Concentrations

Is a Concentration Right for You?

While not required for the Communication major, concentrations give our majors the opportunity to focus a portion of their major around certain topics within the broad field of Communication. These optional concentrations may also help students market themselves for employment or graduate school.

The optional Communication concentrations are as follows:

• Advocacy & Activism
• Audiences & Persuasion
• Culture & Society
• Data & Network Science
• Politics & Policy

While each concentration focuses on different aspects of the study and practice of communication, all involve the critical examination and application of relevant theories, frameworks, and methods to better understand the central role of communication in how we think, feel, and act as individuals and as local and global communities. Across all concentrations, Comm majors have the opportunity to examine issues related to cultural identity and diversity.

Students interested in pursuing one of these concentrations should make an appointment to meet with a member of the Comm undergraduate advising team.  

Requirements for a Concentration

Out of the 14 courses required for the Communication major, students who declare a concentration will devote five of those to their concentration. Students select three Communication courses from the list approved for their concentration (see below) and two elective courses from a department outside of Communication. 

Additional concentration requirements are as follows:

• Two of the three Communication courses specific to the concentration must be 3000 to 4999 level courses.
• With department permission, COMM 3091 or COMM 4997 can be counted as one of your Communication-specific courses.
• Three approved non-COMM electives are required.
  • At least two of the three non-COMM elective courses must be related to the student's concentration. One of the three non-COMM electives courses must be related to the General Communication major but is not required to be related to the student's concentration.
  • All non-COMM elective courses must be pre-approved by the Comm Undergraduate Studies Program.
  • Additional COMM courses may be substituted for non-COMM electives.
• The deadline for declaring an optional concentration is the last day to add a class in the students' final semester.
• Students enrolled in an optional concentration must meet all Comm major requirements.  

Concentrations & Approved Classes

Advocacy & Activism

Courses in this Concentration focus on the intersection of communication and social justice. Through this concentration, students will explore vital communication-related questions about socio-political power, protest, and progress. Courses explore media institutions and the past, present, and evolving techniques and technologies of protest and social movements.

View Advocacy & Activism Courses

Audiences & Persuasion

Courses in this Concentration focus on both the social construction of audiences and the influence of interpersonal and mass mediated communication. Through this concentration, students will gain an understanding of how individual and collective attitudes, opinions, information-processing, and behaviors develop, and how audiences and messages interact to create effects.

View Audiences & Persuasion Courses

Culture & Society

Courses in this Concentration explore the complex relationships between communication and cultural practices. Through this concentration, students will gain an understanding of the ways in which communication is central to the construction, maintenance, and transmission of culture, as well as to cultural resistance and change.

View Culture & Society Courses

Data & Network Science

Courses in this Concentration focus on the role and analysis of data, complex systems, and networks in digital communication. Through this concentration, students will gain an understanding of the role of digital media and social networks in disseminating information and influencing the communications, attitudes, and behaviors of social groups. Students have the opportunity to learn computational social science techniques to support research in this area, including social network analysis and methods from data science (information visualization, social media collection, and quantitative data and textual analysis) using various tools and programming languages (Python and R).

View Data & Network Science Courses

Politics & Policy

Courses in this Concentration explore communication among and between political elites and other policy influencers, the media, and citizens. Through this concentration, students will gain an understanding of the attitudes, opinions, information-processing, and behavior of citizens, political elites, political institutions, and political systems.  

View Politics & Policy Courses

Communication and Public Service (ComPS) Program

Another way to focus the Comm major is to join the Communication and Public Service Program (ComPS). ComPS is a specialized program that allows students to engage in public service by combining individual research opportunities with hands-on experience in the public arena. Classes, seminars, internships, field experiences, and individual research projects provide students with opportunities to meet and learn from current and former officeholders, journalists, and public servants who have been leaders in government and civil society.

The ComPS Program has specific requirements that differ from requirements for the major in Communication or a Communication Concentration. Read more about ComPS.