Media StudiesFaculty List
Program Director: M. Petit Email: mepetit@utsc.utoronto.ca Media is ubiquitous in contemporary society. Every aspect of human experience—the personal, social, economic, political, cultural, moral and aesthetic—is mediated, and the distinction between everyday reality and media reality is becoming increasingly blurred for many. The institutions that produce, control, and disseminate media texts and images operate as “consciousness industries” that influence how we understand ourselves and the world around us. Simultaneously, new forms of media made possible by digital technologies are in the process of destabilizing these very institutions and understandings. Because of its ubiquity and its importance to contemporary society, media has become a central topic of research in the humanities and the humanistic social sciences, and the Major program in Media Studies introduces students to this broad and diverse range of scholarship. Media studies offers students the theoretical and critical thinking tools to examine what it means to live in a highly mediated, media-focused visual culture. Students study how media works in today’s world at local, regional and global scales. We look at the history of media and technology, and its development and use across different cultures; how media industries manufacture, manage, and disseminate information; and how media form and content shape knowledge and meaning from historical, philosophical, and artistic perspectives, among many others. In studying media, students hone their media literacy skills and learn to critically evaluate the content of media and analyze its underlying ideologies and their implications within the social, cultural, political and economic realms. During their first year, students who Major in media studies must take ACMA01H3 Key Questions in the Humanities, MDSA01H3 Introduction to Media Studies and MDSA02H3 History of Media and Technology. ACMA01H3 introduces students to critical thinking and academic writing and argumentation at the university level. MDSA01H3 introduces a broad range of critical theorists who have developed arguments and analytic tools drawn from the humanities and social sciences to explain how media operates. MDSA02H3 further contextualizes the study of media by surveying the development of media and media technologies from Neolithic stone tokens to the printing press to contemporary digital media. At the end of their first year, students who are interested in combining the theoretical, critical and historical approach of media studies at UTSC with the practice-focused approach of learning multimedia design for Web and mobile applications at Centennial College are invited to apply to the Joint Program in New Media Studies. The Joint Program is a professionalization program designed to prepare students for careers in new media industries; students earn a BA degree from the University of Toronto and can earn a certificate in New Media Design from Centennial College. Information about the Joint Program in New Media Studies can be found at: www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~jtprogs.newMedia.html Media Studies ProgramsMAJOR PROGRAM IN MEDIA STUDIES (ARTS) Undergraduate Advisor: Email: mds-undergrad-advisor@utsc.utoronto.ca Program Requirements Undergraduate Advisor: Email: mds-undergrad-advisor@utsc.utoronto.ca Program Requirements 2. 0.5 credit from the following: 3. 1.0 credit from the following: 4. 1.0 credit from the following: 5. 0.5 credit from the following: Media Studies CoursesMDSA01H3 Introduction to Media Studies Introduces students to key terms and concepts in media studies and provides an overview of theoretical and critical understandings of media. Students develop their understanding of the political, economic, social and cultural contexts in which mediated images and texts are produced, distributed, and consumed. This course surveys the history of media and communication technologies, from the development of writing through to the printing press, newspaper, telegraph, radio, film, television and internet. Students examine the complex interplay among changing media technologies and cultural, political and social changes, from the rise of a public sphere to the development of highly-mediated forms of self identity. This course examines how the definition of human is related to science and technology. Topics include the development of media and communication technology and the intersections of popular culture with social media and gaming. A study of the relationship between language and media. The course examines language as a social phenomenon and in particular the ways in which media represent language-related issues and how media's use of language affects people's notions of what acceptable language use is and ought to be. This course introduces students to the study of advertising as social communication and provides a historical perspective on advertising's role in the emergence and perpetuation of "consumer culture". The course examines the strategies employed to promote the circulation of goods as well as the impact of advertising on the creation of new habits and expectations in everyday life. This course introduces students to the variety of ways cultural and social theorists have addressed notions of "globalization" and the media. The course focuses on media systems and practices in the non-western world, including Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. This course applies concepts and principles developed by political economy theorists to the economic structure and policies that influence communication and media systems. These concepts are used to analyze the major media industries, including print, radio, television, film, video, recorded music, video-games, telecommunications, online communication, and advertising. This course introduces students to the key terms and concepts in new media studies as well as approaches to new media criticism. Students examine the myriad ways that new media contribute to an ongoing reformulation of the dynamics of contemporary society, including changing concepts of community, communication, identity, privacy, property, and the political. Visual Culture studies the construction of the visual in art, media, technology and everyday life. Students learn the tools of visual analysis; investigate how visual depictions such as YouTube and advertising structure and convey ideologies; and study the institutional, economic, political, social and market factors in the making of contemporary visual culture. This is an advanced seminar on theories and methodologies applied to the study of media. Topics vary. This course explores the centrality of mass media such as television, film, the Web, and mobile media in the formation of multiple identities, and the role of media as focal points for various cultural and political contestations. The course examines the complex and dynamic interplay of media and politics in contemporary China, and the role of the government in this process. This course introduces students to media industries and commercial popular cultural forms in East and Southeast Asia. Topics include reality TV, TV dramas, anime and manga, as well as issues such as regional cultural flows, global impact of Asian popular culture, and the localization of global media in Asia. How do media work to circulate texts, images, and stories? Do media create unified publics? How is the communicative process of media culturally-distinct? This course examines how anthropologists have studied communication that occurs through traditional and new media. Ethnographic examples drawn from several contexts. The course explores the relationships between journalism and the labour movement in Canada's present media environment. It examines how labour is perceived as a media issue and how labour stories are framed in mainstream media - what is reported, how it is reported, what isn't reported, and why. It also examines significant issues in Canadian labour history within a media studies context. Introduces students to ethical issues in media. Students learn theoretical aspects of ethics and apply them to media industries and practices in the context of advertising, public relations, journalism, mass media entertainment, and online culture. From the first depiction of a cyborg in Metropolis (1927) to the Web-based surveillance devices of Minority Report(2002), film is central to organizing cultural discourse around new media and technology. This course examines how the popularization of both real and imagined technologies in various films contributes to cultural attitudes that attend the introduction and social diffusion of new technologies. This is a senior seminar that focuses on the connections among media and the arts. Students explore how artists use the potentials offered by various media forms, including digital media, to create new ways of expression. Topics vary. This is a senior seminar that focuses on media and society. It explores the social and political implications of media, including digital media, and how social forces shape their development. Topics vary. |
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