Fall 2025 - CMNS 110 OL01
Introduction to Communication Studies (3)
Class Number: 2467
Delivery Method: Online
Overview
Description
CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:
An introduction to selected theories about human communication. This course is required for a major, honours or minor in communication. Breadth-Social Sciences.
COURSE DETAILS:
This course offers a critical and engaging introduction to the major ideas that shape how we understand communication, culture, and power. We begin with key theories and historical developments that help explain how humans connect, make meaning, and construct identity. Communication is explored not just as the transfer of information but as performance, ritual, and a force in shaping social consciousness.
In the second half of the course, we turn our attention to the arenas where communication plays out most visibly: popular culture, media representation, advertising, journalism, and the political economy of media. Throughout, we also consider how evolving technologies, from broadcast to social media, reshape not only how we communicate but also how we think, relate, and live.
If you have ever questioned a headline, paused over a meme, or wondered who really controls the narrative, this course will give you the tools to start answering those questions.
COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:
This course will sharpen your ability to think critically about the media-saturated world we live in. Together, we will ask: How do messages shape meaning? Whose voices are amplified or erased? Do media expand our understanding or reinforce narrow worldviews?
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Evaluate media environments and communication strategies with an eye toward how they influence beliefs, behaviours, and public discourse
- Explain key communication theories and their relevance to real world contexts, from social media to news coverage to everyday interactions
- Apply critical thinking in your writing and analysis by questioning assumptions, unpacking cultural norms, and making arguments that matter
- Formulate research questions that reflect the core concerns of communication studies such as power, representation, and meaning making
- Create well supported, theory informed work including papers, presentations, or creative projects that demonstrate both academic rigour and original insight
Grading
- Weekly “WTF! Media Moment” Submissions 10%
- Digital Detox: Media Use Idea Mapping 10%
- Digital Detox: Diary Scrap Booking of your Digital Detox Experience 15%
- Digital Detox: Recording of Group Discussion on Zoom about the Experience with Digital Detox 15%
- Digital Detox: Reflective Writing on your Experience with Digital Detox 15%
- Mid-Term Quiz: Timed Quiz on Canvas based on Question Bank 15%
- Final Quiz: Timed Quiz on Canvas based on Question Bank 20%
NOTES:
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 S10.01 with respect to Academic Integrity, and Policies S10.02, S10.03 and S10.04 as regards Student Discipline.
Materials
REQUIRED READING:
All course readings will be made available on the course Canvas page.
REQUIRED READING NOTES:
Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.
Registrar Notes:
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS
At SFU, you are expected to act honestly and responsibly in all your academic work. Cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty harms your own learning, undermines the efforts of your classmates who pursue their studies honestly, and goes against the core values of the university.
To learn more about the academic disciplinary process and relevant academic supports, visit:
- SFU’s Academic Integrity Policy: S10-01 Policy
- SFU’s Academic Integrity website, which includes helpful videos and tips in plain language: Academic Integrity at SFU
RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION
Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.