Undergraduate Courses

123.     Communication and Popular Culture
           Sender

Popular culture has been variously dismissed as mere trivia, "just entertainment;" it has been condemned as propaganda, a tool of mass deception; and its consumers have been dubbed fashion victims and couch potatoes. This course considers these critiques, as well as those that suggest that popular culture offers valuable material for the study of social life. We will consider the meanings and impact of popular culture, including its effects on how we see ourselves, others, and American life; who makes distinctions between high, middlebrow, and low or mass culture; and how power and resistance structure the production and consumption of popular texts.

130.     Mass Media and Society
           Turow

How might we think about the legal, political, economic, historical, and "cultural" considerations that shape what we watch on TV, read in books, stare at in billboards? What ideas are relevant for examining the enormous changes in the mass media system and the consequences of those changes? The aim of this course is to begin to answer these questions by acquainting you with the workings of American mass media as an integral part of American society.

140.     Introduction to Film Forms and Contexts
           Messaris
           Cross-listed: CINE 203

Movies as a form of audio-visual communication: their formal language, their relationship to other means of communication (music, stories, theater, pictures), their place in the media industry, their role in culture.

225.     Children and Media
           Jordan

This course examines children's relationship to media in its historic, economic, political and social contexts. The class begins with an exploration of the ways in which "childhood" is created and understood as a time of life that is qualitatively unique and socially constructed over time. It continues with a review of various theories of child development as they inform children's relationship with and understanding of television and other household media. It next reviews public policies designed to empower parents and limit children's exposure to potentially problematic media content and simultaneously considers the economic forces that shape what children see and buy. Children and Media concludes with a critical examination of research on the impact of media on children's physical, cognitive, social and psychological development.

226.     Introduction to Political Communication
           Jamieson
           Cross-listed: PSCI 232

This course is an introduction to the field of political communication, conceptual approaches to analyzing communication in various forms, including advertising, speech making, campaign debates, and candidates' and office-holders' uses of news. The focus of this course is on the interplay in the U.S. between television and politics. The course includes a history of televised campaign practices from the 1952 presidential contest through the election of 2004.

275.     Persuasion and Communication
           Smith-McClallen

Theory, research and application in the persuasive effects of communication in social and mass contexts. Primary focus on the effects of messages on attitudes, opinions, values, and behaviors. Applications include political and advertising; propaganda; communication campaigns (e.g. anti-smoking); and interpersonal communication

299.     Communication Internship
           Theophano

Scholarly counterpart for students' internships in various communication-related organizations. Through individually-selected readings, class discussion and individual conferences, students will develop their own independent research agendas which investigate aspects of their internship experiences or industry. In written field notes and a final paper, students combine communication theory and practice in pursuit of their individual questions.

300.     Public Space, Public Life
           Marvin

Public space is a comprehensive context for human interaction and communication at all scales – from great moments in history to subtle and routine daily events. It is the intersection of the individual life and the communal life, where societies express their character. Public space is the physical medium that we all share. It is a rich environment that gives relevance to our common understanding and to our memory of what takes place and what we say to each other - a physical reference for the action of life. This course will survey and discuss the scope of public space, with the objective of finding its definition and its ongoing cultural value.

314.     Anthropology and Mass Media
           Jackson
           Cross-listed: ANTH 315

What can anthropological theory and practice add to contemporary analyses of mass media—television, radio, film and the Internet? What does it mean to think about the cultural implications of mass media offerings, to conceptualize media practices, products, and practitioners as emphatically cultural phenomena? Anthropologists provide a very specific corrective to conventional understandings of mass media, pinning much of their intellectual significance on the fact that they reconfigure academic debates about media “texts,” championing research methods and theoretical arguments that provide very specific contextual frameworks for rethinking mass media’s social and cultural value. This course will allow students to identify and critique the anthropological approach to media studies—unpacking its larger implications, determining its most and least convincing claims.

340.     Basic Communication Research
           Bleakley

This course is a general overview of the important components of social research. The first third of the semester presents a conceptual basis for assessing research quality based on the four “types of validity.” We also cover the standard elements of research design including sampling, measurement, and causal inference. These concepts are then illustrated through reviews of four research areas: surveys and field studies, qualitative/ethnographic studies, content analysis, and policy/evaluation studies. The last third of the semester focuses more on descriptive and inferential statistics, measures of association for categorical and continuous variables, and the language of data analysis. For these classes, we make use of SMALL STATA, a PC program useful for learning statistics. Most modules are illustrated through class exercises based on published articles.

374.     Communication and Congress
           Felzenberg

This course will examine how Congress goes about the business of translating the public's concerns into legislation and keeps the public informed of its progress. It will examine how the two chambers interact in this process, what role the media plays in shaping Congress's agenda and vice versa, and what impact the advent of 24 hour news, C-SPAN and the internet have had on Congressional deliberations. An historical approach will be taken in considering the evolution of both chambers and the media's coverage of them. Students will examine differences between the House and Senate in both their institutional development and how they go about communicating with each other, the general public, and other branches and levels of government.

395.     Communication & the Presidency
           Eisenhower

This course will examine the vital aspect of communication as a tool of the modern Presidency. Reading and class discussions will focus on case studies drawn from modern Presidential administrations (beginning with FDR) that demonstrate the elements of successful and unsuccessful Presidential initiatives and the critical factor of communication, common to both. This course is also an introduction to primary research methods and to the use of primary research materials in the Presidential Library system.

396.     Media Events
           Katz

Live broadcasts of historic events - contests, conquests, and coronations - constitute a new form of ceremonial politics whereby television joins the establishment and audience to declare a holiday. The course will analyze this genre - its diffusion, politics, aesthetics, ethnography, and effects.

398.     Special Topics in Communication:
           Philosophical Problems of Journalism
           Romano

An exploration of the relationship between journalism and philosophy by examining particular issues in epistemology, political philosophy, ethics and aesthetics. Among likely topics: the concept of a "fact"; the role of the press in the state; whether journalists (like doctors and lawyers) operate according to a specialized "professional" ethics; and the limits of journalism as a literary or visual genre. Course reading will include philosophical texts, breaking print journalism, and blogs that specialize in media issues.

399.     Independent Study
           Staff

The independent study offers the self-motivated student an opportunity for a tailored, academically rigorous, semester-long investigation into a topic of the student's choice with faculty supervision. Its structure and purpose is different from the internship experience. Students must also complete and file a designated form, approved and signed by the supervising faculty member and the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies, which includes a topic proposal.

408.     Children and Media: Cognitive Development
           Linebarger
           Pre-reqs: COMM 125 and COMM 225

This seminar is designed to investigate the relationships between children's cognitive development and their use of media (i.e., television, computers, the Internet, video games, electronic toys). We will examine normal patterns of children's thinking and how these patterns are situated in children's lives (e.g., contextual factors that mediate cognitive functioning). Then, students will apply these concepts to understand both the creation of and the effects associated with media.

413.     Public Opinion in Leadership Decisions
           Hart

This course endeavors to explore the myriad uses of public opinion in leadership and decision making. In it, we will examine what public opinion research is, how it is conducted, and how it is subsequently utilized in a wide range of contexts, both public and private. We will use numerous actual case studies involving public opinion in political campaigns, constituency organizing, crisis management, and a variety of other contexts to provide an inside view of how opinion research is actually conducted and used. We will consider such questions as: How does an incumbent politician formulate strategy and successfully communicate message in the midst of a dirty politics/decidedly anti-incumbent Senatorial campaign? What would you do if you were Governor and your roads and highways needed improvements, but the public opposed a new gas tax? If you were a CEO of a large company and you had safety concerns about some of your products, how would you balance your corporate image and reputation against the independence from government influence?

415.     Communication Law, Policy and Public Interest
           Rosen

This course examines the role of public policy advocacy as a vehicle for effecting change on a topic related to communication law or policy. The course will focus on a particular topic related to media and communication law or policy (e.g., free speech, censorship, access to information, public interest obligations, media ownership, diversity, etc.) that is currently being debated within the courts and/or as part of the policy process. Students will be assigned readings on the topic that will be discussed in class. In addition, students will engage in a collaborative research project with the goal of producing an original research product, such as a policy report or amicus curiae brief, that will be used to inform the larger public debate on this topic.

439.     Media Criticism
           Zelizer

Criticism has at its core an assumption of judgment about the target or performance being evaluated. Yet whose judgment is being articulated? On which basis and authority? To which ends? And with which effects? This course examines the shape of contemporary media criticism, focusing on its meaning function in different domains of popular culture (including music, television, news, and film) and the patterns by which it is produced. Students will become acquainted with theories and ongoing debates about contemporary media criticism themselves. The course aims to sensitize students to the nuances of their own consumption of criticism and patterns by which it is typically produced.

490.     Transnational Communication and Global Media
           Coyer

Power today is tied more closely then ever to control of communication media. The increasing dominance of global media institutions has given rise to new forms of resistance, from alternative media (pirate radio, blogs, open source software) and culture jamming (hacking, pranks), to transnational broadcasting (satellite television, internet), and institutional and regulatory responses (state protection of film and music industries, municipal broadband, the ‘right to communicate’). A complex relationship between global, local, and national media spaces has emerged.

This course addresses a series of debates centered on the media, power and globalization, locating these in their historical and cultural perspective. In doing so, we explore ways in which media power is contested and consider whether opportunities for resistance provided by new technologies represent a significant break with the past. The aim of the course is to enable students to develop their own understanding, and formulate critical appraisals, of the relation between media and power at the level of institutions, culture and social processes.

495.     COMPS Capstone Thesis
           Staff

Offered for credit in the senior year, the capstone thesis is the project goal for all Communication & Public Service Program participants. Students choose the topic of the capstone thesis from a range of public policy/public service issues. Research may involve funded travel to selected archives or fieldwork sites. For students graduating with a 3.5 cumulative GPA, the capstone project may be designated as a senior honors thesis in public service.

499.     Senior Honor Thesis
           Staff

The senior honors thesis provides a capstone intellectual experience for students who have demonstrated academic achievement of a superior level. Students should consult with and arrange for a supervisor from the standing faculty no later then the middle of the term that precedes the honors thesis. Students must file a designated form, approved and signed by the supervising faculty member and the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies, which includes a topic proposal.

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