Courses

Current mass communication theories and approaches analyzed from a research perspective. Topics include: critical theory; audience ethnography, uses and gratifications; socialization processes and effects; and agenda setting.

A study of the processes through which scholarly, scientific, and technical ideas are communicated: mentoring; professional, national, and international networks; scholarly and scientific publishing; and other aspects of specialized information transfer.

Examines newly emerging mediated communication technologies (e.g., mobile phones and internet) affect social relationships and organizations; also, how social forces affect adoption and usage patterns of mediated technologies.

Students engage in a theoretical examination of experiential media (e.g., augmented reality, virtual reality). Readings provide a perspective on the development of experiential media, including implications for the transformation of media content forms and platforms in an experiential context. Students consider methodological and critical approaches to studying experiential media.

Upon successful completion of the course, students will:

•    Understand and engage with media theory and empirical research relevant to understanding the emerging domain of experiential media.
•    Analyze the implications of experiential media for journalism, media organizations, and society, by drawing on theory, published research, case studies, and real-world examples.
•    Contribute to knowledge of experiential media through your own original research.
•    Develop research presentation skills.

This course focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of communication programs designed to change health behavior of individuals, groups, and entire populations.

This course overviews majors themes of interpersonal health communication including issues such as physician-patient communication, relationships for individuals with health issues, and the relationship of communication to physical and mental health outcomes.

Focuses on how mediated communication is transforming health/medical practice and affecting health policy processes. Topics range from the way mediated communication sources affect the search for an acquisition of health information to the way these technologies are used to affect the behavior of individuals, groups and entire populations.

This course examines the language and social interaction (LSI) approach to studying human communication. We consider the epistemological and theoretical underpinnings of LSI scholarship;overview key research traditions within LSI; and explore the unique contributions of LSI scholarship to the communication discipline across its several subfields.

This course focuses on the intersections of law, policy, and technology, examining attempts to regulate digital media and information flows.  The course considers the tensions among freedom, control, individual liberty, and societal good inherent in attempts to regulate a developing media landscape.

Information law and regulation; focus on the historical and contemporary legal and regulatory issues stemming from the application of information technology.

Systematic consideration of the theories and strategies of assessment, planning, development and change at the organizational and programmatic level in non-profit-seeking information organizations.

This seminar examines the intellectual foundations for librarianship as a discipline, the development of a broadened understanding of pervasive theories and research issues and the identification and exploration of the research literature in librarianship and pertinent allied fields.

Audience studies investigates the nature of audiences, how audiences emerge, and how audiences can be studied. Theories to be critiqued include weak/strong effects, uses and gratifications, reader response theory, cultural studies.

The course provides an overview of theories, principles, and research that inform the practice of media education worldwide. Theories of media education, various approaches to media pedagogy, and contemporary research problems are addressed.

This course examines the history of print and electronic news media, considering them not as freestanding institutions but as key parts or aspects of wider cultural and political developments, and situating them in their historical context.

Cultural approaches to media studies, with a focus on major theories and critical analysis of media and popular culture. Topics, include: cultural theory; aesthetics and taste; representation and ideology; consumer culture; media, culture and identity; gender, race, class, and sexuality in media; fandom and subcultures.

Theories and research relating old and new media to political decision-making. Topics include public attitudes and opinion, media policy, interest articulation, political culture, ideology, rhetoric and content analysis, framing, agenda-setting.

Surveys and critiques social science research on news and the news media. Examines diverse scholarly perspectives, comparing them with the views of journalists, journalism critics, and the public.

Courses offered have included Mediated Communication Theory, Social Media, Social Networks, Work and Technology, and Children and Media.

Courses offered have included Health Communication, Interpersonal Health Communication, Communication and Community Wellness, Community Health, E-Public Health, Health Message Design, and Communicating about Sexual Health and Relationships.

Courses offered have included Interpersonal Communication Theory, Interpersonal Health Communication, Uncertainty and Communication, Relational and Family Communication, and Communicating about Sexual Health and Relationships.

Courses offered have included Communication Processes in Organizations, Studying Talk in Social Interaction, and Relationships and Identity.

Courses offered have included Organizational Communication Theory, Leadership in Groups and Organizations, Organizational Networks, Dynamics of Global Organizations, Organizational Culture, Communication Processes in Organizations, Organizational Decision Making, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Communication & Organizational Change.