Media in the 21st Century

Media Studies 200: Intro to Media Studies
Intended for 60 undergraduate students
Fall 2025 at the University of Victoria
M and Th, 10 - 11:20am | 1.5 units | prereq: AWR
Taught by Jentery Sayers (he | him) | jentery@uvic.ca
Office hours: Th, 12-1pm, in CLE D331
Teaching assistant (marking): Maya Wei Yan Linsley (she | any)

Portfolio

This portfolio covers all material from MDIA 200. Your response is due via Brightspace by Thursday, December 11th at 10am, with a 24-hour grace period until Friday, December 12th at 10am.

The portfolio is open-book, meaning you are allowed to use handouts, the course website, my slides, your notes, recordings of class sessions, the library, and the internet to address the prompts.

Format

This open-book assignment contains one prompt, and you may respond to it in one of two ways:

• Option 1: text plus images and/or audio, using no more than 1250 words
• Option 2: 5-12 minutes of video or audio

Your response is worth 100 points and 25% of your final grade.

The Prompt

Tell someone you know what you learned in this course by sharing samples of your work, demonstrating your knowledge of media, and communicating your primary interests in Media Studies.

• Identify someone you know who is interested in what you’re learning. This person cannot be me. They could be a friend, family member, partner, (potential) employer, UVic student or instructor, elder, (potential) collaborator . . . The choice is yours, as long as you engage only one interlocutor in interpersonal communication.
• Select four answers you composed in response to prompts from Worksheets 1-4. You needn’t select one answer from each of the four worksheets; however, your four selections should address the course’s three modules of study: “Communication,” “Media,” and “Approaches.” I recommend selecting four answers that taught you a lot about yourself and the course topics. I also recommend demonstrating a range of learning (over time, across topics, through various media).
• Share your work with your interlocutor by including samples of all four answers. Include parts of the answers themselves and point your interlocutor to aspects of them. Showcase what you did and what you learned. Use your work to spark conversation with your interlocutor. You might ask each other questions and (with their consent) use media to document your interlocutor’s participation, observations, and responses.
• Demonstrate your knowledge of media by using terminology, techniques, and practices from MDIA 200 in ways your interlocutor would understand. Meet them where they are and decode things for them if need be.
• Communicate your primary interests in Media Studies by selecting one critical approach (see Appendix A) we studied this term that appeals most to you. Explain that approach and convey its relevance to work you might do in the future. Give your interlocutor a palpable sense of how and where you could apply what you learned in MDIA 200.

Your response to this prompt should be synthetic. Avoid lists and point form. Construct a narrative or theme that brings the material together in a way that engages your interlocutor on an interpersonal, one-to-one level. The response should be more about you and your learning than the course itself, and it should sound like (part of) a genuine dialogue rather than an advertisement for MDIA 200.

You needn’t name, describe, photograph, or record your interlocutor; however, I should be able to infer who they are to you based on how you communicate with them in response to this prompt. Use references and language that make that relationship clear.

Assessment

I will use the following criteria and UVic’s official grading system to assess your response.

The degree to which your response:

• Addresses the prompt.
• Applies course terminology, techniques, and practices to demonstrate what you know and what you learned.
• Contains a variety of media that demonstrate what you know and what you learned.
• Communicates what you learned from critical media practice in this course.
• Communicates what you learned from critical media analysis in this course.
• Synthesizes what you learned in this course.
• Demonstrates an awareness of your interlocutor and how you’re communicating with them.
• Demonstrates and communicates how you might apply what you learned in this course.
• Makes compelling use of concrete examples across a range of what’s available (over time, across topics, through various media).

For Option 1: 5 points will be deducted for every 250 words over the prescribed word count.

For Option 2: 5 points will be deducted for every minute your video or audio file exceeds 12 minutes.

The total of these points (0-100) will constitute 25% of your final mark in this course.

You do not need to meet the word count or 12-minute mark to earn a high grade on this assignment.

What to Submit

Please submit a DOCX, ODT, PAGES, PDF, MP4, MOV, MP3, and/or WAV file containing your response. You are also welcome to attach media files to your submission in Brightspace.

Do not use a platform other than Brightspace to submit and share your materials.

When to Submit It

Your portfolio is due by 10am on Thursday, December 11th, but there’s a no-penalty grace period until 10am on Friday, December 12th.

I will deduct five points for every business day that I receive your portfolio after Friday, December 12th at 10am. I will close the submission portal at 10am on Tuesday, December 16th and cannot accept any submissions after the portal is closed. Thank you for understanding.

Appendix A

Ten approaches to Media Studies that we engaged in this course:

1. Media Effects (direct, minimal, third-person)
2. Ownership Effects (neoliberalism, monopolization, regulation)
3. Cultural Studies (habits of belief, perception, and performance)
4. Media Aesthetics (composition, interaction, experience, feeling)
5. Semiotics (icon, index, symbol, codes, discourse)
6. Rhetoric (logos, ethos, pathos, kairos, procedural)
7. Representation and Intersectionality (stereotypes, positionality, social and personal identities)
8. Narrative (equilibrium, linear and nonlinear narratives, environmental storytelling)
9. Fandom (fanwork, participatory culture, transformative work)
10. Preservation (replicating, refreshing, migration, emulation, collection)