COMPARATIVE COMMUNICATIONS HISTORY (CM2004)

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This course provides historical background to understand how contemporary communication practices and technologies have developed and are in the process of developing and reflects on what communication has been in different human societies across time and place. It considers oral and literate cultures, the development of writing systems, of printing, and different cultural values assigned to the image. The parallel rise of mass media and modern western cultural and political forms and the manipulation and interplay of the properties and qualities conveyed by speech, sight, and sound are studied with reference to the printed book, newspapers, photography, radio, cinema, television, new media.

Code: 
CM2004
Name: 
COMPARATIVE COMMUNICATIONS HISTORY
Discipline: 
CM (Communications)
Type: 
Regular
Level: 
Undergraduate
Credits: 
4
Can be taken twice for credit?: 
No
Pre-requisites: 
EN1000 OR EN1010 OR EN2020CCE
Co-requisites: 
None

Learning Outcomes

  1. Understand the ways in which the history of human mediated communication has been studied, while focusing on the theorization of the main phases of media emergence and, in particular, of the role of technologies in shaping communication practices
  2. Understand various perspectives and positions on communications history elaborated by key communications theorists
  3. Understand how institutional actors, from dynastic empires and nation-states to corporations, and social actors and individuals have related to each other through mediated communication
  4. Understand, from a comparativst perspective, how media change takes place and with what impact in a range of historical periods and geographical locations
  5. Understand the nature and impact of media convergence in the digital age, and be able to compare the emerging digital media paradigm with earlier periods of media flux and change

Offering(s)

Term Code Name
Fall 2024 CM2004 COMPARATIVE COMMUNICATIONS HISTORY
Spring 2025 CM2004 COMPARATIVE COMMUNICATIONS HISTORY

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