COMM - Communication

COMM 601 Foundations of Communication Inquiry

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Major approaches to data generation and theory building used in the communication discipline; survey of quantitative, interpretive, critical and bibliographic research methods. Prerequisites: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

COMM 610 Social Science Methods in Communication Research

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Examination of social science research methods in communication, including design, measurement and analysis for descriptive and experimental research; practice in evaluating and conducting research projects. Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

COMM 611 Advanced Quantitative Methods in Communication Research

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. In-depth exploration of the philosophical underpinnings of quantitative research, research design and statistical analysis of quantitative data in communication research; examination of regression-based modeling and its extensions, including ordinary least squares (OLS), analysis of categorical dependent variables, interactive effects, statistical mediation; introduction to structural equation modeling. Prerequisites: COMM 610; graduate classification.

COMM 615 Interpretive Methods in Communication Research

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Introduction to interpretive and qualitative methods in communication research; underlying epistemologies, design issues, and explanation of knowledge claims; methods including participant observation and interviewing. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 616 Topics in Communication Methods

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Focused and in-depth examination on theory and practice of single method in communication research; includes surveys, interviewing, focus groups, ethnography, digital methods, rhetorical field methods, engage scholarship, historiography and experimental design. May be repeated for credit up to 12 hours. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 620 Communication Theory

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. The nature and role of communication theory; systems of ontology and epistemology in theory development; critical review of current theories concerning communication codes, functions and processes in various contexts. Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

COMM 625 International Communication and Public Diplomacy

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Exploration of the intersections of culture, media and communication; emphasis on the role of communication in public diplomacy; examination of global media, international relations and globalization and media technologies on issues of cultural identity and geopolitics and the policy discussions emerging from that impact. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 626 Communication Law and Policy

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Foundations of law and policy as the context for all communication, online or off; issues such as free speech, privacy and surveillance, intellectual property rights, access to information, extreme speech, public diplomacy, cybersecurity and network neutrality; mechanisms and effects of policy-making by governments, international and global organizations and via technical standard-setting and algorithms; roles of civil society and corporations in policy-making and implementation; methods for legal research and for law and society research. Prerequisites: Graduate classification.

COMM 628 Political Communication

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Interdisciplinary study of the intersection of politics and communication, especially the communications strategies of political elites; structure of media institutions and media technologies within democratic societies; effects of mediated communications on public opinion. Prerequisites: Graduate classification.

COMM 630 Interpersonal Communication

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Major theories in interpersonal communication; critical examination of current research programs on communication in interpersonal influence, relational development and conflict management. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 631 Group Communication

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Major concepts and theories of communicative processes in task-oriented groups from a social scientific perspective; the role of group communication in (1) group decision processes, (2) decision development, (3) decision-making agendas, and (4) conflict and performance quality. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 632 Communication and Conflict

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Elements and central features of conflict theories and different approaches to communication in conflict management; analysis of communication research in interpersonal, family/marital, group, organizational, and public conflicts and the role of the media in social and international disputes. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 634 Communication and Gender

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Gender considered as a complex phenomenon constituted through communication; topics include femininities, masculinities, language, power, nonverbal behavior, gender in media, organizations, interpersonal relationships, and social movements. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 636 Survey of Organizational Communication

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Theoretical and empirical literature on human communication and complex organizations; the study of messages, interaction, and meaning in the process of organizing; topics include superior-subordinate communication, communication networks, and technologies, language, message flow, symbols and organizational culture, negotiation and conflict, and power and politics. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 637 Organizational Communication Seminar

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Investigation of a subject important to the understanding of organizational communication, such as communication and organizational decision-making, group communication within organizations, communication and organizational culture, and organizational rhetoric and issue management. May be repeated for credit with different content up to a total of four times. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 638 Crisis Communication

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Focuses on crisis communication theory and research as it applies to organizations; differentiation between the various crisis communication theories; application of various crisis communication theories to crisis cases; understanding the relationship between crisis and risk communication. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 640 Rhetorical Theory

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Close reading of classical and contemporary systems of rhetoric; survey of principal applications to communication theory and research. Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

COMM 645 Rhetorical and Textual Methods in Communication Research

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Comparative study of traditional and contemporary perspectives on the description, interpretation, and evaluation of public discourse, including textual analysis, neo-classical analysis, Burkean criticism, quantitative and qualitative approaches to content analysis, fantasy theme analysis, and semiotic analysis. Prerequisite: Graduate classification or approval of instructor.

COMM 649 American Public Discourse to 1865

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Public discourse and political rhetoric in America in colonial and pre-Civil War years; historical, conceptual, and practical examination of political campaign rhetoric, legislative rhetoric, judicial rhetoric, and advocacy group rhetoric. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 650 American Public Discourse Since 1865

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Public discourse and political rhetoric in America in post-Civil War years; historical, conceptual, and practical examination of political campaign rhetoric, legislative rhetoric, judicial rhetoric, and advocacy group rhetoric. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 651 Presidential Communication

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Examination of discourse of, about and from American presidents, including principal genres of presidential communication, speechwriting and media strategies; case studies of presidential communication ranging from campaigns, oratory, to crisis rhetoric and ceremonial address. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 652 The Rhetoric of Social Movements

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Analysis of persuasive strategies used to build social identities and collectively agitate for social change; exploration of the history of social movements in the United States and abroad.

COMM 653 Rhetoric and Public Culture

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Examination of how artifacts of public culture function rhetorically to transform public attitudes, opinion and memory; analysis of documents, artworks, images and histories from a humanities and social science perspective.

COMM 654/ENGL 654 Classical Rhetoric

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Origins of rhetoric in classical Greece and Rome; exploration of the relationship between philosophy, rhetoric and democratic political culture; the contemporary relevance of classical thought to contemporary problems. Cross Listing: ENGL 654/COMM 654.

COMM 655/ENGL 655 Contemporary Theories of Rhetoric

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Investigation of the major figures in rhetorical theory in the 20th and 21st centuries; analysis of the relationship between rhetoric and power; identifying new challenges for rhetoric in global, multicultural, technological age. May be repeated for credit. Cross Listing: ENGL 655/COMM 655.

COMM 656/WGST 652 Feminism and Rhetoric

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Historical development of the ideology, theory and rhetorical practices of U.S. feminism; criticism of significant artifacts of women orators and writers from the 19th century to contemporary times. Cross Listing: WGST 652/COMM 656.

COMM 658 Seminar in Communication and Culture

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Investigation of the ways that culture, religion, identity, gender, popular culture, community, history, and related ideas are shaped through communication in order to understand the development of social norms, political values, and the human experience. May be repeated for credit with different content up to a total of three times. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 659 Communication and Citizenship in the Public Sphere

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Theoretical examination of communication within democratic, republican, and liberal conceptions of citizenship; consideration of the ideal of the public sphere, and communication in global civil society; specific attention to the practices of American citizenship within the global civil society. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 661 Media and Identity

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Representations of identity in media and popular culture; how media and technology use shape and are shaped by identity; media as sites for negotiation and construction of identities such as gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, social class, physical/mental ability, nationality and religion; impacts and effects of media stereotypes and counter-stereotypes; positive storytelling, counter-narratives and media initiatives that resist mainstream portrayals; media activism and social justice. Prerequisites: Graduate classification.

COMM 662 Survey of Media Studies

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Survey of research and theory in media studies; overview of the historical and theoretical orientation of media studies and mediated communication; examination of approaches to analyzing media texts, technologies, audiences, reception processes, economics and/or industries. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 663 Seminar in Media Studies

Credits 3. 3 Other Hours. Intensive work on selected topics of research in media studies; may address work in the areas of audience studies, media effects, industries, policy, international issues, media and culture, media history or theory. May be repeated for credit with different content up to a total of three times. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 664 Media Processes and Effects

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Investigation of processes through which mediated messages influence our everyday lives; examination of social scientific approaches; understanding how viewers select, interpret and respond to mediated messages; includes media representations, mediated inter-group processes, news framing, political advertising, persuasive messages, entertainment media, popular culture, health campaigns, positive media psychology, new media technologies, pro-social media effects and critical media literacy. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 665 Communication and Technology

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Examines the relationships between human communication and technology, investigating the social effects of communication technologies, the quality of messages, communicative practices, and rhetorical norms that typify effective communication in technological society. May be taken for credit up to nine hours. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 667 Media and Health

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Examination of theories, methods and research that characterize the use of media in health contexts; focus on mass media influence on public health and/or strategic use of mass media to promote health behaviors; engagement of social and behavioral science approaches to media effects and/or critical perspectives on the study of media as social institutions. May be taken three times for credit. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 669 Survey of Health Communication

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Theories and research in health communication considering functions and outcomes of communication processes in various health contexts, ranging from interpersonal settings to public campaigns; emphasis on providing a framework for synthesizing and critically evaluating health communication research. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 670 Health Communication Seminar

Credits 3. 3 Lecture Hours. Investigation of a subject important to the understanding of health communication, such as persuasion and public health campaigns, physician-patient communication, or communication in health care organizations. May be repeated for credit with different content up to a total of three times. Prerequisites: Graduate classification and approval of instructor.

COMM 671 Interdisciplinary Seminar in Prevention Science

Credit 1. 1 Lecture Hour. Contemporary research programs that represent the interdisciplinary field of prevention science; strengths and limitations of diverse theoretical and conceptual bases of research in prevention science; application of research findings to issues related to the prevention of mental, emotional, and physical health problems and the promotion of well-being. May be taken 3 times for credit. Prerequisite: Graduate standing and either admission to the interdisciplinary graduate certificate in prevention science program or approval of instructor. Cross Listing: HLTH 671 and SPSY 620.

COMM 681 Professional Seminar

Credits 0-1. 0-1 Other Hours. Provides socialization to the profession of communication, focusing on graduate students' roles as scholars and teachers; provides instruction on teaching communication, conducting and writing publishable research, and fulfilling responsibilities to one's organization and profession. May be repeated up to three times. Prerequisite: Graduate classification.

COMM 685 Directed Studies

Credits 1 to 6. 1 to 6 Other Hours. Directed studies in specific problem areas in communication. Student may take up to two sections of directed studies in communication in the same semester, with a maximum of 6 credits. Prerequisite: Approval of department head.

COMM 689 Special Topics in...

Credits 1 to 4. 1 to 4 Lecture Hours. Selected topics in an identified area of communication. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: Approval of instructor.

COMM 691 Research

Credits 1 to 23. 1 to 23 Other Hours. Research for thesis.