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Courses offered in the School of Communication undergraduate programs provide students with the ability to analyze and understand audiences, situations, and sources, and to develop appropriate messages in a variety of contexts based on a foundation of strong speaking and writing. Critical thinking, an entrepreneurial spirit, and an ethical approach to situational analysis enhance learning in our courses and foster students’ knowledge of communication in organizational, relational, and mediated contexts.
Courses Taken by all School of Communication Majors
The following eight courses are required for all School of Communication majors completing all of our programs of study. They encompass core ideas, skills, and theories central to the study of communication in a liberal arts context.
COMM 101 Introduction to Communication Studies
Introduction to Communication Studies: This course surveys the processes of communication, and explores the way they work in such contexts as relationships, groups and organizations. The course includes such topics as perception and listening; the development, dissolution and maintenance of relationships; group decision-making; public persuasion; and mediated communication. 3 hrs.
COMM 200 Public Speaking
Public Speaking: This course develops student ability to prepare and deliver an effective speech for a variety of purposes. Topics include overcoming speech anxiety; composing appropriate beginnings and endings; choosing organizational patterns; and improving diction, and body language. 3 hrs.
COMM 202 Writing for Communication
Writing for Communication: Students in this course will learn to craft written messages, through argumentation, for the communication field including introductions to researching and writing the APA research paper, communication scholarship, corporate documents, and documents for media settings. This course fulfills the writing-intensive requirement for Communication majors. 3 hrs.
COMM 210 Digital Media Production
Digital Media Production: This course provides an introduction to the study of digital media production. Students will learn how to analyze and produce digital text, hypertext, WebPages, digital photos, digital audio, podcasts, multimedia presentations and digital video. Throughout the course, students will be involved in hands-on projects that will help them begin to acquire the skills as producers of digital media. 3 hrs.
COMM 250 Communication Theory
Communication Theory: The study of various communication theories as they frame research questions and influence conclusions. Theories range from basic concepts of the communication process through interpersonal, public, and mass communication. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 320 Communication Research
Communication Research: Students will study quantitative and qualitative approaches to communication research. Students will apply an appropriate approach to investigate a topic in depth for their term research paper. Prerequisite: COMM 101, COMM 201, COMM 250. 3 hrs.
COMM 401 Communication Seminar
The seminar course is a smaller, seminar setting in which students will investigate a specific communication topic or trend related to a current market trend, communication event, or other intensive discussion topic. Admission to each seminar course has a unique set of prerequisites based on the course material. Communication Seminar may be taken twice with different titles; repeatable for a total of 6 Hrs toward the major. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 Hrs. Learn more about our seminars here.
COMM 495 Communication Capstone
Taken in the semester in which students expect to graduate, students will engage in a culminating experience by preparing a project in their chosen programs of study under the supervision of a faculty member. The capstone is intended to showcase student work in the program up to this final semester. Prerequisite: COMM 101, COMM 250, COMM 320, Senior Standing. Learn more about our capstone here.
Additional Courses Offered in the School of Communication
This list compiles all possible courses which can be taken in multiple combinations to meet each student's specific program of study in either organizational communication, relational communication, media studies, sports communication, or journalism.
COMM 204 Newswriting
Newswriting: This course examines newspaper methods and the techniques of news writing, emphasizing basic editing. This course fulfills the writing-intensive requirement. Prerequisites: COMM 101 and ENGL 110 and 120. 3 hrs.
COMM 213 Practicum: Queens Chronicle
Practicum: Queens Chronicle: Practical work in producing the student newspaper, The Queens Chronicle. The course features regular workshops with instructor and editors. Repeatable for a total of 4 hrs. 2 hrs.
COMM 304 Advanced Newswriting: Print
Advanced Newswriting: Print: Advanced study of the techniques of writing news, emphasizing the development of specialized skills and research techniques. Prerequisite: COMM 204. 3 hrs.
COMM 305 Organizational Communication
Organizational Communication: This course explores theories of organizational communication that help analyze the ways communication builds, maintains, and transforms organizations. Topics include communication in management; interpersonal relationships in the workplace; communication in small groups and teams; networking. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 306 Integrated Strategic Communication
Integrated Strategic Communication: Strategic communication refers to the totality of an organization's efforts to lead, motivate, persuade, and inform its various publics, which include consumers, investors, employees, and the media. This course provides students with information and insights about strategic communication: how messages are created and framed, why we respond to messages the way we do, and how to employ communications strategies to advance organizational goals. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 309 Media Aesthetics
Media Aesthetics: This course focuses on the fundamental components of mass media and how they serve message-makers, help influence audiences and structure industries. Students will explore light, color, framing, space, time, motion, sound, editing and words--alone and in concert--as a path to creating and evaluating content. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 310 Advanced News Writing: Broadcast
Advanced News Writing: Broadcast: This course explores broadcast journalism, examining the history of the industry, the structure of television newsrooms, changing professional environments and career opportunities in the field. Further, it gives students experience in writing and announcing radio and television news scripts. Prerequisites: COMM 204. 3 hrs.
COMM 311 Media Criticism
Media Criticism: This course introduces multiple perspectives in media analysis by requiring students to engage media texts (from news to advertising, on radio, television, and websites) as the objects of critical socio-political analysis. Students will explore theoretical vocabulary and resources that will enable them to analyze media artifacts from the multiple perspectives of message senders, message receivers, media technologies and media industries. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 312 Nonverbal Communication
Nonverbal Communication: This course examines the various theories and applications of nonverbal communication in both personal and professional contexts. Topics include: body movement and gestures; clothing and personal artifacts; facial expression and eye behavior; use of space and territory; touching behavior; paralanguage and voice characteristics; and deception detection. The elements of nonverbal communication will be examined in the contexts of interpersonal relationships, the workplace, and cultural differences. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 315 Layout and Design
Layout and Design: This course introduces the forms and functions of typography and layout techniques. Students apply their knowledge to manipulate print and image in effective and creative webpage and print design. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 317 Gender and Communication
Gender and Communication: This course applies theories of gender studies to various communication contexts. Topics include gender roles and stereotypes; gender differences in verbal and nonverbal communication; gendered processes of socialization; images of gender in the media; and mixed vs. same sex group interactions. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 322 Interpersonal Communication
Interpersonal Communication: The study of communication as it affects the individual's interaction with other people in relationships. The course includes consideration of such concepts as self-concept analysis, perception, self-disclosure, gender roles in communication, nonverbal communication, listening behavior, dyadic interaction and interpersonal. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 325 Global & International Media
Global and International Media: This course will introduce students to various issues in the field of international communication, such as media ownership and concentration, global digital divide, conditions of production of news and information, and global information and communication flows. All these issues will be explored from a critical perspective. All communication, information, and media themes will be examined in the context of globalization, understood as a set of cultural, political, social, and economic processes. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 327 Intercultural Communication
Intercultural Communication: This course examines the relationship between communication and culture. Defining culture is the first challenge. Other topics include acculturation, prejudice, stereotyping, and cultural competence. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 332 Conflict Management
Conflict Management: This course examines the nature of conflict and the impact that conflict has on our professional lives. The focus of the course is on self-assessment and the effect that different styles of conflict management have on the parties involved. Specific strategies for managing conflict, including verbal and nonverbal communication, active listening, and negotiation are explored. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 335 Persuasion
Persuasion: Grounded in rhetorical theory, the art of persuasion has reemerged as a critical skill in both personal and mediated communication contexts. This course examines the strategies individuals and organizations use to persuade people to take a particular side in decisions that rely on opinion. Topics include the importance of credibility, logic, and emotion with regard both to evaluating and creating persuasive messages. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 343 Mass Communication
Mass Communication: In this course students will analyze the forms, messages, social impact and economic structures of the mass media. Topics include the changing landscape of national and global media industries; the structure and design of media content; the role of media in public perceptions of ideas, events, institutions and people. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 344 Group Dynamics & Team Building
Group Dynamics and Team Building: This course analyzes the processes of small group communication, particularly in the context of task-oriented and decision-making bodies. Topics include the stages of group development; the dynamics of group interaction, productivity and satisfaction; team-building leadership and other group roles; decision-making; and managing conflict. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 345 Communicating Across Generations
Communicating Across Generations: This course will examine the landscape of today's organizations as challenges arise from generational differences. We will explore each of the four generations: Traditionals, Baby Boomers, Gen X and Millenials (Gen Y); their distinct social values; communication styles; work attitudes; lifestyle characteristics; consuming behavior and how each is portrayed in the media. We will also explore how the generations relate to and think about each other in families, the workplace and society. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 346 Middle East Media
Middle East Media: This course builds on developments in media and social change and contemporary analyses of the Middle East toward a consideration of how communication technologies are being used in strategic transition in the region. The course considers strategic transition in democratic, liberalization, and commercial reforms, in domestic, transnational, and new media systems in the Middle East. The course also explores the role of Middle Eastern media in political action, as a potential tool for negotiation or resistance. It takes a critical look at how media technologies are assumed to facilitate or impede political, economic, social and cultural transitions in the Middle East. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 348 Communication & Popular Culture
Communication and Popular Culture: Popular culture is the culture known and shared by most people in a society. In this course, students will investigate the mass media and contemporary forms of popular culture in the United States and what these say about American society, will look at the elements of American popular culture that have made their way into other societies across the globe, and will come to understand what popular culture says about values, beliefs, and norms of American culture and others. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 350 Independent Study
Independent Study: Students may investigate a communication topic in depth with a faculty mentor. Open to communication majors with junior or senior standing and a 3.0 grade point average. 1-3 hrs.
COMM 351 Film: Process & Product
Film: Process and Product: This course examines the creation and consumption of films. Students will evaluate how art, popular, documentary and/or corporate filmmakers use visual and structural methods such as editing, frame composition, and signs and codes to inform or move members of target audiences. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 352 History of American Journalism
History of American Journalism: This course explores the history of journalism in America from the colonial period to the present. Though it will focus on print journalism, it will consider as well the revolutionary significance of electronic journalism. This course will trace the continuities and changes in the ways in which news is defined, gathered, produced, and critiqued in American life and politics; and it will investigate in detail the lives and times of some of America's more intriguing journalists, from Peter Zenger to William Lloyd Garrison; from Ida Tarbell and the “Muckrakers” to H.L. Mencken; from early radio to TV news to the World Wide Web. Prerequisite: HIST 203 or HIST 204 or COMM 101 and COMM 204. 3 hrs.
COMM 356 Sports: Communication and Culture
Sports communicate societal values and norms. This course will analyze the history of sports and its relationship to culture. Specific topics may include the functions of sports for the identities of individuals, groups, teams, and society, as well as the relationship between sports, media, and culture. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 357 Sports: Promotion & Publicity
Sports: Promotion and Publicity: This course surveys the strategy, techniques and communication media employed by public relations, marketing and promotion professionals to the unique application of the sports industry. Students will learn how to analyze sports audiences, develop promotion strategies, plan sports publicity events and understand the role of sponsorship. Students will also examine sports-related corporate social responsibility and community relations initiatives in local, national and international settings. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 360 Topics in Communication
Topics in Communication: Intensive consideration of a single topic in communication. The topics for the course will vary from offering to offering and may range from considering the work of a single individual to a study of a general movement. May be taken twice with different titles. Repeatable for a total of 6 hrs. 3 hrs.
COMM 364 Media Law
Media Law: This course analyzes media policies and practices with respect to their political or practical generation, ethical enactment and social impact, including such topics as government regulation of the media, the influence of pressure groups, media influence, and libel and privacy laws. Prerequisite: COMM 101. 3 hrs.
COMM 370 Advanced Digital Media Production
Advanced Digital Media Production: This course provides advanced communication students with the opportunity to study and produce digital media. Students will produce and maintain a blog that will include digital still images, digital audio files and digital video. Students will participate in group activities that will enhance the knowledge and skills necessary to produce webbased multimedia. This is a hands-on, labor-intensive course. The course requires that students have experience planning and producing digital media. COMM 210 is strongly recommended. Prerequisite: COMM 101, COMM 210. 3 hrs.
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