Co-op Work Placement I
First co-op work placement (4 months) with an approved employer.
Restriction: open to COMM Co-op students.
Co-op Work Placement II
Second co-op work placement (4 months) with an approved employer.
Restriction: open to COMM Co-op students.
Co-op Work Placement III
Third co-op work placement (4 months) with an approved employer.
Restriction: open to COMM Co-op students.
Co-op Training and Development
(also offered as ADMI 0N90 and OEVI 0N90)
Provides a framework for the development of learning objectives by students for individual work terms. Includes orientation to the co-op experience, goal setting, career planning, resume preparation and interview skills preparation.
Lectures, presentations, site visits, 2 hours per week.
Restriction: open to Communications Co-op students.
Introduction to Communications
Approaches and issues in communications from both humanities and social science perspectives. Topics include the cultural use of symbols and signs, qualitative and quantitative mass media analysis, critical analysis of texts, the cultural character of the Canadian media and the impact of the media and media institutions upon society.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Communications Theory
Systems theory, semiotic and cognitive approaches to message production and reception, symbolic interactionism and other constructivist approaches, interpersonal and group communication theories, communications analysis and theories of the mass media and their functions in society.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of COMM 1F90, FILM 1F94, PSYC 1F90, SOCI 1F90 or permission of the instructor.
Documentary Film
(also offered as FILM 2F54 and SOCI 2F54)
History, theory, aesthetics and cultural implications of documentary film and other media.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week; plus weekly lab.
Prerequisite: one of COMM 1F90, FILM 1F94, SOCI 1F90 or permission of the instructor.
Popular Narrative
(also offered as ENGL 2F92 and PCUL 2F92)
Archetypal and mythic dimensions of popular literary genres such as the detective novel, Gothic fiction, science fiction, the romance novel; comparison and contrast with other media.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of COMM 1F90, one ENGL credit numbered 1(alpha)90 to 1(alpha)99, FILM 1F94 or permission of the instructor.
Introduction to Digital Imaging
(also offered as VISA 2F95)
Basic concepts in two dimensional image creation and manipulation for print and the web. Systematic overview and project-based use of fundamental graphic software including Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, PageMaker and Dreamweaver.
Lectures, lab, 4 hours per week.
Restriction: open to COMM (single or combined) and VISA (single or combined) majors until date specified in BIRT guide.
Prerequisite: COMM 1F90 or VISA 1P97 (1F96) or permission of the instructor.
Note: enrolment limited to 15 students. Material fee required. Students may need additional materials, which they must supply.
Canadian Cinema
(also offered as FILM 2F97)
Critical and historical study of the Canadian cinema and selected directors.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week; plus weekly lab.
Prerequisite: one of COMM 1F90, FILM 1F94, DRAM 2F97 or permission of the instructor.
Canadian Public Administration
(also offered as LABR 2F98 and POLI 2F98)
Political, legal and managerial dimensions of public administration. Topics include the structure and management of public organizations; government reform; political-bureaucratic relations; pressure groups; personnel and budgetary processes; the policy process; ethics and accountability.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of COMM 1F90, LABR 1P91 and 1P92, one POLI credit numbered 1(alpha)90 to 1(alpha)99 or permission of the instructor.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in COMM (POLI) 3F51 and POLI 3P50.
Special Studies in Communications
Topics selected on the basis of specific areas of instructional expertise and student interest.
Communications Research Methods
Introduction to qualitative and quantitative methods for communications research.
Lectures, lab, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: COMM 1F90 or permission of the instructor.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in COMM (SOCI) 2F10.
Introduction to Popular Culture
(also offered as FILM 2P20 and PCUL 2P20)
Historical, theoretical and critical approaches to various forms of popular culture (e.g., film, music, television, literature, periodicals and advertising).
Lectures, seminar, lab, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of COMM 1F90, CANA 1F91, FILM 1F94 or permission of the instructor.
Canadian Popular Culture
(also offered as FILM 2P21 and PCUL 2P21)
Survey of the media in Canada. Studies in the popular arts, with special reference to the ways in which institutions (e.g., CBC, NFB) and selected artists identify and express a Canadian cultural imagination.
Lectures, seminar, lab, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: COMM 2P20 or permission of the instructor.
Media and Sport
(also offered as PCUL 2P22 and SPMA 2P22)
Representation of sport in film, television and advertising. Topics may include issues of race, gender, business, politics and ideology in both professional and non-professional sports.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to COMM (single or combined) PCUL and SPMA majors with a minimum of 5.0 overall credits or permission of the instructor.
Interpersonal Communication
(also offered as SOCI 2P55)
Perspectives on human communication including both verbal and non-verbal communication.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: COMM 1F90 or SOCI 1F90 or permission of the instructor.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in RECL 3P14.
Politics and Popular Music
(also offered as MUSI 2P70, PCUL 2P70 and POLI 2P70)
Political context and content of popular music. Topics may include theoretical perspectives on popular culture/popular music; the relationship of popular music to public policy, race and gender, popular movements and political identity; political economy of the music business.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Computer-Mediated Communication
Nature of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and its role in social, educational and interpersonal contexts. Practicum component will introduce the technology and the methodologies, which are essential to explore the potential of CMC.
Lectures, seminar, lab, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: COMM 1F90 or permission of the instructor.
Hypertext: Reading and Writing in New Spaces
Theory, philosophy and politics of Hypertext as a communicative mode. Topics include critical theory in a Hypertext context, changing perceptions of reader narrative, new forms of Hypertext fiction and Hypertext compared with other electronic textuality.
Lectures, seminar, lab, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: COMM 2P90 or permission of the instructor.
Popular Cinema
(also offered as FILM 2P94 and PCUL 2P94)
Popular cinema as art and institution with emphasis on film genres and cultural contexts.
Lectures, seminar,3 hours per week; plus weekly lab.
Prerequisite: FILM 1F94.
Media Psychology
(also offered as PSYC 3F10)
Psychological aspects of media as entertainment and information, as social factors and cultural environments.
Lectures, lab, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to COMM (single or combined) and PSYC (single or combined) majors until date specified in BIRT guide. Students must have a minimum of 8.0 overall credits.
Prerequisite: COMM 1F90 or PSYC 1F90 or permission of the instructor.
Basic Production: Video
(also offered as FILM 3F28)
Introduction to the theory and practice of video techniques: critique of video and production work.
Workshops, seminar, 3 hours per week; additional production time as required.
Restriction: permission of the department.
Prerequisite: two FILM credits and permission of the instructor.
Note: enrolment limited to 15 students. Materials fee required.
Film Studies: Experiential Learning
(also offered as FILM 3F70)
Internship in professional film, video or media production, distribution or exhibition. Cultural and economic context of media organizations, technology systems and government funding agencies.
Tutorial, 3 hours per week; plus internship placement time.
Restriction: open to COMM (Media and Culture stream) and FILM (single or combined) majors with a minimum of 10.0 overall credits, a minimum 70 percent major average, a minimum 60 percent non-major average and permission of the Undergraduate Program Adviser.
Note: enrolment limited to a maximum of 15 students. An administration fee required.
Internship in Communications Industries
Internships with an emphasis on the economic and social contexts of media organizations, businesses and technology systems.
Tutorial, 3 hours per week; plus internship placement time.
Restriction: open to COMM (Business Communications, Communications Policy and Information Technology stream) majors with a minimum of 10.0 overall credits, a minimum 70 percent major average, a minimum 60 percent non-major average and permission of the Undergraduate Program Adviser.
Note: enrolment limited to a maximum of 15 students.
Directed Reading
Tutorial combined with one or more research papers or projects in an area of Communication Studies of mutual interest to the student and instructor.
Restriction: permission of the Undergraduate Program Adviser.
Note: students are responsible for arranging their course with a faculty member in consultation with the Undergraduate Program Adviser and must submit a written proposal signed by the faculty member to the Undergraduate Program Adviser before registration. The reading may not be on the topic or with the faculty member of the student's COMM 4F99 thesis.
Mass Media
(also offered as PCUL 3P16 and SOCI 3P16)
Introduction to methods of media analysis. Comparison of theoretical and methodological approaches to mass media content, structures, institutions and audiences. Analysis of relations among media, culture and society with reference to Canadian examples.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of COMM 2F50, 2P21, SOCI 2P11 and 2P13 (2F10) or permission of the instructor.
Politics and the Mass Media in Canada
(also offered as PCUL 3P17 and POLI 3P17)
Canadian mass media and their relationship to the political process.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: COMM 2F50 or one POLI credit numbered 1(alpha)90 to 1(alpha)99 or permission of the instructor.
Television Studies
(also offered as FILM 3P20 and PCUL 3P20)
Historical, theoretical and critical approaches to television.
Lectures, seminar, lab, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of COMM 2P20 and 2P21, FILM 2F90 or permission of the instructor.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in COMM 3F50.
Canadian Television
(also offered as FILM 3P21 and PCUL 3P21)
Historical theoretical and critical approaches to Canadian television.
Lectures, seminar, lab, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: COMM 3P20 or permission of the instructor.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in COMM 3F50.
Psychology of Intergroup Behaviour
(also offered as PSYC 3P33)
Social psychological theories and research in the area of intergroup relations and intergroup conflict. Topics include realistic conflict theory, social identity theory, social exchange, relative deprivation, elite theory and research on intergroup perceptions and attitudes. Current issues/controversies and implications for the resolution of intergroup conflict.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to COMM (single or combined) and PSYC (single or combined) majors until date specified in BIRT guide. Students must have a minimum of 8.0 overall credits or 3.0 PSYC credits above PSYC 1F90.
Prerequisite: PSYC 1F90.
Practicum in Business Communications
Practical managerial applications to business communications. Topics include integration of the communication mix and the design and implementation of a communications strategy.
Lectures, lab, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to COMM (Business Communications stream) majors with a minimum of 9.0 overall credits.
Desktop Publishing and Design
(also offered as WRIT 3P63)
Practicum in desktop publishing, layout and design.
Lectures, lab, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: COMM 2F50 or one WRIT credit numbered 2(alpha)00 or above or permission of the instructor.
Organizational Communication
Critical examination of the theories and practices relating to the process of communication in various organizational contexts.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Prerequisite: COMM 2F50.
Geography and Gender
(also offered as GEOG 3P74 and WISE 3P74)
Work of feminist geographers. Relationship between gender and space with respect to the organization of the city, architecture of the home, design of the shopping mall, the media, fear, homelessness, gentrification and employment.
Lectures, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: one of COMM 2P20 and 2P21, GEOG 2P02, 2P03, 2P06, WISE 2P90 (2F90), 2P91 or permission of the instructor.
Psychology of Interpersonal Behaviour
(also offered as PSYC 3P80)
Social psychology of interpersonal attraction and relationships, as studied through experimental, correlational and longitudinal designs. Reinforcement, exchange, attributional, equity and balance models. Levels of relationships. Aspects of the maintenance and dissolution of relationships and of interpersonal psychopathology.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to COMM (single or combined) and PSYC (single or combined) majors until date specified in BIRT guide. Students must have a minimum of 8.0 overall credits or 3.0 PSYC credits above PSYC 1F90.
Prerequisite: PSYC 1F90.
Note: PSYC 2F30 recommended.
Words in the Mind
(also offered as PSYC 3P88)
Topics include vocabulary growth, mental lexicon, theories of meaning, metaphors and meaning, selecting and recognizing words in communication.
Lectures, lab, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to COMM (single or combined) and PSYC (single or combined) majors until date specified in BIRT guide. Students must have a minimum of 8.0 overall credits or 3.0 PSYC credits above PSYC 1F90.
Prerequisite: one of COMM 1F90, LING 1F94, PSYC 1F90 or permission of the instructor.
Advanced Topics in Computer-Mediated Communication
Explorations of topics such as virtual communities, cyber-identity/identities and cyber-spirituality.
Lectures, lab, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: COMM 2P90 or permission of the instructor.
Technology and Culture
(also offered as FILM 3P92 and PCUL 3P92)
Studies in the effects of technological change on cultural forms and the representations of technology in different media.
Lectures, lab, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Prerequisite: COMM 2P20 or 2P21 or permission of the instructor.
Media and Minorities
(also offered as PCUL 3P93 and SOCI 3P93)
Relations between mass media and minority groups in society including dominant representations and stereotypes of cultural, racial and sexual minorities and minority group access to alternative forms of media production.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week; plus weekly lab.
Prerequisite: one of COMM 2F50, COMM 2P21, SOCI 2P11 and 2P13 (2F10) or permission of the instructor.
Gender and Film
(also offered as FILM 3P97 and WISE 3P97)
Gendered narratives in classical Hollywood cinema to the late 1950s, with emphasis on film constructions of femininity and masculinity, and the implications of spectatorship and ideology within classical film.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week, plus weekly film lab.
Prerequisite: one of COMM 2P20 and 2P21, FILM 2F90, WISE 1F90 and 2P91, or permission of the instructor.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in COMM 3F97.
Screened Women
(also offered as FILM 3P98 and WISE 3P98)
Woman-centred films, from early to contemporary cinema, by women directors from different countries, contextualized in issues of feminist film theory and paradigm shifts in female representation, ideology and spectatorship.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week, plus weekly film lab.
Prerequisite: one of COMM 2P20 and 2P21, FILM 2F90, WISE 1F90 and 2P91 or permission of the instructor.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in COMM 3F97.
Media: Fantasy and Reality
(also offered as PSYC 3Q99)
Media images and reality, the role of absorption as well as other personality and cognitive aspects of the experience of reality vs. fantasy, virtual reality, computer effects and images.
Lectures, lab, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to COMM (single or combined) and PSYC (single or combined) majors until date specified in BIRT guide. Students must have a minimum of 8.0 overall credits or 3.0 PSYC credits above PSYC 1F90.
Prerequisite: COMM 1F90 or PSYC 1F90 or permission of the instructor.
Directed Reading
Directed individual or group reading in an area of communications studies.
Restriction: permission of the Undergraduate Program Adviser.
Note: students are responsible for arranging their course with a faculty member in consultation with the Undergraduate Program Adviser and must submit a written proposal signed by the faculty member to the Undergraduate Program Adviser before registration. The reading may not be on the topic or with the faculty member of the student's COMM 4F99 thesis.
Honours Thesis
Thesis to be based on individual study and research carried out under the supervision of a faculty adviser.
Restriction: open to COMM (single or combined) majors with a minimum of 14.0 overall credits, a minimum 70 percent major average, a minimum 60 percent non-major average, approval to year 4 (honours) and permission of the Undergraduate Program Adviser.
Note: to register in the honours thesis, the student must consult the Undergraduate Program Adviser about topics, department regulations and the selection of an adviser.
Canadian Cultural and Communications Policy
(also offered as PCUL 4P17)
Historical perspectives on the development of government policies affecting the arts, cultural industries, public and private broadcasting in Canada.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to COMM (single or combined) majors and PCUL (single or combined) majors with approval to year 4 (honours) or permission of the instructor.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in CANA 4P17.
Technology, Change and Curriculum
Impact of technology and the information age on society and schools and the need to reflect resulting changes in school curriculum.
Lectures, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to COMM (Information Technology stream) majors with approval to year 4 (honours) and permission of the Undergraduate Program Adviser.
Note: enrolment limited.
Research on Popular Culture
(also offered as PCUL 4P23 and SOCI 4P23)
Advanced research seminar on the relations between mass media and popular culture. Topics vary with the interests of instructor and students.
Seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to COMM (single or combined), PCUL (single or combined) and SOCI (single or combined) majors with approval to year 4 (honours) or permission of the instructor.
Prerequisite: COMM 2P20 or 3P16 (2P23) or permission of the instructor.
Theories of Mass Culture
(also offered as FILM 4P30 and PCUL 4P30)
Studies in cultural theory and its application to mass media texts, with special reference to the work of the Frankfurt School, French Structuralism and British Cultural Studies.
Lectures, lab, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Restriction: open to COMM (single or combined), FILM (single or combined) and PCUL (single or combined) majors with approval to year 4 (honours) or permission of the instructor.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in COMM (FILM/PCUL) 4F30.
Theories of the Visible
(also offered as FILM 4P31 and PCUL 4P31)
Central 20th-century developments in the theories of visibility and their relevance to the field of media studies.
Lectures, lab, seminar, 4 hours per week.
Restriction: open to COMM (single or combined), FILM (single or combined) and PCUL (single or combined) with approval to year 4 (honours) or permission of the instructor.
Completion of this course will replace previous assigned grade in COMM (FILM/PCUL) 4F30.
Comparative Mass Media
(also offered as POLI 4P32)
Selected problems concerning the mass media and the political process in Canada and other countries.
Seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to COMM (single or combined) and POLS (POLI) (single or combined) majors with a minimum of 14.0 overall credits and either a minimum major average of 70 percent and a minimum non-major average of 60 percent or approval to year 4 (honours).
Prerequisite: COMM 3P17 or POLI 2F30 or permission of the instructor.
Ethnography of Communication
Anthropological approaches to cultural variations in communications, particularly verbal communication. Purposes to which speech is put and the way it is organized for these purposes in different cultural contexts.
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to COMM (single or combined) majors with approval to year 4 (honours) or permission of the instructor.
Language and Power
Role of language in the creation and maintenance of ideology and power structures. Topics include political rhetoric, religious discourse, language in the professions (e.g., law, medicine).
Lectures, seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to COMM (single or combined) majors with approval to year 4 (honours) or permission of the instructor.
Advertising, Mass Media and Culture
(also offered as HIST 4P55 and PCUL 4P55)
Historical research into the development of Canadian advertising practices in an international context. Topics include the cultural and economic impact of advertising on the mass media, the role of advertising in the formation of a consumer culture.
Seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to COMM (single or combined), HIST (single or combined) and PCUL (single or combined) majors with approval to year 4 (honours) or permission of the instructor.
Directed Project in Information Technology
Supervised information technology, related project through placement in a publicly or privately funded organization.
Restriction: open to COMM (Information Technology stream) majors with approval to year 4 (honours) and permission of the Undergraduate Program Adviser.
Note: enrolment limited.
Research in Communications Studies
Theory and methodology in social science-based approaches to communications studies.
Seminar, 3 hours per week.
Restriction: open to COMM (single or combined) majors with approval to year 4 (honours) or permission of the instructor.