Course Search

MDSC13H3 - Popular Music and Media Cultures

This course explores the importance of sound and sound technology to visual media practices by considering how visuality in cinema, video, television, gaming, and new media art is organized and supported by aural techniques such as music, voice, architecture, and sound effects.

Prerequisite: [Enrolment in the Major program in Media and Communication Studies and [MDSA10H3 or (MDSA01H3)] and MDSA11H3 and [MDSA12H3 and [MDSA13H3 or (MDSA02H3)] ] or [JOUA01H3 and JOUA02H3] ] or [Enrolment in the Minor Program in Media Studies and MDSA11H3 and [MDSA13H3 or (MDSA02H3)] ]
Exclusion: (MDSB63H3)
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSC20H3 - Advanced Studies in Media and Society

This seminar provides students with a theoretical toolkit to understand, analyze and evaluate media-society relations in the contemporary world. Students will, through reading and writing, become familiar with social theories that intersect with questions and issues related to media production, distribution and consumption. These theories range from historical materialism, culturalism, new materialism, network society, public sphere, feminist and queer studies, critical race theory, disability media theories, and so on. Special attention is paid to the mutually constitutive relations between digital media and contemporary societies and cultures.

Prerequisite: Enrollment in the Major program in Media and Communication Studies, and 3.0 credits at MDS B-level and a minimum GPA of 3.3 in MDS A-, B- and C-level courses
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSC21H3 - Anthropology of Language and Media

Anthropology studies language and media in ways that show the impact of cultural context. This course introduces this approach and also considers the role of language and media with respect to intersecting themes: ritual, religion, gender, race/ethnicity, power, nationalism, and globalization. Class assignments deal with lectures, readings, and students' examples.
Same as ANTC59H3

Prerequisite: [ANTB19H3 and ANTB20H3] or [MDSA01H3 and MDSB05H3]
Exclusion: (MDSB02H3), (ANTB21H3), ANTC59H3
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSC22H3 - Understanding Scandals

This course focuses on modern-day scandals, ranging from scandals of politicians, corporate CEOs, and celebrities to scandals involving ordinary people. It examines scandals as conditioned by technological, social, cultural, political, and economic forces and as a site where meanings of deviances of all sorts are negotiated and constructed. It also pays close attention to media and journalistic practices at the core of scandals.

Prerequisite: [Enrolment in the Major program in Media and Communication Studies and [MDSA10H3 or (MDSA01H3)] and MDSA11H3 and [MDSA12H3 and [MDSA13H3 or (MDSA02H3)] ] or [JOUA01H3 and JOUA02H3] ] or [Enrolment in the Minor Program in Media Studies and MDSA11H3 and [MDSA13H3 or (MDSA02H3)] ]
Exclusion: SOC342H5, (MDSC35H3)
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

MDSC23H3 - Black Media Studies

This course explores Black media production, representation, and consumption through the analytical lenses of Black diaspora studies, critical race studies, political economy of media and more. Themes include, Black media histories, radical traditions, creative expression, and social movements. Students will explore various forms of media production created and influenced by Black communities globally. The course readings and assignments examine the interconnection between the lived cultural, social, and historical experiences of the African diaspora and the media artefacts they create as producers, or they are referenced as subjects. Students will critically examine media artefacts (music, television shows, movies, social media content) through various lenses, including race and gender theory, rhetoric, visual communication, and digital media analysis.

Prerequisite: [Enrolment in the Major program in Media and Communication Studies - Media Studies stream and 3.0 credits at the MDS B-level] or [Enrolment in the Major program in Media and Communication Studies - Journalism stream and 3.0 credits at the MDS B-level/JOU B-level] or [Enrolment in the Minor program in Media Studies and 2.0 credits at the MDS B-level]

MDSC24H3 - Selfies and Society

Selfies are an integral component of contemporary media culture and used to sell everyone from niche celebrities to the Prime Minister. This class examines the many meanings of selfies to trace their importance in contemporary media and digital cultures as well as their place within, and relationship to, historically and theoretically grounded concepts of photography and self portraiture.

Prerequisite: [2.0 credits at the B-level in MDS courses] or [2.0 credits at the B-level in JOU courses] or [4.5 credits from the Major (Joint) program in New Media Studies Group I and Group II courses]
Exclusion: (MDSC66H3)
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

MDSC25H3 - Understanding Audiences in the Digital Age

Understanding the interests and goals of audiences is a key part of media production. This course introduces communication research methods including ratings, metrics, in-depth interviews, and focus groups. The focus of class discussion and research project is to use these methods to be able to understand the nature of audiences’ media use in the digital age.

Same as JOUC80H3

Prerequisite: [2.0 credits at the B-level in MDS courses] or [2.0 credits at the B-level in JOU courses] or [4.5 credits from the Major (Joint) program in New Media Studies Group I and Group II courses]
Exclusion: JOUC80H3, (MDSC80H3)
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

MDSC26H3 - Media, Technology & Disability Justice

This course will examine Critical Disability Studies as it intersects with and informs Media Studies and Science & Technology Studies with a focus on the advancement of disability justice goals as they relate to topics that may include: interspecies assistances and co-operations, military/medical technologies that enhance "ability," the possibilities and limitations of cyborg theory for a radical disabilities politics and media practice informed by the disability justice ethics of “nothing about us without us.”

Prerequisite: [Enrolment in the Major program in Media and Communication Studies and 3.0 credits at the MDS B-level including MDSB21H3] or [Enrolment in the Minor program in Media Studies and 2.0 credits at the MDS B-level including MDSB21H3]
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSC27H3 - Digital Research Ethics

This course will examine ethical considerations for conducting digital research with a focus on privacy, consent, and security protections, especially as these issues affect underrepresented and minoritized communities.

Prerequisite: [Enrolment in the Major program in Media and Communication Studies and 3.0 credits at the MDS B-level] or [Enrolment in the Minor program in Media Studies and 2.0 credits at the MDS B-level]
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSC28H3 - Data and Artificial Intelligence

The course explores critical data studies and considers critical understandings of artificial intelligence, with a focus on topics that may include algorithmic fairness, data infrastructures, AI colonialism, algorithmic resistance, and interplays between race/gender/sexuality issues and data/artificial intelligence.

Prerequisite: [3.0 credits at MDS B-level and enrolment in Major program in Media and Communication Studies - Media Studies stream] or [3.0 credits at MDS B-level/JOU B-level and enrolment in Major program in Media and Communication Studies - Journalism Studies stream] or [2.0 credits at the MDS B-level and enrolment in the Minor program in Media Studies]
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSC29H3 - Media and Religion

The advancement of religious concepts and movements has consistently been facilitated - and contested - by contemporaneous media forms, and this course considers the role of media in the creation, development, and transmission of religion(s), as well as the challenges posed to modern religiosities in a digital era.

Prerequisite: 2.0 credits at the B-level in MDS courses
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

MDSC30H3 - Advanced Studies in Media and Institutions

This seminar elaborates on foundational concepts and transformations in the media industries, such as conglomeration, platformization, datafication, and digitization. Taking a global perspective, emerging industry practices will be discussed, such as gig labour, digital advertising, and cryptocurrency.

Prerequisite: Enrollment in Major program in Media and Communication Studies; and 3.0 credits at MDS B-level and a minimum GPA of 3.3 in MDS A-, B- and C-level courses
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSC31H3 - Platforms and Cultural Production

This course focuses on the process of platformization and how it impacts cultural production. It provides an introduction into the fields of software, platform, and app studies. The tenets of institutional platform power will be discussed, such as economics, infrastructure, and governance, as well as questions pertaining to platform labour, digital creativity, and democracy.

Prerequisite: [Enrolment in the Major program in Media and Communication Studies - Media Studies stream and 3.0 credits at the MDS B-level] or [Enrolment in the Major program in Media and Communication Studies - Journalism stream and 3.0 credits at the MDS B-level/JOU B-level] or [Enrolment in the Minor program in Media Studies and 2.0 credits at the MDS B-level]
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSC32H3 - Chinese Media and Politics

The course introduces students to contemporary Chinese media. It explores the development of Chinese media in terms of production, regulation, distribution and audience practices, in order to understand the evolving relations between the state, the market, and society as manifested in China’s news and entertainment industries. The first half of the course focuses on how journalistic practices have been impacted by the changing political economy of Chinese media. The second half examines China’s celebrity culture, using it as a crucial lens to examine contemporary Chinese media.

Prerequisite: [Enrolment in the Major program in Media and Communication Studies and 3.0 credits at the MDS B-level] or [Enrolment in the Minor program in Media Studies and 2.0 credits at the MDS B-level]
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSC33H3 - Games and Play

This course introduces students to academic perspectives on games and play. Students develop a critical understanding of a variety of topics and discussions related to games, gamification, and play in the physical and virtual world.

Prerequisite: [2.0 credits at the B-level in MDS courses] or [4.5 credits from the Major (Joint) program in New Media Studies Group I and Group II courses]
Exclusion: (MDSC65H3)
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSC34H3 - Diasporic Media

New media technologies enable more production and distribution of culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse voices than ever before. Who produces these diverse voices and how accessible are these media? This course explores various types of diasporic media from century-old newspapers to young and hip news and magazine blogs, produced by and for members of a multicultural society.

Same as JOUC60H3

Prerequisite: [2.0 credits at the B-level in MDS courses] or [2.0 credits at the B-level in JOU courses] or [4.5 credits from the Major (Joint) program in New Media Studies Group I and Group II courses]
Exclusion: JOUC60H3, (MDSC60H3)
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

MDSC37H3 - Media, Journalism and Digital Labour

This course explores themes of labour in news media and new media. Topics include labour conditions for media workers across sectors; the labour impacts of media convergence; and the global distribution of media labour including content generation and management. The course is structured by intersectional analyses, studying how race and racism, class, gender, sex and sexism, sexuality, nationality, global location and citizenship status, Indigeneity and religion shape our experiences of media, journalism and labour.

Same as JOUC62H3

Prerequisite: [ [MDSA10H3 or (MDSA01H3)] and MDSB05H3] or [JOUA01H3 and JOUA02H3]] or [4.5 credits from the Major (Joint) program in New Media Studies Group I and Group II courses]
Exclusion: JOUC62H3, (MDSC62H3)
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSC40H3 - Chinese Media and Politics

This course examines the complex and dynamic interplay of media and politics in contemporary China and the role of the government in this process.
Same as GASC40H3

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits
Exclusion: GASC40H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

MDSC41H3 - Media and Popular Culture in East Asia

This course introduces students to media industries and commercial popular cultural forms in East 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 East Asia.
Same as GASC41H3

Prerequisite: Any 4.0 credits
Exclusion: GASC41H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

MDSC53H3 - Anthropology of Media and Publics

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.
Same as ANTC53H3

Prerequisite: [ANTB19H3 and ANTB20H3] or [MDSA01H3 and MDSB05H3]
Exclusion: ANTC53H3
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSC61H3 - Alternative Media

This course examines the history, organization and social role of a range of independent, progressive, and oppositional media practices. It emphasizes the ways alternative media practices, including the digital, are the product of and contribute to political movements and perspectives that challenge the status quo of mainstream consumerist ideologies.

Prerequisite: [2.0 credits at the B-level in MDS courses] or [2.0 credits at the B-level in JOU courses] or [4.5 credits from the Major (Joint) program in New Media Studies Group I and Group II courses]
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

MDSC64H3 - Media and Technology

Media are central to organizing cultural discourse about technology and the future. This course examines how the popularization of both real and imagined technologies in various media forms contribute to cultural attitudes that attend the introduction and social diffusion of new technologies.

Prerequisite: [2.0 credits at the B-level in MDS courses] or [4.5 credits from the Major (Joint) program in New Media Studies Group I and Group II courses]
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSC85H3 - Movies, Music and Meaning

This course examines the synergistic relationship between the moving image and music and how these synergies result in processes of meaning-making and communication. Drawing on readings in cultural theory, cultural studies, musicology and film studies, the course considers examples from the feature film, the Hollywood musical, and the animated cartoon.


Same as MUZC20H3/(VPMC85H3)

Prerequisite: [2.0 credits at the B-level in MDS courses] or [2.0 credits at the B-level in MUZ/(VPM) courses]
Exclusion: MUZC20H3/(VPMC85H3)
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language
Note: No Specialist knowledge in Musicology or Film Studies required.

MDSD10H3 - Senior Seminar: Topics in Media and Arts

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.

Prerequisite: 3.0 credits in MDS courses, including 1.0 credit at the C-level
Exclusion: (MDSD01H3)
Course Experience: University-Based Experience

MDSD11H3 - Senior Research Seminar in Media and Journalism

Focusing on independent research, this course requires students to demonstrate the necessary analysis, research and writing skills required for advanced study. This seminar course provides the essential research skills for graduate work and other research-intensive contexts. Students will design and undertake unique and independent research about the state of journalism.
Same as JOUD11H3

Prerequisite: ACMB02H3 and [an additional 4.5 credits in MDS or JOU courses, 1.0 credit of which must be at the C-level]
Exclusion: JOUD11H3
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language
Course Experience: University-Based Experience

MDSD20H3 - Senior Seminar: Topics in Media and Society

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.

Prerequisite: 3.0 credits in MDS courses, including 1.0 credit at the C-level
Exclusion: (MDSD02H3)
Course Experience: University-Based Experience

MDSD30H3 - Senior Seminar: Topics in Media and Institutions

This is a senior seminar that closely examines media as institutions such as media regulatory bodies, firms, and organizations, as well as media in relation to other institutions in broader political economies. In this course, students will have the opportunity to interrogate key theoretical concepts developed in critical media industry studies and apply them to real-life cases through research and writing.

Prerequisite: Enrollment in Major program in Media and Communication Studies and 2.5 credits at MDS C-level
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MGAB01H3 - Introductory Financial Accounting I

Together with MGAB02H3, this course provides a rigorous introduction to accounting techniques and to the principles and concepts underlying these techniques.
The preparation of financial statements is addressed from the point of view of both preparers and users of financial information.

Exclusion: VPAB13H3, MGT120H5, RSM219H1
Breadth Requirements: Social and Behavioural Sciences

MGAB02H3 - Introductory Financial Accounting II

This course is a continuation of MGAB01H3. Students are encouraged to take it immediately after completing MGAB01H3. Technical topics include the reporting and interpretation of debt and equity issues, owners' equity, cash flow statements and analysis. Through cases, choices of treatment and disclosure are discussed, and the development of professional judgment is encouraged.

Prerequisite: MGAB01H3
Exclusion: VPAB13H3, MGT220H5, RSM220H1
Breadth Requirements: Social and Behavioural Sciences

MGAB03H3 - Introductory Management Accounting

An introduction to management and cost accounting with an emphasis on the use of accounting information in managerial decision-making. Topics include patterns of cost behaviour, transfer pricing, budgeting and control systems.

Prerequisite: [[MGEA02H3 and MGEA06H3] or [MGEA01H3 and MGEA05H3]] and MGAB01H3
Exclusion: VPAB13H3, MGT223H5, MGT323H5, RSM222H1, RSM322H1
Breadth Requirements: Social and Behavioural Sciences