Twin Cities campus

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Twin Cities Campus

Communication Studies B.A.

Communication Studies
College of Liberal Arts
  • Program Type: Baccalaureate
  • Requirements for this program are current for Fall 2023
  • Required credits to graduate with this degree: 120
  • Required credits within the major: 34
  • Degree: Bachelor of Arts
This program examines human communication using humanistic and social scientific methods. Fields of study include speech writing, rhetorical criticism, ethics, interpersonal, small group, organizational, intercultural, and electronic (broadcasting, cable, satellite, internet) forms of communication. Students are strongly encouraged to declare their major during the first or second year. Students intending to declare a communication studies major must first meet with an a communication studies advisor in 274 Ford Hall.
Program Delivery
This program is available:
  • via classroom (the majority of instruction is face-to-face)
Admission Requirements
For information about University of Minnesota admission requirements, visit the Office of Admissions website.
General Requirements
All students in baccalaureate degree programs are required to complete general University and college requirements including writing and liberal education courses. For more information about University-wide requirements, see the liberal education requirements. Required courses for the major, minor or certificate in which a student receives a D grade (with or without plus or minus) do not count toward the major, minor or certificate (including transfer courses).
Program Requirements
Students are required to complete 4 semester(s) of any second language. with a grade of C-, or better, or S, or demonstrate proficiency in the language(s) as defined by the department or college.
All CLA BA degrees require 18 upper-division (3xxx-level or higher) credits outside the major designator. These credits must be taken in designators different from the major designator and cannot include courses that are cross-listed with the major designator. The major designator for the communication studies BA is COMM. At least 14 upper-division credits in the major must be taken at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. Students may earn a bachelor of arts or a minor in communication studies, but not both. All incoming CLA first-year (freshmen) must complete the First-Year Experience course sequence. All incoming CLA first-year (freshmen) students earning a BA, BS, or BIS degree must complete the second-year career management course CLA 3002. All students must complete a capstone in at least one CLA major. The requirements for double majors completing the capstone in a different CLA major will be clearly stated. Students must also complete all major requirements in both majors to allow the additional capstone to be waived. Student completing an addition degree must complete the capstone in each degree area.
Foundation Courses
Take exactly 2 course(s) totaling exactly 6 credit(s) from the following:
· COMM 1101 - Introduction to Public Speaking [CIV] (3.0 cr)
or COMM 1101H - Honors: Introduction to Public Speaking [CIV] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 1313W - Analysis of Argument [WI] (3.0 cr)
Core Courses
Take exactly 3 course(s) totaling exactly 9 credit(s) from the following:
· COMM 3211 - Introduction to Media Studies (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3401 - Introduction to Communication Theory (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3601 - Introduction to Rhetorical Theory (3.0 cr)
Performative Elective
Take exactly 1 course(s) totaling 3 - 4 credit(s) from the following:
· COMM 3201 - Introduction to Electronic Media Production (4.0 cr)
· COMM 3202 - Audio Production and Media Literacy (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3204 - Advanced Electronic Media Production (4.0 cr)
· COMM 3411 - Introduction to Small Group Communication (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3422 - Interviewing and Communication (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3605W - Persuasive Speaking and Speech Writing [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3614 - Advanced Public Policy and Debate (3.0 cr)
· Course must be taken for at least 3 credits to count toward this requirement.
· COMM 3994 - Directed Research (1.0-3.0 cr)
Research Experience Course
Students must complete COMM 1313W before enrolling in a Research Experience Course.
Take exactly 1 course(s) totaling 3 - 4 credit(s) from the following:
· COMM 3263W - Media Literacy: Decoding Media Images and Messages [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3451W - Intercultural Communication: Theory and Practice [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3615W - Argumentation [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3635W - Famous Speeches [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3645W - How Pictures Persuade [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3676W - Communicating Terrorism [GP, WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3681W - Rhetorical Fictions and 20th Century Conflicts [LITR, GP, WI] (4.0 cr)
· COMM 3682W - Communicating War [AH, CIV, WI] (3.0 cr)
Communication Studies Electives
The amount of Communication Studies Electives required will depend on the amount of credits taken to fulfill the Performative Elective and Research Experience Course requirements.
Take 12 - 15 credit(s) from the following:
COMM 19xx
Take 0 - 1 course(s) totaling 0 - 3 credit(s) from the following:
· COMM 19xx - Freshman Seminar
· COMM 3xxx
Take 0 or more course(s) from the following:
· COMM 3190H - Honors Course: Research Seminar in Communication (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3201 - Introduction to Electronic Media Production (4.0 cr)
· COMM 3202 - Audio Production and Media Literacy (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3204 - Advanced Electronic Media Production (4.0 cr)
· COMM 3211 - Introduction to Media Studies (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3221 - Musical Communication (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3231 - Reality TV: History, Culture, and Economics (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3263W - Media Literacy: Decoding Media Images and Messages [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3401 - Introduction to Communication Theory (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3402 - Introduction to Interpersonal Communication (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3405 - Language and Gender (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3409 - Nonverbal Communication [SOCS] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3411 - Introduction to Small Group Communication (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3422 - Interviewing and Communication (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3431 - Persuasion Theories (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3441 - Introduction to Organizational Communication (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3451W - Intercultural Communication: Theory and Practice [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3601 - Introduction to Rhetorical Theory (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3605W - Persuasive Speaking and Speech Writing [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3614 - Advanced Public Policy and Debate (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3615W - Argumentation [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3625W - Communication Ethics [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3631 - Freedom of Speech [CIV] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3635W - Famous Speeches [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3645W - How Pictures Persuade [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3666 - Greek Intellectual Revolution (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3676W - Communicating Terrorism [GP, WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3681W - Rhetorical Fictions and 20th Century Conflicts [LITR, GP, WI] (4.0 cr)
· COMM 3682W - Communicating War [AH, CIV, WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3896 - Internship for Academic Credit (1.0-4.0 cr)
· COMM 3110 - Topics in Communication Studies (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3341 - Asian American Images [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
or AAS 3341 - Asian American Images [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3351 - Asian Americans and Popular Culture [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
or AAS 3351 - Asian Americans and Popular Culture [AH, DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· Directed Study and Research
If selected as an elective, take no more than 3 credits combined from either of the following courses:
Take 0 - 3 credit(s) from the following:
· COMM 3993 - Directed Study (1.0-3.0 cr)
or COMM 3996 - Directed Instruction (3.0 cr)
or COMM 3994 - Directed Research (1.0-3.0 cr)
· COMM 4xxx and 5xxx
Take 1 or more course(s) totaling 3 or more credit(s) from the following:
· COMM 4204 - Producing for Television: Theory and Practice (4.0 cr)
· COMM 4235 - Electronic Media and Ethnic Minorities--A World View (3.0 cr)
· COMM 4251 - Environmental Communication [ENV] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 4263 - Feminist Media Studies [DSJ] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 4291 - New Telecommunication Media (3.0 cr)
· COMM 4404W - Language Borderlands [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 4407 - Communication and Conflict (3.0 cr)
· COMM 4461 - Prosocial Communication and Health (3.0 cr)
· COMM 4471 - Communication in Marriage and Family (3.0 cr)
· COMM 4602W - Contemporary Political Persuasion [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 4616 - African American Civil Rights Rhetoric (3.0 cr)
· COMM 4621W - Rhetoric of Feminism [DSJ, WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5110 - Special Topics in Communication Theory (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5211 - Critical Media Studies: Theory and Methods (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5221 - Media, Race, and Identity (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5231 - Media Outlaws (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5261 - Political Economy of Media Culture (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5411 - Small Group Communication Research (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5431 - The Process of Persuasion (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5441 - Communication in Human Organizations (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5451W - Intercultural Communication Processes [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5611 - Survey of Rhetorical Theory (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5615W - Introduction to Rhetorical Criticism [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5617 - History and Criticism of U.S. Public Discourse: 1630-1865 (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5994 - Communication Research Practicum (1.0-3.0 cr)
Capstone
The Capstone is fulfilled by completing a project. Students seeking honors in communication studies may fulfill the capstone requirement with the honors thesis. Students must complete at least one Research Experience Course and two Core Courses prior to enrollment. Students who double major and choose to complete the capstone requirement in their other major may waive the communication studies BA capstone, and they do not need to replace the 1 credit.
Capstone Project
Take COMM 3999W concurrently with any COMM 4xxx or 5xxx course. Students must complete at least one Research Experience Course and two Core Courses prior to enrollment.
Take exactly 1 course(s) totaling exactly 1 credit(s) from the following:
· COMM 3999W - Capstone Project [WI] (1.0 cr)
Upper Division Writing Intensive within the Major
Students are required to take one upper division writing intensive course within the major. If that requirement has not been satisfied within the core major requirements, students must choose one course from the following list. Some of these courses may also fulfill other major requirements.
Take 0 - 1 course(s) from the following:
· COMM 3263W - Media Literacy: Decoding Media Images and Messages [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3451W - Intercultural Communication: Theory and Practice [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3605W - Persuasive Speaking and Speech Writing [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3635W - Famous Speeches [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3645W - How Pictures Persuade [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3676W - Communicating Terrorism [GP, WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3681W - Rhetorical Fictions and 20th Century Conflicts [LITR, GP, WI] (4.0 cr)
· COMM 3682W - Communicating War [AH, CIV, WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 3999W - Capstone Project [WI] (1.0 cr)
· COMM 4404W - Language Borderlands [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 4602W - Contemporary Political Persuasion [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 4621W - Rhetoric of Feminism [DSJ, WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5451W - Intercultural Communication Processes [WI] (3.0 cr)
· COMM 5615W - Introduction to Rhetorical Criticism [WI] (3.0 cr)
 
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COMM 1101 - Introduction to Public Speaking (CIV)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Comm 1101/Comm 1101H/PSTL 1461
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Public communication processes, elements, and ethics. Criticism of and response to public discourse. Practice in individual speaking designed to encourage civic participation.
COMM 1101H - Honors: Introduction to Public Speaking (CIV)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Comm 1101/Comm 1101H/PSTL 1461
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Public communication processes, elements, and ethics. Criticism of and response to public discourse. Practice in individual speaking designed to encourage civic participation. prereq: Honors
COMM 1313W - Analysis of Argument (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Strategies for analyzing, evaluating, generating arguments. Problems in listening/responding to argument.
COMM 3211 - Introduction to Media Studies
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Historical development and current issues in electronic media technologies and programming. Effects of governmental, industrial, and public organizations on message content. Problem areas of electronic media.
COMM 3401 - Introduction to Communication Theory
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Social scientific theory in human communication. Logic of scientific communication theories in interpersonal, small group, organizational, intercultural, and mediated communication.
COMM 3601 - Introduction to Rhetorical Theory
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Theoretical systems to explain/direct creation of public discourse. Traditional rhetoric to contemporary perspectives. Using theory to explain practice of public discourse.
COMM 3201 - Introduction to Electronic Media Production
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Students work as a team to plan, script, and shoot video productions in a hands-on multi-camera television studio. By creating their own productions and reviewing the productions of others, students learn how media aesthetics shape the presentation of themes and messages.
COMM 3202 - Audio Production and Media Literacy
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Introductory experience with sound design and production in podcasting, soundscape composition, music, and film. How sound advances media narratives and communicates emotion. The role sound plays in the producer's and audience's construction of worlds. Field recording, Foley work, vocal recording, music, and team production of longform nonfiction narrative podcast.
COMM 3204 - Advanced Electronic Media Production
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Video as communicative medium integrating visual/aural aesthetics. Creation of broadcast-quality production integrating message creation, audience analysis, argument development, and visual/audio scripting. Utilization of media aesthetics to develop/shape production content. prereq: 3201 or instr consent
COMM 3411 - Introduction to Small Group Communication
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Cooperative thinking in task-oriented groups. Planning, preparing for, and participating in small groups in private and public contexts.
COMM 3422 - Interviewing and Communication
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Application of communication concepts in information interview. Planning, conducting, and evaluating informational, journalistic/elite, helping, persuasive, appraisal, and employment interviews. Class training, field experience.
COMM 3605W - Persuasive Speaking and Speech Writing (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Performance/composition with critical inquiry into rhetoric theories. Writing, thinking, and speaking skills. prereq: 1101, soph
COMM 3614 - Advanced Public Policy and Debate
Credits: 3.0 [max 6.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Instruction in advanced theories and practices of both public and NDT/CEDA policy debate.
COMM 3994 - Directed Research
Credits: 1.0 -3.0 [max 6.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
How communication research is designed, implemented, and published. Focus is on working with senior faculty on their current research projects.
COMM 3263W - Media Literacy: Decoding Media Images and Messages (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Analysis of media images/messages. Principles of literacy. Media content/industries. Media and identity. Media effects. Textbook/packet readings, videos, small groups of peer writing workshops, media analyses.
COMM 3451W - Intercultural Communication: Theory and Practice (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Theories of and factors influencing intercultural communication. Development of effective intercultural communication skills. prereq: Planning an intercultural experience
COMM 3615W - Argumentation (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
This course explores how arguments help us manage uncertainties in various contexts, straddling the space between inquiry (knowledge making), and advocacy (change making). By combining theory and practice, the class provides students with strategies for thoughtfully analyzing and producing critical judgments. It cultivates their ability to read critically and charitably, to write and argue creatively, cogently and appropriately, and to participate ethically and constructively in various deliberative environments.
COMM 3635W - Famous Speeches (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall
Speeches that became famous because of the occasion, issue, or speaker. Students analyze texts, research the issue¿s history and the speaker¿s biography/opposition, and evaluate the speech's artistry, ethical principles, effects on society, and contribution to history of ideas.
COMM 3645W - How Pictures Persuade (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall
How words/pictures interact in graphic memoirs, political cartoons, and science to create/communicate meaning. How this interaction bears on public advocacy. Reading examples of comprehensive cognitive model of visual communication.
COMM 3676W - Communicating Terrorism (GP, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Terrorism as an ethical and international problem. Different cultures' historical trajectories for terrorism. Contrasts between Algerian, Irish, and Arab terrorism.
COMM 3681W - Rhetorical Fictions and 20th Century Conflicts (LITR, GP, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Analysis of selected 20th-century documentary novels. Nature of artistic truth in relation to historical truth. Cross-cultural comparisons of responses to impact of Anglo-American policies.
COMM 3682W - Communicating War (AH, CIV, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Claim: if ethics (right/wrong) exists in war, then right/wrong exist everywhere. Students experience this claim through its expression in various arts/humanities media of history, memoir, philosophical meditation, and film.
COMM 3190H - Honors Course: Research Seminar in Communication
Credits: 3.0 [max 6.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Students conduct original research in rhetoric, communication theory, or media for honors thesis. Theory, methods, research writing. prereq: Honors candidate in comm, instr consent, dept consent
COMM 3201 - Introduction to Electronic Media Production
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Students work as a team to plan, script, and shoot video productions in a hands-on multi-camera television studio. By creating their own productions and reviewing the productions of others, students learn how media aesthetics shape the presentation of themes and messages.
COMM 3202 - Audio Production and Media Literacy
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Introductory experience with sound design and production in podcasting, soundscape composition, music, and film. How sound advances media narratives and communicates emotion. The role sound plays in the producer's and audience's construction of worlds. Field recording, Foley work, vocal recording, music, and team production of longform nonfiction narrative podcast.
COMM 3204 - Advanced Electronic Media Production
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Video as communicative medium integrating visual/aural aesthetics. Creation of broadcast-quality production integrating message creation, audience analysis, argument development, and visual/audio scripting. Utilization of media aesthetics to develop/shape production content. prereq: 3201 or instr consent
COMM 3211 - Introduction to Media Studies
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Historical development and current issues in electronic media technologies and programming. Effects of governmental, industrial, and public organizations on message content. Problem areas of electronic media.
COMM 3221 - Musical Communication
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
A critical media studies perspective on the production, distribution, consumption, circulation, and regulation of popular music.
COMM 3231 - Reality TV: History, Culture, and Economics
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Social, visual, cultural, economic, historical, and ethical dimensions of reality television.
COMM 3263W - Media Literacy: Decoding Media Images and Messages (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Analysis of media images/messages. Principles of literacy. Media content/industries. Media and identity. Media effects. Textbook/packet readings, videos, small groups of peer writing workshops, media analyses.
COMM 3401 - Introduction to Communication Theory
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Social scientific theory in human communication. Logic of scientific communication theories in interpersonal, small group, organizational, intercultural, and mediated communication.
COMM 3402 - Introduction to Interpersonal Communication
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Nature and function of communication between individuals in formal and informal relationships. Communicative interactions from theoretical and practical viewpoints.
COMM 3405 - Language and Gender
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Comm 3405/WoSt 3305
Typically offered: Periodic Spring
Gender/communication. Interdisciplinary theory. Role of communication in creating, maintaining, reinforcing, and changing gender relations in society.
COMM 3409 - Nonverbal Communication (SOCS)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Nonverbal communication in interpersonal communication process. Nonverbal codes (touch, space, smell, eye contact) and their communicative functions (impression management, flirting, persuading, lying) in relational contexts (intimate relationships, friendships, work relationship). Theories, practices.
COMM 3411 - Introduction to Small Group Communication
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Cooperative thinking in task-oriented groups. Planning, preparing for, and participating in small groups in private and public contexts.
COMM 3422 - Interviewing and Communication
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Application of communication concepts in information interview. Planning, conducting, and evaluating informational, journalistic/elite, helping, persuasive, appraisal, and employment interviews. Class training, field experience.
COMM 3431 - Persuasion Theories
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Sociological, psychological, and communication perspectives. Theoretical knowledge applied to persuasion problems. prereq: Soph recommended
COMM 3441 - Introduction to Organizational Communication
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Functions of communication in work groups, in organizational hierarchies, and between organizations.
COMM 3451W - Intercultural Communication: Theory and Practice (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Theories of and factors influencing intercultural communication. Development of effective intercultural communication skills. prereq: Planning an intercultural experience
COMM 3601 - Introduction to Rhetorical Theory
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Theoretical systems to explain/direct creation of public discourse. Traditional rhetoric to contemporary perspectives. Using theory to explain practice of public discourse.
COMM 3605W - Persuasive Speaking and Speech Writing (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Performance/composition with critical inquiry into rhetoric theories. Writing, thinking, and speaking skills. prereq: 1101, soph
COMM 3614 - Advanced Public Policy and Debate
Credits: 3.0 [max 6.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Instruction in advanced theories and practices of both public and NDT/CEDA policy debate.
COMM 3615W - Argumentation (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
This course explores how arguments help us manage uncertainties in various contexts, straddling the space between inquiry (knowledge making), and advocacy (change making). By combining theory and practice, the class provides students with strategies for thoughtfully analyzing and producing critical judgments. It cultivates their ability to read critically and charitably, to write and argue creatively, cogently and appropriately, and to participate ethically and constructively in various deliberative environments.
COMM 3625W - Communication Ethics (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Applying concepts/theories from philosophy and social science to ethical issues in interpersonal, group, organizational, intercultural, and media communication.
COMM 3631 - Freedom of Speech (CIV)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Communication theories and principles that underlie the concept of freedom of speech in the United States. A variety of contexts and practices are examined in order to understand how communicative interaction should be described and, when necessary, appropriately regulated.
COMM 3635W - Famous Speeches (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall
Speeches that became famous because of the occasion, issue, or speaker. Students analyze texts, research the issue¿s history and the speaker¿s biography/opposition, and evaluate the speech's artistry, ethical principles, effects on society, and contribution to history of ideas.
COMM 3645W - How Pictures Persuade (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall
How words/pictures interact in graphic memoirs, political cartoons, and science to create/communicate meaning. How this interaction bears on public advocacy. Reading examples of comprehensive cognitive model of visual communication.
COMM 3666 - Greek Intellectual Revolution
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Spring
This course is a three-week study abroad experience in Greece with the objective to examine how this ancient culture revolutionized its self-understanding of certain eternal human questions. Students will first acquire a degree of cultural competence in understanding the ancient culture, secondly understand how that revolution shaped our own western cultural foundations, and thirdly to use the ancient answers to provoke a critical assessment our answers to those same human questions.
COMM 3676W - Communicating Terrorism (GP, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Terrorism as an ethical and international problem. Different cultures' historical trajectories for terrorism. Contrasts between Algerian, Irish, and Arab terrorism.
COMM 3681W - Rhetorical Fictions and 20th Century Conflicts (LITR, GP, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Analysis of selected 20th-century documentary novels. Nature of artistic truth in relation to historical truth. Cross-cultural comparisons of responses to impact of Anglo-American policies.
COMM 3682W - Communicating War (AH, CIV, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Claim: if ethics (right/wrong) exists in war, then right/wrong exist everywhere. Students experience this claim through its expression in various arts/humanities media of history, memoir, philosophical meditation, and film.
COMM 3896 - Internship for Academic Credit
Credits: 1.0 -4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
An applied learning experience in an agreed-upon, short-term, supervised workplace activity, with defined goals, which may be related to a student's major field or area of interest. The work can be full or part time, paid or unpaid, primarily in off-campus environments. Internships integrate classroom knowledge and theory with practical application and skill development in professional or community settings. The skills and knowledge learned should be transferable to other employment settings and not simply to advance the operations of the employer. Typically the student's work is supervised and evaluated by a site coordinator or instructor.
COMM 3110 - Topics in Communication Studies
Credits: 3.0 [max 15.0]
Course Equivalencies: Comm 3110/Comm 3110H
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Summer
Cases illustrating communication studies, theory, underlying issues.
COMM 3341 - Asian American Images (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AAS 3341/Comm 3341
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
From 19th-century anti-Chinese political cartoons to Harold and Kumar, visual representations of Asians in the United States have long influenced how Asian Americans are seen and treated. What are some of the ways that photography, graphic arts, and digital culture have pictured Asian Americans as aliens, citizens, immigrants, workers, family and community members, entertainers, and artists? Course topics will relate visual images to particular historical moments, including the early exclusion period and the "yellow peril" stereotype; WWII Japanese American incarceration and the drawings of Miné Okubo, and photo-journalism documenting U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia and its aftermath. How do photographic and other images work to counter historical amnesia, heal traumatic loss, and document social injustice? Other weeks of the class will explore the ways that individuals, families, and communities use photographs, video, and other visual media to preserve a sense of connection and belonging. We will also look at how contemporary Asian American photographers such as Tseng Kwong Chi, Nikki Lee, and Wing Young Huie experiment with visual images to raise questions of racial and national identity, social inequality, gender, sexuality, and political agency. The course also includes a digital storytelling project that encourages students to create video images and sound reflecting Asian American immigration stories from local communities.
AAS 3341 - Asian American Images (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AAS 3341/Comm 3341
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
From 19th-century anti-Chinese political cartoons to Harold and Kumar, visual representations of Asians in the United States have long influenced how Asian Americans are seen and treated. What are some of the ways that photography, graphic arts, and digital culture have pictured Asian Americans as aliens, citizens, immigrants, workers, family and community members, entertainers, and artists? Course topics will relate visual images to particular historical moments, including the early exclusion period and the "yellow peril" stereotype; WWII Japanese American incarceration and the drawings of Miné Okubo, and photo-journalism documenting U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia and its aftermath. How do photographic and other images work to counter historical amnesia, heal traumatic loss, and document social injustice? Other weeks of the class will explore the ways that individuals, families, and communities use photographs, video, and other visual media to preserve a sense of connection and belonging. We will also look at how contemporary Asian American photographers such as Tseng Kwong Chi, Nikki Lee, and Wing Young Huie experiment with visual images to raise questions of racial and national identity, social inequality, gender, sexuality, and political agency. The course also includes a digital storytelling project that encourages students to create video images and sound reflecting Asian American immigration stories from local communities.
COMM 3351 - Asian Americans and Popular Culture (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AAS 3351/Comm 3351
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Over the past few decades, Asian Americans have become increasingly visible both as the subjects and producers of popular culture in the United States. This course will explore how this new recognition of Asian Americans in popular literature, cinema, television, and entertainment is related both to longer histories of Asian immigration and racial exclusion and to post-1960s efforts to forward racial awareness, community activism, and social justice. Our first unit will look at how particular stereotypes such as the yellow peril or the wartime enemy encouraged anti-Asian feeling and violence and legal restrictions on immigration and naturalization. We will then examine how throughout history, Asian immigrants and their descendants used song, dance, theater, writing, and other forms of popular culture to express personal desires and foster collective ties. Our final unit concentrates on contemporary popular culture and its relationship to the changing identities of Asian Americans. How do Asian Americans influence the current essays, films, and videos that are consumed by millions today? How are increasingly pan-ethnic, interracial, multiracial, transnational, and global experiences reflected in popular culture?
AAS 3351 - Asian Americans and Popular Culture (AH, DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: AAS 3351/Comm 3351
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Over the past few decades, Asian Americans have become increasingly visible both as the subjects and producers of popular culture in the United States. This course will explore how this new recognition of Asian Americans in popular literature, cinema, television, and entertainment is related both to longer histories of Asian immigration and racial exclusion and to post-1960s efforts to forward racial awareness, community activism, and social justice. Our first unit will look at how particular stereotypes such as the yellow peril or the wartime enemy encouraged anti-Asian feeling and violence and legal restrictions on immigration and naturalization. We will then examine how throughout history, Asian immigrants and their descendants used song, dance, theater, writing, and other forms of popular culture to express personal desires and foster collective ties. Our final unit concentrates on contemporary popular culture and its relationship to the changing identities of Asian Americans. How do Asian Americans influence the current essays, films, and videos that are consumed by millions today? How are increasingly pan-ethnic, interracial, multiracial, transnational, and global experiences reflected in popular culture?
COMM 3993 - Directed Study
Credits: 1.0 -3.0 [max 6.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Guided individual reading or study. An opportunity in which a student completes a reading project, and/or designs and carries out a research project under the direction of a faculty member.
COMM 3996 - Directed Instruction
Credits: 3.0 [max 6.0]
Grading Basis: S-N or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Supervised planning/teaching of undergraduate courses.
COMM 3994 - Directed Research
Credits: 1.0 -3.0 [max 6.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
How communication research is designed, implemented, and published. Focus is on working with senior faculty on their current research projects.
COMM 4204 - Producing for Television: Theory and Practice
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Producing media content based on audience, design, and story. Developing a thematic design. Evaluating and choosing a projected audience based on story concept and program bible. Each student completes a television program, including writing a script, preproduction planning, and considering crew and talent needs. Media producer responsibilities. prereq: 3201, 3204
COMM 4235 - Electronic Media and Ethnic Minorities--A World View
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall, Spring & Summer
Representation and involvement of various ethnic groups (e.g., African-Americans, Native Americans in United States and Canada, Maori, Turks in Europe) in radio, TV, cable, Internet. Roles of government, industry, public organizations, and minority groups in regulating, managing, and financing ethnic media activities.
COMM 4251 - Environmental Communication (ENV)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Comm 4250/Comm 5250
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Spring
Historical, cultural, material contexts within which environmental communication takes place. Understand environmental communication as well as develop communication strategies that lead to more sustainable social practices, institutions, and systems.
COMM 4263 - Feminist Media Studies (DSJ)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Spring
Issues, controversies, and practices of gender and their relationship to U.S. media. Ways in which gender is represented in and comes into play with media texts/institutions. Histories of feminism, theories/methods/political economy, case studies. prereq: 3211 or instr consent
COMM 4291 - New Telecommunication Media
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
Development and current status of new telecommunication media such as cable TV, satellites, DBS, MDS, and video disk/cassettes. Technology, historical development, regulation, and programming of these media and their influence on individuals, organizations, and society. prereq: 3211 or instr consent
COMM 4404W - Language Borderlands (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Effect of multilingualism on self identity/sense of community. Subjective/social dimensions of being multilingual. Experience of language loss.
COMM 4407 - Communication and Conflict
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall
Aspects of conflict common across types of relationships. Theories as alternative lenses to illuminate aspects of conflict. Communication strategies to manage or resolve conflict. prereq: 3401 or instr consent
COMM 4461 - Prosocial Communication and Health
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Periodic Spring
There has been a shift in how we think about and study human health and well-being. This shift also emphasizes the cultivation of positive emotions, behaviors, and practices into our daily lives so that we may improve our relationships with others and ultimately our well-being. In this senior-level undergraduate seminar we will examine a) the meaning and importance of prosocial communication in our lives; b) the communicative and relational contributions of prosociality to our health and well-being; and c) how the popular press presents happiness research.
COMM 4471 - Communication in Marriage and Family
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Contemporary theories of marriage/family communication using life-cycle approach. Role/function of communication in changing relational contexts. Ways of improving marriage/family relationships. prereq: 3401 or 3402 or instr consent
COMM 4602W - Contemporary Political Persuasion (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
Contemporary political speech. Ideologies in political persuasion. prereq: 1101, 3431 or instr consent
COMM 4616 - African American Civil Rights Rhetoric
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Uses the struggle of African Americans to explore and analyze philosophical concepts, political issues, moral complexities, and discursive characteristics of civil rights rhetoric. prereq: Jr
COMM 4621W - Rhetoric of Feminism (DSJ, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Comm 4621W/GWSS 4621W
Typically offered: Every Fall
History/criticism of rhetoric of feminism from 19th century to present.
COMM 5110 - Special Topics in Communication Theory
Credits: 3.0 [max 9.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Summer
Advanced theoretical problems. See department office for current offering.
COMM 5211 - Critical Media Studies: Theory and Methods
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall & Spring
Survey of theories, research methods, and scholars dominating critical media studies since late 1920s. prereq: Graduate students or undergraduates who have completed COMM 3211 (Introduction to Media Studies) or its equivalent
COMM 5221 - Media, Race, and Identity
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
Critical media studies perspective on cultural politics of race and ethnicity. Social construction of race, politics of racism, media representations of race. prereq: 3211 or instr consent
COMM 5231 - Media Outlaws
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Fall Even Year
People working outside of mainstream media institutions who find creative/provocative ways to use media as space for cultural, political, or economic critique/resistance.
COMM 5261 - Political Economy of Media Culture
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Organizational practices of media communicators. Media content as link between communicators and audiences. How viewers use/process media content. prereq: 3211 or instr consent
COMM 5411 - Small Group Communication Research
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F or Aud
Typically offered: Every Spring
Survey of small group communication research; theory and practice. Group decision-making and leadership. prereq: 3411 or instr consent
COMM 5431 - The Process of Persuasion
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Communication campaigns (e.g., advertising, political) illustrating persuasive processes and theories. Research paper required. prereq: 3431
COMM 5441 - Communication in Human Organizations
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Communication in organizational settings. Organizational structure and dynamics and their effect upon the communication process. Individual projects.
COMM 5451W - Intercultural Communication Processes (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
Theory and research on cultural differences in values, norms, behaviors, and perceptions that affect communication across cultures internationally and domestically.
COMM 5611 - Survey of Rhetorical Theory
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Comm 5611/Writ 5776
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
Rhetorical theory, from ancient to contemporary period. Application to public discourse.
COMM 5615W - Introduction to Rhetorical Criticism (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Analysis of public discourse using various theoretical perspectives. prereq: 1101; 3601 recommended
COMM 5617 - History and Criticism of U.S. Public Discourse: 1630-1865
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
How discourse has been used to establish or maintain power. Speeches and public debates used to examine American public address from 17th century (e.g., Puritan sermons) to the Civil War. prereq: Jr
COMM 5994 - Communication Research Practicum
Credits: 1.0 -3.0 [max 9.0]
Grading Basis: S-N or Aud
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Students participate in research group. prereq: instr consent
COMM 3999W - Capstone Project (WI)
Credits: 1.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: S-N only
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
The Capstone is fulfilled by completing a 10-20 page capstone paper. Students seeking honors in communication studies may fulfill the capstone requirement with the honors thesis. The honors thesis is completed by taking 6 credits of of COMM 3190H, which counts towards the Additional Electives requirement. Students who double major and choose to complete the capstone requirement in their other major may waive the communication studies BA capstone, and they do not need to replace the 1 credit. Take COMM 3999W concurrently with any COMM 4xxx or 5xxx course. COMM 3999W is taken S-N only and must be taken during the same semester in which the capstone paper is written. The instructor sets the criteria for standards of quality and conceptual/theoretical content. Prerequisites: COMM major; instructor consent
COMM 3263W - Media Literacy: Decoding Media Images and Messages (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Analysis of media images/messages. Principles of literacy. Media content/industries. Media and identity. Media effects. Textbook/packet readings, videos, small groups of peer writing workshops, media analyses.
COMM 3451W - Intercultural Communication: Theory and Practice (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Theories of and factors influencing intercultural communication. Development of effective intercultural communication skills. prereq: Planning an intercultural experience
COMM 3605W - Persuasive Speaking and Speech Writing (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall, Spring & Summer
Performance/composition with critical inquiry into rhetoric theories. Writing, thinking, and speaking skills. prereq: 1101, soph
COMM 3635W - Famous Speeches (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall
Speeches that became famous because of the occasion, issue, or speaker. Students analyze texts, research the issue¿s history and the speaker¿s biography/opposition, and evaluate the speech's artistry, ethical principles, effects on society, and contribution to history of ideas.
COMM 3645W - How Pictures Persuade (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: A-F only
Typically offered: Every Fall
How words/pictures interact in graphic memoirs, political cartoons, and science to create/communicate meaning. How this interaction bears on public advocacy. Reading examples of comprehensive cognitive model of visual communication.
COMM 3676W - Communicating Terrorism (GP, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Terrorism as an ethical and international problem. Different cultures' historical trajectories for terrorism. Contrasts between Algerian, Irish, and Arab terrorism.
COMM 3681W - Rhetorical Fictions and 20th Century Conflicts (LITR, GP, WI)
Credits: 4.0 [max 4.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
Analysis of selected 20th-century documentary novels. Nature of artistic truth in relation to historical truth. Cross-cultural comparisons of responses to impact of Anglo-American policies.
COMM 3682W - Communicating War (AH, CIV, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Claim: if ethics (right/wrong) exists in war, then right/wrong exist everywhere. Students experience this claim through its expression in various arts/humanities media of history, memoir, philosophical meditation, and film.
COMM 3999W - Capstone Project (WI)
Credits: 1.0 [max 3.0]
Grading Basis: S-N only
Typically offered: Every Fall & Spring
The Capstone is fulfilled by completing a 10-20 page capstone paper. Students seeking honors in communication studies may fulfill the capstone requirement with the honors thesis. The honors thesis is completed by taking 6 credits of of COMM 3190H, which counts towards the Additional Electives requirement. Students who double major and choose to complete the capstone requirement in their other major may waive the communication studies BA capstone, and they do not need to replace the 1 credit. Take COMM 3999W concurrently with any COMM 4xxx or 5xxx course. COMM 3999W is taken S-N only and must be taken during the same semester in which the capstone paper is written. The instructor sets the criteria for standards of quality and conceptual/theoretical content. Prerequisites: COMM major; instructor consent
COMM 4404W - Language Borderlands (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Fall
Effect of multilingualism on self identity/sense of community. Subjective/social dimensions of being multilingual. Experience of language loss.
COMM 4602W - Contemporary Political Persuasion (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
Contemporary political speech. Ideologies in political persuasion. prereq: 1101, 3431 or instr consent
COMM 4621W - Rhetoric of Feminism (DSJ, WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Course Equivalencies: Comm 4621W/GWSS 4621W
Typically offered: Every Fall
History/criticism of rhetoric of feminism from 19th century to present.
COMM 5451W - Intercultural Communication Processes (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Periodic Fall
Theory and research on cultural differences in values, norms, behaviors, and perceptions that affect communication across cultures internationally and domestically.
COMM 5615W - Introduction to Rhetorical Criticism (WI)
Credits: 3.0 [max 3.0]
Typically offered: Every Spring
Analysis of public discourse using various theoretical perspectives. prereq: 1101; 3601 recommended