Media Studies

Faculty List

  • R. Bai, B.A., M.A. (Beijing Foreign Studies), Ph.D. (Illinois), Associate Professor
  • T.L. Cowan, B.A. (Simon Fraser), M.A., Ph.D. (Alberta), Assistant Professor
  • J. Cudjoe, B.Sc. (Webber International), M.Sc. (Florida International), Ph.D. (Rutgers), Assistant Professor
  • R. Grohmann, B.A. (Juiz de Fora, Brazil), M.A., Ph.D (São Paulo, Brazil), Assistant Professor
  • D. Nieborg, B.A. (Utrecht), M.A. (Utrecht) Ph.D. (Amsterdam), Assistant Professor
  • M. Petit, M.A., Ph.D. (Colorado), Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Emeritus
  • T. Phu, B.A., M.A. (McMaster), Ph.D. (University of California, Berkeley), Professor
  • J. Rault, B.A. (Alberta), M.A. (York), Ph.D. (McGill), Assistant Professor
  • S. Yu, B.A. (Simon Fraser), M.I.S. (Yonsei), Ph.D. (Simon Fraser), Associate Professor


A.C.M. Program Manager: M. Hussain  Email: acm-pa@utsc.utoronto.ca

Media are ubiquitous in contemporary society. Every aspect of human experience – the personal, social, economic, political, cultural, moral, and aesthetic – is mediated. We live in a world that is increasingly fragmented yet globally connected; a world saturated with fast-paced, intensive online and mobile communication and the accompanying ads that pay for it; a world in which new documentary formats and interactive ways of knowing about the world such as Virtual Reality (V.R.) are appearing; a world in which YouTube, Snapchat and Social Media have replaced traditional network television for many as sources of news about current events and issues. We live in a world where individuals and the cultural industries and 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. They compete for our attention 24/7, and the distinction between "everyday reality" and "media reality" is becoming increasingly blurred for many. At the same time, the development of digital technologies and the forms of new media they make possible are in the process of destabilizing these very same cultural industries and institutions, including traditional understandings of the role of media and journalism in a democratic capitalist society.

Related Programs
Major (Joint) Program in New Media Studies
Students interested in systematic practice-based and industry-specific training in digital media design and communication should consider applying to the Major (Joint) Program in New Media Studies offered in partnership with Centennial College and listed in the New Media Studies section of the Calendar. Interested students should complete the core first-year courses and submit a Supplementary Application form by the end of the Winter session, please refer to the New Media Studies Program website for details.

Specialist (Joint) Program in Journalism
Students interested in systematic practice-based and industry-specific training as a journalist should consider applying to the Specialist (Joint) Program in Journalism, offered in partnership with Centennial College and listed in the Journalism section of the Calendar. Interested students should contact the ACM Program Manager.

Notes:

  1. Students cannot combine the Minor Program in Media Studies with the Major Program in Media Studies (any of the two streams).
  2. Students cannot combine the Major Program in Media, Journalism and Digital Cultures – Media Studies Stream with the Major Program in Media, Journalism and Digital Cultures – Journalism Stream.
  3. The Major in Media, Journalism and Digital Cultures cannot be combined with the Specialist in Journalism.

Experiential Learning and Outreach
For a community-based experiential learning opportunity in your academic field of interest, consider the course CTLB03H3, which can be found in the Teaching and Learning section of the Calendar.

media studies Programs

MAJOR PROGRAM IN MEDIA, JOURNALISM AND DIGITAL CULTURES (ARTS)

Undergraduate Advisor: Email: mds-undergrad-advisor@utsc.utoronto.ca

In the context of the complexity of the contemporary media environment and journalism’s central role in how information is disseminated, the Major in Media, Journalism and Digital Cultures has two streams: Media Studies and Journalism Studies. Through common core courses and courses unique to each stream, students consider the ubiquity of media in contemporary society and examine media’s cultural, political, economic, and social implications. Because media is centrally placed as a means through which democratic discussion occurs in the public sphere, the development of media literacy skills is crucial in maintaining an informed citizenry and paramount to students’ individual empowerment.

As media scholar W. James Potter has written: “Becoming more media literate gives you a much clearer perspective to see the border between your real world and the world manufactured by the media. When you are media literate, you have clear maps to help you navigate better in the media world so that you can get to those experiences and information you want without becoming distracted by those things that harm you.” (Media Literacy, 2012)

The Media Studies Stream offers students theoretical and critical thinking tools to examine what it means to live in a highly-mediated, media-focused visual and auditory culture. Students study how media works in today’s world at local, regional and global scales; 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, cinematic 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 cultural, political, economic, and social realms.

While all forms of journalism are examples of media, not all media are journalistic in nature. The Journalism Studies Stream is ideal for students who are interested in studying media with a specific focus on journalism, the news media industry, as well as journalism’s form, function and meaning in a global and democratic society. It offers a comprehensive program of study and research with an emphasis on scholarly, conceptual understandings of journalism, including how journalism functions as an agent of change. It provides students a critical understanding of the role of journalism, its relationship to new technologies, and how cultures of information sharing are in the process of social change and what this means from cultural, political, economic, and social points of view. In critically studying journalism, students hone their media literacy skills to comprehend, navigate, and adapt to today’s complicated and ever changing media environment, whether as journalists, policy advocates, or simply as informed citizens.

Guide to Course Selection
The Media Studies and Journalism Studies streams require 4.0 credits as a common core.
During their first year, students in both streams should take MDSA01H3 Introduction to Media Studies, and MDSA02 History of Media. Students in the Journalism Studies stream should also take JOUA01H3 Introduction to Journalism and News Literacy I and JOUA02H3 Introduction to Journalism II.

Program Requirements
Students must complete 8.0 credits including 2.0 credits at the C- or D-level:

Core (3.0 credits)

1. Introductory Courses (1.0 credit):
MDSA01H3 Introduction to Media Studies
MDSA02H3 History of Media

2. 0.5 credit from the following:
MDSB05H3 Media and Globalization
MDSB25H3 Political Economy of Media

3. 0.5 credit from the following:
MDSB61H3 Mapping New Media
MDSB62H3 Visual Culture and Communication
MDSB63H3 Sound and Visual Media

4. 1.0 credit from the following:
MDSC01H3 Theories in Media Studies
MDSC02H3 Media, Identities and Politics
MDSC61H3 Alternative Media

Media Studies Stream (5.0 credits)

5. 0.5 credit from the following:
MDSD01H3 Senior Seminar: Topics in Media and Arts
MDSD02H3 Senior Seminar: Topics in Media and Society
MDSD11H3/​JOUD11H3 Senior Research Seminar in Media and Journalism Research

6. 4.5 additional credits in MDS courses

Journalism Studies Stream (5.0 credits)

5. 1.0 credit as follows:

JOUA01H3 Introduction to Journalism and News Literacy I
JOUA02H3 Introduction to Journalism II

6. 3.0 credits as follows:
ACMB01H3 Critical Reading, Thinking and Writing for ACM Programs
ACMB02H3 Methods of Inquiry and Investigation for ACM Programs
JOUB01H3 Covering Immigration and Transnational Issues
JOUB02H3 Critical Journalism
JOUB24H3 Journalism in the Age of Digital Media
JOUB39H3 Fundamentals of Journalistic Writing

7. 0.5 credit from the following:
JOUC30H3 Critical Approaches to Style, Form and Narrative
JOUC31H3 Journalism, Information Sharing and Technological Change
JOUC62H3 Media, Journalism and Digital Labour
JOUC63H3 Media Ethics

8. JOUD11H3/​MDSD11H3 Senior Research Seminar in Media and Journalism

MINOR PROGRAM IN MEDIA STUDIES (ARTS)

Undergraduate Advisor: Email: mds-undergrad-advisor@utsc.utoronto.ca

Program Requirements
Students must complete 4.0 credits including 1.0 credit at the C- or D-level:

1. MDSA01H3 Introduction to Media Studies

2. 0.5 credit from the following:
MDSA02H3 History of Media
MDSB05H3 Media and Globalization

3. 0.5 credit from the following:
MDSB61H3 Mapping New Media
MDSB62H3 Visual Culture and Communication
MDSB63H3 Sound and Visual Media

4. 2.5 additional credit in MDS courses

Media Studies Courses

MDSA01H3 - 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.

Exclusion: (NMEA20H3)
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

MDSA02H3 - History of Media

This course surveys the history of media and communication from the development of writing through 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.

Prerequisite: MDSA01H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

MDSA12H3 - Writing for Media Studies

An introduction to diverse forms and genres of writing in Media Studies, such as blog entries, Twitter essays, other forms of social media, critical analyses of media texts, histories, and cultures, and more. Through engagement with published examples, students will identify various conventions and styles in Media Studies writing and develop and strengthen their own writing and editing skills.

Exclusion: ACMB01H3
Enrolment Limits: 30
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSB01H3 - Human, Animal, Machine

What makes humans humans, animals  animals, and machines machines? This course probes the leaky boundaries between these categories through an examination of various media drawn from science fiction, contemporary art, film, TV, and the critical work of media and posthumanist theorists on cyborgs, genetically-modified organisms, and other hybrid creatures.

Corequisite: MDSA01H3
Exclusion: (IEEB01H3)
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

MDSB03H3 - Advertising and Consumer Culture

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.

Prerequisite: MDSA01H3 or SOCB58H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

MDSB05H3 - Media and Globalization

This course examines the role of technological and cultural networks in mediating and facilitating the social, economic, and political processes of globalization. Key themes include imperialism, militarization, global political economy, activism, and emerging media technologies. Particular attention is paid to cultures of media production and reception outside of North America.

Same as GASB05H3

Prerequisite: 4.0 credits and MDSA01H3
Exclusion: GASB05H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

MDSB09H3 - Kids These Days: Youth, Language and Media

Around the world, youth is understood as liminal phase in our lives. This course examines how language and new media technologies mark the lives of youth today. We consider social media, smartphones, images, romance, youth activism and the question of technological determinism. Examples drawn fromm a variety of contexts.
Same as ANTB35H3

Prerequisite: ANTA02H3 or MDSA01H3 or [any 4.0 credits in ANT, HLT, IDS, CIT, GGR, POL, SOC or HCS courses]
Exclusion: ANTB35H3
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSB10H3 - Technology, Culture and Society

This course considers technology as an everyday social practice. It challenges deterministic ideas of technology as a cause of social change and examines theories that understand technology and culture as mutually constituted. Perspectives include actor-network theory, critical theory of technology, feminist technology studies, media archaeology, and cyber-, post- and transhumanism.

Prerequisite: MDSA01H3 and MDSA02H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

MDSB15H3 - Social Media, Platform Politics and Digital Cultures

This course focuses on the technological, social, cultural, and political-economic organization of media and communication by critically engaging with social media, digital platforms, and apps. The dominance of platforms operated by Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon raises questions about platform politics and how platform owners engineer sociality and digital culture.

Prerequisite: [MDSA01H3 and MDSA02H3] or [JOUA01H3 and JOUA02H3]
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

MDSB25H3 - Political Economy of Media

This course follows money in media industries. It introduces a variety of economic theories and methods to analyse cultural production and circulation, and the organization of media and communication companies. These approaches are used to better understand the political economy of digital platforms, apps, television, film, and games.

Prerequisite: MDSA01H3 and MDSA02H3
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSB61H3 - Mapping New Media

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.

Prerequisite: MDSA01H3 and MDSA02H3
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

MDSB62H3 - Visual Culture and Communication

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.

Prerequisite: MDSA01H3 and MDSA02H3
Exclusion: (NMEB20H3)
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSB63H3 - Sound and Visual Media

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: MDSA01H3 and MDSA02H3
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSC01H3 - Theories in Media Studies

This is an advanced seminar for third and fourth year students on theories applied to the study of media.

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

MDSC02H3 - Media, Identities and Politics

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.

Prerequisite: 2.0 credits at the B-level in MDS courses
Breadth Requirements: Social and Behavioural Sciences

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

MDSC35H3 - 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: [MDSA01H3 and MDSA02H3] or [JOUA01H3 and JOUA02H3]
Exclusion: SOC342H5
Enrolment Limits: 50
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

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

MDSC60H3 - 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
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

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

MDSC62H3 - 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: [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
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSC63H3 - Media Ethics

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.
Same as JOUC63H3

Prerequisite: [MDSA01H3 and MDSB05H3] or [JOUA01H3 and JOUA02H3]
Exclusion: JOUC63H3
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

MDSC65H3 - 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]
Breadth Requirements: Arts, Literature and Language

MDSC66H3 - Selfies and the Selfie Culture

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]
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

MDSC71H3 - 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

MDSC80H3 - 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
Enrolment Limits: 45
Breadth Requirements: History, Philosophy and Cultural Studies

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.

MDSD01H3 - 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
Course Experience: University-Based Experience

MDSD02H3 - 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
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

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