Undergraduate Courses in Communication Studies 2012-2013

Fall 2013

COMS 210 (CRN 6231) Intro to Communication Studies (3 credits), Prof. Jonathan Sterne, M, W, F, 1135-1225, MAASS 112.

As the only required course in our minor, COMS 210 offers an introduction to the field of Communication Studies as it is practiced at McGill. Students will be exposed to some of the major questions facing Communication Studies scholars today, learn how to take positions in important debates, and explore emerging issues in the contemporary media landscape.

Course requirements:

In-­‐Lecture Writing: [10%]
Final Exam: [28%]
Exam Questions: [2%] Once during the term you will be given the opportunity to submit a question that may be used on the final exam. This assignment cannot be made up.
Conference Participation: [10%]
Presentation: [10%]
Short Papers: [15%]
Term Paper: [25%]


COMS 230 (CRN 13415) Communication and Democracy (3 credits), Prof. Darin Barney, M, W, F, 1335-1425, Arts W-215.

This course introduces students to a range of issues surrounding the relationship between communication, media and politics in contemporary liberal-democratic and capitalist societies. Starting from the premise that media and communication are central to the possibilities of the democratic public sphere(s), the course will critically examine the role, performance and structure of contemporary mass media, democratic governance of media and communication, and emerging political practices and selected issues surrounding digital information and communication technologies and network media.

Course requirements:

Mid-term exam - 20%
Conference participation - 20%
Term paper - 30%
Final exam - 30%


COMS 340 (CRN 13429) New Media (3 credits), Dr. Christine Mitchell, F, 1435-1725, Arts W-215.

As Lisa Gitelman reminds us, all media are “always already new”—even digital media and so-called “smart” technologies that seem undeniably of the present. Not only do they recycle and translate earlier media, but any exploration into media forms and meanings involves embarking on a path of historical rediscovery. This course embarks on such a journey with respect to the computer, in terms of both programmability and networking capabilities. We start out by reviewing seminal texts from the early days of computing and cybernetics, to better understand the nature of Turing’s “universal machine” and to investigate what it is about these foundational moments that have made (or continue to make) digital and networked media, and imaginings thereof, stand out as new. We go on to review the ways the shift to digital media is theorized within media histories of influential “techno-deterministic” thinkers (Marshall McLuhan, Freidrich Kittler). We then consider ways in which new media has contributed to challenging and revising conceptions of what it means to be human, giving rise to a “posthuman” era, in which the shift towards cybernetic, informatic and digital realities converges with ideas about social and biological reconfiguration, challenging long-held ideas about all manner of “natural” orders.

This digital and posthumanist prehistory is followed up by a survey of issues and debates around programmable and networked media. With a focus on interfaces and infrastructures, we consider the constellation of conditions and relationships that shape new media development, functioning and significance, particularly in institutional and corporate contexts. New media become a site from which to investigate changing forms of cultural participation, modes of labour and cultural production, a catalyst for reshaping/rethinking community, and a generator of new models of economic, social and political organization. Topics covered include software as culture, participatory culture, collaboration, digital labour, the materiality and economy of “the cloud,” Googlization, surveillance, data commodification, ubiquitous computing, eWaste and “big data.”

A course on “New” Media necessarily acknowledges that the shift to programmable and networked media has been distinctive. At the same time, a guiding question will be: to what extent do our digital experiences lose or gain their distinctiveness as we consider continuities with older media/practices and reflect on human cultural and social experience in general?

Course requirements:

(A) 10% Attendance/Preparation
(B) 30% Midterm Exam
(C) 30% Reading Reflections
(D) 30% Term Paper


COMS 361 (CRN 11576) / BASC 201 (CRN 15793) Selected  Topics in Communication Studies 1 (3 credits), Prof. Gabriella Coleman, T, TH, 1305-1425, Arts W-215.

This course introduces students to a range of issues concerning the constitution, history, and role of controversies in science and technology. The class takes a broad view of controversies and includes, among other topics: the resolution and constitution of scientific claims, debates over the process of scientific discovery and technological invention, the moral dimensions of science and technology, the social conduits for establishing truth and debunking bad science, the role of non-experts, from patient activists to journalists, in the critique of and participation in science and technology, and the role of new technologies in engendering new political possibilities, from building “better” humans to weaponized software. The course is divided into four blocks: 1. Truthiness 2. Doing Science and Making Technology 3. Body and Mind 4. The Politics of Digital Technology. The course is resolutely interdisciplinary and features traditional academic piece from across the disciplines (including sociology, anthropology, history of science law, bio-ethics and philosophy), along with Op-Eds, podcasts, and journalism articles. Students will also be asked to critically engage with these distinct genres of writing and reasoning in their discussion and assignments.

Course requirements:

Mid-term exam 30%
Reading Responses 20%
Public Health Campaign 20% (group project)
Op-Ed Final 30%


COMS 492 (CRN 13438) Power, Difference and Justice: “Disability, Technology and Communication” (3 credits), Prof. Jonathan Sterne, T, 1135-1425, Ferrier 230.

This course explores disability scholarship in order to rethink our basic concepts of communication, technology and culture. We will consider critical accounts of disability against theories of technology and communication. Most available theories of communication and technology presuppose a fully “able” subject, even though there is little warrant for doing this when we consider the full variety of human conditions. What happens if we remove that presupposition and instead begin by presupposing the human variety?

Course requirements:

Weekly response papers (30%)
Normative Project (10%)
Discussion Participation and Facilitation (15%)
Semester Project (45%)


COMS 497 (CRN 10683) Independent Study (3 credits) Instructor’s Approval Required.

COMS 541 (CRN 15368) Cultural Industries: “Hacker Culture and Politics” (3 credits), Prof Gabriella Coleman, W, 1435-1725, Arts W-220.

This course examines computer hackers to interrogate not only the ethics and technical practices of hacking, but to examine more broadly how hackers and hacking have transformed the politics of computing and the Internet more generally. We will examine how hacker values are realized and constituted by different legal, technical, and ethical activities of computer hacking—for example, free software production, cyberactivism and hactivism, cryptography, and the prankish games of hacker underground. We will pay close attention to how ethical principles are variably represented and thought of by hackers, journalists, and academics and we will use the example of hacking to address various topics on law, order, and politics on the Internet such as: free speech and censorship, privacy, security, surveillance, and intellectual property. We finish with an in-depth look at two sites of hacker and activist action, Wikileaks and Anonymous, in order to address what is distinctive (and/or) not about hacker politics.

This will allow us to 1) demonstrate familiarity with variants of hacking 2) critically examine the multiple ways hackers draw on and reconfigure dominant ideas of property, freedom, and privacy through their diverse moral codes and technical activities 3) broaden our understanding of politics of the Internet by evaluating the various political effects and ramifications of hacking. Students will be responsible for leading discussions on the readings and critically engaging the readings and class conversations.

Course requirements:

Reading Responses 30% (6 total)
Class Presentation 20% 
Questions/participation 20%
Final Research Project 30%


Winter 2013

COMS 200 (CRN 10273) History of Communication (3 credits), Ms. Alexandra Gibb, M, W, F, 1035-1125, Arts W-215.

COMS 310 (CRN 10275) Media and Feminist Studies (3 credits), Prof. Carrie Rentschler, T, TH, 1305-1425, Arts W-215.

COMS 330 (CRN 10324) Media in Cultural Life (3 credits), Dr. Emily Raine, M, W, 1135-1255, Arts W-215.

COMS 354 (CRN 11740) / ARTH 354 (CRN 11701) Media Studies of Crime: “The Visual Culture of Crime” (3 credits), Prof. Will Straw, T, 1435-1725, Arts W-215.

COMS 362 (CRN 11693) Selected Topics in Communication Studies (3 credits), Christopher Gutierrez, F, 1135-1425, Arts W-215.

COMS 365 (CRN 11742) Media Governance (3 credits), Prof. Becky Lentz, T, 1135-1425, BURN room 1B24.

COMS 490 (CRN 10276) History and Theory of Media (3 credits), Ms. Paulina Mickiewicz, F, 1135-1425, Arts W-220.

COMS 510 (CRN 10280) Canadian Broadcasting Policy (3 credits), Prof. Marc Raboy, TH, 1435-1725, Arts W-220.

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