York University - Department of Communication & Media Studies

Congratulations to our COMN grads!  

Congratulations to Christine Cooling & Eytan Tobin on their Dean's Award for Research Excellence (DARE) winning projects!

COMN 3900: Disinformation, Misinformation, and Conspiracy Theories

This course is a mix of deception and facts. It might be run by your professor or by a bot based somewhere else in the world. It’s designed so that you agree with it, like it, and share it across social media -- just don't fact-check it. It’s friendly but it seems a bit off. If you take this course, you’ll learn who is really controlling the media… or maybe you'll be even less certain!

COMN 3700 approaches advertising as a privileged form of communication and as central to the media. This course will explore the emergence of consumer society and the social, political and economic roles of advertising within this development with particular focus on how the promotional discourses of advertising have become entrenched in modern culture and have had ecological impacts.

Register now for COMN 2111! A course that examines embodiment – how one presents oneself, one’s body, in contact and interaction with others.

🚨Register now for COMN 2830!🚨
 
This course is a conceptual and thematic exploration of music and its capacities to shape identities and communities. Premised by the recognition that music “does something” in the world, we will critically ask: What is music and why does music matter? How does music shape us and our relations to others? What are the underpinning cultural, social, political, and economic factors that influence the creation and consumption of music? How might music allow us to imagine and make possible a more just world?
 
If you are interested in creating mixtapes, telling stories through sound, and watching live performances - this course is for you!

Image Credit: Michelle Campos Castillo

COMN 1460
Sounding off! Introducing sound studies

This course, taught by Professor Shirley Roburn, asks the question: how does sound shape our experiences of the world? This course surveys social, political, cultural, and ecological dimensions of sound and its reproduction. It addresses key debates in sound studies ranging from how corporate concentration in the music industry affects content creators across lines of race, gender, language, and ability, to the environmental impact of streaming music, to how sound shapes experiences of community and nature.

🚨New Course Alert🚨

Professor Anne MacLennan is offering a new course at the first-year level, COMN 1405 called Death, Destruction & Disease in the Media offered in the winter semester on Wednesdays. The course will examine the ways we understand war, conflict, destruction (such as climate change or terrorism), and disease as it is filtered through the media.