Course Offerings

This course studies the legal and ethical implications of contemporary media practices, including journalism, public relations and digital/social media. Students research a variety of topics that include relations between the Canadian state and Indigenous people and communities.

This course introduces the foundational concepts and tools that journalists and media professionals require to engage with quantitative information. Assignments will emphasize the critical uses (and common misuses) of data. Topics explored will include: basic arithmetic and statistical concepts; locating data from public sources; using spreadsheet and analytical software; and creating introductory data visualizations.

This course introduces students to the history of media forms and key theories in media studies.

Students analyze news media coverage of contemporary political controversies through lectures and visits to government meetings and courts, with the goal of discerning distinct journalistic approaches. They learn how conventional and advocacy journalists navigate the political landscape and the norms of journalistic objectivity, and apply that knowledge in their own reporting and writing.

This course provides students with the theoretical building blocks to think critically about the powerful ways that information communication technologies are taken up in social, cultural and individual practices. By surveying key themes in the emerging landscape of digital and social media, this course highlights the privacy, commodification, and surveillance implications of participation in the new media political economy.

Much advocacy, including that concerning human rights and human diversity issues, is ultimately aimed at changing government policy. Thus, whether one hopes to advance change from within or from outside of government, it is important for social leaders and issue advocates to understand how policy is made. This course adopts two perspectives to help students understand this process. From a structuralist perspective, students will learn how public policy makers are constrained by the demands of economic and institutional structures in contemporary Canadian society. From a dynamic perspective, students will explore the fluid ways in which relevant actors like interest groups, citizens, and decision-makers can and do interact to produce public policy. Discussion will be illustrated by examples of public policy and policy innovation in Canada in such fields as international policy and human rights, telecommunications, media and cultural policy, health care, environmental policy, and crime and justice.

An introduction to the social, philosophical and historical contexts in which we can understand the role that the contemporary media play in our lives. Specific topics may include the nature of writing for the media; media bias; the history and structure of mass media; changes in media technology; the media's coverage of scientific, cultural and economic issues; and issues of communication and cultural policy in Canada and a global world.

This course introduces students to the principles and practices related to capturing, editing and distributing broadcast-quality audio with a digital focus. Students learn how to record interviews and natural sound with a variety of equipment, edit digital audio files and prepare them for distribution. They also analyze a range of professional audio storytelling examples (e.g., newscasts, podcasts), learn the fundamentals of professional vocal performance and create short-form, research-based digital audio projects.

This course introduces students to the principles and practices related to capturing, editing and distributing broadcast-quality video with a digital focus. Students learn how to shoot video in studio and on location using a variety of equipment, edit video files and prepare them for distribution. They also analyze a range of professional video projects (e.g., newscasts, documentaries, etc.), learn the fundamentals of on-camera performance and create short-form, research-based digital video projects.

This course introduces students to the principles and practices related to capturing, editing and distributing professional-quality photographs and digital images. Students learn composition theory, how to take photographs in indoor and outdoor locations using a variety of equipment and how to edit photographs and digital images. They also analyze a range of professional photography projects (e.g., news photography, digital slide shows) and create short-form digital photography projects.

The theory and practice of information and interactive design for digital and social media, including designing for the web, wireless devices, and/or tablets. Students will learn how to analyze project needs, strategize, and develop information and interactive designs and content.

This course is an introductory survey of the public relations field with an emphasis on the practice of media relations. Students learn the ethics and mechanics of persuasive advocacy through an interdisciplinary set of course readings. They will produce writing samples that are integral to contemporary public relations including: a stakeholder analysis, press release, op-ed and a speech.

This course probes the historical, social and political relationship between media and democracy. Students will read key texts in political theory, political economy and communications studies, debate what "democracy" means, and deliberate what constitutes a free and democratic media environment. Among other themes, students discuss how Indigenous people and communities are represented in the Canadian Media.

This course builds on DMJN208 to enable students to apply data journalism techniques to develop the research and analytical skills required for investigative and long-form journalism. Students will employ basic quantitative and computer-assisted research skills to acquire, analyze and critique data available publicly and via freedom of information requests.  Students will develop and pitch stories with quantitative dimensions and prepare data visualizations.

This course teaches students the principles and practices of speech writing and public speaking. Social scientific research related to effective messaging and persuasion is discussed and applied to the construction and delivery of the students' speeches. In addition to impromptu speeches, students will be required to research, write and deliver prepared speeches to the class. Speeches will focus on communicating to audiences in such contexts as: social gatherings, academic fora, community and business meetings, and press conferences.

This course will provide an introduction to research and theories in the field of listening and nonverbal communication and how this information relates to individuals inside and outside of organizations. Communication skills are probably the single most important skill required to be successful in business and in personal relationships.

Students take on media production positions, producing content for a converged media environment. They generate ideas, report, write and edit stories, produce multimedia content, and post on a public website and/or local news forums. The course concludes with a roundtable in which students collectively evaluate their media production practices as well as their contribution to enriching public discourse.

The social impact of documentary is explored. Students will survey the evolution of video and radio documentary and the effect of point-of-view journalism as a tool in effecting social change and criticisms of this model of public communication.

This course builds on material in DMJN208, developing students’ facility with quantitative research methods used in journalism and media research. Students learn to work with and critically assess quantitative information, with a particular emphasis on polls and scientific studies. The course covers basic and intermediate statistical concepts and calculations. Potential topics include survey research design and interpretation, causation, the central limit theorem, standard error, statistical significance and confidence intervals.

This course builds on the fundamentals of capturing, editing and distributing broadcast-quality audio with a digital focus, providing an opportunity for students to expand their skills and knowledge, as well as their ability to analyze and critique professional audio projects. Students will produce feature-length, research-based digital audio projects and may have the opportunity to work with community partners.

This course builds on the fundamentals of capturing, editing and distributing broadcast-quality video with a digital focus, providing an opportunity for students to expand their skills and knowledge, as well as their ability to analyze and critique professional video projects. Students will produce feature-length, research-based digital video projects and may have the opportunity to work with community partners.

This course introduces students to the principles and practices related to capturing, editing and distributing professional-quality photographs and digital images. Students learn composition theory, how to take photographs in indoor and outdoor locations using a variety of equipment and how to edit photographs and digital images. They also analyze a range of professional photography projects (e.g., news photography, digital slide shows) and create short-form digital photography projects.

This course is a practical exploration of the reporting, writing, and verification techniques involved in crafting narrative, long-form stories for a variety of media outlets.

In this advanced seminar students will read and engage with scholarly research and theory. Topics for the course will include digital and social media, journalism, and/or public relations.

This course prepares students for their Capstone Project(s) to be completed the following term in DMJN423*. Students will work collectively to initiate research on their projects' technological and content requirements. They will also develop a framework for critical reflection suitable to each project, and a timetable for project deliverables. The course instructor will identify projects of local concern for the students, assist them in forming teams, help advance project management skills and guide group dynamics.

In this integrated capstone course, DMJ students work together in teams to produce in-depth, interactive multimedia projects that explore issues of local concern identified by the instructor. The completed projects will feature a variety of journalistic, and interactive digital and social media content, including long form articles, short audio and video documentaries, photography and slideshows. Each project team will manage a strategic digital and social media public relations campaign that will include identification of target audience/s and public opinion research. Students will also produce a conference style presentation that critically reflects upon their project, methodologies and collaborative processes.

A formal placement, paid or unpaid, of a minimum of 120 hours with an organization or business related to journalism or media, as approved by faculty. Students will be expected to assume duties under evaluation by a professional mentor and write reflective analyses about the practicum experience for evaluation by program faculty.