Academic Calendar 2004 (new)» UNDERGRADUATE COURSE INFORMATION» Media, Information and Technoculture
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Media, Information and Technoculture

Media, Information and Technoculture Courses
 
024a/b025a/b026a/b134F/G135F/G136F/G142F/G
145F/G146a/b147a/b150F/G151F/G152F/G201F/G
202F/G203a/b204F/G209F/G220a/b225F/G231F/G
232a/b234F/G235F/G236F/G237a/b239a/b242F/G
243F/G244F/G247F/G248F/G250F/G251a/b252a/b
253F/G254F/G255F/G256F/G257a/b258F/G260a/b
264F/G265F/G266F/G267F/G270a/b-279a/b280E281a/b-286a/b
288F/G296a/b/y297a/b/y298a/b/y299a/b/y300F/G/Z301a/b
302F/G320F/G321F/G325F/G330F/G331F/G332a/b
333F/G334a/b336F/G337G338F/G339F/G340F/G
341F/G342a/b343a/b344E345F/G346F/G347F/G
348F/G350F/G351F/G352F/G353F/G370a/b371a/b
372F/G-376F/G377a/b-379a/b380E381a/b-386a/b390E391F/G404F/G
430F/G-439F/G444E490E491F/G

Media, Information and Technoculture 024a/b, Canadian News Media: An Introduction
Description: This course surveys the print and broadcast industries in Canada, making reference as well to the British and U.S. experiences. In addition to examining contemporary issues, students will trace the historical development of Canadian media: origins of newspapers, the beginnings of radio and the development of media politics.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 025a/b, Media in Society
Description: This course gives students the necessary tools to interpret a range of texts in various contexts. It is an extended practical application of selected forms of cultural analysis to diverse media and ideas. The course surveys the development of our roles as consumers and participants in media, culture and society.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 026a/b, Introduction to Information Retrieval
Description: An introduction to the universe of print and electronic information sources. Students examine how information is organized and presented, learn basic information retrieval techniques such as how to search library catalogues, periodical databases and the Internet, and develop information retrieval strategies to support their research.
2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 134F/G, Freedom of the Press: Print Media Policy
Description: The courses focuses on the print industry in Canada, with emphasis on the social and political controls which govern the print media. The course also examines theories and practice of the press through an analysis of examples from historical and current events.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 234F/G
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 135F/G, Analysing Broadcast News: Canadian Perspectives onGlobal Broadcast Media
Description: This course focuses on the global broadcast media from a Canadian perspective, with emphasis on information broadcasting and the social and political controls which govern the broadcast media in Canada. Topics covered include the cultural role of broadcasting; broadcasting as an instrument in the nationalist agenda; the relation of broadcast media to government; the news as information or entertainment; and the impact of new technologies on electronic journalism.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 235F/G
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 136F/G, Popular Music in Society
Description: This course examines the roles that media, technology, and other key social formations play in the production and reception of popular music; and the various roles popular music plays, in turn, in processes of meaning-making within the wider social world. No formal musical knowledge is required to take this course.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 236F/G
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 142F/G, Killer Culture: War and the Mediation of Reality in the 20th-21st Century
Description: War is the machine that created many of the technologies that we depend on in this century. This course considers the ways in which we sift war through media filters, the stories we tell ourselves (and the way we mediate those stories) about gender and power, truth and myth, the body and spirit, the technosphere and biosphere. Using a wide variety of media products, the course will examine the mediation of high-tech information systems, global armament, and the mechanization of death.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 242F/G
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 1 tutoral hour, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 145F/G, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 146a/b, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 147a/b, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
2 lecture hours, 2 lab hours, 0.5 course.
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MIT 150F/G, Introduction to Film for MIT Students
Description: This course is designed to provide MIT students who will be taking film courses as electives with a broad, but intense, introduction to the study of film, including the basic vocabulary of, and critical approaches to film studies. It will also introduce students to close filmic analysis and writing about film.
Antirequisite(s): Film 020E.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in an MIT Major or Honors Specialization module. Note: This course cannot be used as a prerequisite for a Film Studies Major or Minor.
1 3-hour screening, 2 lecture/seminar hours, 0.5 course.
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MIT 151F/G, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
1 3-hour screening, 2 lecture/seminar hours. 0.5 course.
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MIT 152F/G, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
1 3-hour screening, 2 lecture/seminar hours. 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 201F/G, Political Economy of Media
Description: This course introduces basic concepts of political economy to the study of contemporary media. By examining corporate, public and alternative media formations, it provides students with the tools to analyze intersections of power and wealth in societies and economies increasingly centered on the profitable exploitation of culture and information.
Antirequisite(s): The former MIT 246F/G.
Prerequisite(s): MIT 025a/b, MIT 026a/b, and Computer Science 031a/b, or permission of the Faculty. Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 202F/G, The History of Communication
Description: The course examines communication throughout history. It explores the relationship of communication media and technologies to society and culture. The course covers the history of different communication media, such as the printing press, telegraph, radio and television broadcasting, film and sound recording, and the Internet.
Prerequisite(s): MIT 025a/b, MIT 026a/b, and Computer Science 031a/b, or permission of the Faculty. Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 203a/b, The Matter of Technology
Description: Exploration of a number of technologies that lie behind and fuel the technocultural imgination. Introduces contemporary technologies from both a technical and cultural/historical point of view. Topics include: technological systems, issues of technical visualization, representation and interactivity, natural vs. artificial languages, artificial intelligence, robotics, natural and virtual environments, technology as social imperative and cultural metaphor.
Prerequisite(s): MIT 025a/b, MIT 026a/b, and Computer Science 031a/b, or permission of the Faculty. Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 204F/G, Mapping Media and Cultural Theory
Description: The course explores traditions within media and cultural theory, including traditions such as cultural studies, semiotics, hermeneutics, poststructuralism and postmodernism. These traditions arise from debates around such issues as: audience/reader activity, diversity, context, texts and textual determination, ideology and hegemony, discourse, and socio-cultural constructions.
Prerequisite(s): MIT 025a/b, MIT 026a/b, and Computer Science 031a/b, or permission of the Faculty. Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 209F/G, Cultures and Communities in Cyberspace
Description: This course will introduce students to issues of diversity, community and culture in the online world of cyberspace. The relationship between virtual communities and other communities will be explored, along with issues of virtual ecology, environment, male-female relations, politics, ritual, expressive culture and spaces.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 220a/b, Introduction to Digital Imaging and Web Site Design
Description: This course concentrates on developing digital imaging skills for the WWW and introduces HTML. Secondly, it focuses on the design and production of information for web sites, which communicate through the integrated use of text, images and graphic elements. The cultural significance and theoretical implications of this medium will be explored.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 253F/G if taken in 1999-2000; MIT 250F/G if taken in 1998-1999; MIT 345F/G or MIT 346G if taken in 1997-1998.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 225F/G, Theories of Media and Technology
Description: The rise of communications media has been closely linked to the development of new technologies and their use within specific social and historical contexts. The aim of this course is to explore the idea of technology in culture and society and will include readings from some of the key contributors to our present understanding of media and technology. Issues concerning ideology, representation, discourse, artistic practice, and gender will be addressed.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 256F if taken in 2000-2001; MIT 252b if taken in 1999-2000.
Prerequisite(s): MIT 202F/G, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 231F/G, The Limits of the ‘Avant-Garde’: Art and Activism through the 20th Century
Description: This course explores the concepts of culture, politics and "avant-garde" through the 20th century art movements such as dada, futurism, surrealism, and situationism; focusing on aesthetic practice and commodification, the politics of revolution and intervention, technology and cultural form, individual aesthetic innovation, and issues of social responsibility.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 254F/G if taken in 2003-04.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 232a/b, Radio and Television as Entertainment Media
Description: Traces the development of the idea of "entertainment" in commercial radio and television, and situates the institutions of broadcast entertainment within wider debates around leisure, popular taste and culture. Theoretical and historical approaches to radio and television will be introduced.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 234F/G, Freedom of the Press: Print Media Policy
Description: The courses focuses on the print industry in Canada, with emphasis on the social and political controls which govern the print media. The course also examines theories and practice of the press through an analysis of examples from historical and current events.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 134F/G
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 235F/G, Analysing Broadcast News: Canadian Perspectives onGlobal Broadcast Media
Description: This course focuses on the global broadcast media from a Canadian perspective, with emphasis on information broadcasting and the social and political controls which govern the broadcast media in Canada. Topics covered include the cultural role of broadcasting; broadcasting as an instrument in the nationalist agenda; the relation of broadcast media to government; the news as information or entertainment; and the impact of new technologies on electronic journalism.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 135F/G
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 236F/G, Popular Music in Society
Description: This course examines the roles that media, technology, and other key social formations play in the production and reception of popular music; and the various roles popular music plays, in turn, in processes of meaning-making within the wider social world. No formal musical knowledge is required to take this course.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 136F/G
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 237a/b, Digital Music: An Introduction
Description: This course emphasizes the development and manipulation of sound sources, especially music, within a mixed media context. Students will be introduced to music-specific technologies and concepts that can be applied to a multimedia environment. Previous music experience is not required, however students will acquire some musical skills and study certain musical concepts.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 251a if taken in 1999-2000; MIT 251b if taken in 1998-1999.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 239a/b, Sound Tracks: Sound in Film and Television
Description: Develops a sensitivity to the various elements of the sound track and their relationship to moving images and narrative structures. Covers the aesthetics and practices of film and television sound, and also the historical, social, psychological, technological, and economic factors relating to the production and reception of sounds and images.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 250G if taken in 2000-2001; MIT 250F if taken in 1999-2000.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second or third year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 242F/G, Killer Culture: War and the Mediation of Reality in the 20th-21st Century
Description: War is the machine that created many of the technologies that we depend on in this century. This course considers the ways in which we sift war through media filters, the stories we tell ourselves (and the way we mediate those stories) about gender and power, truth and myth, the body and spirit, the technosphere and biosphere. Using a wide variety of media products, the course will examine the mediation of high-tech information systems, global armament, and the mechanization of death.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 142F/G
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 1 tutoral hour, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 243F/G, Critical Perspectives on the Production and Communication of Information
Description: This course examines the contexts and processes of the production, communication, and reception of information, with an emphasis on developing a critical understanding of scholarly and journalistic modes of production and communication. The course also looks at macro issues related to information circulation and control, such as bias and misinformation, intellectual freedom, and accessibility.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 244F/G, Cyber-communication: Communications and Learning Technologies in Contemporary Society
Description: An exploration of the importance of electronic communications and learning technologies to society, politics and culture. Topics include: theories relating communications to social organization; political economy of information and media; power, privacy, equity, access, gender, emergent cultures/ identity in cyberspace; changing knowledge and learning in an age of convergent communications.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 247F/G, Legal Foundations of Media and Information
Description: An introduction to various principles of law which will provide a foundation for considering the role of law in our information society. Students discuss such concepts as public and private law, criminal and civil actions, common and civil law systems in the context of current information controversies. The course examines the communications industry as an example of a regulated industry.
Antirequisite(s): Philosophy 140
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course
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Media, Information and Technoculture 248F/G, Legal and Ethical Issues in Multimedia
Description: This course examines currently implemented legal responses to the challenges of controlling information flow. These responses will then be discussed in terms of their ethical, political and economic consequences and the possible alternative responses which could be formulated in law. Issues to be considered will involve ownership of information, access to information, privacy, control of creativity in multimedia, amongst others.
Prerequisite(s): MIT 247F/G or Philosophy 140.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course
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Media, Information and Technoculture 250F/G, Special Topics in Media Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 251a/b, Special Topics in Media Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 252a/b, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 253F/G, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 254F/G, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 255F/G, Feminist Perspectives and Practices in the Online World.
Description: This course uses feminist theoretical perspectives to explore the following topics: virtual feminist communities and cyberspaces; representation of women in education, media and information professions; the uses of the Internet for networking, feminist activism and community development; teleworking and female entrepreneurship; training for information technologies; issues of demography and diversity.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 256F/G, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 257a/b, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 258F/G, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 260a/b, Database Design
Description: This course introduces students to the fundamentals of relational database management systems. It will teach the theory of database design and give a basic introduction to structured query languages. Students will learn the skills needed to implement a relational database management system.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 252b if taken in 2000-2001; MIT 252a if taken in 1999-2000.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 2 lab hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 264F/G, Media Nation: Human and Media-Made Worlds
Description: The course considers the way mediation (how we are touched by, and touch, the world) constructs our cultural ideologies. Media Nation addresses personal and public power, centre and margin, Self and Other, among other issues.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 265F/G, Foundations of Global Communications
Description: This course introduces students to the role of communication and culture in international and transnational relations. Through the use of theories and contemporary examples, it examines a range of issues related to international power, cultural imperialism, economic development, and globalization.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 274F/G if taken in 2003-04.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 266F/G, Advertising and the Mass Media
Description: Examines the emergence and consolidation of modern advertising in Canada and the United States. Explores sociocultural changes that reconfigured people's relationship to consumer goods and advertising's role in promoting this transformation. The relationships between advertisers, ad agencies and media industries are examined.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second or third year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 267F/G, Media and Audiences
Description: The class will examine the idea of audience as it is conceptualized in communication theory and research. The course will focus on theoretical readings and debates about the nature and definition of the audience, and look at the function of the audience for the media industry and for culture.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 272F/G if taken in 2003-04.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 270a/b-279a/b, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 280E, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
1-3 hour screening, 2 lecture/seminar hours, 1.0 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 281a/b-286a/b, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
1-3 hour screening, 2 lecture/seminar hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 288F/G, Media Perspectives on the First Nations
Description: First Nations representations in the Canadian media often fail to capture the realities of political and cultural experience. This course will examine the stereotypes and biases reflected in print, video and internet representations and consider ways of increasing the accuracy of reporting, especially through the work of First Nations commentators.
Antirequisite(s): First Nations 288F/G.
Prerequisite(s): MIT 025a/b and enrolment in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program is required. In addition, First Nations 020E is recommended.
0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 296a/b/y, Professional Internship
Description: The Professional Internship is a paid internship for a four month term, or a minimum of 120 hours. To be considered for the internship, the student must apply and must a) have completed at least two 020 level required MIT courses by the time of the internship, b) have completed at least three of the required 200-level MIT courses by the time of the internship, c) have maintained an overall average of 70% in MIT courses. Eligible students may take multiple Professional Internships, provided that placements are available. Meeting the above criteria does not guarantee placement.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third, or fourth year of an MIT program.
The Professional Internship is not given academic credit, but does show on the student's record as Pass/Fail.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 297a/b/y, Professional Internship
Description: The Professional Internship is a paid internship for a four month term, or a minimum of 120 hours. To be considered for the internship, the student must apply and must a) have completed at least two 020 level required MIT courses by the time of the internship, b) have completed at least three of the required 200-level MIT courses by the time of the internship, c) have maintained an overall average of 70% in MIT courses. Eligible students may take multiple Professional Internships, provided that placements are available. Meeting the above criteria does not guarantee placement.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third, or fourth year of an MIT program.
The Professional Internship is not given academic credit, but does show on the student's record as Pass/Fail.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 298a/b/y, Professional Internship
Description: The Professional Internship is a paid internship for a four month term, or a minimum of 120 hours. To be considered for the internship, the student must apply and must a) have completed at least two 020 level required MIT courses by the time of the internship, b) have completed at least three of the required 200-level MIT courses by the time of the internship, c) have maintained an overall average of 70% in MIT courses. Eligible students may take multiple Professional Internships, provided that placements are available. Meeting the above criteria does not guarantee placement.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third, or fourth year of an MIT program.
The Professional Internship is not given academic credit, but does show on the student's record as Pass/Fail.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 299a/b/y, Academic Internship I
Description: The Academic Internship is an unpaid internship for a four month term, or a minimum of 140 hours. To be considered for the internship, the student must apply and must a) have completed at least two 020 level required MIT courses by the time of the internship, b) have completed at least three of the required 200-level MIT courses by the time of the internship, c) have maintained an overall average of 75% in MIT courses, d) submit a 1-2 page proposal, indicating why the internship will be beneficial, e) provide the name of an MIT faculty member willing to attest to the student's suitability for placement. Eligible students may take one Academic Internship, provided that a placement is available. Meeting the above criteria does not guarantee placement.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third, or fourth year of a FIMS undergraduate program.
The internship is given 0.5 course credit, and will show on the academic record as an Academic Internship, with Pass with Distinction, Pass, or Fail.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 300F/G/Z, Academic Internship II
Description: Academic Internship II is an unpaid internship for a four month term, or a minimum of 140 hours. In addition, the student is required to complete an in-depth research paper relating the knowledge gained on the internship to the theoretical underpinnings of media studies.
Prerequisite(s): Completion of MIT 299a/b/y: Academic Internship I with Pass with Distinction, plus a cumulative overall academic average of 80%.
The internship is given a 0.5 credit, with a numeric grade based on thepaper and fulfilment of the internship requirements.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 301a/b, Designing and Critiquing Research Methods
Description: An introduction to the range of research methods appropriate for understanding scholarship in the fields of communications, information, and media studies, including surveys, interviewing, content analysis and ethnography. Students will study specific methods in the context of the media-related topics that these methods have been used to address.
Antirequisite(s): Sociology 231, the former MIT 245a/b.
Prerequisite(s): Four of MIT 201F/G, MIT 202F/G, MIT 203a/b, MIT 204F/G, or Writing 121F/G.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 302F/G, Information in the Public Sphere
Description: This course addresses a variety of issues pertaining to a public sphere for free and democratic flows of information. How do information circuits influence the production, organization, and dissemination of information, whether print, digital, electronic, audio or visual? How do such circuits configure public access, knowledge production, and cultural representations?
Prerequisite(s): Four of MIT 201F/G, MIT 202F/G, MIT 203a/b, MIT 204F/G, or Writing 121F/G
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 320F/G, Global Political Economy of Information
Description: Our global village is fractured by vast inequalities in access to the means of communication. This course examines the planetary interplay of power, wealth and information, with particular attention to debates about North/South information flows, cultural imperialism, transnational media corporations and the role of new communications technologies in globalization.
Prerequisite(s): MIT 201F/G or the former MIT 246F/G, and registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 321F/G, Our Modems, Ourselves: Individuals in Cyberspace
Description: This course will explore the impact of virtual presence and computer-mediated communications on human relationships. In face to face interactions, we rely on appearance, body language, gesture, tone of voice and other factors to form the basis for a relationship. How does the absence of these affect communications and relationships in cyberspace?
Prerequisite(s): MIT 203a/b or the former MIT 245a/b, and registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 325F/G, Media Representations of Women
Description: This course will apply a variety of feminist theories to investigate the construction of gender by a range of historical and contemporary media - newspapers, magazines, radio, television, film, the Internet and advertising.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 340F and MIT 341F if taken in 2000-2001; MIT 245F if taken in 1999-2000.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 330F/G, Cognitive Aspects of Information Presentation and Use
Description: The information explosion ensures that we have more information available than we can possibly retain or use. This course will examine how the presentation influences the processing of information. What determines which information is recalled or is important for decision making? Topics include perceptual salience, memory effects and determination of information quality and relevance.
Prerequisite(s): MIT 203a/b or the former MIT 245a/b, and registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 331F/G, Introduction to Human-Computer Interface Design
Description: The course explores the various forms of human-computer interfaces, from text to virtual worlds. The course examines various approaches to the design of human-computer interfaces, identifying the issues that should be considered in interface design, and the methods available for the design and testing of human-computer interfaces.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 346G if taken in 1999-2000.
Prerequisite(s): MIT 203a/b or the former MIT 245a/b, and registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 2 lab hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 332a/b, Multimedia Theory and Production
Description: This course introduces the basic principles behind interactive design. By working with sound, graphics, images, and basic animation techniques, students will learn how to create different user interfaces and navigable interactive environments. An emphasis will be placed on the cultural significance of this new form of interactivity, as well as on theories of perception and persuasion.
Prerequisite(s): MIT 220a/b, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 333F/G, Exploring Learning Technologies
Description: The course explores the uses of media in education. Considered in the course are the nature of learning processes, the types of media used in educational settings, and the role of media in providing new approaches to learning and communication.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 334a/b, Design for Interactive Multimedia Learning
Description: This course explores theoretical and practical aspects related to human learning, and how to design interactive multimedia technologies to support learning and knowledge construction. It examines different types of interactive multimedia learning environments, strategic approaches to educational multimedia design, and presentation design. The course involves a practical component in which students get to design a scaled-down educational multimedia environment.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 347b if taken in 2000-2001 or 1999-2000.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 2 lab hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 336F/G, Developments in Media and Information Technologies
Description: Technologies have been integral to transformations in politics, economics, society and culture. As was crucial to the communications theory developed by Canadian Harold Innis, this course critically examines the ways in which technologies have shaped communications and the uses information in societies/cultures at different times and in different locations.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 337G, Popular Music and Globalization
Description: This course examines how different popular musics produce the complex social, political and economic processes that constitute contemporary ‘globalization’. Topics include: ‘cultural imperialism’ versus ‘cultural globalization’, the worldwide diffusion of recording technology, the global music industry in action, musical ‘others’ past and present, and the emerging problematics of ‘world music’.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 337 in previous years.
Prerequisite(s): Third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 338F/G, The Culture of Celebrity
Description: Why do we celebrate stars? What can the analysis of celebrity reveal about modern ideas of self and individual identity? This course introduces critical work on the phenomenon of stardom, develops case studies of individual film, television, and popular music stars, and investigates the institutional and industrial processes that have created celebrities.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 348F if taken in 2000-2001 or 1999-2000.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 339F/G, The Culture of Consumption
Description: Examines the historical development and social significance of a culture of consumption. After exploring the rise of commercialized leisure, the course will examine how advertising and marketing are related to consumer society. Contemporary sites of consumer culture, including shopping malls and theme parks, will be discussed.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the second, third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 340F/G, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 341F/G, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 342a/b, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 343a/b, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 2 lab hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 344E, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 hours, 1.0 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 345F/G, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 346F/G, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 347F/G, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 348F/G, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 350F/G, Work in a Wired World
Description: Workplaces, from factories and offices to studios to fast food outlets, are being transformed by digital networks. This course examines the controversies associated with these changes. Topics include occupational changes in an information economy; digital deskilling and reskilling; telework; flexibilization; the move from Taylorism to 'team concept'; workplace monitoring; the productivity paradox; the shifting balance between management and labor in a computerized work environment; technological unemployment on the information highway and the 'end of work' debate.
Prerequisite(s): MIT 201F/G or the former MIT 246F/G, and registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 351F/G, The New Political Economy of Information: Networked Capitalism
Description: The course digs beneath the hype about the "new economy" to examine the real dynamics of commodification that are emerging from the interaction between digital networks and high capitalism. Topics include dot.commercialization, virtual advertising, open/closed networks, Web content industries, portals and search engines, knowbots and market agents, and piracy.
Prerequisite(s): MIT 201F/G or the former MIT 246F/G, and registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 352F/G, Political Economy of Canadian Broadcasting
Description: The course examines the political economy of broadcasting in Canada and encompasses two general areas: 1) political, cultural and social debates and issues bearing on federal broadcasting policy, and 2) the economic underpinnings of radio/television broadcasting with respect to ownership and advertising.
Prerequisite(s): MIT 135F/G/235F/G or the former MIT 246F/G, and registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 353F/G, Organizing Post-War Masculinity
Description: This course interrogates media images of masculinity ca. 1946-76. It will examine the long-lasting social and cultural consequences of the remarkable shifts in the construction and representation of Western masculinity which took place between the end of the Second World War and the rise of the Counterculture. The course focuses on gender, power, and culture.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 345G if taken in 2001-02; MIT 348G if taken in 2003-04
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 370a/b, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 371a/b, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 372F/G-376F/G, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 377a/b-379a/b, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 380E, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
1-3 hour screening, 2 lecture/seminar hours, 1.0 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 381a/b-386a/b, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description:
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program, or permission of the Faculty.
1-3 hour screening, 2 lecture/seminar hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 390E, Directed Readings in MIT
Description: The subject of a Directed Readings course will be selected by a student in consultation with a full-time faculty member willing to direct the course. Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program is required. Permission of the Faculty is required.
1.0 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 391F/G, Directed Readings in MIT
Description: The subject of a Directed Readings course will be selected by a student in consultation with a full-time faculty member willing to direct the course. Registration in the third or fourth year of an MIT program is required. Permission of the Faculty is required.
1.0 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 404F/G, Honors Seminar
Description: This senior course, required for MIT/MPI students in an Honors program or Honors Specialization, is an advanced seminar available in multiple sections. Each section is offered by a different faculty member within his/her area of expertise. Students may be required to do in-depth projects and/or seminar presentations.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the fourth year of the MIT/MPI Honors program or Honors Specialization module, or permission of the instructor.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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MIT 430F/G-439F/G, Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Description: Students may be required to do in-depth projects and/or seminar presentations in the senior Special Topics courses.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the fourth year of the MIT/MPI Honors program or Honors Specialization module, or permission of the instructor.
3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 444E, Independent Study/Honors Project
Description: Individual reading and research at an advanced level under faculty supervision. Students are required to arrange independent study or honors projects with an individual faculty member and the Associate Dean. The project/study should address the intellectual domain that includes information, media, and cultural analyses of information and communications technologies.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year of an MIT Honors or Combined Honors Program and a minimum average of 80% in the previous five courses.
1.0 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 490E, Advanced Directed Readings in MIT
Description: The subject of an Advanced Directed Readings course will be selected by a student in consultation with a full-time faculty member willing to direct the course. Registration in the fourth year of an MIT program is required. Permission of the Faculty is required.
1.0 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 491F/G, Advanced Directed Readings in MIT
Description: The subject of an Advanced Directed Readings course will be selected by a student in consultation with a full-time faculty member willing to direct the course. Registration in the fourth year of an MIT program is required. Permission of the Faculty is required.
0.5 course.
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Academic Calendar 2004 (new)» UNDERGRADUATE COURSE INFORMATION» Media, Information and Technoculture