-416.) (Credit for this course will be allocated only after the successful completion of 40-416.)
40-425. Advanced Sociology of News Media
An advanced analysis of the role played by mass media in the social construction of reality. (Prerequisite: 40-325.)
40-426. Advanced Message Design
Students will learn how to design communication units for information, training, and teaching situations, using a systematic procedure from instructional technology. Students will apply theories from communication, persuasion, and learning to determine needs, design a communication strategy, select appropriate media, and evaluate the effort. (Prerequisite: 40-272.) (3 lecture hours or1 lecture hour and 2 lab hours a week.)
40-430. Communication and Ethics
Comparative approaches to communication ethics; communication and normative integration; communication ethics and communication law; media ethics and self-regulation; contemporary ethical problems and issues in media and communication. (Prerequisite: at least Semester 7 standing.)
40-434. Evaluation Research in Communication Studies
An introduction to the theory, methodology, and practice of evaluation in the communication field, providing an overview of various approaches and methods of evaluation, as well as practical examples of the design of evaluation projects. (Prerequisite: At least Semester 7 standing.)
40-435. Advanced Communication Research Methods
The course covers survey, experimental, and selective qualitative methods used in the study of mass communication and human interaction with new technologies. Students will design and apply survey and quasi-experimental methods and explore tools such as sampling, questionnaires, focus groups, qualitative interviews, direct observation, and unobtrusive measurement. (Prerequisite: At least Semester 5 standing.)
40-441. Documentary Film and Video I
An introduction to the history, theory, and practice of documentary film. The course provides an overview of the history of documentary with attention to artistic, technological, economic, and political influences and offers students the opportunity to put theoretical study into practice. (Credit for this course will be allocated only after successful completion of 40-442) (Prerequisites: Third-year standing and one or more of the following: 40-110, 40-240, 40-241) (4 lecture hours a week.)
40-442. Documentary Film and Video II
A survey of contemporary documentary practice with special attention to recent key themes and issues in the field. Included will be an examination of the role of technology, financing, distribution, and exhibition arrangements, and cultural and ideological factors in the introduction and acceptance of various documentary techniques, approaches and styles. (Credit for this course will be allocated only after successful completion of 40-441) (Prerequisite: 40-441) (4 lecture hours a week.)
40-443. Film Theory and Criticism
An examination of the changing theoretical and critical approaches to the film, including issues in the production and reception of film, such as realism, adaptation, convention, signification, and culture. (Prerequisites: one of 40-240, 40-241, 40-243, or 40-344.)
40-457. International Communication Policy and Systems
Globalization and convergence of media technologies and regulatory regimes; the implications of globalization and convergence for dependency, diversity, identity and sovereignty; and the implications of new communication technologies for the functioning of major political and economic institutions. Seminar format. (Prerequisite: 40-257.)
40-462. Communication Perspectives and Aboriginal People, Race and Ethnicity
Explores theoretical and practical Communication issues of race and ethnicity. Linking these to the practice of social justice. Topics include: historical and critical implications of identity politics, media (mis-) representation, cultural policy, First Nations, multicultural and multiracial media production. (Prerequisites: Two of the following: 40-202, 40-225, 40-245, 40-262, 40-302, and third year standing.) (Sociology majors: 48-241 or 48-333 and two additional courses in Communication Studies.)
40-475. Advanced Communication Theory
An examination of contemporary communication theories, such as: critical, cultural, functional, structural, and postmodern approaches. Special attention will be devoted to critically evaluating the underlying assumptions and frameworks of various theories. (Prerequisite: 40-275 and at least Semester 7 standing.)
40-476. Canadian Communication Thought
Commonalities and differences in the communication thought of first- and second-generation Canadian theorists: Harold Innis, John Grierson, Dallas Smythe, Graham Spry, C.B. Macpherson, George Grant, Irene Spry, Gertrude Robinson, Northrup Frye, Marshall McLuhan. A study of dialectics, holism, political economy, ontology, epistemology, and cultural change in the context of media and technology. (Prerequisite: at least Semester 7 standing.)
40-490. Selected Topics in Communication Studies
An advanced study of selected topics in Communication Studies. Topics and prerequisites may vary depending on the focus of the course. (May be taken more than once if content changes.) (Prerequisites will vary; generally will require at least Semester 7 standing.)
40-495. Directed Reading
Intended for students with special interest in areas not covered in sufficient depth by other courses. (To be taken only with permission of instructor and a program advisor in Communication Studies.)
40-498. Communication Practicum III
Application of communication skills and knowledge in work experience situations approved by the Co-ordinator of Communication Practica. Admission to the course is by consent and is available only to four-year Honours students. The course is graded by a faculty advisor on the basis of a written report plus other references. (To be undertaken after the successful completion of relevant 300-level courses.) (Prerequisite: at least Semester 7 standing and consent of a program advisor in Communication Studies.) (6-8 weeks.)
40-499. Communication Practicum IV
(Same description as 40-498.) |