SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION
CMNS 363-6

APPROACHES TO MEDIA AND AUDIENCE ANALYSIS

Prerequisites:

One of CMNS 220, 221 or 223, AND CMNS 260 or CMNS 261.

This six-credit course will present a broad range of approaches to media and audience research. The aim will be to introduce both the principles and procedures of practical research and their theoretical and methodological underpinnings. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches will be explored as the course reviews the diverse field of audience research: its historical development from effects studies through uses and gratifications studies to contemporary developments like reception and ethnographic research. Lectures will combine theoretical presentations with case studies.

The course involves intensive lab work, worth one half of the 6 credit hours each week. Involving the design, conduct and analysis of applied research projects, the course requires students to form research teams which will self-select and organize. Each group will choose and define a research problem, review relevant literature and propose a researchable topic. Student teams will then conduct and present of their findings to the class. Students are expected to acquire practical knowledge of skills of audience analysis procedures including survey and focus group methods.

Before the first lecture, students are encouraged to choose a research area around one of the themes in 363: subculture and style; race and representation; gender, self-esteem and the media; globalization and Canadian identity; post-materialism and anti-consumerism; standards of taste, censorship and regulation.

Grade Assignments:

1. Survey Proposal And Questionnaire Draft ( Team) 20% Due January 26
2. Survey Report ( Team) 25% Due March 2
3. Presentation of Final Results ( Team) 25% Due Mar 30/Apr. 6
4. Take Home ( Field Note Analysis) ( Indiv) 30% Due April 12 ( 5 point Bonus if Early)
5. Final Grades Assigned and Pickup Due April 20

Texts:

* McQuail, Denis (1997), Audience Analysis, Thousand Oaks, California, Sage, ISBN 0-7619-1002-6
*Custom Courseware ( CC)

The School expects that the grades in this course will bear some reasonable relation to established university-wide practices with respect to both levels and distributions of grades. The school follows Policy T10.02 with respect to intellectual honesty and academic discipline (see SFU Calendar, General Regulations).