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This two-year interdisciplinary diploma program offers students a range of courses from a number of departments, including Anthropology, Communications, English, Geography, Sociology, and Women's Studies. Students will examine the rich interrelationship between media and culture in contemporary society and will explore how culture is produced, commodified, communicated, regulated, and consumed.
Completion of this diploma can lead to advanced study in Arts, Communications, or Media at universities in BC or other provinces, or it can act as a foundation for the workplace and for potential careers in public relations, marketing, journalism, advertising, research, writing, publishing, consulting, or communications.
Regular Applicants: A regular applicant will be a secondary graduate or a secondary school student, or its equivalent, who has or who will complete the requirements for senior secondary graduation, or its equivalent, not less than one month prior to commencement of classes for the semester to which admission is sought - either fall or winter. The following minimum entrance requirements will apply to regular applicants:
B.C. secondary graduation, or equivalent.
English Entrance Requirement: Minimum grade of 60% in one of: English 12, English 12 First Peoples or TPC 12 (Technical and Professional Communications), or an equivalent Provincial Level Adult Basic Education English; or a minimum score of 24/40 (level 4) on the LPI (Language Proficiency Index). Note: Communications 12 is not acceptable.
Students with a passing grade of less than 60% in English 12, English 12 First Peoples or TPC 12 will be admissible to the first year of the program, subject to the following conditions:
Registration is restricted to courses for which the student satisfies the prerequisites. Registration in first-year English courses is, therefore, prohibited.
Successful completion of the English entrance requirements within the first year of studies. This may be done in one of the following ways:
Successful completion of English 12, English 12 First Peoples or TPC 12 or an equivalent course with a minimum grade of 60%. This may be done concurrently through the College's Adult Basic Education Program or by completing an equivalent course through a distance education program.
Writing the LPI and obtaining a score of at least 24/40 (level 4).
Mature Applicants: A mature applicant will be at least 19 years of age and will not have attended secondary school on a full-time basis for a minimum period of one year.
Secondary graduation is waived for mature applicants. The English entrance requirements, as stated above, must be satisfied prior to admission. Admission may be granted on the condition that the entrance requirements will be completed prior to the commencement of classes for the semester to which admission is sought - either fall or winter.
The Diploma in Media and Cultural Studies will be granted upon the successful completion of 60 prescribed credits, including eighteen credits in Communications, twelve credits in English, twelve credits in Sociology, nine credits in Women's Studies, six credits in Geography, and three credits in Anthropology.
ANTH 121-3-3Introduction to Cultural AnthropologyTopics include the history of anthropology, problems in anthropological fieldwork and the definition of culture. The social, economic, political and religious systems of non-industrial societies will be presented, with examples from around the world. (3,0,0)
Also offered by Distance Education
CMNS 100-3-3Introduction to CommunicationsThis course provides students with an introduction to communications theory. Surveying historical and contemporary theories, the course will offer a critical examination of the ways people communicate with each other via print and/or new media, orally, interpersonally, and visually. Students will analyse meaning-making in a range of mediated contexts, including advertising, television, film, popular culture, and the Internet. (3,0,0)
CMNS 110-3-3Introduction to Mass CommunicationThis course examines the history, structure, institutions, and processes of the print, audio, visual, and digital sectors of the mass media. Central to our examination is the interrelation between mass media, technology, culture, and power. Students will explore issues related to regulation, freedom of expression, globalization, and commodification of meaning. (3,0,0)
ENGL 153-3-3Critical Writing and Reading: NarrativeThis course is for students who have demonstrated secondary-school-level competence in the reading and essay writing skills required by most university disciplines. Reading and writing assignments will concentrate on a variety of narrative forms including anecdotes, autobiography, biography, diaries, films, histories, myths, narrative poems, novels and songs, and will emphasize the processes of reading, analysis, reasoning, documentation and the stages of the writing process. (3,0,0)
Prerequisites:
SOCI 111-3-3Introduction to Sociology IThe basic questions that sociologists ask to understand how society influences human behaviour are: What is the relationship between individuals and society? What is our social nature? Why is there inequality in the world? What causes social change? How does socialization, the groups we belong to, and the way society is organized and structured affect the way we think and act? The subject matter of sociology ranges from the intimate family to the global corporate elite; from crime to religion; from the divisions of race, gender and social class to the shared beliefs of a common culture; from the sociology of work, education and health, to the sociology of violence. This course will explore some of these topics and introduce the way sociologists gather information and explain social behaviour. (3,0,0)
SOCI 121-3-3Introduction to Sociology IIA further examination of the relationship between individuals and society, and the theories and methods sociologists use to examine social life. Topics may include an analysis of gender relationships, race and ethnicity, families and the intimate environment, education, work, media and technology, inequality and power, crime and deviance, the impact of population changes, the structure of the economy, politics and the state, globalization, conflict, and social change. (3,0,0)
WMST 100-3-3Introduction to Women's Studiesformerly WMST 212This course surveys the cross-cultural and historical philosophies of women's studies and what they have initiated, including feminist activism and men's movements. Through theoretical analysis, research, history and literary sources students will consider how gender is constructed across race, ethnicity, sexuality, (dis)ability, age and geographical location, to understand how women's lives are changed through socialization, ideology, and institutions. (3,0,0)
ENGL 100-3-3University WritingThis course is for students who have demonstrated secondary-school-level competence in the reading and essay writing skills required by most university disciplines. Reading and writing assignments will concentrate on non-fictional prose, and will emphasize the processes of reading, analysis, reasoning, documentation and the stages of the writing process. Students with credit for ENGL 199 may not take ENGL 100 for further credit. (3,0,0)
ENGL 151-3-3Critical Writing and Reading: Short Fiction and the NovelThis course is for students who have demonstrated secondary-school-level competence in the reading and essay writing skills required by most university disciplines. Reading and writing assignments will concentrate on short fiction and the novel, and will emphasize the processes of reading, analysis, reasoning, documentation and the stages of the writing process. (3,0,0)
ENGL 199-3-3Arts Studies in EnglishThis course introduces students to the research culture of post-secondary institutions, with an emphasis on how language, arguments, evidence and even the way questions are posed can differ from one academic field to another. By examining how and why scholars enter into conversation with each other, students will learn how to enter into these discussions themselves through an examination of writing and analysis from at least three disciplines. Students with credit for ENGL 100 may not take ENGL 199 for further credit. (Arts students who plan on transferring to UBC-Vancouver require UBC's ASTU 150, which may be satisfied by successfully completing Okanagan College ENGL 199.) (3,0,0)
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GEOG 117-3-3Introduction to Human Geography IThis course provides an introduction to the concepts, methods, modes of explanation, and recent critical changes in the study of human geography. The course focuses on interpretation and explanation of spatial variations resulting from human culture, social and economic behaviour. (3,0,0)
GEOG 128-3-3Human Geography: Space, Place and CommunityThis course provides a critical introduction to the study and application of the major themes of human geography including historical, regional, urban, social and cultural geographies. It draws upon a range of geographic research methods to investigate geographic phenomena, especially human-environment relations. Students with credit for GEOG 117 cannot take GEOG 128 for further credit. (3,0,0)
GEOG 127-3-3Introduction to Human Geography IIThis course provides a critical introduction to the study and application of the major themes of human geography including historical, regional, urban, political, social and cultural geographies. Investigations of local and distant environments are included using quantitative and qualitative methods at various scales. (3,0,0)
GEOG 129-3-3Human Geography: Resources, Development and SocietyThis course provides an introduction to the concepts, methods, modes of explanation, and recent critical changes in the study of human geography. The course focuses on the interpretation and explanation of geographic variations arising within the contexts of rapidly changing cultural, demographic, economic, political and social phenomena and their relationship to the environment. Students with credit for GEOG 127 cannot take GEOG 129 for further credit. (3,0,0)
ENGL 215-3-3Studies in Reading FilmAn introduction to film as narrative. This course will examine the nature, characteristics, and language of film in relation to various film genres that are current today. Students are required to pay a modest material fee for this course at the time of registration. (3,0,0)
ENGL 231-3-3Studies in Popular NarrativeAn introduction to popular literary genres, including detective fiction, science fiction, romance, gothic fiction, horror fiction and fantasy. Students will examine the relationship between socio-political formations and literature. Discussions of form will include a study of narrative methods and fictional techniques. (3,0,0)
SOCI 216-3-3Media and SocietyExamination of the form and content of mass communication in contemporary society. The relationship between culture, social behaviour and public channels of communication such as the news, advertising, television, film and popular literature will be subject to critical and contextual analysis. (3,0,0)
SOCI 217-3-3Consumer SocietyThis course introduces students to classical and contemporary theories of modern consumption and examines recent research on consumer society. Students will be able to think critically about modern consumption, decipher the theoretical language that frames the current research on consumption, and identify what is at stake in the discussion of that research. (3,0,0)
WMST 215-3-3Women and Popular Cultureformerly WMST 111This course examines how women are represented in a variety of genres in popular culture (for example, television, advertising, music, fiction, film and the Internet). Students will engage in an analysis of the historical, social and cultural contexts which influence the representation of women in popular culture. The social and personal implications of these representations will be explored as well as the extent to which these media can be used to provoke social and personal change. (3,0,0)
WMST 216-3-3Feminism and FilmThis course will explore theoretical and practical points of contact between feminism and film. It will examine various feminist approaches to the study and production of film including, but not limited to, psychoanalysis, narrative and ideological analysis as well as semiotic, material or cultural studies. Students will learn how to read film, currently one of our most powerful cultural technologies. (3,0,0)
CMNS 200-3-3Communications in the EverydayThis course focuses on the relationship between language and our everyday experience of the world. In particular, language as a symbolic system of meaning and its influence on our thinking, our beliefs, our desires, our emotions, and our relationships will be examined. The function of language in relation to power, discourse communities, and the formation of identity will be studied. (3,0,0)
CMNS 230-3-3Communication and CultureThis course focuses on the major approaches to studying and understanding communication. It will explore the diverse cultural, historical, and intellectual contexts from which various theoretical currents have emerged. This course will enable students to critically question and understand how meaning is created in both mainstream and marginalized communities. (3,0,0)
CMNS 240-3-3The Culture of TelevisionThis course examines the medium of Television as a cultural icon, a significant reflector and determinant of cultural moods and ideas, and as the dominant communications medium of the twentieth century and beyond. Emphasis will be placed on interrogating televisual programming and advertising, and charting Television's rise to media ascendancy. (3,0,0)
CMNS 250-3-3Cultural Industries in CanadaThis course introduces students to the Canadian media and cultural industries. It explores the history, structure, economics, and regulatory policies of Canada's mass media sectors. Topics include: the role and definition of culture; public versus private control of culture; cultural industries and national (and regional) identity; the right of creators of cultural products versus distributors; and Canadian cultural industries and products globally. (3,0,0)
CMNS 260-3-3Topics in CommunicationsThis course is an examination of selected topics in Communications. Topics may include: popular music and society, film studies, visual communication, language and gender, and language and culture. Consult with the department for current offerings. With different topics this course may be taken more than once. (3,0,0)
CMNS 270-3-3New MediaThis course offers a socio-historical examination of the technology of new media, surveying critical theories to understand the relationship between Information Technology (IT) and materialism, consumerism, and cultural identity at multiple levels of social engagement. The role of IT in the evolution of communication practices in contemporary life will be examined. (3,0,0)
CMNS 280-3-3Applied CommunicationThis course focuses on the theory and practice necessary to producing professional, client-based documents such as analytical research reports, public relations resources, or marketing materials. Students will work through the production process typical of the given project: developing proposals, planning the project, completing theoretical and empirical research, developing a conceptual framework, organizing materials, designing visuals, and managing production. (3,0,0)
CMNS 290-3-3Introduction to Video Game StudiesWhile highly popular, video games are probably the least understoond, theorized and explored form of media. This course will look at video games as a cultural phenomenon. While refilecting on concepts such as race, class, identity and gender, this course examines the contexts and content of video games and their impact on players, audiences, and society. (3,0,0)