2023-2024 Catalogue

Communication

Communication scholarship seeks to understand the ways human beings use constructions such as texts, technology, relationships, and institutions to create meaning, share knowledge, develop power dynamics, and forge our understandings of reality. Our approach is to develop analytical, critical, and creative abilities in students within the context of the larger social, historical, and cultural dynamics that shape and influence collective human norms, values, and practices. 

The minor emphasizes communication theory and criticism. While a few courses do deal with communication skills, for the most part communication is not a skills-based discipline, but a discipline that focuses on the study of how human beings use symbols of various types (language, sounds, images, etc.) to create and share meaning in the process of the social construction of reality. Therefore, the communication minor focuses on theoretical, critical, and cultural studies of human symbolic practices in various contexts such as rhetorical studies, media and film studies, intercultural communication, and gender studies. Students pursuing a minor in communication will acquire a broad and deep understanding of communication theory, the ability to engage in informed criticism and analysis of communication acts and artifacts, develop critical thinking skills, and learn to practice effective communication. Students will study communication in multiple contexts and become effective evaluators of oral, written, and mediated texts. 

Minor Program. The department offers an 18 hour minor designed to supplement a variety of major fields of study across the liberal arts.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completing this program, a student will:

1. appreciate differences of communicative norms, performances, and expectations in a variety of cultural situations & texts.
2. be confident in their public speaking ability.
3. understand symbol creation, meaning, and use in the process of the social construction of reality and cultural practices and dynamics. 
4. learn how to successfully engage in the scholarship of the communication discipline at a scholarly level.
5. be able use a theoretical lens to critically analyze an issue, process, or text in communication.

 

Minor Requirements: Communication. 18 semester hours are required for a minor in communication, distributed as follows:

• Required courses (9 hours):
  • COM 202 Public Speaking 3 hours
  • One course from the following:
    • COM 214 Relational Communication 3 hours
    • COM 215 Introduction to Media Studies 3 hours
    • COM 216 Intercultural Communication 3 hours
  • One course from the following:
    • COM 305 Mediating Genders 3 hours
    • COM 338 Identity, Power, & Culture 3 hours
    • COM 340 Persuasion 3 hours
    • COM 355 Seminar in Cultural Texts 3 hours
• Electives (9 hours):
  3 hours must be in COM
  3 hours must be at the 300 level
  • COM 214 Relational Communication 3 hours
  • COM 215 Introduction to Media Studies 3 hours
  • COM 216 Intercultural Communication 3 hours
  • POL 222 Comparative Politics 3 hours
  • PHI 224 Logic 3 hours
  • POL 230 International Relations 3 hours
  • PSY 235 Nature & Manifestation of Prejudice 3 hours
  • HUM 250 Technology & Society 3 hours
  • WGS 250 Global Feminisms 3 hours
  • ENG 300 Literature & Film 3 hours
  • ENG 302 Digital Culture 3 hours
  • COM/WGS 305 Mediating Genders 3 hours
  • PHI/REL 309 Modernism to Postmodernism 3 hours
  • COM/WGS 338 Identity, Power, & Culture  3 hours
  • COM 340 Persuasion 3 hours
  • COM 355 Seminar in Cultural Texts 3 hours
  • COM 396 Special Topics 3 hours
  • COM 451 Independent Study 3 hours
  • COM 199 or 452 Internship 1–3 hours

 

Find out more about this program.