UGRD > COMM
Communication Courses
COMM 100 Introduction to Communication +
Description:
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the breadth and depth of the discipline of communication, which includes a detailed examination of psychological and social processes that humans use to create and share meaning. Using a social scientific approach to human communication research, students will learn how language, culture, and identity influence communication. Students will study the process of communication in a variety of face-to-face and mediated contexts. More Info
Offered in:COMM 105 Public Speaking and Professional Communication +
Description:
This core course provides writing, oral, and collaborative skills necessary for future courses, internships, and professional endeavors. The major aims of this course are to make students more effective professional communicators, analytical thinkers and critical listeners. By the end of the course students will be able to plan and prepare professional meetings and presentations; deliver and effective speech; analyze and adapt to various audiences; and adjust to different speaking situations, purposes, and contexts. More Info
Offered in:COMM 200 New Media Society +
Description:
This course examines the relationship between media technologies and globalization. The focus is on the processes through which media shape economic, political, and cultural forces to produce an interconnected and interdependent society. The course will explore the social and psychological effects of the use of media technologies and their content on community, identity, relationships, health, and entertainment. More Info
Offered in:COMM 215L Gender & Communication +
Description:
This course explores a variety of topics and concepts related to gender, sex, and communication using an intersectional, feminist approach. Specifically, this course examines the ways that individuals and society create, reinforce, and challenge the meaning of gender. This course will discuss and examine how we develop gender identities (and how these identities differ from biological sex), how this identity is shaped through the messages we receive from a number of communication systems (family, education, media, etc.), and how our gender identities in turn influence our communication patterns. As we go through the course, we'll examine various masculine and feminine roles and stereotypes, and the impact of gender stereotypes on communication. We will also consider the limitations of gender binaries, and explore a diverse array of gender identification and expression. More Info
Offered in:COMM 220 Interpersonal Communication +
Description:
This course focuses on theory and research concerning communication in everyday interactions. It addresses the sense of self as influenced by others and one's own communication. The course will address basic aspects of message production and interpretation. Throughout the course, students will be encouraged to evaluate their own communication practices and improve upon their own communication skills. More Info
Offered in:COMM 230 Intercultural Communication +
Description:
This course examines human communication in numerous intercultural and international contexts. Readings, discussion, assignments, and projects are designed to help students achieve cross-cultural competence in mediated communication, interpersonal and group dynamics, and organizational climates. Students will learn how to better exchange meaningful and unambiguous information across cultural boundaries, in a manner that maximizes understanding and minimizes antagonism. More Info
Offered in:COMM 240 Organizational communication +
Description:
This course explores the understanding of human communication within complex organizations. It addresses the study of messages, interactions, and meaning in the process of managing organizations. Topics include, but are not limited to, superior-subordinate communication, technology in the workplace, message flow and diffusion, the construction and maintenance of organizational culture, communication in diverse organizations, and negotiation and conflict. More Info
Offered in:COMM 250 Analyzing Media +
Description:
Participants intensively examine mass media products, including print media, radio, television, and the visual and musical arts. They develop skills in deconstructing media products and evaluating them to arrive at a sophisticated understanding of how the various mass media are produced and how they interact with society and culture. The course makes use of both theoretical texts and the media products themselves. More Info
Offered in:COMM 255 Visual Communication +
Description:
Since the widespread use of Gutenberg's printing press, there has always been the cultural assumption that information is best communicated through written formats. But since the invention of computers and desktop publishing, the role of visual messages in the communication process has expanded. This course is an exploration into the idea that memorable visual messages with text have the greatest power to inform, educate, and persuade an individual. It aims to discover and explain why some images are remembered while most are not. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
COMM 260 Psychological Effects of Mass Media +
Description:
This course examines the effects of mediated communication on individual cognition. Course topics include the psychological impact of media on attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. These individual level effects are evaluated as they relate to entertainment media, news, and marketing. The course devotes particular attention to variability in these responses across audiences from diverse sociological and psychological backgrounds. More Info
Offered in:COMM 270 Introduction to Strategic Communication +
Description:
This course presents an introduction to strategic communication. It focuses on the strategic communication industry (including advertising and public relations), ethics and regulation of the strategic communication industry, and the role of new media technologies in strategic communication. More Info
Offered in:COMM 280 Special Topics +
COMM 300 Information Technology and Human Communication +
Description:
This course examines the relationship between information technology and human communication. Readings, discussion, assignments and projects address IT's potential to enhance and constrain communication; its role in the promotion or dissolution of community; its implications for social policy; its place among other media; and many more issues for which IT, particularly cyber-technology, is a lightning rod. More Info
Offered in:COMM 305 Communication in Diverse Organizations +
Description:
This course will explore organizational issues such as organizational assimilation, the impact of the digital divide in the workplace, intercultural dynamics in organizations, and diversity considerations in managing decision-making, conflict, and change. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
COMM 310L Love, Sex, and Media Effects +
Description:
This course explores the impact of mass media and technology on romantic and sexual relationships. Drawing on theory and research related to gender, sex, and sexuality, we will examine how these relationships are depicted in traditional media such as television, film, and advertising. We will also critically think about the role of technology and new media in developing and maintaining relationships. More Info
Offered in:COMM 315 New Media, Identity & Self +
Description:
This course examines individuals' exploration, construction, and expression of identity in a variety of new media spaces, and the impact of interactive media on the self and related variables. Course topics include selective self-presentation, social comparison, online self-disclosure, online disinhibition, virtual communities and support, and hashtag activism. Particular attention is devoted to exploring a variety of personal and social identities, including traditionally marginalized identities. More Info
Offered in:COMM 320 Social Influence and Compliance Gaining +
Description:
This course will examine research and theory on persuasion, compliance gaining, and social influence. Topics include message characteristics, credibility, compliance-gaining strategies, advertising, marketing, public health campaigns, decision-making, and motivational appeals. The course will also explore the applicability of research and theory to everyday practice. More Info
Offered in:COMM 325 Relational Communication +
Description:
This course is designed to examine communication in intimate relationships such as friendships, dating, and marital relationships. The goal of the course is to help students become familiar with the topics and theories related to communication over the course of these intimate relationships from the beginning stages to relational termination. Specifically, this course addresses the communication involved in: attraction, intimacy, relational transgressions, relational maintenance and repair, conflict and social support. More Info
Offered in:COMM 330 Health Communication +
Description:
This course addresses research and theory concerning communication in health care contexts. It focuses on health literacy, provider/patient interactions, public health campaigning, risk communication, and entertainment/education. These concepts will be discussed in their relation to health interventions at the individual, community, and population levels. More Info
Offered in:COMM 335 Lying & Deception +
Description:
Deception occurs in communication behavior across species and lying (i.e., intentional deception) is a pervasive phenomenon in human communication. This course explores the varieties of deceptive communication, their causes and consequences in a wide range of contexts (advertising, art, interspecies contact, family and romantic relationships, journalism, mass media, politics, etc.), and the strategies used to detect their occurrence (behavioral cues, interrogations, integrity testing, polygraphs, etc.). Examines the nature of lying and deception, truth, and various ethical perspectives associated with truth telling and deception. More Info
Offered in:COMM 340 Communication and Community Mobilization +
Description:
This course will focus on community organization, defining power through relationships, communicating across differences, and the limits of community organizing. It focuses on moving from theory to action in the campaign development. It culminates in a group or individual project wherein students must identify a problem, research solutions, and outline a campaign for a real organization or campus group. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
COMM 345 Environmental Communication +
Description:
In this course, students will learn how the process of communication constructs our values and relationships with the biophysical world and each other. We explore the contested meanings of nature and the environment and the communication practices that challenge dominant Western notions of the environment individually, ideologically and institutionally. We foreground how racial, ethnic, socioeconomic class, and gender groups experience ecological disasters intensified by climate change. In addition to examining the disproportionate impact on low-income, communities of color, and Indigenous peoples, we will examine how these communities are leading resistance to ecological disasters and environmental violence. We will examine the power dynamics of environmental issues via media and film, journalism, public relations, advertising, rhetoric, and public participation and activism to understand how communication can create a more just and sustainable world. Students will interpret and analyze the voices of individuals and groups struggling to define major environmental topics, such as: climate change and pollution, energy, water, food and agriculture, biodiversity and extinction, ocean life, wilderness habitat, war, and consumerism. More Info
Offered in:COMM 345L Environmental Communication +
Description:
In this course, students will learn how the process of communication constructs our values and relationships with the biophysical world and each other. We explore the contested meanings of nature and the environment and the communication practices that challenge dominant Western notions of the environment individually, ideologically and institutionally. We foreground how racial, ethnic, socioeconomic class, and gender groups experience ecological disasters intensified by climate change. In addition to examining the disproportionate impact on low-income, communities of color, and Indigenous peoples, we will examine how these communities are leading resistance to ecological disasters and environmental violence. We will examine the power dynamics of environmental issues via media and film, journalism, public relations, advertising, rhetoric, and public participation and activism to understand how communication can create a more just and sustainable world. Students will interpret and analyze the voices of individuals and groups struggling to define major environmental topics, such as: climate change and pollution, energy, water, food and agriculture, biodiversity and extinction, ocean life, wilderness habitat, war, and consumerism. More Info
Offered in:COMM 350 Political communication +
Description:
This course will present an overview of the role of communication in the manipulation of political opinions. It explores research on a range of political communication and the cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral effects of this communication on the public and examines changes brought about by advances in communication media. It will also explore research concerning the role of political communication in an international context. More Info
Offered in:COMM 351 Communication Research Methods +
Description:
This course provides an overview of the various techniques used by communication researchers in designing, conduction, reporting, and evaluation research. These techniques include quantitative, qualitative empirical, and critical/cultural methodologies. Students will receive the preparation necessary for both research comprehension and writing in upper level electives within the major. They will also gain the skills necessary to become intelligent consumers of research in both academic and applied settings. More Info
Offered in:COMM 355 Strategic Communication in Negotiation +
Description:
This course is aimed at developing analytical and communication skills that are necessary for successful negotiations in all walks of life. In addition to the theory and exercises presented in class, students practice negotiating with role-playing simulations that cover a range of topics, including employment negotiation, interpersonal dispute, and intercultural conflict. Students will learn how to analyze their experiences using insights collected from decades of psychological research on social judgment, social cognition, and decision-making. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
COMM 370 Advertising/PR Campaign Planning +
Description:
In this course, students will explore processes for developing a comprehensive integrated marketing communication (IMC) campaign, including research, planning, creative, media, and evaluation aspects. Students will construct and execute research plans and learn about the way the advertising/PR industry operates. Students will compile findings and recommendations into a final written plan and oral presentation that comprehensively outlines the integrated marketing campaign developed during the course. More Info
Offered in:COMM 372 Social Media and Strategic Communication +
Description:
Social Media and Strategic Communication is a course dedicated to exploring the new emerging technologies and mediums influencing business, marketing, public relations, and advertising practices and research. This course acquaints you with practical knowledge and analytical skills necessary to create, evaluate, and execute social media campaigns. This course also provides lectures, iconic and current case studies using social media, team and individual assignments, and engaged activities that will help you in developing a strong social media skill set to take a future job and/or internship interviews in your respective field of study. More Info
Offered in:COMM 375L Indian Cinema +
Description:
This course will provide an introduction to Indian cinema and to Indian culture and society through the study of films. The Indian film industry is the largest producer of feature films in the world. In this class we will examine the films as entertainment as well as cultural narratives and commentaries on society, exploring themes such as social change, the family and gender. The course will combine content analysis of film texts with study of the public culture of film reception. More Info
Offered in:COMM 380 Special Topics +
COMM 478 Independent Study +
COMM 479 Research Practicum +
COMM 480 Communication Seminar +
Description:
A seminar on a particular problem, issue, or technique in the study of communication, approached from a variety of disciplines and perspectives. The topic of the seminar varies from offering to offering and reflects the research interests of the sponsoring faculty member. More Info
Offered in:COMM 490 Communication Internship +
Description:
This course offers an independent project undertaken at an off-campus location under the guidance of a faculty advisor and an off-campus supervisor. Internships must be approved by the supervising faculty member in the Communication Department. Students will submit a written final report and, at the discretion of the faculty advisor, an interim report. Details may be obtained from the department chairperson. Grading is ''Pass/Fail.'' More Info
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