Length of Course: One semester (14 weeks)
Classroom hours per week: 4 hours lecture
Number of Credits: 3 credits
Prerequisite: English 099, Mass Communication 110 or 130
Description of Course:
The course explores, from prehistory to the present, the relationship between social change and systems of human communication. We examine the origins of symbolic representation, and appraise the consequences of the adoption of symbolizing technologies within a variety of social contexts, from oral culture, through scribal and print cultures, to the globalized networking culture of today. Emerging themes of continuity and change broaden our appreciation of the ways in which our present conditions have been anticipated in earlier times.
Course Outline:
Week 1: Introduction
Week 2: Record-keeping, Civilization, and Media
Week 3: Writing: Art, Craft, Power
Week 4: Orality and Social Literacy
Week 5: Manuscript Culture and Monopolies of Knowledge
Week 6: The Printing Press as an Agent of Social Change
Week 7: The Rise of Journalism and the Public Sphere
Week 8: Electricity, the Telegraph, and the Telephone
Week 9: Photojournalism, Moving Pictures, and Sound: Commodifying Mass Society
Week 10: Radio: a Public Voice in a Commercial World
Week 11: Television as Transitional Technology
Week 12: Mobility and Networking: New Media and Popular Control
Week 13: Living through a Revolution
Evaluation:
Midterm exam: 15%
Final exam: 20%
Assignments: 30%
Project: 20%
Participation: 15%
Text:
D. Crowley and P. Heyer, Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society (Toronto, 2011)
W. Rowland, Spirit of the Web: the Age of Information from Telegraph to Internet (Toronto, 2006).
Transferability:
SFU CMNS 210 (3)
UBC Arts 1st (3)
TRU-OL CMNS 2XX1 (3)
UNBC HIST 2XX (3)
Instructors:
Ian Chunn, B.A., M.A. (Toronto), B.Ed. (British Columbia)
Norbert Ruebsaat, B.A. British Columbia), M.A. (Simon Fraser)