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Undergraduate Catalog 2004-2006: Courses

Communication

COM/ENG1140 Journalism (3 semester hours)

Fundamentals of news and feature writing, editing, and broadcast news. Standard forms of journalistic writing are introduced through practice, discussion, and critiques by professional journalists.
Prerequisite: ENG1020


COM1500 Human Communication/Public Speaking (3 semester hours)

Examines the foundations and basic processes of communication in small group, interpersonal and public speaking contexts. Students will apply these basic principles though the preparation and delivery of individual and group presentations. Emphasizes audience analysis, group interaction, research, organization, and effective delivery style.
Prerequisite: ENG 1020
Meets General Education: Observation of Ourselves and Others.


COM1600 Television and Visual Literacy (3 semester hours)

The course analyzes the ways in which stories presented on television help to create and circulate understandings about how American society is organized as well as how they are implicated in the construction of our personal identities. Students should complete the class with the ability to critically evaluate the interplay between the aesthetic, economic, regulatory, social and political factors at work in the production and consumption of TV shows.
Meets General Education "Aesthetic and Philosophical Expression" B requirement
No prerequisites.


COM/ENG2040 Technical and Professional Writing (4 semester hours )

Crosslisted with ENG2040. For description see ENG2040.


COM2140 Writing for the Mass Media (3 semester hours)

While advanced experience in newsgathering, reporting, copy editing and feature writing for print and electronic media will be emphasized, other kinds of writing will be stressed for marketing value. They will be cross-genre and sub-genre, including most all forms of fiction, and non-fiction from public relations writing to poetry. This is a projects oriented course in writing and marketing for serious students.
Prerequisite: ENG/COM1140 or consent of program


COM2300 Introduction to American Film (3 semester hours )

A survey course outlining some of the principal theories and aesthetic techniques associated with American feature films from their inception at the end of the 19th century to present-day blockbusters. Evaluation of the "Art" of film will be combined with a focus on the historical, social, industrial, and legislative contexts of the times in which the films appeared.
Meets General Education "Aesthetic and Philosophical Expression" B requirement
No prerequisites.


COM/ART2670 Introduction to Photography (3 semester hours)

Crosslisted with ART2670. For description see ART2670.


COM2400 Computer Technology and Communications (3 semester hours )

This is a hybrid studies/practical class that introduces students to some of the foundations, theory and history of computers and communication. Students will perform exercises and a final research and production project that tests their facility with combining graphics, document, research, multi-media and web components into a coherent whole.
No prerequisites.


COM2800 Mass Communication and American Culture (3 semester hours)

Survey of the mass media: newspapers, magazines, books, internet, radio, recordings, television, and film. The separate histories of each medium are traced into their convergence in modern society. Critically examines effects theories, ethical, economic and legal perspectives to further appreciate mass media's impact on American and global cultures.
Meets General Education "Aesthetic and Philosophical Expression" B requirement
No prerequisites.


COM3000 Organizational Communication (3 semester hours)

Interpersonal communication in organizational settings, the nature of group process and leadership in organizational contexts, and how formal and informal communication networks operate in the development of a variety of organizational cultures. Surveys interpersonal, small group and organizational theories, perspectives and applied practice.
No prerequisites.


COM3200 Persuasion (3 semester hours )
Theoretical approaches to the ways attitudes are formed and changed, the relationship between attitudes and behavior, and how messages transmitted personally and through the mass media are shaped to influence attitudes and behavior. Students study the rhetoric of persuasion established by Aristotle, which is foundational to our modern persuasive practices and applications in areas such as public address, politics, propaganda, advertising, and public relations.
No prerequisites.



COM3500 Cross Cultural Communication (3 semester hours)

The course focuses on effective communication of ideas, theories and practices in a diverse multi-cultural world. Differences in perception, worldviews, and values will be explored, and both verbal and nonverbal messages will be examined. Direction will be toward the discovery and analyses of experiences that occur when people from international cultures in general and U.S. cultures in particular share ideas, feelings and information. Pedagogical methods will be text, field experience, literacy models and analysis involving the self and others.
Meets General Education "Aesthetic and Philosophical Expression" B requirement
No prerequisites.


COM3510 Corporate and Professional Communications (3 semester hours)

Application of concepts of persuasion to creating informative and promotional copy for brochures, newsletters, grants, proposals, press releases, direct mail, and display advertising. Students develop presentation skills necessary for effective communication in corporate and professional settings. The course culminates in the presentation of a portfolio that covers work done in the course.
Prerequisite: ENG1020.


COM3540 Computerized Publication Systems (3 semester hours)

Use of computer technology and applications for the communications specialist to design and produce newsletters, brochures, flyers, and reports quickly and efficiently. Applications of computer technology in the writing-editing, production cycle to create effective informational and promotional materials.
Prerequisites: ENG1020.


COM/ART3600 Media Technology for Instructional/Corporate Settings (3 semester hours)

Crosslisted with ART3600. For description see ART3600.


COM3610 Video Production I (3 semester hours)

This is a field shoot, computer edit-based class. Students, working in pairs, pre-produce and shoot either a documentary or narrative based project to be edited on a personal computer MiniDV system. A useful course for anybody, especially educators, many of whom will be expected to be conversant with the basics of camcorders and computer editing when they teach in schools later in their careers.
No prerequisites.


COM3620 Video Production II (3 semester hours )
This is an advanced field shoot, edit-based class. Students will work in "crews" of 4 working on each other's documentary or narrative based projects. This class will delve much further into areas such as lighting, staging and scripting.
Prerequisite: COM3610


COM3800 Popular Culture (3 semester hours)
Students critically analyze aspects of popular culture such as magazines, television genres, sports, fashion, music, and subcultural styles. The course stresses the need to scrutinize the constant struggle between the economics of the culture industries on the one hand and the desires and behavior of audiences on the other. Students will be introduced to the rudiments of discursive theory and asked to apply those understandings in a paper dealing with a chosen area of popular culture
No prerequisites.


COM3840 Advanced Topics in Video Production (3 semester hours)

This is a periodic advanced field shoot, edit-based class. Students will work in "crews" of 4 working on each other's collaborative projects of choice. Class will stress cross-departmental collaboration and production of shows for festival or cable access viewing.
Prerequisite: COM3620.


COM3810 Special Topics in Media Studies or Professional Practice (3 semester hours)
Periodic course reflecting faculty research interests.
Prerequisites: will vary with special topic.


COM4000 Critical and Theoretical Perspectives in Communication (3 semester hours)

Critically examines ethical, cultural, political, legal and economic perspectives in a variety of communication contexts. Emphasizes study of human and mass-mediated communication from theoretical vantage points such as: rhetorical criticism, cultural studies, semiotics, and content analysis. Students will apply basic principles of quantitative and qualitative research
No prerequisites.
Meets General Education "Aesthetic and Philosophical Expression" B requirement



COM4990 Senior Seminar in Communication (3 semester hours)

This capstone course is required of all communication majors in their senior year. Students will complete individual term projects that will demonstrate their ability to integrate theoretical and practical aspects of their chosen area of communication. Seminar will center on project development and student led discussions of the issues and research indicative of their selected communication areas
Prerequisites: Major or minor in communication.

Posted 31 December 2003
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