COMM 190 Public Speaking
(4 semester hours)
Warrenburg, Kristine
COMM 200 Introduction to Communication Studies
(4 semester hours)
Cunningham, Sheryl and Warrenburg, Kristine
Pre-requisite: ENGL 101
This course provides an introduction to the field of human communication studies and a foundation for future study within the communication discipline. The course introduces the core concepts, essential skills, and perennial issues found in several relevant contexts of human interaction, including interpersonal relationships, organizations, and cross-cultural interaction. It also examines these contexts from a theoretical perspective, suggesting how scholars have sought to formulate generalized explanations for the processes of human meaning making. Writing intensive.
COMM 270S Interpersonal Communication
(4 semester hours)
Medford, Kristina
Pre-requisite: None
This course is an introduction to message production and message interpretation within face-to-face settings. Major topics to be addressed include the role of communication in interpersonal relationships, basic speech act theory, linguistic pragmatics and an examination of how communication functions in a variety of social settings.
COMM 280 Reasoning and Communication
(4 semester hours)
Warrenburg, Kristine
Pre-requisite: ENGL 101
This course provides extensive training in critical thinking, listening, reading, practical reasoning, deliberation, and oral and written advocacy. As part of a deliberative process, participants prepare oral and written arguments on contemporary issues for critical, well-informed audiences. Emphasis is placed on the ability to anticipate and address the wide variety of alternative perspectives represented by such audiences. Required assignments include: a personal essay regarding attitudes toward argumentation, a deliberation log, a roundtable performance of oral arguments with question and answer sessions, a written critique of the roundtable performances, and an argumentative position paper. Writing intensive.
COMM 290S Media Literacy
(4 semester hours)
Cunningham, Sheryl
Pre-requisite: ENGL 101
This course provides a broad foundation for examining the form, content, and consequences of mediated communication (including the Internet, recording, radio, television, cable, film, newspaper, and other publishing industries). The course introduces media industries from both an historical and contemporary perspective, covers the prominent theories that characterize mass media functions and effects, and addresses controversial issues in mediated communication. Students are introduced to intellectual tools that will enable them to be more critical consumers of media and given opportunities to practice applying those tools in both structured classroom discussions and formal writing assignments. Writing intensive.
COMM 300 Social Scientific Methods
(4 semester hours)
Warber, Katie
Prerequisites: COMM 200 and COMM 270S, 280 or 290S; Math Placement score 22 or permission of instructor
This course introduces students to the process of conducting qualitative and quantitative communication research, including how to 1) formulate a research question, 2) conduct library research for a literature review, 3) select a method (e.g., participant/observation, in-depth interviewing, focus groups, rhetorical criticism, content analysis, or survey research), 4) adhere to standards for scholarly writing, and 5) critically evaluate others’ research studies. Writing intensive.
COMM 301 Critical Methods
(4 semester hours)
Cunningham, Sheryl
Pre-requisite: COMM 290S or permission of instructor
This course is designed to foster critical analysis skills necessary for understanding a wide variety of messages, including those found in speeches, advertisements, news reports, television programs, films, and songs. In particular, students will learn and practice several methods for systematically describing, interpreting, and assessing aspects of messages. The course attends to both the theory and praxis of communication criticism; as students learn of the assumptions and approaches that undergird each method of analysis, they will have the opportunity to apply those methods in the analysis of a variety of discourses. In doing so, they will be encouraged to engage critically with issues of culture and power in the context of communication criticism. Students will demonstrate their comprehension and apply their understanding of methods of communication criticism in exams, several written essays, and participation. Writing intensive.
COMM 320 Topics in Communication: Family Communication
(4 semester hours)
Warber, Katie
Pre-requisites: COMM 200 and one of the following three courses: COMM 270S, 280, 290S; or permission of instructor
This advanced course examines topics related to 1) family communication and basic family processes, 2) communication in family subsystems, 3) communication during family stress, and 4) family interaction, health and well-being. Research and theories from communication, sociology and psychology will be used to explain issues related to the family. Discussion topics include, for example, marital, parent-child, sibling, and intergenerational interactions in the family. Research pertaining to marital satisfaction, divorce, courtship, and the impact of the family on its children (and vice-versa) will also be examined.
Pre-requisites: COMM 290S or permission of instructor
This course examines how the law helps shape the activities of mass media industries in the United States. Students have the opportunity to develop a basic understanding of the American legal system, its institutions, and some of its terminology, as well as a broad understanding of First Amendment principles as they relate to mass communication. Readings provide a working knowledge of the laws that directly restrict or enhance information gathering and message dissemination in the mass media, and an understanding of the rationales behind those laws. Projects encourage the development of skills to identify and interpret the law, particularly as it develops beyond its present shape. An additional evening meeting will focus on filmic representations of issues in media law.
COMM 360 Topics: Race and Rhetoric
(4 semster hours)
Warrenburg, Kristine
Pre-requisites: COMM 200 and one of the following three courses: COMM 270S, 280, 290S; or permission of instructor
Race is a multilayered phenomenon that carries with it real personal, social, cultural, historical, and rhetorical significance. Understanding the various meanings of race that are ongoing and often contradictory will contribute to a better understanding of critical cultural communication. We will explore the visceral reasoning embedded in racialized rhetoric that carries enough power to constitute communities, institutions, values, etc. Key persuasive strategies (protest, narrative, public address, etc.) will be met with critical race theory as we investigate the rhetorical implications of race that both construct and reproduce social inequalities. We will also identify both historical and contemporary voices that significantly contribute to conversation of race in the United States.
COMM 403 Communication Senior Seminar
(4 semester hours)
Smith, Matthew and Warber, Katie
Pre-requisites: COMM 200, COMM 300, and senior status
This course is the capstone experience in the Communication program. Through their work on independent and group projects, students will practice research, writing, and critical thinking skills that are part of the process of conducting communication research, culminating in both written and oral presentations of results. Writing intensive.
