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Academic Calendar 2013 UNDERGRADUATE COURSE INFORMATION Media, Information and Technoculture (IMS)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS




Media, Information and Technoculture (IMS)
Media, Information and Technoculture 1200F/G - Media in Society
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.
Antirequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 2 lecture hours and 1 tutorial hour, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 1500F/G - The Matter of Technology
The course provides the technical, cultural, and historical background to inform our cultural ideas, myths, and fears about technology. The focus of the course is current and emergent technologies, focussing on the ways those technologies work along with their technical and cultural implications.
Antirequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 2 lecture hours and 1 tutorial hour, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 1700F/G - FYI: Information and Its Contexts
This course examines the nature of information in its various social, cultural, intellectual and material contexts. It starts with the history of the book and moves towards a consideration of the contested notions of an “information society”. The course is an introduction to critical  perspectives on the study of information.
Antirequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 2 lecture hours and 1 tutorial hour, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2000F/G - The History of Communication
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.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours and 1 tutorial hour, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2020F/G - Legal Foundations of Media and Information
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):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2021F/G - Legal and Ethical Issues in Multimedia
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.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2100F/G - Political Economy of Media
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):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2200F/G - Mapping Media and Cultural Theory
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.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2211F/G - Foundations of Global Communication
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):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2305A/B - Radio and Television as Entertainment Media
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.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2306F/G - Exploring Consumerism
Late capitalist society is often defined by its monstrous appetite. Indeed, our need to consume plays a central though ambiguous role in the construction of self and its others in contemporary culture. From Marx to The Donald, from Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978) to Palahniuk’s Fight Club (1996), this course will explore both the promises and perils inherent in consumption and examine how metaphors of consumption evoke the potent cultural anxieties of our post-Fordist age.
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2307F/G - Tales of Tinseltown
This course will examine representations of Hollywood in film, television, and print.  From West's Day of the Locust (1939) to Tropic Thunder (2008), we will explore how Hollywood has become a model for thinking about what constitutes the real in contemporary culture, as well as how these representations inform the American political landscape and constructions of sexuality, desire, and identity.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 2406G if taken in 2010-11 or MIT 2406F in 2011-12 or 2012-13.
Prerequisite(s):
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2308F/G - Police and the Media
For better or worse the police pervade the media. From Edgar Allen Poe’s seminal detective stories to the so-called “CSI Effect”, the theatricality of televised chases to cop shows as recruiting devices, this course will examine the socio-political, cultural, historical, and technological variables that have transformed the police from a bureaucratic disciplinary institution into a folkloric phenomenon.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 2409G if taken in 2009-10, or MIT 2410F in 2010-11 or 2011-12.
Prerequisite(s):
Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2309F/G - Crash Landscape
Our reliance on private transport has produced a landscape dominated by the automobile: an environment to which we are culturally blind. This course is not a strict history of the car. It is a sustained examination of how a particular technology can become intertwined with a society’s political and economic processes.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 2410G if taken in 2009-10, or MIT 2411G in 2010-11 or MIT 2411F in 2011-12.
Prerequisite(s):
Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2350F/G - Popular Music in Society
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.
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2371F/G - Cyber-Life: Communication in the Digital Age
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.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2372F/G - Feminist Perspectives and Practices in the Online World
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.
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Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2374F/G - Social Networking: Theory & Practice
Social networking has as long a historical precedent as human civilization itself. In today's online environment, networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have altered the social landscape. This course will survey the various historic and contemporary milieus in which these networks exist. Students will become fluent in the theoretical and practical aspects of social networking, in addition to understanding its contexts and social issues such as bullying, anonymity, addiction, anxiety, and narcissism.
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2375F/G - Sexuality and the Media
In this course we will investigate how different aspects of human sexuality and sexual identity are represented in and through various media (including film, advertising, television, print and electronic media). We will look at how media sources operate as sites through which dominant understandings of concepts commonly associated with sexuality, including masculinity and femininity, heterosexuality and homosexuality, are both reinforced and challenged.
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2376F/G - The Next Generation Web
This course study the evolution of the World Wide Web, from a collection of static pages to a source of dynamic and aggregated content: social software, the Web 2.0, multimedia and mashups. It will investigate the theoretical and practical implications of the Web’s growing use of sophisticated data mining capabilities.
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2377F/G - Propaganda in Print and Visual Culture
This course aims to ground students in the historical development in the methods of how propaganda and persuasion have been utilized in print and visual culture, spanning Greco-Roman art and rhetoric, contemporary use of diverse media, and how new techniques were developed alongside new forms of media technology (such as blogging).
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2400F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2401F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2402F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2403F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2404F/G-2415F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
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Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2445A/B-2454A/B - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 1-3 hour screening, 2 lecture/seminar hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2500A/B - The Meaning of Technology: Exploring the Relationship Between Technology & Society
Exploration of a number of technologies that lie behind and fuel the technocultural imagination. 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.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours and 1 tutorial hour, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2510F/G - Race, Ethnicity, and Technology
Recently, popular discourse on the digital revolution, and its facilitation of a colour-blind future, has been undermined by more sensible debates over the connections between race and technology. This course will not only explore those connections, but investigate issues related to socio-economic and racial exploitation under contemporary capitalism.
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2511F/G - Objectivity in Media Reporting
As products and services proliferate in an ever-expanding global economy, the theatre of consumption becomes more complex and more varied. The competition for segments of the consumer market intensifies and this spawns communication strategies and tactics which range from the very creative to, at times, the seemingly questionable. This course will examine some of the issues that arise from such commercial – and non-commercial – activity.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 2871G if taken in 2009-10 or 2010-11 or MIT 2412F in 2011-12.
Prerequisite(s):
Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2512F/G - Popular Culture: Agency and Structure in a World of Commodities
Popular culture is the dominant commodity in the post-industrial world. This course will explore the way that it is structured and it structures us by looking at the hero’s journey (Star Wars), dystopian fiction (The Hunger Games), postmodern comedy (The Simpsons, Harvey Birdman), the karmic action heroine (Run Lola Run), and the Situationist struggle against commodity culture (Fight Club, Ghost World) through the lens of three theoretical constellations: structuralism, postmodernism and Marxism.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 2401G if taken in 2009-10, MIT 2402F in 2010-11 or 2011-12.
Prerequisite(s):
Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2550A/B - Digital Music: An Introduction
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):  
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2570A/B - Introduction to Digital Imaging and Web Site Design
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): Registration in the Multimedia Design and Production stream of the MTP Program.
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2600A/B - Introduction to Graphic Design
This course introduces the student to the concepts of visual literacy. Study concentrates on the elements and principles of basic two dimensional designs, visual communication and its objective theoretical application. Current industry standard vector-based, bitmap-based and presentation software applications are introduced to allow the student to practice and exercise visual literacy.
Antirequisite(s): Registration in the Multimedia Design and Production stream of the MTP Program.
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2660A/B - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2661A/B - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2662F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2663A/B - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2770F/G-2775F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2850F/G-2859F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
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Extra Information: Only offered online (see Distance Studies), 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2870F/G-2875F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2901F/G - Social Movements and Media
Radical social movements have always challenged the established media order and opened new channels to circulate marginalized ideas. This course examines the history of such practice, from the pamphlets of anti-slavery activists, to the televisual tactics of “new social movements”, and the importance of the Internet in today’s global justice campaigns.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 2934F/G - First Nations in the News
This course explores the social construction of Native issues by Canadian and First Nations groups through the news broadcast, print and Internet media. Students learn how to contextualize contemporary newspapers, as well as radio and television news programs, and to theorize the different versions of "Aboriginality" advanced in them.
Antirequisite(s): FNS 2881F/G.
Prerequisite(s): MIT 1200F/G or FNS 1020E.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3000A/B - Designing and Critiquing Research Methods
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):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3010E - Directed Readings in MIT
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.
Antirequisite(s):
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Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 1.0 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3011F/G - Directed Readings in MIT
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.
Antirequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3090F/G/Z - MIT Academic Internship I
The MIT Academic Internship is an unpaid, credit internship for up to four months, or a minimum of 140 hours. The internship will require students to make connections with academic study while undertaking supervised duties in organizations and businesses with media-related or information-related interests, public service organizations, and community groups. The student is required to a) maintain a suitable level of performance in the position as verified by the employer through evaluations and b) submit a mid-term as well as a final report, demonstrating how the experience gained through the internship relates to his/her coursework and program of study.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3990F/G, 3991F/G.   
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of a module in MIT or MPI, with a minimum cumulative average of 72%, and have no failures or documented academic offences.  Approval of, and acceptance into, an internship placement.   
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: The internship is given 0.5 course credit, and will show on the student’s transcript as Pass with Distinction, Pass, or Fail.
0.5 course   
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3091F/G/Z - MIT Academic Internship II
The MIT Academic Internship II is an unpaid, credit internship for up to four months, or a minimum of 140 hours. The internship will require students to make further connections with academic study while undertaking supervised duties in organizations and businesses with media-related or information-related interests, public service organizations, and community groups.  In addition, a faculty supervisor will grade the required in-depth research paper relating the knowledge gained on the internship to the theoretical underpinnings of media studies.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3990F/G, 3991F/G.   
Prerequisite(s): Completion of MIT 3090F/G/Z Academic Internship I with Pass with Distinction, plus a cumulative average of 78% and no failures or documented academic offences.   The student must find a faculty supervisor willing to oversee and grade his/her final paper.   
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: The internship is given a 0.5 course credit, with a numeric grade based on the paper and fulfilment of the internship requirements.
0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3095F/G - MIT Short Term Professional Internship
The Short Term Professional Internship is a paid, non-credit internship for up to four months or for a minimum of 140 hours. The paid internship will require students to make connections with academic study while undertaking supervised duties in organizations and businesses with media-related or information-related interests, public service organizations, and community groups.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of a module in MIT or MPI with a minimum cumulative average of 70% and no failures or documented academic offences. Approval of, and acceptance into, an internship placement.   
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: The short term professional internship is not given academic credit, but does show on the student’s transcript as Pass/Fail.   
0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3096-3099 - MIT Long Term Professional Internship
The Long Term Professional Internship is a paid, non-credit placement for 8, 12 or 16 months. The paid internship will require students to make connections with academic study while undertaking supervised duties in organizations and businesses with media-related or information-related interests, public service organizations, and community groups.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of a module in MIT or MPI with a minimum cumulative average of 70%, and no failures.  Must be eligible to work in Canada (or the country of the placement).  
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: The Long Term Professional Internship is not given academic credit, but does show on the student’s transcript as a Pass/Fail.  Participation in a long term professional internship will delay graduation by one year.  
3.0 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3100F/G - Information in the Public Sphere
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?
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3110F/G - Global Political Economy of Information
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.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3114F/G - Search and Discovery
Information searching and its relationship to the design of search technologies. Theory and practice of retrieval from commercial databases; Web search engine design; the implications of ranking algorithms and recommender systems; open-source and proprietary search technologies. Emerging search functionalities based on multimedia, natural language processing and social software.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3661F if taken in 2011-2012  
Prerequisite(s):
Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3115F/G - Search Engines and Data Mining
The course will examine how search engines are built, how they work, and how to evaluate them. We will explore the variety of Web search services and Web data that are publically available. The course will also introduce basic concepts and techniques of Web data mining including Web hyperlink analysis, Web traffic analysis and Web server log analysis.
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3130F/G - The New Political Economy of Information:  Networked Capitalism
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.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3132F/G - The Political Economy of the Entertainment Industries
What economic conditions influence production inside the entertainment industries? How is digitalization changing the politics of entertainment production? What potential does digitalization hold for innovation and cultural diversity? How are Canadian businesses faring inside the global entertainment sector? These are among the key questions that this course aims to answer.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3437G if taken in 2009-10, MIT 3871F/G in 2010-11 or 2011-12.
Prerequisite(s):
Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3133F/G - Net-Work: Labour and Profit on Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Web 2.0
This course will explore the impact that User-Generated Content, Social Networks & Immaterial Labour have had on Autonomist Marxist theory. The course will consider the changes taking place in the nature of the labour process, the products being produced by this shift to immaterial work, and the influence that this shift has had on Autonomist Marxism.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3771F if taken in 2009-10, 2010-11 or 2011-12.
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Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3200F/G - Rebels and Rogues: Outlaws in Culture and Theory
This course offers students the critical tools to explore how shifting modes of representation from oral songs and stories to information technology, effect our cultural conceptions of 'the outlaw' and of justice. The course incorporates a theory of the outlaw as an extraordinary criminal caught in a liminal threshold 'outside the law.'
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3207F/G - Children, Advertising & Consumer Culture
This course provides a critical survey of issues related to children’s advertising, marketing, and consumer culture. The historic rise of children’s marketing, the value advertisers place on children, and contemporary controversial debates will be investigated and located within broad theoretical, cultural, social, and institutional contexts.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3402F if taken in 2009-10 or 2010-11, MIT 3404F if taken in Intersession in 2010, or MIT 3402G in 2011-12.
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Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3208F/G - Women’s Television: History, Gender, Feminism
This course considers the television industry’s address to women viewers, focusing on the multichannel transition and the post-network period. We will consider the roles played by genre, character and content in making “women’s television,” and will pay particular attention to the medium’s ongoing dialogue with feminism.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3435F if taken in 2010-11 or 2011-12.
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Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3209F/G - Deviant Divas: Examining the Monstrous Feminine
In examining fictional and real-life monstrous women—including witches, sex workers, body modifiers, cyborgs, and serial killers—we will consider what monstrous femininity means, how technology and the media contribute to (re)defining female deviance, and what happens when the monstrous figure of the deviant diva becomes the Western cultural norm.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3433G if taken in 2009-10, 2010-11 or 2011-12.
Prerequisite(s):
Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3210F/G - Media Representations of Women
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.
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3211F/G - The Culture of Celebrity
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):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3212F/G - Organizing Post-War Masculinity
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):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3213F/G - Media and Audiences
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):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3214F/G - Advertising and the Mass Media
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.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3215F/G - Killer Culture:  War and the Mediation of Reality in the 20th-21st Centuries
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):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in MIT 1200F/G.
Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 1 tutoral hour, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3216F/G - The Culture of Consumption
This course examines the historical development and social significance of the contemporary culture of consumption. After exploring its history and dynamics, among other subjects, it looks at advertising and marketing, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) applications, globalization, and strategies of resistance.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): MIT 2100F/G.
Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3217F/G - Public Opinion
The formation of public opinion and its role in democratic society. Theories of attitude and opinion formation and persuasion. Study of propaganda. Current issues in public opinion and the "manufacture of consent."
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3218F/G - Technology, Democracy, and Postwar America
From Trinity to Postmodernity, from the culture of containment to the contamination of culture, this course explores not only the history of America after WWII, but also the impact of the Atom Bomb, the Cold War, and their continuing influence on the formation of American ideology and identity. Using the twin themes of confinement and resistance, the course will focus primarily on media such as literature and film, but will also consider representative examples from journalism, the visual arts, and architecture.
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3219F/G - Media Convergence
This course examines various forms of media convergence (industrial, regulatory, technological, and cultural) and how interaction between television and digital media can alter sociocultural understandings of mass media industries and technologies. In addition, it examines the evolution of a formerly passive audience into active 'produsers' and investigates the democratizing potential of interactive and user-generated media.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3404F if taken in 2009-10, 2010-11 or 2011-12.
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3220F/G - The Limits of the 'Avant-Garde': Art and Activism through the 20th Century
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):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3221F/G - Photography, Politics, History
What is history if not a reconstructed image of the past? This course examines the ways in which photography has shaped our idea of history; how specific photographs ground history by turning the world into a picture. The political significance of this transformation will be examined through specific visual case studies.
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Informationa and Technoculture 3282F/G - Comic Book Culture: From Pulp Fiction to Post Modern Legitimacy
This course will run along three parallel tracks: it will examine the history of comic books and how they engaged such political issues as World War II and the cultural revolution of the 1960s; it will show how comics have crossed over into other popular media, mainly film; and it will look at comic books as a serious aesthetic medium, trying to understand them as a form of sequential art.
Antirequisite(s): The former MIT 2282F/G.
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G, 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3352F/G - Music, Media and Globalization
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):
Prerequisite(s): MIT 2350F/G, or permission of the instructor.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3353F/G - Popular Music and Identity
Liz Phair's 1993 recording Exile in Guyville was upfront in acknowledging what female and male fans of popular music, especially rock'n'roll know but don't necessarily want to admit: rock'n'roll is a "guy thing." But is it? This course explores meanings, constructions and representations of gender in popular music of the 20th and 21st centuries, including but not limited to rock'n'roll. The course is taught from a media studies perspective, so no formal musical knowledge is expected.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3371F/G - Game On! Video Game Culture, Technology, and Industry
Video and computer games have, over the last thirty years, revolutionized popular culture, digital technology and the entertainment industry. At the same time they have provoked intense controversy over issues from game addiction to virtual violence to digital gender. This course gives an overview of the history of interactive gaming, its economic dynamics, the social formations it is catalyzing and the new theories of aesthetics, simulation and play it has generated.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3372A/B - Design of Digital Cognitive Games
Digital games can have a powerful influence on the human mind. This course deals with the design and analysis of digital games from a cognitive perspective. It examines why design is important—that is, how it can promote shallow thinking, or vice versa support mindful reasoning and higher-order thinking.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3663B if taken in 2009-10 or 2010-11.
Prerequisite(s):
Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3373F/G - Social Media & Organizations
This course provides hands-on experience with building, evaluating, and using social media tools such as blogs, wikis, and social networking websites within an organizational context. Relevant issues such as user privacy, social media policies, effective planning and implementation, and organizational impact will be addressed.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3852G if taken in 2011-2012
Prerequisite(s):
Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3374F/G - Social Networking in Everyday Life: Social Relations, Social Movements, and Privacy
This course will investigate the term social networking and its related theories. We will examine various platforms and the social consequences these have had for our understanding of friendship, work, and privacy. Our aim is to not only have a good understanding of the theories of social networking, but also of the methodological approaches that exist to study how social networking unfolds.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3650G if taken in 2011-2012
Prerequisite(s):
Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3400F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3401F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3402F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3403F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3404F/G-3405F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3430A/B - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3431A/B - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3432F/G-3436F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3437F/G-3442F/G - Sepcial Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3445A/B-3450A/B - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
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Extra Information: 1-3 hour screening, 2 lecture/seminar hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3470A/B - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3601A/B - Animation and Rich Media for the Web
This course introduces participants to current Web technologies, and the tools and techniques for authoring rich-media content for delivery on the Web. Participants will develop an understanding of how to create usable, well-designed Web applications incorporating motion graphics, sound, video and interactivity.
Antirequisite(s): Registration in the Multimedia Design and Production stream of the MTP Program.
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3650F/G-3653F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3660A/B - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 2 lab hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3661F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3662F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3663A/B-3665A/B - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3718F/G - Work in a Wired World
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.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3720F/G - Virtual Worlds: Theory and Practice
What is it to live creatively within your and others’ imagination and in other computer-mediated worlds? The course examines the dramatic growth of virtual worlds, both theoretically and materially by reading recent material and experiencing/producing such worlds; how are Virtual Worlds built/ interpreted from various critical perspectives?
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3653G if taken in 2011-2012
Prerequisite(s):
Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3770F/G-3775F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3829F/G - Writing for Magazines
This course teaches students to write and interpret more complex pieces of journalism from a variety of sources. Students will study different styles of feature writing, from the point of view of both a consumer of news and a journalist. Students will also pitch story ideas and practice turning their ideas into engaging features.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3870G if taken in 2009-10, 2010-11 or 2011-12.
Prerequisite(s):
Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3831F/G - Introduction to Journalistic Writing
This course will look at a variety of journalistic writing, from hard-news stories written on deadline to opinion writing to stories with attitude. The stories will be examined in several ways—as products of the news-media system, as sources of information and as the first rough draft of history. Students will also get an opportunity to practice journalistic writing.
Antirequisite(s): Registration in the Journalism – Broadcast stream of the MTP Program.
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3832F/G - Documentary Media
Explores the relationship between media, documentary, and representation. Using cultural and media theory, we will explore ‘documentary’ practice in cinema, performance, photography, the museum, oral history, print, and digital media. Students apply critical readings to produce and critique one (or two) small documentary projects. No production experience expected
Antirequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3833F/G - Arts & Entertainment Journalism
This course aims to give students an overview of the types of stories written by an arts journalist working for a newspaper or website, such as reviews, columns, features, and profiles. The course will consider solutions to problems specific to arts journalism and will examine ethical questions peculiar to arts journalism.
Antirequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3840F/G - Introduction to Television News
Through lectures, workshops and exercises, students will be introduced to the basic skills of television journalism. The course may appeal to those considering pursing the subject in more depth. Students will learn the principles of effective storytelling in a visual medium, explore television newsroom structures and working methods, and consider the role of journalists in today’s society.
Antirequisite(s): Registration in the Broadcasting – Television stream of the MTP Program.
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3841F/G - Comfort TV
This course explores the nature of television programming and identifies correlations between ideology and consumption. It will not only consider what our parents and grandparents watched, it will focus on the nature of “media nesting” in the 21st century. What are the anthropological roots of “comfort television”? How does it respond to communal anxiety and how does it affect subsequent political and economic consumer choices.
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3842F/G - Television and Social Movements in the 1960s
This course investigates the complex relations between American television and the political, social and cultural movements of the 1960s. In particular, we will consider television’s representations of the civil rights movement, black power, women’s liberation, gay liberation and the student left. Our texts will be theoretical, historical and televisual.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3442F if taken in 2010-11 or 2011-12.
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Corequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3850F/G-3859F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
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Extra Information: Only offered online (see Distance Studies), 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3870F/G-3875F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3901F/G - Getting the Message Out: Activism and Mainstream Media
Activists often consider corporate or state owned media unfriendly terrain. But such media can provide a crucial way to ‘get the message out.’ Using the ideas of experienced media activists, and examples from the practice of today’s social movements, this course investigates how to win the battle for public opinion in mainstream media.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): MIT 2901F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3902F/G - Alternative Media
This course examines the definition, history, theory and practice of “alternative” media, and its differences from and relationship to “mainstream” corporate and state supported media. These issues are explored across a variety of media to critically assess the possibilities and limits of alternative media in enriching cultural diversity and democratic practice.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): MIT 2901F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3931F/G - Century of Genocide
This course explores the intersections between media studies and genocide studies, particularly the role of media and communication in the perpetration, prevention and memorialization of genocide and other state-sponsored atrocities.  We will examine several case studies, with an emphasis on the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide and the crisis in Darfur.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3932F/G - Politics & Representations of Food
This course explores the relation between food, media, and social justice. You will learn about corporate/industrial and alternative models of food production, and then you will use your critical and creative skills to respond to what you’ve learned. Themes include genetic modification, factory farming, body image, animal welfare, technology and ethics, globalization, and alternative or grassroots responses.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): At least 65% in each of MIT 1200F/G, 1500F/G and 1700F/G.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 2 hour film screening, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3933F/G - The University, Student Activism & the Public Interest
This course will explore the history of student activism from the medieval period to the present, with a specific focus on the past 100 years in Europe and North America. We will look at the roots of student organization and dissent in the university itself, and will exam impact of student agitation and resistance on broader movements for social change, such as anti-war, civil rights and labor movements. We will examine strategies and tactics of student movements, and debate the usefulness of student resistance in furthering the public interest.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3950E - MPI Directed Readings
Students will, in consultation with a full-time faculty member in FIMS who has agreed to act as supervisor, develop an appropriate plan of study, do the research and complete the writing of a 50-page paper, or equivalent, that connects work done in the field during the completion of MIT 3990F/G and/or MIT 3991F/G, with ideas or themes critical to Media and the Public Interest.  Permission of the Faculty is required.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3951F/G.     
Prerequisite(s): The student must find a full-time FIMS faculty member willing to supervise.     
Corequisite(s): MIT 3990F/G and/or MIT 3991F/G.
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 1.0 course
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3951F/G - MPI Directed Readings
Students will, in consultation with a full-time faculty member in FIMS who has agreed to act as supervisor, develop an appropriate plan of study, do the research and complete the writing of a 50-page paper, or equivalent, that connects work done in the field during the completion of MIT 3990F/G and/or MIT 3991F/G, with ideas or themes critical to Media and the Public Interest.  Permission of the Faculty is required.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3950E.
Prerequisite(s): The student must find a full-time FIMS faculty member willing to supervise.   
Corequisite(s): MIT 3990F/G and/or MIT 3991F/G.
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3952F/G-3955F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s):
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3990F/G - MPI Academic Internship I
The MPI Academic Internship I places undergraduate students in unpaid positions where they work in a new and challenging cultural milieu for community groups, non-government organizations and public services with media- and information- related interests.  Placements are selected and supervised by instructors in consultation with the Undergraduate Affairs Committee.
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3090F/G/Z, MIT 3091F/G/Z.     
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of a module in MPI, with a minimum cumulative average of 72%, and have no failures or documented academic offences.  Approval of, and acceptance into, an internship placement.     
Corequisite(s): MIT 3950E or MIT 3951F/G.     
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: The internship is given 0.5 course credit, and will show on the student’s transcript as Pass with Distinction, Pass, or Fail. 
0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 3991F/G - MPI Academic Internship II
The MPI Academic Internship II places undergraduate students in unpaid positions where they work in a new and challenging cultural milieu for community groups, non-government organizations and public services with media- and information- related interests. Placements are selected and supervised by instructors in consultation with the Undergraduate Affairs Committee.  
Antirequisite(s): MIT 3090F/G/Z, MIT 3091F/G/Z.  
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the third or fourth year of a module in MPI, with a minimum cumulative average of 72%, and have no failures or documented academic offences.  Approval of, and acceptance into, an internship placement.  
Corequisite(s): MIT 3950E or MIT 3951F/G.  
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: The internship is given 0.5 course credit, and will show on the student’s transcript as Pass with Distinction, Pass, or Fail.  
0.5 course.  
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Media, Information and Technoculture 4010E - Advanced Directed Readings in MIT
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.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the fourth year of an MIT program and permission of the Faculty.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 1.0 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 4011F/G - Advanced Directed Readings in MIT
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.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): Registration in the fourth year of an MIT program and permission of the Faculty.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 4030F/G-4039F/G - Special Topics in Media, Information and Technoculture
Students may be required to do in-depth projects and/or seminar presentations in the senior Special Topics courses.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year of an Honors Specialization module in FIMS, or permission of the instructor. Note: Enrollment is based on a ballot system which is submitted prior to course registration.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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Media, Information and Technoculture 4999F/G - Media and the Public Interest Practicum
This course combines work in the field of public interest media, participation in a special seminar and theoretically informed paper or project based on the practicum experience.
Antirequisite(s):
Prerequisite(s): Restricted to students in the fourth year of a module in Media and the Public Interest.
Corequisite(s):
Pre-or Corequisite(s):
Extra Information: A maximum of 15 hours of class time and a minimum of 40 hours placement.  The MPI Practicum will be evaluated on a Pass/Fail basis with the option of a Pass with Distinction.
0.5 course.
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Academic Calendar 2013 UNDERGRADUATE COURSE INFORMATION Media, Information and Technoculture (IMS)
Decision Academic