Media Studies Option
Digital Media and Journalism

Program Co-ordinator: David Haskell, PhD, dhaskell@wlu.ca

The Media Studies Option recognizes that the study of media is an integral part of contemporary studies. The ability to understand our contemporary world is informed, in a way quite different from our ancestors, by the ways it is mediated; we largely understand it through images shaped by complex, often commercially and politically influenced processes of production and distribution. Studying media literacy in the context of contemporary studies provides a framework to access, analyze, evaluate and create messages in a variety of forms — from print to video to the Internet. It builds an understanding of the role of media in society as well as essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy.