CMNS 110-3 INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION STUDIES
Syllabus: spring, 2010

Instructor:
Roman Onufrijchuk, roman@sfu.ca

TAs:
Indranil Chakraborty,
Shivaun Corry,
Rahat Imran,
Yong Shim,
Shan Wu,
Carolyn Liu


COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course provides students with a general introduction to the systematic study of communication -- its various phenomena, history, practices, media and mediating processes and dynamics, scholarship, explanatory and directional theories, and criticism.

Beginning from the origins and foundations of communication studies, the course traces the development of communication technologies, techniques and ecologies; surveys the characteristics of oral and written forms of media and cultural frameworks shaping knowledge and social climates; examines the relationships between communication and the formation and mediated nature of the self; the formal and relation-conditioning properties of media; key positions and ideas of various paradigms that have influenced or arisen out of the field; as well as the social forces, fields, media, and institutions that shape, and are shaped by, communication processes.

The course introduces students to intellectual tools for critical assessment of images, messages, practices, media institutions and technologies making up our information-dense and time-urgent world.

II. REQUIRED TEXTS:
I. Dues, Michael, and Mary Brown. Boxing Plato's Shadow: An Introduction to the Study of Human Communication. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003.
II. Mattelart, Armand, and Michele Mattelart. Theories of Communication: A Short Introduction. Sage Publications, 1998.
III. Meyrowitz, Joshua. No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behaviour. NY: Oxford University Press, 1984.
IV. Zhao, Shanyang. "The Internet and the Transformation of the Reality of Everyday Life: Toward a New Stance in Sociology." Sociological Inquiry 76, no. 4 (2006): 458-74. (online)

III. COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
- Survey Assignment (10%)
- Midterm (30%)
- Seminars: briefings; presentation and documentation; attendance (30%: presentation 10%; documentation 10%; attendance and participation, 10%
- Take-home assignment (30%)






V. COURSE NOTES AND GUIDELINES:
1. SURVEY ASSIGNMENT (10%)
The assignment is in 2 parts:

Part ONE: 1-2 pages (500 words +/-, double-spaced; concision is an asset)
According to Dues and Brown, against which aspect of Plato’s thought did Aristotle rebel? Why? How?

Part TWO: Biographic sketch: 150-word biography (3rd person)
This is a statement about you serving as an introduction or a “publishable thumbnail” or bio. It should contain something about your past, about what you think you’d like to get out of this course and/or why you’ve enrolled in it, and something about your plans for your future.

NOTE:
Parts 1 and 2, in the form of an integrated document, in hard copy, are to be handed in to your TA.

The biographical statement, Part 2 only, is to be sent to me by e-mail, not as an attachment, but in the message field. The “SUBJECT” field of the e-mail should contain “CMNS 110.”

Proper academic form is expected in the first assignment, and all those thereafter. The following elements are factored into grading:
1. Clarity and transparency of the organization of discourse,
2. Succinctness and intelligence of writing,
3. Correct use of citations and bibliographies,
4. Executive summary/abstract
5. Robust introduction and conclusion supported by the data reported
6. Clear point of departure, and flow of argument and report
7. Fulsome reporting on research – processes, protocols, problems and re/solutions
8. Overall presentation, elegance, use of infographics and tables where appropriate, etc.
9. And, in addition to course-informed vocabulary and copia (depth/breadth; “erudition,” “proof of purchase”), “something extra.”


2. Tutorials: Presentations & Documentation
Beginning in Week 3, we will have two presentations per seminar drawn on their corresponding weeks from the Ades/Brown and Meyrowitz texts listed in the schedule above.

Presentations should provide a concise summary of the author/s’ key point/s & supporting arguments, connect the article to the course lectures, literature, media or discussion, as well as furnish the class with some contextual background. All presentations must be documented.

NOTE: Students are required to provide everyone in the tutorial with a hard copy of this documentation on the day of their presentation.

Documentation is made up of a 2-4 page handout including:
1. Author’s key point or thesis
2. The presentation outline followed by,
3. Key quotes from the article, and
4. Questions or points of relationship to other course material for seminar discussion.

2. Exams and assignments
i. Study questions will be provided in Week 6. The Midterm, in class, closed book, covers all course material up to and including Week 6.

ii. Final assignment topics, along with guidelines, typically posted Week 12.

3. Class communication
All our mailing lists make use for your “@sfu.ca” e-mail addresses. We make extensive use of e-mail to send out assignments and study questions as well as links to web sites required to complete the course, so please either use your SFU e-mail or check your SFU account regularly.

I read and answer e-mails – except dumb ones. Definition of a dumb e-mail – any e-mail asking for an explanation that is available on the course web site or documentation students could have checked on their own. Normally most issues should be taken up with your TA first, but I am glad to answer all questions.

If you do send me an e-mail please be sure to “sign” it, i.e. put your name on it as e-mail handles rarely tell me who you are. Also, please include you TA’s name as sometimes things need to be sorted with the TA as well, and saves me the trouble of trying to figure out who the TA is.

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CMNS 110 SPR 10 SYLLABUS