200-level

COMS201
Media Audiences
Description
How does our media consumption shape our opinions, actions, identities and lives? How do audiences influence the production and circulation of media? How do we create our own media presence online, and act as an audience for each other? This course examines the relationship between audiences and media. We discuss theory and research that represents audiences as passive consumers of media products, active decoders of media texts, producers of our own representations online, and participants in interactive media production. The course looks at a broad range of media forms and content to reflect and build on your own experiences of being media audience members. "Media Audiences" will encourage you to reflect on your own relationship with media, and to consider the broader contexts that shape your listening, viewing, reading, and interaction. This course has on-campus and distance options. It has a one hour lecture and a two-hour workshop each week. The course includes group work in classes and for assessments, and requires active in-class engagement. You will advance core skills in reading and carrying out research, with reflection, collaborative work, networking, creativity, writing and presentation.
Occurrences
Semester One 2026
Semester One 2026 (Distance)
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from COMS or CULT, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
CULT201
COMS204
Advertising and Cultural Consumption
Description
Advertising has become a central component of our contemporary cultural environment that finances all of the communication industries. However, the effects of advertising may lie far outside only the funding of media systems. This course explores the relationship between advertising, consumerism, identity, the environment and citizenship. You will learn be deconstructing the system, analysing advertisements, examining the effects of advertising on identity, and looking into the rise of ethical brands and sustainability. Then will study advertising from an insider perspective, finding out how advertising agencies work and ads are created. This course has on-campus and distance options. It includes group work and requires active engagement in class, or online for distance students, to create and share work with others, in order to learn from and support each other.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Semester Two 2026 (Distance)
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from COMS, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
COMS205
Media and Politics
Description
The course provides an understanding of the role of the media in domestic and international politics. It does this by analysing key theoretical assumptions and debates on the role of media institutions in the struggle for power domestically and internationally. This course includes group work and requires active in-class engagement. It has on-campus and distance options. It features internationally-recognised top experts in the field of political communication as our guest speakers. Research, critical debate, collaborative work, networking, creativity, writing and presentation are among the core skills this course aims to advance.
Occurrences
Semester One 2026
Semester One 2026 (Distance)
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from COMS or POLS, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
POLS232
COMS208
Social Media Project
Description
In this course students will study social media as a tool of professional communication. Students will study key concepts, including networks, communities, social capital and the affordances of media, and apply them to social media content. The emphasis will be on organisational use of social media, including campaigns and the building of relationships.
Occurrences
Summer Nov 2025
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from COMS, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
COMS207; DIGI207
COMS215
Introduction to Social Analysis
Description
Data analysis is a powerful tool to investigate many important and interesting questions about societies and human behaviour. Policy decisions, your Netflix movie recommendations, or targeted advertisements on social media all rely on making sense of data. This course introduces students to basic skills of data analysis, statistical inference, and programming with a focus on applying these skills to questions in social sciences, politics, and media. Anyone can learn statistics. Graduates who can demonstrate skills in data analysis are highly valued by employers. Such skills are in demand in a wide range of sectors - public policy, public health, political campaigns, news media, business, journalism, law, communication, and information technology to name a few. This course aims to provide students with practical experience analysing and interpreting data. We will use powerful R programming language and open-source statistical software RStudio, both are employed routinely across many industries in many countries. The course requires no programming or coding experience.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100-level COMS or POLS, or any 60 points at 100-level from the Schedule V of the BA.
Restrictions
POLS215
COMS225
Politics and New Media
Description
A Facebook profile is required to take part in this course. This course is being offered at two universities at once in Finland and Aotearoa New Zealand. Students will take part in discussions with students from the other university and will be taught by academics from each university, with a tutor and lecturer at Canterbury coordinating the local version of the course. The course studies the latest developments on how public life and politics are being shaped by web-based communication. You will be asked to think critically about the globalisation of politics online, about the divisions between haves and have nots and about the ways different groups pursue their agendas online.
Occurrences
Summer Jan 2026
Summer Jan 2026 (Distance)
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
ny 15 points at 100 level from COMS, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.
COMS232
Risk and Crisis Communication
Description
This applied course introduces students to a major area of the planning of communication, the management of risk. Theories of risk, crisis and the risk society are described, before the course focuses in detail on the practice of risk communication, including communication planning, crafting messages and involving communities in collective risk decision-making. Risks explored range from individuals' health and safety, disasters, reputational crises and pervasive risks such as climate change. This course has on-campus and distance options. You will learn from professional guests, and from each other, to develop skills in evaluating and planning crisis response.
Occurrences
Semester Two 2026
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from COMS, or either ENVR101 or GEOG106, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.

Not Offered Courses in 2026

200-level

COMS228
Data Visualisation
Description
This course equips students with skills to create informative and appealing visualisations of data. Appealing and informative visuals help to communicate your ideas and results to others. Learning to create effective data visualisations also teaches you to read and critically evaluate graphs-good and bad-created by others. Students will learn about the fundamental principles of effective data visualisation and different ways to visualise data, including mapping and interactive graphs. Data visualisation skills are in demand in a wide range of sectors - strategic communication, public policy, political campaigns, news media, business, journalism, and information technology to name a few. We will use popular and powerful open-source statistical software RStudio and ggplot package, which are employed routinely across many industries in many countries. This course requires no programming or coding experience.
Occurrences
Not offered 2026, offered in 2024
For further information see COMS228 course details
Points
15 points
COMS232
Risk and Crisis Communication
Description
This applied course introduces students to a major area of the planning of communication, the management of risk. Theories of risk, crisis and the risk society are described, before the course focuses in detail on the practice of risk communication, including communication planning, crafting messages and involving communities in collective risk decision-making. Risks explored range from individuals' health and safety, disasters, reputational crises and pervasive risks such as climate change. This course has on-campus and distance options. You will learn from professional guests, and from each other, to develop skills in evaluating and planning crisis response.
Occurrences
COMS232-26S2 (D)
Semester Two 2026 (Distance) - Not offered
For further information see COMS232 course details
Points
15 points
Prerequisites
Any 15 points at 100 level from COMS, or either ENVR101 or GEOG106, or any 60 points at 100 level from the Schedule V of the BA.