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CMNS 302

Communication Studies (CMNS) 302
Communication in History (Revision 4)

Revision 4 closed January 24, 2008, replaced by current version.

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Delivery mode: Individualized study with video/audio components.* Online-enhanced.
*Overseas students, please contact the University Library before registering in a course that has an audio/visual component.

Credits: 3 - Humanities.

Prerequisite: None.

Centre: Centre for State and Legal Studies

CMNS 302 has a Challenge for Credit option.

Télé-université du Québec equivalency: COM 2000.

Course website

Overview

CMNS 302 is one of two foundation courses for the Bachelor of Professional Arts (Communication Studies) degree program. It follows the interactions between media and society in a number of technological contexts: oral and literate cultures, manuscript and print cultures, electric, and electronic cultures.

Communication in History is intended to ground communication studies students in the field. The course surveys the development of communication technology and introduces some important scholarly debates about those technologies. In so doing, it tries to establish the notion that the history of communication technology is as much about ideas and practices as it is about events and things.

Course Objectives

Communication in History is intended to accomplish the following objectives:

  1. Understanding: to introduce major developments in the history of communication technology so that students can understand how innovation and institutionalization occur in different settings.
  2. Comparative analysis: to develop students' ability to compare and contrast among different technologies and across different cultural contexts.
  3. Application: through the study of debates and practices in the field to assist students in applying their understanding and critical abilities to their professional practice.

Outline

Unit 1: Introduction: Technology and Society

Unit 2: Literacy and Orality: A Debate

Unit 3: Scribal Culture into Print

Unit 4: Wired World

Unit 5: Image Technologies and the Emergence of Mass Society

Unit 6: Radio: The People's Medium

Unit 7: TV Times

Unit 8: Computer Networks

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Evaluation

To receive credit for CMNS 302, you must complete all of the assignments and achieve a course composite grade of at least “D” (50 percent). The weighting of the composite mark is as follows:

Summary and Commentary Critical Book Review Research Paper Final Exam Total
15% 15% 30% 40% 100%

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.

Course Materials

Textbook

Crowley, David, and Paul Heyer. 2007. Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society. 5th ed. Boston: Pearson Education.

Audiocassette

War of the Worlds, a radio broadcast featuring Orson Welles.

Other Materials

The course materials also include a study guide, student manual, and a reading file.

Library-based course materials

Students registered in this course may request course-related videotapes and audiocassettes from Athabasca University Library.

Special Course Feature

Students registered in this course may take part in computer conferencing.

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