Media Studies

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MDIA 300 Showcase
a drawing of colourful blocks and keyboard parts stacked on each other

MDIA 200: Media in the 21st Century

Survey the field and apply its methods with media studies superfan, Dr. Jentery Sayers.
Image credit: Danielle Morgan. 

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static and glitches on a television screen

MDIA 300: Critical Media Practice

Make and think through media with acclaimed cultural critic and creative practitioner, Dr. Pierre-Luc Landry.
Image credit: Jonathan Johnson. 

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a circuit-bent Nintendo used to play Tetris on a small tv screen

MDIA 360: Game Studies

Experience what's in a game with cultural critics and scholars of play, Dr. Sara Humphreys and Dr. Jentery Sayers.
Image credit: Nina Belojevic.

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a boom box with a cassette deck, radio, and two speakers, all in black and white

MDIA 375: Cultures of Sound

Engage the social life of sound with cultural anthropologist, Mark McIntyre. 
Image credit: Austin Kirk.

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Learn the people skills of media, communication and culture. 

  • credential in Media Studies with a certificate that requires only 10.5 units of study to enrich and expand your career paths
  • take an accessible, entry-level course on the foundations of media analysis in the 21st century
  • immerse yourself in studies of games, sound and the book
  • develop practical skills in community-based media and communication

Our Spring 2025 courses

We are offering four Media Studies courses in Spring 2025. You do not need to be actively registered in our certificate program to take these courses. 

  • Media Studies 200, "Media in the 21st Century" (taught by Jentery Sayers): an introduction to media studies that surveys the cultural and material roles media play around the world, with an emphasis on building a common vocabulary for studying media (prerequisite: academic writing requirement satisfied)
  • Media Studies 300, "Critical Media Practice" (taught by Pierre-Luc Landry): a study of how audio, images, video, and text are produced around the world today, with an emphasis on the values of media practice and applying such knowledge to critical, cultural and community-based work (prerequisite: MDIA 200 and academic writing requirement satisfied)
  • Media Studies 360, "Game Studies" (taught by Jentery Sayers): surveys approaches to games around the world, from board and tabletop games to video games, alternate reality games and even sports, with an emphasis on experiential learning (prerequisite: academic writing requirement satisfied)
  • Media Studies 490, "Directed Studies": a supervised study in an area of Media Studies to be determined by the student and the instructor

News

  • Thursday, April 3rd: Media Studies 300 is screening five video essays produced by students this term. We'd love to see you there: 6:30pm in the David Clode Room. Many thanks to Pierre-Luc Landry for organizing this event, teaching MDIA 300 this term, and supporting our students in this way. 
  • Thursday, March 20th: Join us in person at 1pm for Dr. Bo Ruberg's talk, "How to Queer the World: Radical Worldbuilding through Video Games."
  • Thursday, February 27th: Join us online at 1pm for Dr. Kishonna L. Gray's 2024-25 Lansdowne Media Studies lecture on "Designing Blackness in Digital Gaming." 
  • Monday, January 6th: Welcome back, students! We're offering MDIA 200, 300, 360, and 490 this term.
  • Friday, December 13th: Thanks to everyone in Media Studies 200, 360 and 375 (Fall 2024) for another wonderful term. We've some exciting events planned for Spring 2025. Stay tuned.
  • Thursday, December 12th: Many thanks to Dr. Sara Humphreys for teaching the first-ever section of Media Studies 360, "Game Studies," this term. It was an incredible success! 
  • Tuesday, October 22nd: We're excited to announce that Dr. Candis Callison (UBC) will give a Distinguished Women Scholars Lecture at UVic on Monday, November 4th at 2:30pm in the Ceremonial Hall of the First Peoples House. Details about the event are online.
  • Tuesday, September 3rd: Today's the start of a new term and our second year as a UVic program. We're offering MDIA 200, 360 and 375 this Fall. See you there!  
  • Thursday, August 29th: We're thrilled to welcome Kaye Miller to our front office! 
  • Friday, June 14th: Congratulations to our 2023-24 MDIA grads! You are the first group of students to receive UVic's Media Studies certificate. 

We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.

Courses in 2024-25

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Links for students

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