CS101 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Display Advertising, Bell Media, Cultural Policy
t CS 101 Midterm Review (B4)
Lecture 1
- What is Communication?
→ The distribution of information
- What is communication studies?
→ The study of different media and their roles as they distribute various information.
- What aspects of communication studies directly relate to Canada?
→ Harold Innis was Canadian. We are a developed country with access to various media.
The program is in 13 Canadian universities. Canada has two official languages.
· How have electronics and social media changes the way we communicate with each other?
o Limited face to face conversations
o Made communication a lot more global
· How might different media technologies affect the messages that they carry?
o Websites allow for more text versus a newspaper that only has a certain amount of
space
o Electronics allow for instantaneous results
o the message is changes by using emoji’s, links, images
· How does social media change the impact of demographics?
o Social media depicts you for your interests not your demographics
o Allows for people to alter their true age or location
o Escapes demographic stereotypes
o Focus on what you like rather than who you are
· Why is it important to consider how women are dominating social media?
o Allows for more information about women to be understood
o Demolishes stereotypes about women
o Why might gender be an important topic to address in media studies?
o Are there other important topics that might be raised in similar ways (ex. fighting
stereotypes)
* Race
* Class
* Sexuality
* Politics
Week 1 Readings:
→ Introduces readers to nature of communications, while outlining how different media
has different effects.
→ Claims Harold Innis as father of communication studies
→ Communication draws from psychology, sociology, philosophy, political science, and
economics
Lecture 2
What does it mean to “be critical”, in a general context?
Critical – Analyze and Assess maybe from an unbiased perspective.
1) Assumption to be judgemental or assess something. “You’re being too critical.”
2) To get past your emotional reaction of something, and then to assess it.
What might “being critical” mean in a communication context?
Assessing elements of the media or in communication.
1) Broad range of things that you could focus your critical attention on in a communication context.
The 4 things that characterize Canadian communication programs:
1. Critical Sensibility
2. Cultural policy focus
- Media on politics have a very nationalistic bias
- Protecting language rights
- Compared to US and UK
3. Orientation towards social justice
4. Interdisciplinary
- Covers a wide range of subjects
- Concerned with the actions of both
CS Borrows from, Contributes to, Other fields
1) Sociology
- Focusing on subcultures (gangs, fandoms)
2) Women’s Studies
- Women’s pay inequality in Communication studies
- Human rights issues
3) International Development
- Laurier communications program admission help out international centre downtown
4) Political Science
- The study of political communications
- Donald Trump (twitter)
- Communication studies analyzes the factors of voting (online voting, influence of
media)
5) Science and Technology Studies
- How social media has changed the way we communicate with each other
- How it affect social and cultural dynamics
6) Cultural Studies
- Communication studies and cultural studies are becoming more linked as time goes
on.
7) Information Studies
- How do we explain things like history
- Thinking about how people use google.
8) Other humanities and social science disciplines
- Communication studies is the study of how things interact, it is hard to find
something that is not impacted by that.
Administrative vs. Critical
Administrative
- Conducted in the service of a public or private administrative agency
- Sees media as useful tools to be harnessed for corporate/ agency/ government goals
- Solves small problems, but doesn’t really look at big picture issues
- Assumption that it is not political
- Assumption that it is based more on quantitative and empirical research
Critical
- Conducted in the service of society broadly
- Sees media system in general as something in need of study/ scrutiny
- Deals with big picture issues (sometimes in relation to specific goals or on their
own)
- Assumption that it is political (social justice-oriented, moral or ethical)
- Assumption that it is based more on qualitative and theoretical research
The Question of the ”S”
- Representable companies will use an S at the end of communication
Reading:
Hamilton Reading
Some of Hamilton’s main points from his readings are that since Canadian scholars focus so
heavily on “geography and national identity” to justify and explain how the development of
communication has changed in Canada, they are unable to understand the full picture and
analyze the change through all trends. Hamilton’s main point to take away from the reading is
that Canadian scholars should broaden their knowledge and not feel so restricted to the
information given to them but to go beyond the surface and maybe even reflect on how the U.S.
might have affected development.
Document Summary
The study of different media and their roles as they distribute various information. We are a developed country with access to various media. How have electronics and social media changes the way we communicate with each other? space. Introduces readers to nature of communications, while outlining how different media has different effects. Claims harold innis as father of communication studies. Communication draws from psychology, sociology, philosophy, political science, and economics. Critical analyze and assess maybe from an unbiased perspective: assumption to be judgemental or assess something. You"re being too critical. : to get past your emotional reaction of something, and then to assess it. Assessing elements of the media or in communication: broad range of things that you could focus your critical attention on in a communication context. The 4 things that characterize canadian communication programs: critical sensibility, cultural policy focus. Media on politics have a very nationalistic bias. Compared to us and uk: orientation towards social justice.
