CS101 Syllabus PDF

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CS101OC: CANADIAN COMMUNICATION IN CONTEXT Department of Communication Studies

Instructor Information Alex Levant [email protected]

Tutorial Leaders Details will be provided when available.

Course Description An introduction to the key issues in Canadian communication studies from a variety of perspectives, including such topics as social history of communication in Canada, public policy and politics, and popular culture (0.5 Credit).

Course Overview This course introduces the contemporary communication and media landscapes of Canada—including Canada’s place in the global mediascape. We will focus on learning about central institutions, issues, concepts and debates that are key to understanding communication and media in Canada and their effects on our cultural milieu. We will explore a variety of topics including the development of media industries in Canada and how they are changing; Canadian content regulations and their operation in relation to Canadian music, film and cultural industries; convergence/concentration in media industries; categories of copyright and privacy; and future scenarios of Canadian communication and media. We will reflect on the role of media in society and on our media usage and relationships to media.

Learning Outcomes By the end of this course, students will be able to: 1. Describe the broad scope of our contemporary Canadian communication context 2. Identify key institutions, issues, concepts and debates in our Canadian communication context 3. Read, distinguish and synthesize scholarly, non-scholarly and policy writing on communication issues 4. Evaluate key points and concepts in scholarly and policy writing on communication issues 5. Write and edit assignments in a scholarly context, which includes applying requirements for independent academic research and writing

Required Course Material Available at WLU bookstore and on course reserve where applicable: 1. Weekly readings are available on ARES electronic course reserve, accessed via the ARES link on MyLearningSpace. 2. Faigly, Lester, Roger Graves and Heather Graves (2017). The Little Pearson Handbook, Third Canadian Edition. Toronto: Pearson Education Canada. The purpose of this handbook is to help you with the Annotated Bibliography, Research Paper, and with your weekly posts on the Group Discussion Board. You will NOT be tested on its content on the Midterm or the Final Exam. 3. There will be videos that you are required to watch as indicated on the syllabus. These will be available to stream, linked in their corresponding lesson.

Assessments 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Annotated Bibliography Midterm Exam Research Paper Final Exam Group Discussion Board

15% 20% 20% 25% 20%

Week 5 (Day 5 of Week 5) Week 6 (Day 5 of Week 6) Week 12 (Day 5 of Week 12) During Exam Period Weekly (except weeks 5, 6, and 12)

Assignment details This course is fully online. All course information is on MyLearningSpace, and all assignments will be submitted through MyLS. You are expected to check the course page on MyLS regularly for updates and announcements. Annotated Bibliography Create a bibliography of scholarly sources with short annotations, using APA format. Your annotated bibliography should also serve as preliminary exploration for your research paper. Due date: Day 5 of Week 5 at 10:00pm. Click here for the Annotated Bibliography Assignment guidelines. Midterm Exam This one-hour online exam will be based on all course material covered up to and including Lesson 5 (except the assigned readings from the Little Pearson Handbook). All questions will be multiple choice. It will be written on MyLS on Day 5 of Week 6 any time between 9:00am and 9:00pm. You are not required to use Respondus Lockdown Browser for this midterm exam. However, you are responsible for ensuring that you have reliable technology/internet. For technical assistance: [email protected] Research Paper You will have an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of some of the key issues in Canadian communication studies. It is also an opportunity to practice and demonstrate scholarly research, critical thinking and good writing. Due date: Day 5 of Week 12 at 10:00pm. Click here for guidelines and expectations for your 6-8 page Research Paper. You will choose one of four topics to research.

Final Exam This two-hour online final exam will be based on all course material for the entire term (except the assigned readings from the Little Pearson Handbook). All questions will be multiple choice. It will be written on MyLS during the exam period (date to be announced) and is scheduled by the Examinations Office. You are not required to use Respondus Lockdown Browser for this exam. However, you are responsible for ensuring that you have reliable technology/internet. For technical assistance: [email protected] Group Discussion Board Students will be divided into discussion groups (“tutorials”). In order to assist in building online community, this course will have a discussion component managed through MyLearningSpace’s Discussion board. You will find a discussion question each week based on the lesson notes and readings. You are to respond to the question and to comment on other students’ responses or your Tutorial Leader’s interventions. Your mark will be based on a) the frequency of your responses (if you respond every week) and b) the quality of your responses: Do they draw on the course material? Do they contribute to the discussion? Are they well written, clear and on point? Keep your discussions brief: a few thoughtful sentences or a paragraph is fine. When a discussion question is posted, you have until the end of that week to participate. The discussion board closes at 10:00pm on the final night of each week a discussion is assigned. There will be no questions posted week 5, week 6, or week 12.

Course Schedule WEEK/DATE LESSON 1

LESSON 2

TOPIC AND READINGS

Assignments

COMMUNICATION STUDIES IN THE CANADIAN CONTEXT Readings (37 pages):  Salter, L. (2015) Communication studies  Shade, L. (2014) Introduction to mediascapes  Shade, L. (2014) Theoretical and methodological approaches to Canadian communication studies  Hamilton, S. (2014) Considering critical communication studies in Canada

Critical thinking, reading and viewing, LPH (pp. 1-8)

MEDIA INDUSTRIES, CONVERGENCE AND CONCENTRATION Readings (33 pages):  Blidook, K. (2009) Choice and content: Media ownership and democratic ideals in Canada  Theckedath, D. & Thomas T. (2012) Media ownership and convergence  Edge, M. (2011) Convergence after the collapse: The ‘catastrophic’ case of Canada

Planning your research, LPH (pp. 38-61)

Group discussion post 1

Group discussion post 2

LESSON 3

CANADIAN MEDIA STRUCTURES AND INSTITUTIONS Readings (31 pages):  Henderson, S. (2008) Canadian content regulations and the formation of a national scene  Dewing, M. (2014) Canadian broadcasting policy

Using sources ethically and effectively, LPH (pp. 65-72) Group discussion post 3

OTT, NETFLIX AND CRTC Readings (22 pages + online article):  Simonpillai, R. (2019) Should Canada legally force Netflix to produce CanCon?  Wagman, I. (2010) Log on, goof off, & look up: Facebook and the rhythms of Canadian internet use

APA documentation, LPH (pp. 117140)

LESSON 5

AUDIENCES, USERS, MAKERS Readings (45 pages):  Lipton, M. (2014) Doing media studies  Pauli, M. (2009) Making a revolution with Cory Doctorow  Mister Jalopy (2014) Maker’s Bill of Rights

Annotated Bibliography Day 5 of Week 5

LESSON 6

DIGITIZATION/GLOBALIZATION Readings (33 pages):  Fletcher, F. (1998) Media and political identity: Canada and Quebec in the era of globalization  Patrick, S. (2018) Without a paddle: Schitt’s Creek, CBC, and the return to community and family  Kumar, S. (2012) Digitizing India: The transformation from analog to digital cable television

Midterm Exam

MEDIA PRODUCTION AND LABOUR Readings (45 pages):  Dyer-Witheford, N. & De Peuter, G. (2006) ‘EA spouse’ and the crisis of video game labour  Shepherd, T. (2013) Young Canadians’ apprenticeship labour in user-generation content  Harvey, A. & Fisher, S. (2016) Growing pains: Feminisms and intergenerationality in digital games

Grammar, part 2, LPH (pp. 271238)

MEDIA OWNERSHIP AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Readings (40 pages):  Bannerman, S. (2011) Canadian copyright: History, change and potential

Punctuation, LPH (pp. 240-276)

LESSON 4

LESSON 7

LESSON 8

Group discussion post 4

Grammar, part 1, LPH (pp. 200215)

Group discussion post 5

 

Scharf, N. (2017) Creative commons-ense? An analysis of tensions between copyright law and Creative Commons Government of Canada (2019) Guide to copyright

Group discussion post 6

PRIVACY, SURVEILLANCE AND CONTROL Readings (31 pages):  Chung, G. & Grimes, S. (2005) Datamining the kids: Surveillance and market research strategies in children’s online games  Holmes, N. (2008) Canada’s federal privacy laws  Vaidhyanathan, S. (2011) Welcome to the surveillance society  Wilfrid Laurier University (2016). Notice of collection, use or disclosure of personal information

Style and language, LPH (pp. 176-197)

LESSON 10

INTERNET OF THINGS Readings (25 pages):  Greengard, S. (2015) Mobility, clouds, and digital tools usher in a connected world  Paul, K. (2019) Teens claims to tweet from her smart fridge— but did she really?

Group discussion post 8

LESSON 11

SMARTPHONES Readings (25 pages + online article):  The Rate of Exploitation (the Case of the iPhone) Part 1, pp. 125.  Aschoff, N. (2015) The Smartphone Society

Group discussion post 9

LESSON 12

SOCIAL MEDIA

Research Essay Due Day 5 of Week 12

LESSON 9

Readings (26 Pages):  Seymour, R. (2019) The Twittering Machine, Chapter One: We Are All Connected.

Group discussion post 7

Online final exam will be during exam period

Course Policies Late Policy The daily penalty for late assignments is 5%, including Saturday and Sunday. Late assignments can be submitted up to a maximum of 3 days late, with the penalty (i.e., 15% total deduction). Assignments

submitted three days late will receive a grade of zero unless you have made alternative arrangements. Alternative arrangements must be discussed with the professor at least seven days before the assignment or exam due date. TAs cannot give extensions. Missed a deadline because of illness? Your assignment will be evaluated upon presentation of medical documentation directly to the professor, not your TA. Assignments submitted late without a medical note will be penalized five percent per day, including Saturday and Sunday, up to a maximum of 3 days. There will be no make-up alternatives for missed assignments. No late submissions are permitted for Group Discussion posts. There will be no exceptions to any portion of this late policy. Evaluation Grades are not negotiable. Grades do not change unless there is an obvious error (for example, a calculation error or a mistake in an exam question).

Style Guide All written assignments must be formatted using the APA Style. There are links to examples of this style guide on the library website. Students have access to the online style guide free via the library. If you want to use a digital citing tool, our library suggests Zotero. It is free and can be downloaded here.

Writing Tutorials Online tutorials for help with research, writing and citations are available through the WLU Writing Centre and Laurier Library .

University Policies 1. Special Needs: Students with disabilities or special needs are advised to contact Laurier’s Accessible Learning Centre for information regarding its services and resources. Students are encouraged to review the Academic Calendar for information regarding all services available on campus. 2. Plagiarism: Wilfrid Laurier University uses software that can check for plagiarism. If requested to do so by the instructor, students are required to submit their written work in electronic form and have it checked for plagiarism. 3. Academic Integrity: Laurier is committed to a culture of integrity within and beyond the classroom. This culture values trustworthiness (i.e., honesty, integrity, reliability), fairness, caring, respect, responsibility and citizenship. Together, we have a shared responsibility to uphold this culture in our academic and nonacademic behaviour. The University has a defined policy with respect to academic misconduct. As a Laurier student you are responsible for familiarizing yourself with this policy and the accompanying penalty guidelines, some of which may appear on your transcript if there is a finding of misconduct. The relevant policy can be

found at Laurier's academic integrity website along with resources to educate and support you in upholding a culture of integrity. Ignorance is not a defense. 4. Final Examinations – Students are strongly urged not to make any commitments (i.e., vacation) during the examination period. Students are required to be available for examinations during the examination periods of all terms in which they register. Refer to the Handbook on Undergraduate Course Management for more information. 5. Foot Patrol, the Wellness Centre, and the Student Food Bank. The University approved the inclusion of information about select wellness and safety services and supports on campus in the course information provided to students. KITCHENER/WATERLOO RESOURCES 

Waterloo Student Food Bank - All students are eligible to use this service to ensure they’re eating healthy when overwhelmed, stressed or financially strained. Anonymously request a package online 24-7. All dietary restrictions accommodated.

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Waterloo Foot Patrol – 519-886-FOOT (3668) - A volunteer operated safe-walk program, available Fall and Winter daily from 6:30 pm to 3 am. Teams of two are assigned to escort students to and from campus by foot or by van.

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Waterloo Student Wellness Centre | 519-884-0710, x3146 - The Centre supports the physical, emotional, and mental health needs of students. Located on the 2nd floor of the Student Services Building, booked and same-day appointments are available Mondays and Wednesdays from 8:30 am to 7:30 pm, and Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 8:30 am to 4:15 pm. Contact the Centre at x3146, [email protected] or @LaurierWellness. After hours crisis support available 24/7. Call 1-844-437-3247 (HERE247).

BRANTFORD RESOURCES 

Brantford Student Food Bank - All students are eligible to use this service to ensure they’re eating healthy when overwhelmed, stressed or financially strained. Anonymously request a package online 24-7. All dietary restrictions accommodated.

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Brantford Foot Patrol | 519-751-PTRL (7875) - A volunteer operated safe-walk program, available Fall and Winter, Monday through Friday from 6:30 pm to 1 am; Friday through Sunday 6:30 pm to 11 pm. Teams of two are assigned to escort students to and from campus by foot or by van.

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Brantford Wellness Centre | 519-756-8228, x5803 - Students have access to support for all their physical, emotional, and mental health needs at the Wellness Centre. Location: Student Centre, 2nd floor. Hours: 8:30 am to 4:15 pm Monday through Friday. After hours crisis support available 24/7. Call 1-884-437-3247 (HERE247)....