MA in Communication - Curriculum

Core courses are offered in a hybrid format (meaning some class periods may be conducted on Zoom) while electives will be offered fully in-person. Due to our multidisciplinary nature and the varied academic backgrounds of our students, there are minor variations in pathways for completion with potential elective options in other disciplines based on each student's interests and professional goals

COMM 600: Theories of Communication

This is an introductory course to the graduate program in the field of Communication. This course attempts to prepare students for their graduate work by introducing the history of the field and the position of Communication in relation to other sub-fields. Students will also learn the academic writing convention of the discipline, get introduced to relevant campus resources (library, Canvas, etc.), and set up their personal portfolio space.

COMM 602: Strategic Mediated Communication

This course examines media and mediated forms of communication as they intersect with cultural, economic, political or social contexts. The focus is on both the analysis and strategic use of mediated communication for various occasions, including development, social change, crisis response, corporate/organizational digital presence, and social justice. The course integrates both critical and practical approaches to understanding effective mediated communication.

COMM 605: Applied Research Design

This course is designed to focus on methods of data gathering. In this course, students will learn designs of quantitative and qualitative research, such as experiment, survey, interview, participant observation, and ethnography. Students gain research design experience by designing a project to address a particular communication phenomenon, and the importance of proper research design for professional applications, including project or training assessment and evaluation. Each student’s proposed research project will be executed in the Applied Research Methods course.

COMM 606: Applied Research Methods

This course prepares students to collect data for a research project using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The primary foci include experiment, survey, interview, participant observation, and ethnography. Continuing from the Applied Research Design course, students will collect data from the previous semester’s project designs, gaining experience in a variety of methods as well as how to work in research teams.

COMM 607: Applied Research Analysis

This course prepares students to analyze a research project using both quantitative and qualitative data analysis. The primary foci of data analysis include (M)ANOVA, regression, and mediation and moderation analysis for quantitative survey data and coding based on the grounded theory approach for the qualitative data. Continuing from the Applied Research Methods course, students will analyze the data and interpret and report the results.

COMM 558: Topics in Film - Brazilian Film

This is an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural course where we will emphasize the socio-economic and political issues that gave rise to specific movements – Third Cinema, Cinema Novo and New Brazilian Cinema and travels through a more recent contemporary cinema. This course is designed to introduce the students to the cinematic work of a number of Brazilian film artists, and to develop a more detailed and creative reception of each film. By studying Brazilian cinema, students will learn about cinematic traditions and cultural realities significantly different from their own. They will acquire knowledge of the social, cultural and political issues that have shaped these traditions, as well as develop a deeper understanding of the aesthetic forms and film theories that have defined this cinema both in the past and in the present. Students will also become familiar with important approaches to studying film, for example the idea of national cinemas and cinema of resistance.

COMM 560: Communication and Social Justice: Whiteness

This course explores whiteness, communication, and culture broadly. As such, we will explore how whiteness is interrelated with communication, rhetoric, culture, identity, ideology, interpretation, etc. More specifically, we will explore what we mean by “whiteness,” social construction of whiteness, white fragility, white identity, cross-racial dialogue, histories of whiteness, black perspectives on whiteness, James Baldwin’s work on whiteness, whiteness as a strategic rhetoric, rhetorical strategies of whiteness, white rhetorics of crime/prison, whiteness and media, rhetorics of white backlash/disadvantage/victimization/affirmative action, whiteness and the far right, and white anti-racism/anti-racists.

COMM 564: Health Communication

This course introduces students to the principles, theory, and practice of health communication. Emphasis is placed on understanding the communication process as it pertains to health communication in various contexts: patient-provider communication, health communication theories, strategic planning for health campaigns, social media and health concerns (e.g., privacy), community-based healthcare strategies (i.e., strategic, intercultural, patient/provider, family, etc.). Students develop critical thinking skills, refine real-world application skills in the health context, and understand the dynamic roles of health communication in diverse situations.

COMM 570: Group Facilitation and Leadership

This course focuses on the development of group facilitation and critical thinking skills for making ethical decisions in diverse organizational, professional, and personal settings. Topics covered in this course include leadership, communication, theories of power, interpersonal dynamics in teams and groups, listening abilities, perspective-taking, practical discussion facilitation, skill building, understanding organizational structure and decision-making processes.

Other previously offered electives include:

COMM 506: Intercultural Communication
COMM 532: Audio Production
COMM 533: Video Production
COMM 544: Community Media
COMM 561: Communication and Social Justice: Black Farmers
COMM 563: Data Science for Communication in Real World Contexts 
COMM 565: Social Media and Society
COMM 581: Television Criticism