Overview of the Department of Communication Studies

The Department of Communication Studies provides an interdisciplinary and dynamic milieu for students to develop a comprehensive and critical awareness of communication and media environments through the questioning and analysis of the production and circulation of ideas and values and their relationship to social and cultural practices. The faculty in the department facilitate the students’ acquisition of requisite tools of reflective inquiry, as well as verbal and written skills as a means of critical and creative expression fundamental to the development of social communication and media, life-long learning and contribution to community life. The faculty, as communication scholars, are collectively committed to historically informed, socially relevant research and pedagogy that addresses social relations of power.

As a means by which to facilitate the delivery of our mission, Communication Studies has formulated a set of goals focusing primarily on the development of student capacities in a field-specific context: Program Goals

The Department of Communication Studies aims to help students to develop:

1. knowledge and critical understanding of the central concepts, theories and methods of the field;
2. the ability to think critically and analytically through the use and application of a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to a variety of communication phenomena;
3. the capacity to formulate cogent arguments and reflective judgments utilizing appropriate theories, concepts and methods drawn from the field;
4. the ability to communicate accurately in a well-formed manner in a variety of modes and settings.

Thematic Areas

Courses offered by the Department of Communication Studies encompass four thematic areas which are representative of primary disciplinary approaches within the field of Communications Studies. These four areas are: Media, Culture and Society; Interpersonal and Organizational Communication; Politics and Policy; Critical Technology Studies.

1. Media, Culture and Society Courses in this area focus on how communication media affect the way we perceive and respond to the social and cultural environment. This area emphasizes the study of social and cultural theories which examine these relationships.



2. Politics and Policy The focus in this area is on the critical role of the state, civil society and private corporations in the development of communications systems, the production and distribution of culture and issues of social power.



3. Interpersonal and Organizational Communication Courses in this area study communication at the personal relationship, social group and organizational levels of society. The focus in this area is on studying the ways in which we communicate to create organized lives at each of these levels; the nature of the relationships and organizations we create; and our need to change them when faced with many of the kinds of issues raised in the other thematic areas.



4. Critical Technology Studies Courses in this area examine the relationships between cultures, societies and communication technologies.

For Selected Thematic Course Groupings please refer to pages 29-31 of the 2009/10 minicalendar. Degree Choices The Department of Communication Studies offers the following 4-year Honours B.A. degree programs: • Double-Major (unlinked) Honours • Stand-alone Major Honours • Honours Major/Minor • Specialized Honours • International Honours BA (iBA) – stand-alone, double-major, major/minor PLEASE NOTE: We do not offer a 90 credit degree, or a minor in Communication Studies (although you may combine a minor in another department/program with our stand-alone major).