Communication Studies Minor Concentration (Minor) (18 credits)
Offered by: Art History & Communications (Faculty of Arts)
Degree: Bachelor of Arts; Bachelor of Arts and Science
Program credit weight: 18
Program Description
The Minor Concentration Communication Studies provides undergraduate students with a critical understanding of the role that communications media and communication technologies play in a society. It offers students intellectually challenging and innovative instruction in key traditions of Communications and Media Studies and new theoretical and methodological practices being developed in the field. The courses included in the program focus on issues of the relationship between communication, democracy and urban life, the social life of communication technologies, the historical development and transformation of media and communication forms, institutions, practices and technologies, and the mass media representation and mobilization of social difference.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Required Course (3 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMS 210 | Introduction to Communication Studies. | 3 |
Introduction to Communication Studies. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The social and cultural implications of media. Surveys theory and case studies relevant key issues such as the ownership, structure and governance of media industries; the significance of emergent media technologies; and the roles of media as cultural forms and practices. | ||
Complementary Courses (15 credits)
Five courses in Communication Studies selected from:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| COMS 200 | History of Communication. | 3 |
History of Communication. Terms offered: Summer 2025 The social and cultural implications of major developments in communications from prehistory to the electronic era. Thematic and conceptual introduction to the underlying media technologies and to some key issues and practices of historical thinking about their role in society. | ||
| COMS 230 | Communication and Democracy. | 3 |
Communication and Democracy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to investigation of the relationship between communication, media practices and democracy. Examines the role of media and communication in existing and emerging democratic contexts, and the challenges of constructing and maintaining a democratic media and communication environment on the domestic and international levels. | ||
| COMS 300 | Media and Modernity in the 20th Century. | 3 |
Media and Modernity in the 20th Century. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An overview of the growth and impact of 20th century media such as radio, television, cinema and the mass-circulation press; their role in shaping the technological, socio-political and aesthetic dimensions of urban modernity. | ||
| COMS 301 | Core Concepts in Critical Theory. | 3 |
Core Concepts in Critical Theory. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course will survey foundational texts and thinkers in critical social theory, as they relate to the fields of media and communication studies. This will include core texts in Marxism, the Frankfurt School, public sphere theory, feminism, post-structuralism, post-colonialism and queer theory. The course will prepare students with key theoretical and conceptual vocabularies for advanced study in the field. | ||
| COMS 310 | Media and Feminist Studies. | 3 |
Media and Feminist Studies. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to feminist studies of the media. Impact of feminist and queer theory on media studies; current issues about gender in the media. Emphasis will be placed on critical analysis of media representations of gender in relation to other social differences, such as race, class and sexuality. | ||
| COMS 320 | Media and Empire. | 3 |
Media and Empire. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The relationship between mass media and empire-building, as well as the role of mass and alternative media in anti-imperialism movements. Topics may include: Print technologies and the British Empire; shipping technologies, industrialization and the slave trade; new media and the anti-war and anti-globalization movements. | ||
| COMS 330 | Media in Cultural Life. | 3 |
Media in Cultural Life. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to a range of theories and qualitative methods in communication studies for the critical analysis of media practices in cultural life. | ||
| COMS 340 | New Media. | 3 |
New Media. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Critical analysis of new media from cultural, philosophical, technological and institutional perspectives. | ||
| COMS 350 | Sound Culture. | 3 |
Sound Culture. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Analysis of sound culture, including sonic and audiovisual media, sound art and architecture, sound in everyday life, sonic institutions and theoretical accounts of the role of sound in communication. | ||
| COMS 354 | Media Studies of Crime. | 3 |
Media Studies of Crime. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Critical analysis of the social construction of crime from the perspectives of its visual culture and representation in popular, historical and new media forms. | ||
| COMS 355 | Media Governance. | 3 |
Media Governance. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Electronic communications systems such as broadcasting, cable, telephony, and the Internet are vital public resources for social, economic, political, and cultural interaction in modern life. This course introduces students to the political and economic forces that govern policies about the flow of information, knowledge, and ideas using such media systems. | ||
| COMS 361 | Selected Topics Communication Studies 1. | 3 |
Selected Topics Communication Studies 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Study of a special field in media theory. | ||
| COMS 362 | Selected Topics Communication Studies 2. | 3 |
Selected Topics Communication Studies 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Study of a special field of critical inquiry into media and/or technological practices. | ||
| COMS 400 | Critical Theory Seminar. | 3 |
Critical Theory Seminar. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course builds on the foundations of critical social thought to engage students in intensive study of emerging and contemporary themes in social and cultural theory related to media and communication studies. Focus will be on current texts and debates of significance in the field, and will include prominent work in areas including political economy, feminism, gender and sexuality studies, postcolonial and critical race theory, radical democracy, environmentalism, and media and cultural studies. | ||
| COMS 410 | Cultures in Visualization. | 3 |
Cultures in Visualization. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Analysis of imaging technologies in their cultural contexts. Focus on different traditions of visual representation through the investigation of artistic and scientific visualization practices. | ||
| COMS 411 | Disability, Technology and Communication. | 3 |
Disability, Technology and Communication. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Explores communication, technology and culture from the perspective of disability. Topics may included identity, stigma, representation and art; design, access and accessibility; normalization and classification; contrasting models of disability; interfaces between bodies and technologies; the disabling dimensions of environments and technologies; disability policy and activism. | ||
| COMS 425 | Urban Culture and Everyday Life. | 3 |
Urban Culture and Everyday Life. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Explores how popular and artistic cultural texts interrogate the dimensions of urban culture that shape everyday life, such as transnationalization/ globalization; gentrification, migration and other displacements; the proliferation of mobile media and communication technologies; and the political mobilization of fear and anxiety about violence and terrorism. | ||
| COMS 435 | Advanced Issues in Media Governance. | 3 |
Advanced Issues in Media Governance. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This seminar examines current/emergent scholarship about policy debates and issues related to electronic media worldwide. Topics vary; they include but are not limited to Internet Governance, Electronic Privacy/Surveillance, Access to Information/Knowledge, Media Diversity, Community and Social Justice Media, Communication Rights and Freedom of Expression, and Civil Society Policy Advocacy. | ||
| COMS 490 | Special Topics in History and Theory of Media. | 3 |
Special Topics in History and Theory of Media. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Emergent themes in media history and media theory, and their application to current issues in communications studies. | ||
| COMS 491 | Special Topics in Communications Studies. | 3 |
Special Topics in Communications Studies. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Emergent themes and issues in cultural approaches to media and communication studies. | ||
| COMS 492 | Power, Difference and Justice. | 3 |
Power, Difference and Justice. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Media systems and their role in social relations of power and difference that are maintained and challenged through communication practices. | ||
| COMS 495 | Directed Reading. | 3 |
Directed Reading. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Directed reading in a specialized area of communication studies to be undertaken with the guidance of an instructor with relevant expertise in the area. | ||
| COMS 497 | Independent Study. | 3 |
Independent Study. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Independent study of a particular topic in communication studies taken under the supervision of an instructor with relevant expertise in the area. | ||
| COMS 510 | Canadian Broadcasting Policy. | 3 |
Canadian Broadcasting Policy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Key issues in the history and evolution of radio, television and new media in Canada. The legislative and regulatory framework of Canadian broadcasting, the relationship between public and privately-owned media, the emergence of new media, and the efforts of interest groups to influence the direction of the Canadian media system. | ||