COM - Communication

In this class, students will be asked to explore their own creative processes and develop identities as creative thinkers and producers of media. Students will research theories about creativity; explore aesthetic principles relating to two-dimensional, interactive and time-based media; and experiment with traditional and experimental narrative techniques. The focus will be on developing creative concepts in pre-production phases (e.g., sketching, storyboarding, storytelling, writing treatments and artist statements, experimenting with electronic media). Students will work both individually and in groups; research and synthesize substantive ideas from outside influences; and effectively present ideas in oral, visual and written forms.

Studies the fundamentals of communication theory to provide a foundation for understanding how the mass media work, how they influence us, how we can analyze them and how we can effectively use them. Students can apply these critical skills to their roles as responsible consumers and communication professionals. May be used to fulfill the general distribution requirements for the social sciences if not used for the major. 

This is a CORE foundation course for all communication majors.

An introduction to the principles and practices of writing for major types of mass communication media, with an emphasis on content, engagement, organization, conciseness and clarity. Students learn various styles of writing for print media, social media, broadcast media, the Web, advertising and public relations. This course also discusses the ethical and legal implications of writing for the media.

Students learn and practice the principles behind the art and craft of scriptwriting for short, single-camera "motion picture" format, and multi-camera, live audience television (such as situation comedies). May not be used to satisfy general distribution requirements.

It is one of the great ironies of contemporary existence that we are beset, informed, controlled and constructed by images, yet we receive almost no formal training in understanding and creating visual communication. Visual Literacy addresses this issue through interdisciplinary study of the terminology and theory of visual communication, with special emphasis on the relationship of visuality and cultural practice. Considering ideas from art history, photography, film, mass media and cultural studies, students are asked to analyze visual rhetoric, begin to see critically, articulate meaning and author visual rhetoric of their own. May be used to fulfill the general distribution requirements for the humanities if not used for the major.

This is a CORE foundation course for all communication majors.

Digital Citizenship introduces digital media production as a means of self-discovery, self-expression and civic engagement through three key issues: how do we define and know our identities given the dominant ways we express them today? How, to what purpose and with what responsibilities do we express our identities outward into public spheres? And how can we use media authoring skills to recognize and solve social problems? Through Internet research, social media, blogging and image capture, manipulation and distribution, students will develop skills to go from casual users of various contemporary technologies to digital rhetoricians practicing active, engaged citizenship. 

This is a CORE foundation course for all communication majors.

Students are responsible for the programming and management of WUTV and WUTZ, the University's closed-circuit television and radio stations. Students are encouraged to register for 1 to 2 credit hours initially and to save 4 credit hours for officer positions. Students also may participate as volunteers for either station. (Limited to 6 credit hours total.)

A basic introduction to film studies. Surveys the history of American narrative film with an emphasis on the cultural impact of film in society. May be used to fulfill the general distribution requirements for the humanities if not used for the major.

An examination of world cinema movements. May be used to fulfill Third World requirements. May be used to fulfill the general distribution requirements for the humanities if not used for the major.

This course introduces students to the historical, cultural, economic, and social aspects of advertising. Students will discusses advertising’s relationship to marketing as well as its role in traditional and new media landscapes. This course also provides an overview of advertising management, advertising planning, advertising creativity and concepts, global advertising, and laws affecting advertising.

Survey course on the visual documentary tradition. May be used to satisfy general distribution requirements in the humanities if not used for the major.

This course introduces students to theory, research and applied practice in the study of organizational communication. Students will explore the role human communication plays in structuring, maintaining and changing organizations, and they will explore specific issues within the study of organizational communication including socialization, decision-making, conflict, stress and burnout, cultural diversity and external communication.

Students will develop critical perspectives on media consumption and creation while learning intermediate skills in design and imagining for visual communication in print, web, social media, and time-based media.  The course focuses on conceptual thinking and problem-solving in the development and production of digital media projects.

Emphasizes formal aspects of studio video-production operations, including camera switching, lighting, sound and accessory equipment and remote-location production for integration into a studio program. This course provides production support for WUTV programming. May be used to satisfy general distribution requirements in the humanities if not used for the communication major. Laboratory fee required.

This course explores the social, political, economic, and cultural effects of emerging communication technologies.  Areas covered include the design and affordances of new technologies, how they are used by consumers and organizations, and how they are addressed by laws, policies, industries, and powerful social and cultural institutions. 

This course covers the elements of broadcast news writing and production, including the structure of radio and television news and feature stories, research and interviewing techniques, "package" production and ethical considerations. May not be used to satisfy general distribution requirements.

Communication and Law is the study of concepts, policies, laws and court decisions that affect communication in our society. Through text, scholarly and popular articles, sound and video recordings, court decisions, lectures and class participation, we explore critical legal principles of civilized democratic society and the range of laws that protect or restrain communication within it. In addition to examining such principles and laws for their own merit (or lack of it), the course provides a practical basis upon which students who seek to become communications professionals can identify legal issues that will influence their professional conduct.

This is a survey of traditions of television criticism. The class covers key areas of television research and criticism, including narrative, aesthetic, production-oriented, economic, audience-centered, and ideological approaches to TV. The class will address questions related to TV as a technology, the broadcast and post-network eras of TV, the globalization of media programming, as well as a wide range of TV genres and their conventions.

The purpose of the course is to apply studio television training to the production of a weekly telecast. Students are required to expand previous training in studio television to include planning, budgeting, booking guests in advance and program planning. Each facet of producing a weekly telecast is explored, including prerecorded elements and the roles of associate producer, assistant director, graphics wraparound and set design. Laboratory fee required.

Examines the cultural, political, economic and ethical issues surrounding a complex, international communication movement known as the New World Information Order. Explores all aspects of the topic, with an emphasis on threats to the national sovereignty of developing countries, the bias of international news agencies and cultural imperialism. May be used to fulfill Third World requirements. May be used to fulfill general distribution requirements for the social sciences if not used for the major.

Students study and view tapes and films produced as part of the non-commercial independent movement. May be used to satisfy general distribution requirements in the humanities if not used for the major.

Covers the elements of writing feature film scripts including character development, dialogue and dramatic structure. May not be used to satisfy general distribution requirements.

This course explores practice and theory of writing for interactive media, including hypertext and hypermedia, narrative games, critical games, and location-based media. May not be used to satisfy general distribution requirements.

This course is an introduction to the mechanics of writing for television. From idea through final draft, students learn the process of developing scripts for television. The structural demands of commercial television and cable are explored. The student obtains a grounding in the historical development of marketable TV genres. The selling and buying of a script are analyzed, as well as strategies for creating a teleplay by oneself or with a staff of writers. May not be used to satisfy general distribution requirements.

Students will learn how to use social media for strategic purposes, develop effective content, and measure success through analytics.

Internships are with local, state and national sponsors throughout the communication field. COM 354 cannot be used to meet the 300-or-above-level requirement in the major. May not be used to satisfy general distribution requirements.

A search for the defining characteristics of a director's works, including issues of thematic motifs and visual style. May be used to satisfy general distribution requirements in the humanities if not used for the major.

The course is designed to introduce intermediate research methodologies to a student's critical analysis of large-scale media events. It involves the practical analysis of a media event, including circumstances, details, historical perspective and reactions by journalists, officials and the public. Archival coverage, documentaries, feature films, print articles and Internet sites relating to a singular or series of events will encompass a majority of the analysis. Particular attention will be given to events with international implications. Students will review the previous exposure of related topics in an effort to compare the attention given to a subject in a comparison of "before and after." May be used to fulfill general distribution requirements for the social sciences if not used for the major.

Focuses on the politics of representing women, particularly in film, television, advertising, popular literature and the popular press. The critical background includes texts on political economy, semiotics, feminist theory and cultural studies. The student completes a major research project during the course. May be used to fulfill general distribution requirements for the humanities, but not for the social sciences if not used for the major.

This course familiarizes students with key theories, techniques, and media forms that will enable them to produce creative, well-researched and thought-provoking projects that embody critical media practice.  Each student will select and examine an issue of social importance, and research media platforms and rhetorical approaches suitable for that issue. Combining scholarship with media skills, the student will create a final media project.

This lab course involves strategic concept development, copywriting, and media production, as well as ethical considerations related to these practices.

This course involves training in theory, form and style for writing public relations materials for all stages and types of public relations campaigns. This course is designed to provide students with a broad range of public relations writing skills utilized in the industry.

“For-profit” brands and companies have crossed-over to the traditionally “non-profit” territory, using their platforms in advertising and public relations (ADPR) to discuss social issues so as to promote social good and to achieve commercial success. This emerging market of prosocial consumers lead to changes in the practice of doing social good in ADPR. This demands our future ADPR practitioners to have the diversity/multicultural literacy that guides them to make appropriate and conscious decisions when applying multicultural and prosocial strategies. In this course, we will cover prosocial strategic decision-making, multicultural targeting/messages/markets, consumer diversity psychology, critical social issues, and related practices in ADPR.

The purpose of this course is to provide students with an understanding of the socio-cultural dynamics that affect the communication process. Students focus on their own cultural world view as they are exposed to the cultural dynamics and characteristics of other societies. Emphasis is placed upon the nonverbal and oral/visual aspects of communication content, structure and context. May be used to fulfill general distribution requirements for the social sciences if not used for the major.

Raises fundamental questions about the relationship between science and the humanities. Analyzes the role of technology in modern life with special emphasis on the impact of new information technologies. May be used to fulfill general distribution requirements for the humanities if not used for the major.

Examines public opinion from a variety of perspectives, providing students with the ability to be intelligent consumers of public opinion research and effective users of public opinion research tools. Explores the interaction between the media and public opinion, as well as public opinion's effects on contemporary society and politics.

Examines women directors worldwide. The course will focus on the theoretical, critical, historical, cultural and aesthetic basis of films made by international, mainstream, documentary and the avant-garde women film directors of New Zealand, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the African and Asian diasporas, and North and South America. Students will submit a series of written critical responses and complete a major project related to course material. May be counted in the humanities if not counted in the major.

This course studies critical contexts of public communications to bring students an understanding of forces that shape media and representation, and relationships between mass communication and the public.

Advanced explorations of feature film scriptwriting and analysis. May not be used to satisfy general distribution requirements.

Students explore the role of communication in the social construction of culture. Emphasis is on acquiring knowledge of culture as an evolving process of codifications, and examining dominant and marginal cultural meaning systems in science, history and the arts. May be used to fulfill general distribution requirements for the social sciences if not used for the major.

Explores the relationship between myth and cinema. Also looks at the politics of representation as it relates to race, gender and ethnicity. May be used to satisfy general distribution requirements in the humanities if not used for the major.

This course examines experimental, avant-garde cinema worldwide. It focuses on the theoretical, critical, historical, cultural and aesthetic basis of experimental and avant-garde films made by national and international directors. Students submit a series of written critical responses and complete a major project related to course material. May be counted in the humanities if not counted in the major.

The course explores worldwide film theory and criticism from its roots to the present through lectures and screenings of international, global and non-western films.  Classical and contemporary theorists include Sergie Eisenstein, Andre Bazin, Gilles Deleuze, Walter Benjamin, Laura Mulvey, Lev Manovich and more. Issues of representation, the cinematic apparatus and semiotics including psychoanalytic film theory will be covered.  Students submit a series of written critical/theoretical responses and complete a conference style abstract and paper related to course material.  May be counted in the Humanities if not counted in the major.

Seminar for seniors completing a thesis paper in cinema studies as the requirement for graduation in film and media arts. Each student pursues a cinema studies thesis project, in written form, of sufficient breadth and depth as to crystallize their experiences at the University. Topics vary from semester to semester.

The course is designed to help students integrate knowledge of advertising theory and practice within an international context. Instructor and students will meet occasionally over the spring semester for orientation and introduction to course material and spend two weeks abroad in May expanding the study and application of international advertising topics/concepts. In addition, the travel portion of the course will give students the opportunity to learn about and experience, first hand, advertising as a product and shaper of culture and the advertising industry’s role in a globalized economy.

Students will conduct deep analysis of films, delving into close readings of form and content, including character, dialogue, plot, mise-en-scene, camerawork & cinematography, editing and sound (diegetic and non-diegetic).  At the end of the course students will have an enhanced understanding of how multiple elements combine to create compelling stories and opportunities for interpretation in complex, primarily narrative, films.

This course introduces students of communication to the core concepts and common practices of both quantitative and qualitative communication research. Students will be exposed to a variety of theoretical perspectives on the nature, practice, use and meaning of research in the field of communication. Particular emphasis will be placed on research concepts and methods appropriate to the practice of advertising and public relations.

The course emphasizes interpretation, discussion, and practice, building upon theoretical and practical knowledge students have acquired over the course of their study in critical media practice. Using traditional and emerging media technologies, students will produce projects over the course of the semester to convey critical perspectives on phenomena with social, cultural, economic, and/or political implications.

The Communication Major Portfolio Review is required for all communication majors, to be taken during their senior year. The course asks students to select and submit major works for review and assessment.

Students must apply for acceptance the semester before their anticipated enrollment. Each year, a select number of students are able to choose a senior project option in order to fulfill the 400-level requirement of the communication major. In this independent course, a student or group of students pursue a research or production objective of sufficient breadth and depth as to crystallize their experiences as communication majors at the University.

This course teaches strategic development of advertising campaigns and involves research, branding, copywriting, design and digital production. May not be used to satisfy general distribution requirements.

This course focuses on a systematic process of public relations, including research, strategic planning, communication tactics and evaluation. Through an extensive public relations campaign project, students will understand and practice the multifaceted and strategic nature of public relations. The course involves case studies, group problem-solving, writing, production and client relations work.