SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION

CMNS 221-3*

MEDIA AND AUDIENCES

Prerequisites:

CMNS 110 or 130 required.

An introduction to the study of popular culture and communication, with a focus on relationships between media forms, content, technologies, and audiences. The course examines this relationship in the context of two themes: (1) frames of reference (history, consumerism, cultural production, technology, audiences); and (2) media forms, cultural practices: theories and applications.

These themes constitute the structure and approaches of the course, and involve numerous key issues in the critical analysis of media and audiences: popular culture in the social sciences; the development of popular culture as consumer culture; industrial capitalism and technological imperatives in cultural production; theories of mass culture and society; the nature and role of audiences in the contemporary media culture, the visual/image dominance of popular culture; problems in post modernism and popular culture; the industrialization of culture; Canadian perspectives in popular culture; popular media culture and urban life, applied communication (social issues communication -- campaign research and design).

Evaluation:

Mid-term exam 20%
Tutorial (participation & reports) 15%
Final take-home examination 25%
Major term paper 40

Readings:

A course reading package will be available for purchase in class. A detailed week-by-week lecture and reading schedule will be distributed in class.*This course may be applied to the Certificate in Liberal Arts.

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 also follow Policy T10.02 with respect to “Intellectual Honesty” and “Academic Discipline” (see the current calendar, General Regulations Section).