83 courses with the subject COM, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
COM 1000Fundamentals of Public Speaking3
An introductory course teaching research, organization and basic practice of extemporaneous speaking; students will develop an appreciative understanding of the art of speechmaking in institutional and public settings. Speech projects will be organized according to purpose, such as informational, persuasive and celebratory modes. Exemplary topics for inquiry and discussion will include speech writing, argumentation, audience awareness, feedback, communication apprehension and emerging issues in public discourse. No prerequisites, offered every semester, required of all students at St. Francis College. Fulfills General Education Requirement: OC1 Typically offered: All Sessions
This course will introduce students to media creation across three forms of media, which may include audio, video, and web-based content. Students in the course will analyze diverse media texts and create their own audio, video and one other project. Fulfills General Education Requirement: HCE Typically offered: All Sessions
This course surveys electronic and print media in America, including radio, television, cable, commercial filmmaking, newspapers, and magazines. The course examines the history of mass communication forms, their eco-nomic and social functions, along with social media, global communication and current controversies. Fulfills General Education Requirement: SEH Typically offered: All Sessions
Requisite(s): WRI-1000 or WRI-1100 This course introduces students to the fundamentals of writing across the media: advertising, public relations, dramatic scripts, gaming, and online/broadcast news. Students will complete a variety of creative projects, and apply basic theory, through readings and discussion. Fulfills General Education Requirement: HCE Typically offered: All Sessions
Requisite(s): COM-2000 An introductory course, COM 2002 surveys advertising techniques and functions. The course covers topics such as the development of an advertising plan: copywriting, media planning, campaign development, and strategy. Strong emphasis is placed on the analysis of TV, radio, and print commercials. The relationship among budgetary, creative, and planning functions will be investigated, as well as advertising's impact on popular culture and thought. Typically offered: All Sessions
COM 2011Topics in Mass Com: Media Writing - From Copy Writing, to
Blogs and Radio (3 Credits) Requisite(s): Take COM-1000 An introductory course that teaches, the basics of copy writing for advertising through traditional and digital distribution outlets such as blogging, magazine layout, and other various social media channels. This course will consider topics such as ethics, theory, history, consumer culture, and writing for the digital world. Students are encouraged, but not limited to, analyzing and creating copy for multiple platforms in advertising. Typically offered: All Sessions
Requisite(s): COM-1000 This course explores issues in the interaction Mass Media and Society of the course is to develop critical perspectives on mass media, considering the interplay between media institutions, media content, culture, audiences, and society as well as the media's shifting relationships to politics, commerce, and identity. Fulfills General Education Requirement: SEH Typically offered: As Needed
Requisite(s): Must take COM-1000 This course examines women's contribution to film and video from multiple perspectives, introducing students to women's importance in film history as well as analyzing the work of contemporary women directors. The course will also examine what role moving images play in the construction of gender roles. Media viewed will range from Hollywood films to avant-garde video and will include films from several distinct cultural contexts, drawing on film and video created in at least three of the following contexts: Asia, Africa, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. Students will read and critique feminist film and media theory and examine women's roles in moving image media from across a cultural perspective. Typically offered: All Sessions SFC Catalogue 2024-2025 - DRAFT COPY 155
Requisite(s): COM-1000 A course, COM-2040 introduces basic principles of interpersonal communication. The course presents both a theoretical perspective and a practical application of the concepts through student activities and exercises. Areas of investigation include communication theory, communication models, perception, language, communication breakdowns, non-verbal communication, self-concept, social roles, listening, and conflict management. Typically offered: All Sessions
Requisite(s): COM-1000 An intermediate course, _Acting I_ introduces students to the basic techniques and theories of acting. Students perform exercises in the fundamentals of voice, movement, and concentration. Performance of contemporary dramatic scenes provides students with the opportunity to practice scene and character analysis. Typically offered: All Sessions
Requisite(s): Take COM-2100 An advanced course, _Acting II_ introduces various acting techniques employed in theater, television, and film. Contemporary scenes are videotaped and played for discussion and analysis. Scenes from classic dramatic literature are also performed, directed, and evaluated. Conducted as a workshop. Typically offered: Spring Only
Requisite(s): WRI-1100 This course introduces students to film aesthetics through the analysis of film form and style. The course aims to provide students with a fluency in, and, an understanding of film's unique language as it evolves technologically, historically, and generically. Beyond teaching students how to recognize and describe formal choices and techniques, students will be asked to engage in close readings of films, attending to the greater aesthetic significance and stakes of formal choices and innovations evident within a particular film, directorial oeuvre, period or movement. Understanding form in relation to content, we will look at the conventions of narrative film, the employment of formal techniques like cinematography - including shot sizes (from close-up to long shot), composition of shots, and lighting; editing, mise-en-scene; and the use of sound as they function within particular filmic contexts and as they function within film's systemic languages (like that of continuity editing and genre). Fulfills General Education Requirement: HCE Typically offered: Spring Only
COM 2202Intro Topic: Alternative Media Audio Production3
Requisite(s): COM-1000 This course is an introductory course to alternative media scholarship, including the literature, media production, methods of inquiry, bibliographic skills, fundamentals of production and topical issues. The development of alternative media around the world will be considered, such as media from North and South America and Africa. 3 credit Typically offered: Spring Only
COM 2204Intro Topic: Gender, Race & Topic: Gender, Race, & the
Media (3 Credits) Requisite(s): COM-1000 Introductory course. This course is designed to give students a practical, along with a theoretical perspective with issues of gender, race, class, and sexuality, as they manifest in popular culture. The course is taught from a cultural studies perspective, where students will gain skills in critical analysis and media literacy. Concepts of power, privilege, justice representations, hegemony, consumption and resistance will be woven throughout course readings, films, assignments, and discussions. Typically offered: Fall Only
Requisite(s): COM-1000 In this course, students will investigate research methods in media and communication to become more knowledgeable consumers and producers of research from popular and academic sources. Topics covered will include what research is and why it's important, the process of conducting research, methods of textual analysis, and quantitative, qualitative, and historical methods. Students will apply learning to topics through case study inquiry and in course projects. Typically offered: All Sessions
Requisite(s): COM-2000 An advanced intermediate course, COM 3000 continues the examination of issues begun in COM 304, investigating selected problems and controversies in the contemporary mass media from the perspective of practitioners. Topics include censorship and legal issues, the artistic strategies of popular forms, and new technologies and opportunities in the electronic media.
COM 3002Topics: Media and Com. Research Methods Audio
Production (3 Credits) Requisite(s): COM-2000 In this course, students will investigate research methods in media and communication in order to become more knowledgeable consumers and producers of research from popular and academic sources. Topics covered will include what research is and why it's important, the process of conducting research, methods of textual analysis, and quantitative and qualitative methods. Students will apply learning to topics through case study inquiry and in course projects. Typically offered: Spring Only
COM 3003Topics: Intro to Screen Writing Audio Production3
Requisite(s): COM-2000 In this course we'll examine the fundamentals of movie structure and its narrative components: story, character, action, dialogue, etc. We'll discuss film genres and watch clips of popular (and not so popular) feature films and shorts. We'll analyze scenes from the motion pictures and screenplays that are considered models of story architecture, and much more. But most of all, we'll do a lot of writing projects.
Requisite(s): COM-2000 This course will examine the attitudes and consequences of the stereotypes (positive & negative) that evolve from the media. Gender, Race and Class are consistently under the media microscope and the filtering of these societal constructs are reshaping regularly. Gender is redefined; racial identity is challenged from within circles and outside; class is barely mentioned but poverty and homelessness are ever- present. Various media will be analyzed to consider how the corporate power structure filters these constructs; not just here in the United States but worldwide.
Requisite(s): COM-2000 In this course, students learn to write nonfiction audio podcast/radio stories as well as explore episodes of This American Life, Moth Radio Hour, Radio Lab, Serial, StoryCorps and other programs. Students create stories of varying lengths and genres, such as personal experience, investigation, interview and humor. This is a writing course, not a production course, though we use free and simple audio software so that students can record and publish their work. Typically offered: As Needed
Requisite(s): COM-2000 An intermediate course connecting the late network and cable eras to the digital age; students will scrutinize various trends in program packaging, content and bleeding-edge edge technologies. Emphasis will be placed on viewing platforms and emerging genre such as reality TV, all-sports channels, premium v basic cable, and other significant viewing choices. Through program viewing, current readings and guided discussion students will gain historical perspective on the quantum changes in the television industry from the network era to the present. Prerequisite: COM 2000 Mass Communication. Typically offered: As Needed
Requisite(s): COM-2000 Part II of Gender, Race & Class in Media. This course will examine the attitudes and consequences of the stereotypes (positive & negative) which evolve from the media. Gender, Race and Class are consistently under the media microscope and the filtering of these societal constructs are reshaping regularly. Gender is redefined; racial identity is challenged from within circles and outside; class is barely mentioned but poverty and homelessness are ever-present. All four mediums will be skewed to analyze how the corporate power structure filters these constructs; not just here in the United States but worldwide. Gender Policies, race relations and classism divides will be skewed. Typically offered: As Needed
Requisite(s): COM-2000 Investigative reporting is a vital and vast specialty: from W atergate and Spy games, to corruption and unsolved mysteries, investigative reporters are the watchdog of Democracy that protects the people and keeps the powerful held accountable. Students learn the skills and techniques that are essential for cutting edge investigative journalism, including mastering online research, managing obstacles and roadblocks and writing to capture a modern audience. The course is both theory and practice: students will examine classic examples of investigations as well as write their own investigative articles. Typically offered: As Needed
Requisite(s): COM-2000 The goal of this course is to produce and host the St. Francis College Women's Film Festival, which is open to the university and community. Students, led by Dr. Augusta Palmer, will have the opportunity to participate in all aspects of the festival's creation, from the evaluation of film entries to running the event. This is a substantive liberal arts course that will also provide students with concrete, resume-worthy skills. All students will gain knowledge of the history of women's role in media history as well as develop their abilities to critique moving image media orally and in writing, and each student will gain practical, real- world expertise in in at least two of the following areas: Social Media Promotion and Graphic Design, Public Relations, Public Speaking, and Events Management. Typically offered: As Needed
Requisite(s): COM-2000 or Instructor's Consent This course explores the history, politics and aesthetics of American and European experimental and avant-garde film. Examining the development, major trends and techniques of experimental and non- narrative filmmaking in relation to key art movements and theoretical debates of the 20th and into the 21st century, we will see how these film and filmmakers challenged the dominant commercial cinemas of Europe and the United States. Topics include formalism, surrealism, political modernism, the culture industry, pop art, and feminism. Typically offered: As Needed
Requisite(s): COM-2000 or Instructor's Consent A comprehensive introduction to the world of sports broadcasting. Subject matter will include (but not be limited to) preparation for play- by-play and color commentary assignments, in-studio sportscasts, monologues, interviews, and voiceover highlights.
Requisite(s): COM-2000 or Instructor's Consent Advanced News Writing builds on the basics of Intro to News Writing 3200. Students will work on the online student news publication, SFC Bridge, by applying their writing and editing skills and learning basic design layout techniques.
Requisite(s): COM-2000 or Instructor's Consent This course explores the impact of pop culture on sports as well as the impact of sports on pop culture. Topics to be explored may included the symbiotic relationship between Hip Hop culture and sports culture and questions of gender parity in sports and sports media. Students in the course will be expected to conceive and complete a creative media project such as a podcast or video about an issue or topic in which sports and culture are influencing one another. The course will be taught by David Cummings, who began his media career writing for Hip Hop magazine The Source and now heads the Race and Culture Unit at CBS Sports.
Requisite(s): COM-2000; An intermediate course, _History of Film_ surveys major film styles, directors, and movements in international cinema from 1890 to the present. The basic techniques of filmmaking are explored as are the fundamental topics in film theory and criticism.
Requisite(s): COM-2015 This course will allow students to study how concepts of gender, race, and class are formed and changed by media including firm, television, journalism, music, and advertising. Building on theories of the interaction between media and culture explored in Mass Media and Society, students will examine, discuss, and write about case studies of the ways media influences and shapes concepts and discourses relating to gender, race, and class. Typically offered: Fall Only
Requisite(s): COM-1000,COM-2000 This course examines the role of advertising as an economic force and a form of cultural representation and the social implications of the role of consumerism in contemporary American society. The course surveys the history of advertising in the United States and investigates the changing strategies that have been used by advertisers from the 19th to the 21st centuries. it approaches advertisements as texts that indicate cultural and norms of their time and that can be understood through textual analysis. This course examines the broader context of consumerism in which advertising is a key factor. It thus provides a cultural approach to advertising and its history, as a means to understand both advertising as a central component in capitalist economies and its role as an indicator of cultural attitudes and ideologies. Typically offered: Spring Only
Requisite(s): COM-1000,COM-2015 This course examines the socio-cultural implications of digital media technologies and new media innovation, and questions critically the impact, challenges, and opportunities of community and communication in the digital era. Throughout the course students will ask critical questions about their own online habits to better understand the ways in which digital media shapes, influences, and intersects with culture and identity in varying contexts.
Requisite(s): COM-2015 This course provides a comprehensive overview of the history of American broadcasting and digital sound media from early radio to television to the current age of digital media, the internet, and mobile devices. Students will examine questions related to technologies, culture, economy, and society.
Requisite(s): COM-1001,COM-2000 In this course, students will be introduced to the field of audio production for film, television, and digital media. They will learn to craft narratives, write scripts, conduct interviews, conduct research, and record, edit and mix sound through group projects. In addition, students will collaborate and create narrative podcasting projects that will be posted to the web and broadcast over the college's radio station.
Requisite(s): COM-2000 This course introduces students to the principles and practices of visual design for advertising, news, print, and web-based media. The objective is to understand design essentials, from theory to practice, in order to develop basic design literacy as well as applied skills. You will first explore how visuals contribute to the filed of communication as well as create an understanding of our world. From hieroglphys to medieval lettering to photoshop, we will examine how visual communication can be artistic, practical and commercial in nature.
Requisite(s): COM-2000 An intermediate course, _Studies in Film_ considers selected topics, filmmakers, and film genres in cinema history, emphasizing the techniques employed that are specific to film and the contribution of film directors, writers, and cinematographers to their developing art.
Requisite(s): COM-2000 This course introduces students to film aesthetics through the analysis of film form and style. The course aims to provide students with a fluency in, and, an understanding of film's unique language as it evolves technologically, historically and generically. Beyond teaching students how to recognize and describe formal choices and techniques, students will be asked to engage in close readings of films, attending to the greater aesthetic significance and stakes of formal choices and innovations evident within a particular film, directorial oeuvre, period or movement. Understanding form in relation to content, we will look at the conventions of narrative film, the employment of formal techniques like cinematography - including shot sizes (from close-up to long shot), composition of shots, and lighting; editing, mise-en-scene; and the use of sound as they function within particular filmic contexts and as they function within film's systemic languages (like that of continuity editing and genre). Typically offered: Fall Only
Requisite(s): Take COM-2000; An advanced course that traces the development of broadcast television from inception to today's entertainment. A survey of television's favorite genres, creative highpoints, and most memorable celebrities. Intended for advertising- and broadcast-track students. Typically offered: Fall Only SFC Catalogue 2024-2025 - DRAFT COPY 159
Requisite(s): COM-2000 An advanced course that introduces the art and business of radio broadcasting for broadcast and advertising students. COM 3130 offers a hands-on approach to today's media with exploration of radio's audiences, sponsors, and societal impact.
Requisite(s): WRI-1100, HON-5101 or COM-2001,COM-3400 An intermediate course, COM 3200 introduces students to the rudiments of journalism. Students are taught the fundamentals of reporting and writing the news for today's print and broadcast media. While emphasis falls on fact gathering, interviewing, and writing techniques, special attention is also paid to copy editing, developing the body of a story, handling breaking news stories, and covering beats. This course requires extensive writing and familiarity with mass communication theory. Typically offered: Fall Only
Requisite(s): WRI-1100,COM-2000,COM-3200 An introduction to the fundamentals of reporting and writing news and human interest stories for broadcast media. Students learn the essentials of fact gathering, interviewing, and meeting deadlines. Considerable attention is paid to the actual practice of writing and editing stories for both television and radio. The course emphasizes analysis of structure and format, the issue of immediacy, targeting the audience, and research techniques, and includes consideration of professional ethics. PREREQUISITE ENG 103 and COM 302. 3 CREDITS. EVERY SPRING. DAY. Typically offered: As Needed
Requisite(s): WRI-1100,COM-2000,COM-3200 An intermediate course, COM-3220 introduces students to all aspects of a career in sports writing. Writing covers the basic rewrites to event stories to human interest stories to personal columns. Students learn how to cover press conferences dealing with breaking news as well as media days that deal with opening of a particular season or a post- season tournament. Editing copy and page layout are other topics covered.
Requisite(s): COM-2000 A comprehensive introduction to the world of sports broadcasting. Subject matter will include (but not be limited to) preparation for play- by-play and color commentary assignments, in-studio sportscasts, monologues, interviews, and voiceover highlights.
Requisite(s): COM-2000 An intermediate course, COM 3300 introduces students to the importance of radio and television directing and camera work, floor supervision, audio operation, and control room operation. Students produce several television segments such as news, commercials, and dramatic programs in this hands-on course open to limited numbers. Typically offered: Fall and Spring
Requisite(s): COM-1001, COM-2000, or COM-2111 (formerly COM-3111) An intermediate video production course, COM-3301 is an introduction to digital moviemaking. Students produce several individual projects, mastering skills of scriptwriting, storyboarding, cinematography, digital editing image and sound. Typically offered: Fall and Spring
Requisite(s): COM-1000 An intermediate keystone course, COM 3400 studies classic and current persuasive theory as applied to advertising, public relations, law, politics and media campaigns. This course emphasizes analysis of messages and their rhetorical and psychological structure, while also teaching tactics and strategies through applied example. Uses and abuses of persuasive methods are considered, as well as the impact of media developments on modern communications and traditional thought processes. Typically offered: All Sessions
Requisite(s): COM-2000 or COM-3400 An advanced intermediate course, COM 3410 surveys advertising techniques and functions. The course covers topics such as the development of an advertising plan: copywriting, media planning, campaign development, and strategy. Strong emphasis is placed on the analysis of TV, radio, and print commercials. The relationship among budgetary, creative, and planning functions is investi-gated, as is advertising's impact on popular thought and culture. Typically offered: All Sessions
Requisite(s): COM-2000 An advanced course that explores the relationship of communications issues to legal proceedings and theory. While First Amendment issues are addressed, attention is also given to the relationship of the press to the courts, television to the courts, and the impact of mass communication technology on matters of justice and due process. Typically offered: Fall Only
Requisite(s): COM-2000,COM-3400 This course is an introduction to the theory, trends and criticism of political communication. Emphasis will be placed on the roll of mass media technology in the political process, both in history and engaging contemporary transformations. Topics will include, among others, structural analysis of political and media institutions and the dynamic of their relationship, rhetorical and cultural analysis of news reporting, message construction and advertising in political campaigns and the forming of public opinion. Typically offered: As Needed
Requisite(s): COM-2111, COM-3100, or COM-3111 An advanced course, COM 4100 teaches film analysis and writing, examining the relationship among film theory, criticism, and production. Emphasis is placed on close analysis of specific films and examples of film literature. Students write several critical essays on films seen both inside and outside of class. Typically offered: Fall Only
Requisite(s): COM-3105 As the second course in a two-part sequence, students will learn advanced techniques in digital sound recording, editing, mixing, and sound design. Advanced audio technologies used in sound editing film, T.V. and Digital Media will also be explored. , Typically offered: Fall Only
Requisite(s): COM-3300 This course is designed to give students experience in production of advanced television programs. It provides students the chance to work in production teams to achieve their goals. In class, students will be required to produce and direct a full television show from the pre- production stage (development) through the production stage (the actual taping of the show) Typically offered: As Needed
Requisite(s): COM-3100 or COM-3110,COM-3301 (formerly COM-4300) An advanced intermediate course, COM 4320 teaches digital moviemaking emphasizing the application of more complex production and post-production techniques in both dramatic and documentary projects.
Requisite(s): Take COM-1001 or COM-3301 or COM-4320 An advanced course in the special problems and techniques of documentary film and video production, covering areas of direction, script writing, pre-production, and the specific production and post- production skills used in a documentary. Students produce projects and may collaborate on several productions as well as analyze examples of documentary formats in film and television. Typically offered: Fall Only
Requisite(s): Take COM-2100; An advanced course. Open to all students, COM-4350 is a theater production course designed for students in the speech and theater concentration. Students produce, direct, and perform in a series of scenes and/or plays that evolve into complete productions. The entire production process is supervised by the course instructor, but students are responsible for the creative process. When available, professional actors, writers, and directors participate in the workshop. The course meets once weekly. The completed production is open to the public in the last session. Lab fee. Typically offered: As Needed
Requisite(s): COM-2000,COM-3400,COM-3410 or COM-2002 An advanced course teaching creative techniques used in print and electronic advertising. Emphasis falls on copywriting and design, using the latest desktop publishing, brochure, and web site development methods. Students produce creative products to fit promotional specifications while learning how to integrate art and copy demands with marketing goals. Typically offered: As Needed
Requisite(s): COM-2001,COM-2002,COM-3400 An advanced course designed specifically for communications majors. Introduces basic skills and creative techniques employed in the development of public relations campaigns. Special emphasis is placed on the creation of messages and the selection of media. Applications include the crafting of press releases, development of video and film releases, speech writing, and oral presentations. Examples examined are drawn from government, industry, and politics. The goal of the course is to present the public relations function against a backdrop of social dynamics and essential communication processes contributing to its effectiveness. Typically offered: Fall and Spring
Requisite(s): COM-2000,COM-3400 This course is an introduction to the theory, trends and criticism of political communication. Emphasis will be placed on the roll of mass media technology in the political process, both in history and engaging contemporary transformations. Topics will include, among others, structural analysis of political and media institutions and the dynamic of their relationship, rhetorical and cultural analysis of news reporting, message construction and advertising in political campaigns and the forming of public opinion. Typically offered: As Needed
Requisite(s): COM-2111, or COM-3100, or COM-3100 or COM-3400 An advanced course that explores the relationship of communications issues to legal proceedings and theory. While First Amendment issues are addressed, attention is also given to the relationship of the press to the courts, television to the courts, and the impact of mass communication technology on matters of justice and due process. Typically offered: Fall Only
Requisite(s): Open to COMMUNICATIONS majors with Junior or Senior status.,Department chair approval required. An advanced course open to majors with junior or senior standing. Students are encouraged to engage in field experience. Assignments depend on the availability of suitable programs. The instructor agrees to guide and evaluate the quality of work and research undertaken. Field experiences must relate to the area of communication in which the student has specialized. During an internship, students must maintain a comprehensive daily log of personal work activities and attend a series of seminars during the field experience period. Students may take COM-4990 twice in different semesters. Typically offered: As Needed
Requisite(s): Junior or senior standing with a GPA of 3.0 or higher. An advanced course, COM 4995 requires a research project concentrating in one area of communications. A written and/or video and oral report is required at the end of the study. Conducted as a tutorial. Typically offered: On Demand
Requisite(s): Open only to Seniors. Department chair approval required. Students will work together in production crews to create media content for a client, which could be an SFC department, campus initiative, and/ or local business/nonprofit. Students will listen to client needs, create pitches, present them to the client, and receive feedback from client, professor, and fellow students in order to make revisions to the project.
Requisite(s): Open only to Seniors. Department chair approval required. COM 4997 Senior Comprehensive-Tutorial COM 4997 is the tutorial version of COM 4998. A capstone course. Required of all communication majors before graduation and taken during the senior year, COM 4997 aims to evaluate the academic competence of the student. The student's individual thesis, report, performance, exam or project is supervised by a chosen mentor with occasional outside evaluation. Typically offered: As Needed
Requisite(s): Senior standing. Department Chair approval required. A capstone course required of all communication majors before graduation and take during the senior year, COM 4998 aims to evaluate the competence of the student in their area of concentration by guiding them through an independent project from conception to literature review standing, formal proposal, and completion. The student's individual creative or research project is supervised by a mentor with occasional outside evaluation. Research projects are generally 25-page research papers, creative projects have included documentary and fiction video projects, audio podcasts, advertising campaigns, theatrical performances, magazines, and/or online portfolios of creative work. Typically offered: As Needed
COM 5010Movie Vision: Fiction and Film in American Cinema
(Honors) (3 Credits) This Seminar is a critical examination of American films and film culture. The course examines a body of films grouped by theme, genre, director or historical period. Students will learn how to analyze films as texts, examining cinematography, editing, sound, narrative structure, genre, film theory and/or historical context. The films chosen may be produced inside or outside of the U.S. in order to pinpoint the influence of American film culture on world culture and vice versa. Prerequisite: Open to Honors Students. 3 credits offered as needed.
The socio-political rise of the masses and the development of mass media in the nineteenth century brought with it particular problems regarding the role of media in forming a modern society. Through the mass media, or culture industries as they are referred to in Critical Theory a spectacular culture has emerged. Where in our lives can we see the influence of mass or popular culture? How do cultural forms effect the conceptualization of social reality? These and other questions will be examined in this course through the films viewings and readings about art and modern media. Fulfills General Education Requirement: HCE, WHG Typically offered: Spring Only
This course provides an introduction to German cinema by surveying important German films in historical, cultural and technical contexts. Depending on the particular focus of the seminar, films from the Wilhelmine period through contemporary times could be discussed. Our readings and discussions will examine through a lens of critical and theoretical materials the contexts in which films were produced and how they were received. By the end of this course students should have an understanding of the unique qualities of German national cinema, a deeper appreciation for film aesthetics, and superior recognition of sound argumentation in critical film studies. Fulfills General Education Requirement: HCE, WHG Typically offered: As Needed
COM 5014Collective Memory, Culture and Communication3
In this course we explore how groups, nations and societies remember the past. We think about how past events are imagined, constructed, communicated and contested through culture from the perspectives of different models of collective memory and via case studies. Throughout the semester we will seek to answer questions about how ethical, moral and political concerns shape memory: How do survivors of collective trauma articulate loss? What are appropriates ways to remember war and political violence? What and who is remembered, and how? What role do aesthetic representations play in shaping and articulation of memory? Who has the right, power, or authority to decide what happens at a particular site of public memory? Through discussions centered around the politics of collective memory we will interrogate the promise to never forget. Fulfills General Education Requirement: PEM, HCE Typically offered: As Needed
An advanced course, designed as a seminar embracing an interdisciplinary approach to global communications and international relations. Particular attention is paid to issues surrounding human rights and the debates over the right to communicate. Specific topics covered in the seminar include interethnic communication, interpersonal skills in a multicultural environment, intercultural and ethnic minority media relations, theories of global communications, and communication in war and conflict. The underlying thrust of the seminar is the necessity for an understanding of cultural differences and a critical approach to the structure and relations of the media from a global perspective. Typically offered: As Needed
