Media Studies

Media studies students take hands-on classes in creative writing and visual art, while studying the social, cultural, and political impacts of media in courses on journalism, literature, and film.

This stream fulfills five of the six course requirements for the first year of the Bachelor of Media Studies. Students who have an affinity for making art, analyzing books and films, consuming and discussing contemporary media will find this stream a good fit.

When I came across the CAP Culture and Media stream, I took the risk in joining this program, with courses I had no intention in ever taking. I was exposed to such interesting courses like Film Studies or topics belonging to Gender, Race, and Social Justice, in which I immediately fell in love with.

Vivian C.
Sociology major

Courses: Term One

In the first term, students will enrol in Arts Studies, Creative Writing, and Film Studies. Through the study of academic writing, literature, and film, and through their own creative writing projects, students will learn how to appreciate and contribute to contemporary media.

Arts Studies spans 2 terms and is worth 6 credits. It focuses on scholarly writing and reading, including both literature and introduction to academic scholarship. This course provides an interdisciplinary foundation for academic writing and related research communicative practices within an interactive learning environment. Students will choose one out of four different sections (M01/M02/M03/M04), based on their scheduling needs and academic interests, and stay in the same section for both terms.

-ASTU 100 Sections M01, M03, M04: Empathy and Identity in Contemporary Media

M01: MWF 11-12

M03: MWF 12-1

M04: MWF 1-2

How do we make choices about the media we consume? What does it mean when we seek out a film or writing because it is relatable, or out of an interesting in experiencing the unfamiliar? In this course, we will encounter novels, essays, films, exhibitions, and podcasts that push us to re-examine the desires for self-fulfillment or identification that we bring to what we watch and read. For example, what can we learn from characters in novels by Sally Rooney or Kamila Shamsie who are, for various reasons, challenging to identify with? How do Indigenous and anti-colonial texts complicate our relationships with prominent narratives about the cultures of Canada generally and Vancouver more specifically? Our analysis of will lead us to ask questions about the role of different forms of media in processes of cultural and technological change that transform society.

Arts Studies 100 is designed to introduce you to key skills in academic writing and literary analysis. Course assignments will focus on scholarly genres such as close reading, literature review, research proposal and research essays. You will also complete a personal reflection assignment, which you can turn in either in paper or as a podcast (with script) that will be shared with the class.

-ASTU 100 Sections M02 - Strange Fictions

TTh 11-12:30

Within a hyper-saturated modern media landscape that encourages passive consumption, we risk losing our skills of critical thinking. Equally, however, given endless, total access, there is a tremendous opportunity for developing a heightened media literacy—to recognize media forms each in its own terms, and as a result become a more active, discerning participant within an across media cultures. In reading a selection of experimental novels and offering an introduction to scholarly discourse, this course challenges students to become attuned to creative and academic methods of inquiry and critique, and in turn hone the crucial work of analysis and argumentation.

In what ways does Edwin A. Abbott’s proto-science fiction novel Flatland present a satire of Victorian society? How does Toni Morrison’s elliptical modernist story-telling permit renewed forms of understanding both self and other? What does Eden Robinson’s fragmented, disorienting short story “Terminal Avenue” have to say about urban Indigeneity? Our look at these and other fictional works in conjunction with relevant peer-reviewed publications will serve students in what amounts to an apprenticeship in academic research and writing. As apprentice scholars, students will craft work in a range of scholarly genres, including literature review, research proposal, conference presentation, and research paper.

Th 3:30-5

As media changes form, writers must adapt. The new media landscape is a perpetual 'wild west' that we all have a hand in creating, destroying and re-building. What potential does it hold for writers, and what limitations? In this course, you will cultivate a nuanced understanding of contemporary new media that will inform your role in shaping its future as both a writer and a digital citizen. The class considers how writing and reading are changing alongside an evolving transmedia landscape, and how new norms of audience engagement impact the way narrative is produced and received. Through multi-media lectures, discussions, guest speakers from various new media niches, in-class creative work, and writing assignments across genres, this course equips you with the critical framework and writing skills to engage meaningfully and productively with the ever-evolving faces of media. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, podcasting, blogging, trans-media, collaborative, and interactive storytelling are all on the menu. Assignments will see you confronting the necessities of writing effectively in a public, multidisciplinary, interactive context while challenging you to connect your writing with matters close to your heart.

M 2-5:30

This course prepares first-year students to pursue a critical study in cinema. Through introduction to the core fundamentals of film analysis, this course will equip students to discuss films in a critical and informed way. Students will become fluent in the terminology for identifying and examining film form and types, as well as key concepts in the field of film studies. The course will also briefly introduce students to critical categories in film study such as authors, stars, and genres.

 

Courses: Term Two

In the second term, students will continue their learning in Arts Studies, while being introduced to the studies of Visual Arts and Journalism. In addition, technical lab/workshop hours in visual arts class will equip students with the technical skills to create and critique visual media, while journalism class will introduce students to various journalistic skills and ethics.

Arts Studies spans 2 terms and is worth 6 credits. It focuses on scholarly writing and reading, including both literature and introduction to academic scholarship. This course provides an interdisciplinary foundation for academic writing and related research communicative practices within an interactive learning environment. Students will choose one out of four different sections (M01/M02/M03/M04), based on their scheduling needs and academic interests, and stay in the same section for both terms.

-ASTU 100 Sections M01, M03, M04: Empathy and Identity in Contemporary Media

M01: MWF 11-12

M03: MWF 12-1

M04: MWF 1-2

How do we make choices about the media we consume? What does it mean when we seek out a film or writing because it is relatable, or out of an interesting in experiencing the unfamiliar? In this course, we will encounter novels, essays, films, exhibitions, and podcasts that push us to re-examine the desires for self-fulfillment or identification that we bring to what we watch and read. For example, what can we learn from characters in novels by Sally Rooney or Kamila Shamsie who are, for various reasons, challenging to identify with? How do Indigenous and anti-colonial texts complicate our relationships with prominent narratives about the cultures of Canada generally and Vancouver more specifically? Our analysis of will lead us to ask questions about the role of different forms of media in processes of cultural and technological change that transform society.

Arts Studies 100 is designed to introduce you to key skills in academic writing and literary analysis. Course assignments will focus on scholarly genres such as close reading, literature review, research proposal and research essays. You will also complete a personal reflection assignment, which you can turn in either in paper or as a podcast (with script) that will be shared with the class.

-ASTU 100 Section M02 - Strange Fictions

TTh 11-12:30

Within a hyper-saturated modern media landscape that encourages passive consumption, we risk losing our skills of critical thinking. Equally, however, given endless, total access, there is a tremendous opportunity for developing a heightened media literacy—to recognize media forms each in its own terms, and as a result become a more active, discerning participant within an across media cultures. In reading a selection of experimental novels and offering an introduction to scholarly discourse, this course challenges students to become attuned to creative and academic methods of inquiry and critique, and in turn hone the crucial work of analysis and argumentation.

In what ways does Edwin A. Abbott’s proto-science fiction novel Flatland present a satire of Victorian society? How does Toni Morrison’s elliptical modernist story-telling permit renewed forms of understanding both self and other? What does Eden Robinson’s fragmented, disorienting short story “Terminal Avenue” have to say about urban Indigeneity? Our look at these and other fictional works in conjunction with relevant peer-reviewed publications will serve students in what amounts to an apprenticeship in academic research and writing. As apprentice scholars, students will craft work in a range of scholarly genres, including literature review, research proposal, conference presentation, and research paper.

M 2-3

This visual arts course on “Foundation Studio: Digital Media” covers historical, political, theoretical, and practical issues of art and image making with a focus on photography and moving images to digital media. Media literacy and the role of artistic practice will be emphasized through class work, consisting of readings, activities and discussions about the nature of images and image-making, as well as weekly lectures on historical to contemporary artists and artworks that have made significant contributions to the dialogue of the machine’s influence on representation. In this class, students will realize lens-based and digital visual art works in an informed and critical setting.

MWF 10-11

This is a first-year undergraduate course that looks at how shifts in the media landscape, the advent of new technologies, and changes in information flow are transforming the practice, profession and role of journalism. The social organization and communication features of our media-saturated world are being altered by economic, sociological and technological factors, and this course offers students an opportunity to have a better understanding of evolving media landscapes.

 

Sample Projects

Self-reflection paper/podcast
Students read stories from Legends of Vancouver, a collection of primarily Squamish stories retold by E. Pauline Johnson. They then visit the sites of selected stories in person to collect observations about the contemporary location, and compose either a written paper or a recorded podcast about the difference it makes to their understanding of this space to become aware of its Indigenous cultural significance. This assignment gives students the chance to practice the research method of autoethnography, as they learn how to frame their personal experience as a legitimate part of scholarly research in Indigenous studies and anthropology. They also have the option to add to skills they have already developed in their CRWR 213 course's podcast script assignment, by both scripting and recording a podcast which they may share with an audience of their peers.

Media object group discussion
Students write brief responses summarizing a contemporary media controversy or cultural object of their own choosing, and framing their critical response to it through Stuart Hall’s account of reception theory. These responses are uploaded to the course website and read by a group of their peers, to form the basis for a twenty-minute discussion in which only their fellow group members attend and participate. The assignment gives students a chance to apply course concepts to new contexts, to practice presenting their ideas in a low-stakes spoken format, and to build rapport with peers.

UBC’s Centre for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL) project
The Media Studies stream will be working with a media-focused community organization and working on a related media project in one or more courses.

Appropriation Project
Starting with the dissection and analysis of a chosen moving image source from popular culture, students appropriate the footage into a new video artwork. Sources are obtained from already circulating artifacts such as film, television, talk shows, commercials, news, cartoons, video games or Vlogs, and are used to create a new artwork by new juxtapositions in editing, alterations, or other effects that reveal, expose or changes the way one understands the meaning of the original footage.

Tumblr Literary Project
Students will spend the last month of the semester working primarily on the Tumblr Literary Project that marks the third and final writing assignment in this class. Through a series of weekly collaborative Tumblr Literary workshops, students will build a multimedia Tumblr site showcasing three original pieces of postcard fiction or creative non-fiction of a similar length. Sampling work from across the web, students will furnish the site with images, video, animation, and text that works to shed new light on and assign new meaning to their writing.

Group presentations
Students will be assigned in groups to present the history and context behind major new media and journalism events.

Tweeting and Blogging
Students will be assigned in groups to use Twitter and an in-class blogging tool to report on class presentations.

 

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