We are thankful to be welcome on these lands in friendship. The lands we are situated on are covered by the Williams Treaties and are the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin, Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to many Indigenous nations and peoples.

We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. Most importantly, we acknowledge that the history of these lands has been tainted by poor treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.

This history is something we are all affected by because we are all treaty people in Canada. We all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it does not have to define our future.

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COMM 3720U – Knowing Your Audience: Audience Studies for Media Professionals and Creators

When we read the daily news or a classic novel, browse the latest TV shows and movies on Netflix, and scroll through Twitter and Facebook, we engage with these media forms as their “audience.” But what is an “audience” and how have ways of identifying, measuring, monetizing, targeting, influencing, impacting, interacting and studying audiences changed in relation to new media developments, from print to broadcasting to Internet search engines and social media platforms? This course is an introduction to media audience studies. Balancing between traditional and digital media audience theory and research, the course explores the many ways that media industries, researchers and creative practitioners try to know their audience: as victims of “media effects”, sovereign consumers, commodities and market segments, receivers, decoders, fans, subcultures, communities, users, data profiles, prosumers and more. Students learn how to analyze the media audience and devise their own media strategy and tactics for identifying, reaching, interacting with and influencing an audience.