5.3 Course Descriptions

40-500. Pro-Seminar
Development of intellectual skills and exploration of procedures and requirements relevant to graduate study and intellectual life. Other topics will include: communication ethics; introduction to themes of social justice and the common good; research methods and thesis preparation. Research studies will be introduced and students will develop and present proposals for major papers and theses.

40-501. Critical Communication Theories
Central paradigms and theories of political economy and critical cultural studies will be examined and critiqued. Key topic areas include theories of information, commodification, globalization, persuasion, representation, dependency theory. Theories will be examined to consider their relationship to the theme of social justice and the common good

40-512. Communication and Social Movements
Examines the use of traditional and non-traditional forms of communication that have been used within, and by, a variety of social movements and social formations. The course draws upon a combination of new social movement theory and critical media and cultural studies. Areas of focus will include the following: an assessment of (i) the contribution of new communication technologies to social activism and social movements; (ii) the representations of social movements in the context of political/economic/social change; (iii) the diversity and importance of alternative media as a central component of movements for social justice.

40-513. History of Communication Thought and Technology
Examines the evolution of media technology from perspectives of dependency theory, political economy, and critical cultural studies. Communication thought from the Greeks to the present, with emphasis on Canadian and U.S. Communication thought and international communication from the perspective of social justice and the common good will be analyzed.

40-514. Political Economy of Communication
Study of social relations influencing the production, distribution and consumption of communication resources. Case studies and histories of media institutions will be examined from the perspective of political economy with comparisons to other approaches, such as neoclassical approaches. Place of communication in world economies and cultures and current issues in the political economy of communication will be examined.

40-515. Media Representation and Reception
A broad range of media modes and texts, such as documentary, experimental, music-video, feature, television, and the emerging digital formats, will be examined in terms of their aesthetics, poetics, history, and cultural politics. Studies in audience reception through both statistical market-survey methods and qualitative ethnographic methods of research will be presented for comparison and critical reflection.

40-516. Media Design and Production
A systematic exploration of the commercial and socio-cultural implications of media design strategies. The main focus is on designing, writing and producing a personal or community project in video, film, multimedia or print that examines and promotes social justice issues.

40-520. Directed Study
Normally reserved for students not writing a thesis. With approval of the graduate program director, a student may undertake to write an original paper on a specialized topic which will enhance his or her program of study. The course will involve directed supervision of readings and informal discussion with the student’s course supervisor

40-797. Thesis