This course introduces students to critical approaches to social media drawing from theories and fields including software studies, platform studies, critical theory and political economy. The course provides students with tools and theories to analyze and understand current social media connectivity, and how social media platforms function as socio-cultural systems.

This course examines the policy and regulatory frameworks that shape media, culture, and technology in Canada. The course surveys the historical development of communication policy in Canada, broadly understood, and introduces students to issues and debates in the development of communication policy for specific sectors such as broadcasting, creative industries, platforms, and the internet.

This course introduces students to the strategies and processes of social innovation through usability studies, systems analysis, and artifact prototyping for new products or services for underserved groups. Students will learn various techniques of understanding user needs requirements and design methodologies, and apply this knowledge to create socially innovative prototypes to apply to real world situations. By the end of this course, students will have worked in groups to develop design alternatives for a technological artifact or system of their choosing, gain knowledge of human-centred design strategies and learn how to become change agents through case studies, best practice analyses, and relevant readings.

This course will examine the principles, theory and practice behind the production of games. By examining the history and contributions of early founders such as Atari and Activision, all the way to present-day leaders such as Electronic Arts and Sony, students will gain an understanding of how the global video game industry operates. The lectures and practical work will foster an approach to the understanding of game production issues including technology, law, marketplace and audience demand.

Technology continues to reshape the physical contours of our built environments as much as it redefines our conceptualization of how we inhabit and interact within them. This course investigates how urban form, space, infrastructure and communication are mediated by new and evolving technologies.

This course brings a gendered lens to the study of media and technology. The course explores the (re)production and (re)presentation of gender through communicative practices in a variety of mediums, including print media, TV, activist media, video games and online platforms. The course develops an understanding of gender ideologies and how media, technologies, and communication help produce gender. The course examines the way gender identities are constructed by mainstream and alternative media; gendered divisions of media and digital labour; the relationship between ICTs and the performance of gender and sexuality; masculinities, gender politics; feminist theory; and the construction and negotiation of gender in relation to mediated environments.

Information Technology (IT) Consulting is a growing profession that embodies the use of computer-supported collaborative tools in the execution of business functions. In this course students engage with the principles of Computer Supported Co-operative Work (CSCW) through an experiential opportunity to work with a real client. Students create an IT Consulting company and take on the role of consultants, learning core skills (soft and hard) necessary for this profession, including client management, communication, ideation, analysis and solution development, project management, presentation skills, and web design. Using case studies we discuss consulting lessons learned and problems to avoid within the context of industry best practices.

This foundational course is centred on the practical aspects of producing narrative, still, and time-based imagery in digital environments. Industry-standard workflows and delivery systems of digital media production, including photography, video, and audio production platforms will be explored.

This course examines digital marketing strategies and the role of online and mobile advertising platforms. Students will explore how emerging technologies are used to facilitate B2B and B2C transactions. A number of domains will be covered (search, display, programmatic trading, mobile, social, etc.) to give students a comprehensive understanding of both existing marketing strategies and emerging trends. This class will emphasize the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to digital marketing while helping students develop a greater understanding of the different elements of marketing campaigns from formulation and implementation to integration and assessment.

This course provides students with a survey of critical theories appropriate to the study of technological innovation. Students will: 1) explore theories of the social, cultural, and ecological impacts of technological innovation; 2) apply these theoretical lenses to the study of trends in innovation; and 3) propose a product or approach to innovation using social, cultural, or ecological criteria.

This course investigates the industrial practices and tools of effectively marketing and promoting goods and services online. Topics include analysis of contemporary online advertisement design, the effective use of social media technologies in product marketing, planning online campaigns that reinforce and complement existing marketing and advertising efforts, and understanding key metrics used to evaluate a campaign's effectiveness.

This course will introduce advanced standards-based frameworks that support the development of responsive front-end systems. Key concepts covered in this course include the application of advanced markup and design strategies, scripting languages applied to dynamic interactions, frameworks and code version control, and foundations of server-side implementations.

In this course students are introduced to programming languages regularly used in management operations. Students will learn what these languages are, when and why they are applied, and how to read and write basic scripting code. The goal of this course is to familiarize students with scripting so that they can communicate more effectively with programmers in business settings.

From the Orwellian Big Brother to Foucault's panopticon, surveillance has become an everyday facet of modern life. From a surveillance studies perspective surveillance can be applied as a framework for understanding social, political, and technological interrelationships. This framework can help us study more effectively power, identity, persuasion, and control associated with the spread of Information Communication Technologies (ICT's). This course will introduce students to viewpoints, vision and visibility in surveillance studies. The class will look at a range of topics from information politics, identification, privacy, security, suspicion, social sorting, bodies, borders and biometrics to explore a range of perspectives under the surveillance studies umbrella. It will introduce students to key issues surrounding data, discrimination, and visibility in a global context to undercover the watched world.

Sound as Media will provide students with an immersive introduction to the field of sound studies. The course offers a counterpoint to surveys of visual media by exploring acoustic technologies in historical, cultural and spatial context. By considering examples such as the gramophone, public address system, boombox, and MP3 player as well as the theories that account for them, students will develop an understanding of media forms that engage the ear as well as the eye. They will in turn, have the opportunity to apply this understanding to the final project which will give them hands-on experience with creating a sound-based documentary.

The transition from university studies to professional settings necessitates the articulation of how acquired skill sets, education, professional contacts, supporting resources, and related experiences connect to and influence career trajectories. To facilitate agility in navigating the ever-shifting global economy, within and outside of the classroom students are provided with a mixture of structured, self-directed, independent, and team activities that aid in the development and refinement of professional identities, community networks, communication approaches, and problem solving skills.

The course approaches current information and communication technologies from critical and historical perspectives. It investigates the interests, motives and tactics of news media, pop culture producers, amateurs, universities, corporations, and governments in promoting, sustaining, and interpreting information and communication systems. It also asks how the focus will be on media and information technologies, more theoretical or methodological readings will necessarily cover other systems. Case studies may include investigations of orality, writing, the printing press, industrialized printing, and electronic media from the telegraph and the telephone to broadcasting and the internet.

The emphasis in this course will be on theoretical, methodological, and empirical issues in the study of Human-Computer Interaction. Intelligent interface designs, usability assessment, user modeling and the accessibility of the technology for the disabled are among the topics to be examined. Related behavioural investigations concerning the ease and efficiency of users' interactions with computerized environments will also be discussed.

Audiences are social constructions which must be imagined to be actualized. Beginning with an exploration of the nature and role of audiences from early 20th century media, students explore how audiences make meaning of popular media platforms today. How are audiences situated within media texts, what role does this play in how media is generated and circulated, and how do audiences both enact and resist media influence? Broadcast models, interactive models, audience reading, gender, culture, race, and audience feedback are investigated.

This course explores the fundamentals of the process of game design through prototyping. It focuses on the contexts and components of game design, such as design iteration and user testing along relevant dimensions such as art style, narrative, and game balance. Students will be introduced to design across different genres and types of digital games, including games for education, serious games, indie, and AAA games. Working in collaborative groups, students will learn and practice the appropriate methodology to design game mechanics, characters, art assets and other appropriate deliverables in order to create a game or high-fidelity prototype.

This course introduces students to the theoretical and practical study of how interactive digital media and systems affect, influence and reshape our society and what does it mean to be a "user" in the information-centric society. It will expose students to specific theoretical issues such as privacy by design, usable privacy, marginalized and at-risk user groups, the digital divide, behavioural modification (persuasion) through new media, ICT4D (info tech for development) and empowerment/alienation through intelligent interactive systems. Focus will be on developing skills that will enable students to propose changes (design, policy, framework) to existing and future envisioned interactive technologies that address the issues analyzed.

Virtual environments, immersive 3D environments accessed via computers or virtual reality headsets, comprise a unique and futuristic communication environment. Virtual environments have the potential to support a wide variety of activities related to information creation, distribution, and reception and can support social, economic, and cultural causes. Compared to everyday information practices, however, those enacted in virtual worlds are uniquely characterized by multimodality, synchronicity, digital embodiment and geographic distribution of users. In this course, students engage in participatory learning in virtual environments, using avatars to assess how the world's technological and social affordances support and constrain information practices. Using theories of gaming, virtuality, and information lifecycles, students critically analyse how information is produced and used in these environments.

Students on International exchange programs are encouraged to seek out courses in digital media and technologies that enrich their learning within an international context. This course is intended as an opportunity for students to study global issues and contexts abroad that provide a comparator to the Canadian media and communications landscape.

An in-depth examination of selected topics in communication, culture and information technology. Topics vary from year to year, and the content in any given year depends upon the instructor. The contact hours for this course may vary in terms of contact type (L, S, T, P) from year to year, but will be between 24-36 contact hours in total. See the UTM Timetable.

This course provides an opportunity for third or higher year students to assist with the research project of a professor in return for 399H course credit. Students have an opportunity to become involved in original research and enhance their research skills. Based on the nature of the project, projects may satisfy the Humanities, Sciences or Social Sciences distribution requirement. Participating faculty members post their project description for the following summer and fall/winter session on the ROP website in mid-February and students are invited to apply at that time. See Experiential and International Opportunities for more details.

This course provides an opportunity for third or higher year students to assist with the research project of a professor in return for 399Y course credit. Students have an opportunity to become involved in original research and enhance their research skills. Based on the nature of the project, projects may satisfy the Humanities, Sciences or Social Sciences distribution requirement. Participating faculty members post their project description for the following summer and fall/winter session on the ROP website in mid-February and students are invited to apply at that time. See Experiential and International Opportunities for more details.

Majors and specialists are given the opportunity to develop a critical perspective on selected issues in CCIT. Students design and implement an advanced project on a topic of interest by engaging with advanced readings. A central aim is to refine the skills in critical analysis and in oral and written communication.

Students will carry out a research project on a topic of their choosing which is related to their specific program focus in Digital Enterprise Management. Students will meet as a group for selected seminars emphasizing advanced research skills and thesis writing. Students will develop a research proposal, conduct research, and produce a research paper.

Digital artifacts play an increasingly important role in our society. It is essential that in the digitization of these artifacts appropriate attention is paid to their representation, protection and management. Students will review the theories and practices of representation. They will investigate the technologies associated with the storage of digital artifacts as well as investigating appropriate legal perspectives. This varied knowledge will be integrated into a study of best practices in the management of digital artifacts.

Students will learn about financial aspects of digital industries. They will gain knowledge about how financial and other incentives shape the decisions of agents in the digital marketplace. Such a knowledge helps to identify industry trends aiding their own decisions when participating in Internet related industries. Topics covered include online and traditional media industries, aspects of e-commerce and marketing, open source software and crowd-sourcing. A highly effective way to gain such knowledge is by covering a relevant topic in an academic essay. This way the students will also improve their writing skills, and learn better how to cover financial aspects of their chosen topic in a scholarly manner.