3HC3 History of Communication.docx - 3HC3 History of...

3HC3 History of
Communication (C01)
Academic Year: 2022
Term: Fall
Day/Evening: D
Instructor: Dr. Derek Woods
Email: [email protected]
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Course Objectives
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Textbooks, Materials & Fees
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Method of Assessment
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Policy on Missed Work, Extensions, and Late
Penalties
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Additional Policies and Statements
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Topics and Readings
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Other Course Information

Course Objectives
Calendar Description
A survey of communication history with attention
to the Canadian context. This course will include
discussions of orality and literacy; manuscript,
print and electronic media ; and the role of gender,
race, and class in media history. Students will
engage with methodologies including archival
research , primary source analysis , and digital
humanities approaches .
Specific Course Description
This course introduces students to the history of
communication media and to the ways scholars
have written that history . Students will become
familiar with the historical development of key
media forms (including newspapers, radio,
television, and the internet ) with particular
attention to the Canadian context. We will consider
how media technologies, systems, and content
have been shaped by the societies in which they

emerged; we will learn how these communication
histories have impacted political, economic, and
cultural life. Our focus will be “active history”:
history that is still alive, shaping the present in
ways we often ignore.
As we move deeper into the semester, students
will gain an understanding of media and
communication history not as a stable narrative
but as a contested field, in which scholars argue
about how to interpret evidence about the past—
and what constitutes evidence in the first place.
The aim is to develop the “cognitive habits” of
what Lendol Calder calls “ historical mindedness ”:
“questioning, connecting, sourcing, making
inferences, considering alternate perspectives, and
recognizing the limits to one’s knowledge” (2006).
We will accomplish this aim in two main ways: 1)
examining key theories and debates in the history
of communication and media through readings,
lectures, and discussions; and 2) learning about