Communication
Course Descriptions
Spring 2010
COMM 120: Interviewing
(2 credit hours – ½ semester)
Cunningham, Sheryl
Pre-requisite: None
The focus of this course will be on journalistic interviewing as it relates to two communication contexts—interpersonal communication and mass media communication. Students will learn about different types of interviews, how to write interview questions, how to conduct interviews, edit interview data, and write or broadcast interviews in ethically responsible ways. This is a course in which students should expect to learn through doing; students will conduct a number of interviews throughout the semester. This course is writing intensive.
COMM 120: Making News
(2 credit hours – ½ semester)
Cunningham, Sheryl
Pre-requisite: None
The purpose of this course is for students interested in journalism and news-making to develop a comprehensive understanding of journalism and its function in a democratic society. Students will learn about the history of journalism, photojournalism, reporting (news writing and feature writing) opinion writing, ethics, student-run press and the challenges that journalists and news media outlets face in the digital age.
COMM 120: Topic - Speaking in Professional Contexts
(2 credit hours – ½ semester)
Broz, Stefne
Pre-requisite: None
This half-semester course introduces students to the major concepts, theories and strategies of effective speaking in a variety of professional contexts. Students gain speaking experience and skills by applying this knowledge to several oral assignments designed to reflect the types of speaking situations they will encounter in their professional lives. With an emphasis on developing practical and critical thinking skills, this course helps prepare students for the world beyond Wittenberg.
COMM 200: Introduction to Communication Studies
(4 semester hours)
Cunningham, Sheryl and Waggoner, Catherine
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)
Warber, Kathleen
Pre-requisite: None
This course offers an introduction to message production and interpretation in face-to-face and other interpersonal settings. The focus of the course is to illustrate how choices in interpersonal communication behaviors are basic to our character as human beings and the nature of our interpersonal relationships. Students will complete the course having learned about basic interpersonal communication principles related to, for example, self-presentation, self-disclosure, gender, culture, effective listening, relationship development, relational maintenance, relationship dissolution, power, compliance gaining, emotion, and conflict management.
COMM 290S: Media Literacy
(4 semester hours)
Smith, Matthew
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)
Waggoner, Catherine
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 327: Health Communication
4 hours
Broz, Stefne
Prerequisites: COMM 200 or permission of instructor
This advanced seminar is designed to introduce students to a wide range of scholarship about communication related to health. Specifically, we will investigate the process and outcomes of communication by considering the roles of health care providers, patients, the health industry, public health organizations, and the public. Scholarly research and theories form the basis for understanding the many ways in which communication influences and is influenced by health and health care contexts.
COMM 361: Gender and Communication
(4 semester hours)
Waggoner, Catherine
Prerequisites: COMM 200 and 270S, 280, or 290S; or permission of instructor.
This course considers public understandings of gender and sexuality in America and the way in which they are represented in popular discourse. In particular, the focus is on cases of “gender trouble” or gender ambiguity, in which dominant cultural assumptions of gender and sexuality are challenged (e.g., drag performances, female masculinity, metrosexuality). Our goal is to discover how those challenges to gender norms are rhetorically configured, and how/if they are disciplined or realigned in the support of dominant gender norms. Experience in rhetorical criticism (i.e., COMM 301) is preferred, but not required. While the course is not writing intensive in that there will not be instruction in writing per se, there is an assumption that students are skilled in writing the required papers. Assignments include analytical papers, quizzes, and a final project with an oral presentation.
COMM 403: Communication Senior Seminar
(4 semester hours)
Smith, Matthew and Broz, Stefne
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.
COMM 491 Internship: Comm Leaders
2 Hours
Warber, Kathleen
Prerequisites: BY PERMISSION ONLY
COMM 499 Senior Honors Thesis/Project
0-4 Hours
Staff
Prerequisites:
