Political Science (POLI) 291

Overview

Canada’s mass media have played a particularly significant role in the country’s development as a distinct nation. The course is structured around issues of media power in Canadian life. It examines aspects of the Canadian experience in the context of current perspectives on national and international media developments.

Outline

Part I: Media as Roadmap of Nation

• Unit 1: Introduction: The Canadian Communications Environment
• Unit 2: Power and Freedom: Political Dimensions of the Mass Media
• Unit 3: From Networks to Nation: Mass Media and Canadian History

Part II: Context. Reading the Map: Intersections of Media and Power

• Unit 4: Monopolies, Megadeals and the Mothercorp: Regulating Broadcasting
• Unit 5: Freedom of Information, Free Markets and the Law

Part III: Negotiating the Map: Media Content and Constructs

• Unit 6: The Audience is Speaking: Diversity and Participation in the Mass Media System
• Unit 7: Media as Mirror or Window? Social Differences and Freedom of Expression
• Unit 8: The Daily What? Newspapers in the New Mediascape
• Unit 9: Turn Off that TV and Make Some Policy: Issues in Broadcasting
• Unit 10: Heavy Baggage: Old Debates in a New Century—Quebec

Part IV: Conclusion and Implications. Re-drawing the Map: The Future

• Unit 11: Digital Media: Strangely Familiar
• Unit 12: Conclusion: New Media Technologies and the Future

Evaluation

To receive credit for for POLI 291, you must complete all of the assignments and the final examination, and achieve a minimum composite course grade of “D” (50 percent). The chart below summarizes the course activities and the credit weight associated with each assignment.

Reading Exercises	30%
Timeline	10%
Journal: News Survey	40%
Final Examination	20%
Total	100%

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

Course Materials

Textbooks

Holmes, Helen, and David Taras, eds. Seeing Ourselves: Media Power and Policy in Canada, 2nd ed. Harcourt Brace, 1996.

Siegel, Arthur. Politics and the Media in Canada, 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1996.

Other Materials

The course materials also include a reading file.

Challenge for Credit Course Overview

The Challenge for Credit process allows students to demonstrate that they have acquired a command of the general subject matter, knowledge, intellectual and/or other skills that would normally be found in a university level course.

Full information for the Challenge for Credit can be found in the Undergraduate Calendar.

• Undergraduate Challenge for Credit Policy
• Undergraduate Challenge for Credit Procedures

Challenge Evaluation

To receive credit for the POLI 291 challenge registration, you must achieve a grade of at least “D” (50 percent) on the examination.

Part I: Take home exam	Part II: Paper exam	Total
50%	50%	100%

Undergraduate Challenge for Credit Course Registration Form

• Challenge for Credit Form