SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION

CMNS 261-3

DOCUMENTARY RESEARCH IN COMMUNICATION

Overview:

The purpose of this course is to help communication students develop skills in finding and interpreting print and electronic documents, skills you will need for other communication courses. It is a course in which you ‘learn by doing,’ so most of the mark (80 percent) derives from research assignments. The first assignment is about corporate research, since corporations are key players in communication industries. We look at basic forms of corporate organization, print and electronic sources of information, financial information and communication/information industries. Then we turn to the running of government and survey executive branch (policy) documents and legislative branch (laws) documents. Next we turn our attention to the development of a research proposal. The final assignment is on legal research. Between the assignments we discuss additional topics of relevance to documentary research: documents and secondary sources, libraries and archives, and access to information and how knowledge gained in this course can empower citizens.

Prerequisites:

CMNS 110 or CMNS 130

Required Texts:

a Course Reader is available for purchase in class
We will use the Library's Communication web page as a basic resource: <http://www.lib.sfu.ca/kiosk/sroberts/comm.htm>
See especially the links to CMNS 261 assignments

Course Organization:

A two-hour weekly lecture presents the background concepts and sources necessary to do the assignments. A one-hour weekly tutorial (held in the library) is available to provide group and one-on-one help in undertaking the assignments.

Grade Distribution:

(to be confirmed at the first class)

Corporate profile (due week 4) 20%
Government documents (due week 7) 20%
Research proposal (due week 10) 20%
Legal research (due week 13) 20%
Final exam 20%

Week-by-week outline:

Week 1: Introduction to the course
Week 2: Corporate research 1 -- concepts, sources
Week 3: Corporate research 2 -- financial and business information, the broader context
Week 4: Documents and secondary sources
Week 5: Government documents -- executive branch
Week 6: Government documents -- legislative branch
Week 7: Non-profit organizations as document generators
Week 8: Library print resources, databases
Week 9: Using the Internet for research
Week 10: Libraries and archives
Week 11: Legal research I -- issues, principles
Week 12: Legal research II -- primary and secondary sources
Week 13: Conclusion -- research and access to information

The School expects that the grades awarded in this course will bear some reasonable relation to established university-wide practices with respect to both levels and distribution of grades. In addition, the School will follow Policy T10.02 with respect to "Intellectual Honesty" and "Academic Discipline" (see current Calendar, General Regulations section).