Communication courses

COMM 1150 Introduction to Cinema
Introduction to Cinema
Historical survey of international cinema focusing on political, social, economic, technological, and aesthetic factors. Major film movements and historical developments from 1895 to the present are covered including U.S. silent cinema, Soviet montage, German expressionism, French impressionism and surrealism, the transition to sound, classical Hollywood cinema, the impact of WWII, Italian neorealism, the French New Wave, art cinema, new German cinema, and new Hollywood cinema.
credit hours: 3
Introduction to Cinema

COMM 2010 Public Opinion and the Media
Public Opinion and the Media
This course critically examines the ways in which public opinion is measured, constructed and used in politics; and the media's role in the shaping of public opinion.
credit hours: 3
Public Opinion and the Media

COMM 2220 New Media and Internet Studies
New Media and Internet Studies
An investigation of the histories and theories associated with the Internet and other forms of new media. The main course objectives are to learn how to analyze Internet settings and employ new media methods. Conceptions of new technologies and newness will be theorized and examined. We consider how new media technologies are identified as tools and the ways they are critiqued for producing gendered, racial, and sexual identities. Topics include: afrofuturism, cyberfeminism, science fiction, the web, social networking, fan fiction, hypertext, Internet authorship, and surveillance.
credit hours: 3
New Media and Internet Studies

COMM 2230 Interpersonal Communication
Interpersonal Communication
Introduction to theories and models of interpersonal communication which enhance understanding and development of interpersonal relationships. Course content covers topics such as listening behavior, intrapersonal processing, dyadic interaction, conflict management, intercultural, intimate and nonverbal communication.
credit hours: 3
Interpersonal Communication

COMM 2300 Political Communication
Political Communication
A survey of theories, empirical research, and critical analysis of contemporary political communication processes in the United States. Topics may include the role of the media in electoral campaigns, strategies of presidential communication, as well as the relationship between media and political institutions, including Congress and the Courts. News coverage of social movements and political protest will also be discussed. The course covers a variety of political communication genres, such as journalism, political advertising, talk shows and political websites.
credit hours: 3
Political Communication

COMM 2400 Topics in International Film Movements and National Cinemas
Topics in International Film Movements and National Cinemas
This course focuses on specific film movements in international cinema, with an emphasis on understanding stylistic and aesthetic innovations in their social-historical context. Topics may include European film movements, Chinese cinemas and others.
Notes: May be repeated for credit if different topic with the permission of the Film Studies Director.
credit hours: 3
Topics in International Film Movements and National Cinemas

COMM 2500 Film and Society
Film and Society
This class investigates various social issues that emerge from an examination of films produced in the United States, Europe and the developing world. Students consider societal forces such as class, race, gender, youth, family, prejudice, education and homelessness. The cinematic depiction of these factors as well as the connection between cinematic language, syntax, structure and a films ultimate meaning or message are explored.
credit hours: 3
Film and Society

COMM 2550 Introduction to Television
Introduction to Television
This course is an introduction to the study of television as a unique audio-visual culture with its own history, aesthetics, and meaning production. Students will learn about the television industry, its audiences, and its programming. Examples from television programming from the 1950s to the present will supplement readings.
credit hours: 3
Introduction to Television

COMM 2600 Rhetorical Principles of Writing for News Media
Rhetorical Principles of Writing for News Media
Applies principles of classical and contemporary rhetorical theory to problems of writing for news media. Incorporates grammar review. Writing requirements include major news story, major feature story and numerous smaller assignments. Emphasis on writing for print media, but stylistic techniques for broadcast media also covered.
credit hours: 3
Rhetorical Principles of Writing for News Media

COMM 2650 Mass Communication Law
Mass Communication Law
Studies federal and state regulation of both print and broadcast media in the United States to understand how legal mandates and constraints have defined the roles of media in society. Historical and contemporary analyses include laws in areas such as libel, privacy, free press versus fair trial, access to government information, regulation of advertising and regulation of broadcasting.
credit hours: 3
Mass Communication Law

COMM 2700 Visual Communication
Visual Communication
This course examines the history and theory of visual communication and its application in a variety of cultural contexts. Topics include the transition from print to visual media, the development of visual literacy and the role of emerging technology. Students will complete applied projects using photography, video and electronic media, digital imaging, and web-based visual technology.
credit hours: 3
Visual Communication

COMM 2750 Gender and Media
Gender and Media
"This course will introduce students to the field of gender and media studies. Media are part and parcel of the ways in which we understand and talk about gender, and the ways in which we make sense of what it means to be ""men"" and ""women."" We encounter countless media messages in advertisements, newspapers, magazines, films, movies, television and the Internet, depicting ideal models for men and women every day. We are so accustomed to living in a media saturated world that problematic representations escape our attention and remain taken for granted. This course is an attempt to step back and critically reflect on the media representations of gender. Throughout the course we will focus on the main issues and controversies in this field by examining a broad range of examples."
Notes: Elective in the GESS program
credit hours: 3
Gender and Media

COMM 2810 Special Topics
Special Topics
A detailed study of particular issues, problems and developments in the history, theory and criticism of communication. Topics may be drawn from any of the departmental areas of concentration, for example, the concept of invention, the rhetoric of religion, non-verbal communication, mass media and culture and similar themes. May be taken twice for credit on different topics.
credit hours: 3
Special Topics

COMM 2820 Special Topics
Special Topics
A detailed study of particular issues, problems and developments in the history, theory and criticism of communication. Topics may be drawn from any of the departmental areas of concentration, for example, the concept of invention, the rhetoric of religion, non-verbal communication, mass media and culture and similar themes. May be taken twice for credit on different topics.
credit hours: 3
Special Topics

COMM 2890 Service Learning
Service Learning
Credit attached to courses with a 40-hour service learning component.
credit hours: 0
Service Learning

COMM 2900 Communication Studies
Communication Studies
Communication Studies introduces students to the theoretical underpinnings of the Department of Communication. The course explores communication through its tri-part focus on relationships and identities (individuals), texts, and industries and structures (contexts). The course introduces key concepts and keywords for continuing in the major.
credit hours: 3
Communication Studies

COMM 3140 Cross-Cultural Analysis
Cross-Cultural Analysis
A critical examination of communication in intercultural, interethnic and international contexts. An overview of models and approaches designed to explain cultural differences in communication, with emphasis on the dimensions of symbolization, acculturation, prejudice, stereotyping and ideology. Conceptual frameworks are applied and tested within a range of cultural populations as defined by race, ethnicity, gender, physical disability, sexuality, socio-economic class and geographic location.
credit hours: 3
Cross-Cultural Analysis

COMM 3150 Film Analysis
Film Analysis
Introduction to film analysis designed to help students develop a visual literacy with regard to film and a critical understanding of how films produce meanings. Focus is on formal analysis of film including elements such as narrative, mise-en-scène, editing, camera movement, sound and on key critical and theoretical approaches such as neoformalism and psychoanalysis. Classical Hollywood cinema and avant-garde and independent film making traditions are studied in order to focus on the politics of form." A required film journal helps students develop analytical and critical skills. Required course for the film studies minor."
credit hours: 4
Film Analysis

COMM 3160 Technology Analysis
Technology Analysis
The study of technology as material culture through its production, dissemination and uses. Theorizes ways of approaching technology as symbolic tools, as material goods and as part of a cultural geography. Contextualizes digitalization in terms of social, political and economic discourses. Includes research methods for analyzing technology.
credit hours: 3
Technology Analysis

COMM 3200 Media Literacy/Media Education I
Media Literacy/Media Education I
This is the first semester of a two-semester course that introduces students to media literacy--what it is, media education, and basic media pedagogy. In the second semester, students put to use the media literacy knowledge gained in the first semester by applying those pedagogical considerations in the classroom, assessing student outcomes, and effectively teaching media literacy concepts.
Notes: Enrolling for both semesters, Junior Standing, and Service Learning all required. 20-hours service learning 1st semester; 40-hours 2nd semester.
credit hours: 3
Media Literacy/Media Education I

COMM 3240 Interaction Analysis
Interaction Analysis
Focus on the investigation, interpretation and critical assessment of human interaction. Emphasis is given to interaction occurring in the relational contexts of marriage, friendship and the organization. Study includes the cultural and ideological elements, the models of communication used to explain interaction and the analysis of everyday communication phenomena in each context.
credit hours: 3
Interaction Analysis

COMM 3250 Rhetorical Criticism
Rhetorical Criticism
The description, analysis, interpretation and evaluation of persuasive uses of language. Emphasis on classical, situational, generic, dramatistic and ideological methods of criticism. Judgments about aesthetic, pragmatic, logical and ethical dimensions of rhetoric.
credit hours: 4
Rhetorical Criticism

COMM 3260 Media Analysis
Media Analysis
The study of the structure of media industries and their contents based on humanistic and social science approaches. Theorizes major trends in industry ownership and practices; the effects of political economy on textual symbols, discourses and genres; the function of media programming in reinforcing or altering perceptions of ideas, events, and people. Familiarizes students with research methods for analyzing media.
credit hours: 3
Media Analysis

COMM 3270 Authors and Genres
Authors and Genres
Questions of authorship and of genre are two key paradigms of film criticism. This course examines the aesthetic and theoretical bases for notions of authorship and genre in the cinema including romantic theories of art, auteur criticism, structuralism and post-structuralism. It also considers the historical development of the oeuvre of individual directors as authors" (e.g. Hitchcock) and of particular film genres both in Hollywood cinema (e.g. film noir) and in non-mainstream and non-U.S. cinema. Genres and directors studied will change. May be repeated up to two times on different topics with approval of the Film Studies Director."
credit hours: 3
Authors and Genres

COMM 3280 Media Histories
Media Histories
This course looks at media histories, with a focus on the different kinds of stories we tell about media, its contents and contexts. The course explores historical trends, the nature of histiography (the study of history) and some fundamentals of historical research.
credit hours: 3
Media Histories

COMM 3300 Comparative Political Communication
Comparative Political Communication
Examination of the links between media and political systems, based on a comparative approach. Offers a detailed comparison of political communication processes in different regions of the world and identifies how social, cultural and economic contexts are central to understanding the role of the media in political processes.
credit hours: 3
Comparative Political Communication

COMM 3320 Politics of Popular Culture
Politics of Popular Culture
This course will introduce students to critical thinking through the theories of cultural studies, ranging from culturalism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, gender and sexuality, and postcolonialism to postmodernism. Theories of cultural studies critically contextualize, examine, and theorize culture as it influences and shapes our everyday lives and social structures. Students will learn about the various approaches to analyzing culture based on the canonical works of cultural study theorists and how to apply their critical theories to contemporary examples.
credit hours: 3
Politics of Popular Culture

COMM 3400 Communication and Leadership in Groups and Organization
Communication and Leadership in Groups and Organization
Group and organizational communication analyzes how the actions of people are coordinated and controlled to achieve collective outcomes. It is also concerned with the way individuals are shaped by their interactions with the groups and organizations around them. This seminar will help you learn how communication is key to understanding how groups and organizations work which can enhance your ability, as a Public Service Fellow, to engage in the work of your resource/discussion group in this seminar as well as your campus or community-based organizations during the semester. All Public Service Fellows must enroll in a required platform course. By completing this course students receive four credit hours and fulfill the second tier of the graduation requirement. The program includes 3 class credits for an academic leadership course, and 1 service learning credit for assistance on a community project.
Co-requisites: COMM 3410 and COMM 4890
credit hours: 3
Communication and Leadership in Groups and Organization

COMM 3440 Critical Race Theory
Critical Race Theory
Critical race theory was a term that was coined to refer to an area of legal studies developed by African American, Latino, and Asian American scholars to address questions of racial injustice. But the broader field of critical race theory today incorporates multi-disciplinary scholarship that works to create critical knowledge about social inequalities and racialized power relations.
Notes: An elective in ADST
credit hours: 3
Critical Race Theory

COMM 3510 Environmental Communication
Environmental Communication
The purpose of this course is to provide an understanding and analysis of communication processes used in defining environmental issues and shaping environmental policies. Topics include defining nature and environment; diverse audiences and environmental messages; developing strategies for risk communication; and creating effective environmental campaigns. Case studies of successful and unsuccessful environmental communication will be examined.
credit hours: 3
Environmental Communication

COMM 3550 Third World Cinema
Third World Cinema
This course surveys the cinematic practices of the developing nations of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. The filmic practice, at once revolutionary and ideological, has not only produced some of the world's most striking filmic innovations, but is now recognized as having initiated a new phase and expanded definitions of the art of cinema. The issues to be addressed include: the development of a national cinema, the impact of politics on film style, video and television culture, the commonalities and differences in modes of production, the relationship of film to the societies' values and cultures and the role of cinema as a mediation of history.
credit hours: 3
Third World Cinema

COMM 3650 Feminist Documentation and New Media
Feminist Documentation and New Media
A service-learning, praxis-oriented course in which students develop analytical and reflective skills by critiquing and creating feminist documentation in various media. Study of history and theory of feminist documentary filmmaking and new media will be complemented with learning production and post-production skills. Weekly volunteer work will be done with an organization serving women and girls in New Orleans.
credit hours: 3
Feminist Documentation and New Media

COMM 3700 Digital Archives and Cultural Memory
Digital Archives and Cultural Memory
This course combines theory and methods in the study of media archives, cultural memory, and historiography. This course works with community partners to create digital stories and their archival repositories.
credit hours: 3
Digital Archives and Cultural Memory

COMM 3800 Cinema Reception and Cultural Memory
Cinema Reception and Cultural Memory
This course investigates historical changes in film audiences, film exhibition and film reception from the silent to the contemporary period as well as the issue of cultural memory and cinema. Issues focusing on who the audience for cinema has been during different historical periods, that changes have taken place in the venues in which films have been shown and cinema reception as cultural history are explored. The course also theorizes questions of reception and memory in terms of psychoanalysis, oral history and the public sphere. This course includes an optional service learning component. COMM 3150, Film Analysis, is recommended but not required.
credit hours: 3
Cinema Reception and Cultural Memory

COMM 3810 Special Topics
Special Topics
A detailed study of particular issues, problems, and developments in the history, theory, and criticism of communication. Topics may be drawn from any area of communication, for example, the concept of invention, the rhetoric of religion, non-verbal communication, mass media and culture, and similar themes.
Notes: May be repeated for credit on different topics.
credit hours: 3
Special Topics

COMM 3820 Special Topics
Special Topics
A detailed study of particular issues, problems, and developments in the history, theory, and criticism of communication. Topics may be drawn from any area of communication, for example, the concept of invention, the rhetoric of religion, non-verbal communication, mass media and culture, and similar themes.
Notes: May be repeated for credit on different topics.
credit hours: 3-4
Special Topics

COMM 3880 Writing Intensive
Writing Intensive
credit hours: 1
Writing Intensive

COMM 3890 Service Learning
Service Learning
Students complete a service activity in the community in conjunction with the content of a three-credit co-requisite course.
Pre-requistites: Departmental approval.
credit hours: 1
Service Learning

COMM 4170 U.S. Film History
U.S. Film History
This course covers major formal, industrial and cultural issues in the history of cinema in the United States from 1895 to the present Course topics include the formal distinctiveness of the early period, the emergence of continuity editing and the classical Hollywood style, post-classical cinema, monopolistic industry practices, exhibition venues, the studio system, synchronized sound, contemporary independent production, and the relationship between film and commodity culture. Case studies on censorship, the representation of race and black radical politics, and female spectatorship integrate formal, industrial and cultural analysis.
Notes: COMM 3150 is recommended.
credit hours: 3
U.S. Film History

COMM 4180 African Cinema
African Cinema
This course will provide a critical and interdisciplinary look at the development of African cinema from its inception in the 1960s to the present. In looking at this period, we will move from the sociopolitical upheavals of late colonialism to the recent phase of introspection and diversification. The relationship of cinematic practices to transformation in the social and economic sphere will be examined, as well as the creation of distinctively African film styles based on oral traditions. In pursuing these topics, we will consider the impact of technology, history and culture, ties to the cinema of other developing nations and co-productions. This course satisfies the capstone requirement.
credit hours: 3
African Cinema

COMM 4190 Introduction of Latin American Film
Introduction of Latin American Film
The development of cinema in Latin American from its arrival as an imported technology to the present. Films studied in relation to the sociopolitical environment and emphasis placed on close analysis as well as a contextual understanding of the material. Topics include the struggle to create national film industries, the art film and New Cinema movements, and recent trends in countries such as Mexico and Argentina.
credit hours: 3
Introduction of Latin American Film

COMM 4200 Media Literacy/Media Education II
Media Literacy/Media Education II
This is the second semester of a two-semester course that introduces students to media literacy--what it is, media education, and basic media pedagogy. In the second semester, students put to use the media literacy knowledge gained in the first semester by applying those pedagogical considerations in the classroom, assessing student outcomes, and effectively teaching media literacy concepts.
Notes: Enrolling for both semesters, Junior Standing, and Service Learning all required. 20-hours service learning 1st semester; 40-hours 2nd semester. Capstone.
Pre-requistites: COMM 3200.
credit hours: 3
Media Literacy/Media Education II

COMM 4220 Aging in the Twenty-First Century US
Aging in the Twenty-First Century US
Examines historical and contemporary representations of aging in US culture. Primary areas of investigation include identity and relationships across the life cycle, the emergence of aging as pathology, consumerism and aging, and age discrimination. The course considers these areas by drawing from and integrating conceptual frameworks in health communication, psychology, medicine, and cultural studies.
credit hours: 3
Aging in the Twenty-First Century US

COMM 4230 Cinema, History, Archive
Cinema, History, Archive
This course focuses on cinema as a site for interrogating historical, textual, institutional, and theoretical issues about the archive. Topics include tropes of archive, the media/ted archive, films as cultural memory, histories of cinema archives, the electronic archive, theories of the archive, and archives in relation to power and knowledge. Film examples are drawn from contemporary Hollywood cinema, silent cinema, classical Hollywood cinema, experimental documentary, and independent and avant garde cinema.
Notes: Capstone for Film Studies and Communication.
credit hours: 3
Cinema, History, Archive

COMM 4260 Communication, Culture and the Body: Healthy Bodies
Communication, Culture and the Body: Healthy Bodies
An investigation of how human bodies communicate cultural identities and relations historically and across spaces. May repeat under a different topic (COMM 4261, 4262) for credit. This course satisfies the capstone requirement.
credit hours: 3
Communication, Culture and the Body: Healthy Bodies

COMM 4261 Communication, Culture and Body: Feminism, Sci Fi and Technology
Communication, Culture and Body: Feminism, Sci Fi and Technology
An investigation of how human bodies communicate cultural identities and relations historically and across spaces. May repeat under a different topic (COMM 4260, 4262) for credit. This course satisfies the capstone requirement.
credit hours: 3
Communication, Culture and Body: Feminism, Sci Fi and Technology

COMM 4262 Communication, Culture and Body: Dangerous Bodies
Communication, Culture and Body: Dangerous Bodies
An investigation of how human bodies communicate cultural identities and relations historically and across spaces. May repeat under a different topic (COMM 4260, 4261) for credit. This course satisfies the capstone requirement.
credit hours: 3
Communication, Culture and Body: Dangerous Bodies

COMM 4263 Communication, Culture and the Body: Aging Bodies
Communication, Culture and the Body: Aging Bodies
An investigation of how human bodies communicate cultural identities and relations historically and across spaces. May be taken for capstone credit.
credit hours: 3
Communication, Culture and the Body: Aging Bodies

COMM 4300 Cultural Politics and Cinema
Cultural Politics and Cinema
This course examines the relationship between media, society, and political discourse as they manifest in the complexities of cultural production beyond US borders. As such, it will be framed around issues pertaining to historical formation and broader political dynamics. This course presumes familiarity with methods of film or media analysis. May repeat under a different topic (COMM 4301, 4302) for credit. This course satisfies the capstone requirement.
Notes: Fulfills capstone requirement for FMST. For capstone credit, students should also register for FMST 5110 with 0 credits. Also fulfills capstone requirement for the Communication major. See listing under Communication.
credit hours: 3
Cultural Politics and Cinema

COMM 4301 Global Media, Politics, and Culture: Media and Democracy in Latin America
Global Media, Politics, and Culture: Media and Democracy in Latin America
This course examines the relationship between media, society, and political discourse as they manifest in the complexities of cultural production beyond US borders. As such, it will be framed around issues pertaining to historical formation and broader political dynamics. This course presumes familiarity with methods of film or media analysis. May repeat under a different topic (COMM 4300, 4302) for credit. This course satisfies the capstone requirement.
credit hours: 3
Global Media, Politics, and Culture: Media and Democracy in Latin America

COMM 4302 Global Media, Politics and Culture: Immigration Discourse in Europe
Global Media, Politics and Culture: Immigration Discourse in Europe
This course examines the relationship between media, society, and political discourse as they manifest in the complexities of cultural production beyond US borders. As such, it will be framed around issues pertaining to historical formation and broader political dynamics. This course presumes familiarity with methods of film or media analysis. May repeat under a different topic (COMM 4300, 4302) for credit. This course satisfies the capstone requirement.
credit hours: 3
Global Media, Politics and Culture: Immigration Discourse in Europe

COMM 4303 Global Media, Politics and Culture: Globalization and Malaysian Film
Global Media, Politics and Culture: Globalization and Malaysian Film
This course engages students in cross-cultural analysis and introduces the unique postcolonial and multicultural context of Malaysian cinema. We will examine historical and current globalization through the lens of the new and acclaimed wave of independent and experimental films that have been earning accolades in international festivals around the world. The course will examine key issues pertaining to gender, ethnoracial, religious and national identities in Malaysia, as well as the cultural geopolitics of the relationship between the West" and "East""
Notes: An elective in Asian Studies
credit hours: 3
Global Media, Politics and Culture: Globalization and Malaysian Film

COMM 4350 Gender and the Cinema
Gender and the Cinema
Explores the position of women in Hollywood and other cinemas by studying the evolution of women's cinema and of feminist film theories from the 1920s to the present. The history of feminist film analysis, focusing on theoretical-sociological, psychoanalytic, semiological underpinning of feminist critiques of both commercial and independent avant-garde film practices.
credit hours: 3
Gender and the Cinema

COMM 4550 Advanced Topics in Television Studies: Feminist and Gender Studies
Advanced Topics in Television Studies: Feminist and Gender Studies
This course offers advanced study of television as a unique audio-visual culture with its own history and styles. This course presumes basic knowledge of television terms and methods of media analysis. May repeat under a different topic (COMM 4551, 4552, 4553) for credit. This course satisfies the capstone requirement.
credit hours: 3
Advanced Topics in Television Studies: Feminist and Gender Studies

COMM 4551 Advanced Topics in Television studies: Post-Network Televisuality
Advanced Topics in Television studies: Post-Network Televisuality
This course offers advanced study of television as a unique audio-visual culture with its own history and styles. This course presumes basic knowledge of television terms and methods of media analysis. May repeat under a different topic (COMM 4550, 4552, 4553) for credit. This course satisfies the capstone requirement.
credit hours: 3
Advanced Topics in Television studies: Post-Network Televisuality

COMM 4552 Advanced Topics in Television Studies: the Public Sphere
Advanced Topics in Television Studies: the Public Sphere
This course offers advanced study of television as a unique audio-visual culture with its own history and styles. This course presumes basic knowledge of television terms and methods of media analysis. May repeat under a different topic (COMM 4550, 4551, 4553) for credit. This course satisfies the capstone requirement.
credit hours: 3
Advanced Topics in Television Studies: the Public Sphere

COMM 4553 Advanced Topics in Television Studies: Brazilian TV and Culture
Advanced Topics in Television Studies: Brazilian TV and Culture
This course offers advanced study of television as a unique audio-visual culture with its own history and styles. This course presumes basic knowledge of television terms and methods of media analysis. May repeat under a different topic (COMM 4550, 4551, 4552) for credit. This course satisfies the capstone requirement.
credit hours: 3
Advanced Topics in Television Studies: Brazilian TV and Culture

COMM 4560 Communication Internship
Communication Internship
This course will challenge the student to apply intelligently the principles, methods, and skills that they have learned in academic settings to the practical experience of an internship with a nonprofit, social service organization. Topics include learning about communication within a complicated political and cultural context, how context affects rhetorical strategies, adaptive communication among diverse social groups, and how these experiences work to prepare the student for a career in a communication field.
Pre-requistites: Permission of instructor, junior or senior standing, 3.0 GPA.
credit hours: 3
Communication Internship

COMM 4570 Service Learning Internship in Communication
Service Learning Internship in Communication
Provides combination of academic work and practical experiences in communication with specific service learning organizations.
Notes: Must meet college and departmental requirements.
Pre-requistites: Obtain approvals of academic supervisor and department.
credit hours: 3
Service Learning Internship in Communication

COMM 4610 National Cinemas in Latin America
National Cinemas in Latin America
A detailed historical, thematic, and stylistic analysis of individual national cinemas in Latin America (Cuban cinema, Brazilian cinema, Mexican cinema, for example). Emphasis will be placed on understanding the development of national cinema industries and movements in the context of other social, economic, political, and aesthetic forces.
Notes: May be repeated for credit if the national cinema studied is different. COMM 4190, Intro to Latin American Cinema, is highly recommended, although not a prerequisite.
credit hours: 3
National Cinemas in Latin America

COMM 4670 Topics in Creative Economy
Topics in Creative Economy
This course explores the intersections between political economy and culture in the formation and sustainability of creative economies and creative production. Topics to be covered in this course may include: creative and cultural policy, creative classes, cultural labor, specific cultural industries, and film and media economies.
credit hours: 3
Topics in Creative Economy

COMM 4750 New Media Theory
New Media Theory
This course will explore the conceptual frameworks and theories that are essential to an understanding of modern media, a succession of new media including photography, film and digital media. We will focus on theories of semiotics, ideology, psychoanalysis, narrative, modernism, and postmodernism, which have formed the bases for analyzing forms of reproduction from the mechanical to the digital. We will consider the interrelationshipslinkages and rupturesbetween different media and the process of remediation in which the content of a new medium is the older medium that it has replaced. We will end by examining digital media in the context of social/cultural/political formationsgender, race, community, public sphere and global flows. This course satisfies the capstone requirement.
credit hours: 3
New Media Theory

COMM 4770 Theories of Consumption and Production
Theories of Consumption and Production
This course analyzes theoretical constructions of media audiences and media producers historically and in contemporary contexts. Liberal, Marxist and feminist paradigms will be explored along with a variety of research methods used in audience and producer studies. This course satisfies the capstone requirement.
Pre-requistites: COMM 3260.
credit hours: 3
Theories of Consumption and Production

COMM 4810 Special Topics in Communication
Special Topics in Communication
A detailed study of particular issues, problems and developments in the history, theory and criticism of communication. Topics may be drawn from any of the departmental areas of concentration, for example, the concept of invention, the rhetoric of religion, non-verbal communication, mass media and culture and similar themes. May be taken twice for credit on different topics. This course satisfies the capstone requirement.
credit hours: 3
Special Topics in Communication

COMM 4820 Special Topics in Communication
Special Topics in Communication
A detailed study of particular issues, problems and developments in the history, theory and criticism of communication. Topics may be drawn from any of the departmental areas of concentration, for example, the concept of invention, the rhetoric of religion, non-verbal communication, mass media and culture and similar themes. May be taken twice for credit on different topics. This course satisfies the capstone requirement.
credit hours: 3
Special Topics in Communication

COMM 4850 Cinema, Technology, Modernity
Cinema, Technology, Modernity
Focus on cinema as a cultural practice during the early and late periods, especially as it has shaped perception and experience. Films are assessed for the way they reenact the logic of key technologies and for the way they represent technologies. Cinema is also viewed as a technology of vision in its own right. In particular, 19th century optical toys, the railroad, photography, the computer and cinema are assessed in relation to shifting conceptions of space and time, modes of experience, the terms of everyday life, and the status of mass culture and reproduction in the modern and postmodern periods. This course satisfies the capstone requirement.
credit hours: 3
Cinema, Technology, Modernity

COMM 4860 Film Theory
Film Theory
An advanced course focusing on contemporary French, British and U.S. film theory. Topics include realism and phenomenology, Russian Formalism, neoformalism, structuralism, narratology, Marxism and ideology, psychoanalysis, cinema semiotics, feminism and poststructuralism. Debates covered assess film as a text; the relationship between film and the spectator; and the implications of cinema as a historical phenomenon, including the status of digital cinema. Early, classical Hollywood, contemporary, and avant-garde films screened. A required film journal helps students develop analytical skills. Required for the Film Studies major or minor.
Pre-requistites: COMM 3150.
credit hours: 4
Film Theory

COMM 4880 Writing Intensive
Writing Intensive
credit hours: 1
Writing Intensive

COMM 4890 Service Learning
Service Learning
credit hours: 1
Service Learning

COMM 4910 Independent Studies
Independent Studies
Open to qualified juniors and seniors only.
credit hours: 1-3
Independent Studies

COMM 4920 Independent Studies
Independent Studies
Open to qualified juniors and seniors only.
credit hours: 1-3
Independent Studies

COMM 4990 Honors Thesis
Honors Thesis
This course will enable students to integrate knowledge about the specific nature of film as a medium and the history of theoretical debates that have shaped the study of film and of cinema. It will also provide students with an opportunity to apply the formal and theoretical knowledge gained from the two required courses for the major to consider new theoretical problems about cinema, revisions, and reassessments of earlier debates in film studies and related fields, questions of national cinema, and/or new developments in filmmaking. This course, which carries 0 credit, is combined with a capstone designated course (3 credits) or a special topics course that is designated as a capstone (3 credits). Fulfills capstone requirement for FMST when approved as film topic. In this case and for capstone credit, students should also register for FMST 5110 with 0 credits.
credit hours: 3
Honors Thesis

COMM 5000 Honors Thesis
Honors Thesis
This course will enable students to integrate knowledge about the specific nature of film as a medium and the history of theoretical debates that have shaped the study of film and of cinema. It will also provide students with an opportunity to apply the formal and theoretical knowledge gained from the two required courses for the major to consider new theoretical problems about cinema, revisions, and reassessments of earlier debates in film studies and related fields, questions of national cinema, and/or new developments in filmmaking. This course, which carries 0 credit, is combined with a capstone designated course (3 credits) or a special topics course that is designated as a capstone (3 credits). Fulfills capstone requirement for FMST when approved as film topic. In this case and for capstone credit, students should also register for FMST 5110 with 0 credits.
credit hours: 4
Honors Thesis

COMM 5110 Capstone
Capstone
The zero credit add-on that designated an approved upper-level course to satisfy the capstone requirement. Consult the department for this list of courses.
credit hours: 0
Capstone

COMM 6210 Seminar in Communication Studies
Seminar in Communication Studies
An intensive study of a specific issue or set of issues in rhetoric and public address, interpersonal communication, or mass communication (e.g. propaganda, legal communication research), or of an individual theorist (e.g. Aristotle, Kenneth Burke), or genre of discourse (e.g. ideological argumentation, the rhetoric of social movements). May be taken twice for credit on different topics. This course satisfies the capstone requirement.
Pre-requistites: approval of instructor.
credit hours: 3
Seminar in Communication Studies

COMM 6220 Seminar in Communication Studies
Seminar in Communication Studies
An intensive study of a specific issue or set of issues in rhetoric and public address, interpersonal communication, or mass communication (e.g. propaganda, legal communication research), or of an individual theorist (e.g. Aristotle, Kenneth Burke), or genre of discourse (e.g. ideological argumentation, the rhetoric of social movements). May be taken twice for credit on different topics. This course satisfies the capstone requirement.
Pre-requistites: approval of instructor.
credit hours: 3
Seminar in Communication Studies

COMM 6910 Communication Independent Study (Graduate)
Communication Independent Study (Graduate)
credit hours: 1-3
Communication Independent Study (Graduate)

COMM 6920 Communication Independent Study (Graduate)
Communication Independent Study (Graduate)
credit hours: 3
Communication Independent Study (Graduate)

COMM H4990 Honors Thesis
Honors Thesis
For especially qualified juniors and seniors with approval of the department and the Honors Committee.
credit hours: 3
Honors Thesis

COMM H5990 Honors Thesis
Honors Thesis
For especially qualified juniors and seniors with approval of the department and the Honors Committee.
credit hours: 3
Honors Thesis