SCHOOL
OF COMMUNICATION
|
Ted Hamilton |
Fall 2004 |
|
Email: tedh@sfu.ca |
Surrey Day |
The main goal of the course is to establish a range of frameworks for looking critically at both the structures of communication and media messages. How are media involved in the creation and dissemination of meanings? How do they influence, for better or worse, our view of the world and ourselves? The course is divided into three sections. The first introduces basic concepts in the social, cultural and political dynamics of media of communication: questioning the relation of media form to content, to social structure, to power and the self. What are media of communication? How can we understand the structure of language, writing, orality, print and electronic communication to relate to social structure, development, politics and culture?
The second part of the course will look more closely at the three analytical approaches to communication represented in the School of Communication: semiotics/cultural studies; political-economy/critical theory and technology studies.
The third and final part of the course looks at specific areas of social and cultural practice in light of both the theoretical models and analytic approaches to communication introduced in the first two parts. Focussing on advertising, music, film, technology as both fields and objects of communication, we will begin to apply the models we have learned to understanding our contemporary media and cultural environment. Major themes here will be consumer culture, an emerging information society, globalisation, and identity. Where the first half is primarily theoretical in orientation, this section will examine media messages as a means of testing these theories.
Marcel Danesi, Encyclopedic dictionary of semiotics, media and communication. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
A courseware package will be available at the SFU bookstore.
Midterm examination (in class) 20%
Term paper 30%
Final Exam 30%
Tutorial 20%
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 ÒIntellectual HonestyÓ and ÒAcademic DisciplineÓ (see SFU Calendar, General Regulations).