32 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 1400Introduction to Video Techniques and Technology4
This introduction to the art and science of video production focuses on developing visual literacy and postproduction skills. Starting with an examination of basic video technology and traditional media aesthetics, all stages of the video production process are covered. Students receive introductory technical training and hands-on experience with digital camcorders, microphones, and nonlinear editing equipment.
The history and impact of communication technologies are examined, beginning with speech and moving forward through print and digital media, advertising and public relations, media regulation and potential, and ending with a consideration of the future.
Students develop expertise in public speaking by preparing and presenting different types of speeches for a variety of purposes. The focus is on the main elements of planning and delivering a speech: the message, the speaker, the audience, and the occasion. All speeches are critiqued in class. As an integral part of the course, students learn PowerPoint.
Students will learn how to collaborate in order to work with others to achieve goals. Those goals may be personal, social and/or task oriented. Through practical, hands-on exercises, students will apply theories of group interaction to demonstrate their working knowledge of effective process. Students will be able to recognize when groups become stuck and brainstorm ways to move forward.
Students will learn the fundamental principles of design and how these relate to effective visual communication. We will explore the role that advertising plays in society and how to create effective visual advertisements. Students will also learn the basics of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and how to shoot and edit photos.
Sports have become contemporary intercultural communication bridges across peoples and societies. In this course, we will approach sports as communication tools, from individual expressions of identity to collective manifestations of support or rejection of societal traditions and practices. We will study the production, performance, consumption, organization, and social impact of sports and the individuals involved in them.
In this writing intensive course, students build foundational skills in writing for a variety of media and purposes: print, digital, and broadcast media, public relations and advertising. Students begin to explore the divergent applications of written communication by analyzing their roles as both consumers of and writers for media. Ethical and legal issues are also introduced.
The First Amendment allows the mass media certain freedoms to publish, broadcast, advertise, and promote. Yet with those rights come responsibilities. This course examines the legal and ethical dimensions and issues involved with contemporary American mass media.
An interdisciplinary (social science and humanities) course that emphasizes critical thinking in understanding the social and historical effects of mass media in the U.S. and throughout the world. This course begins in 19th-century America, when print media shaped and defined the national culture, and concludes in the current century with the mass-media convergence of print, electronic, and digital multimedia that is shaping and defining our global culture.
Students become acquainted with methods that communication practitioners use to conduct different types of research. Goals include learning to identify, understand, and evaluate diverse research strategies; distinguish between qualitative and quantitative methods, the types of knowledge they produce (big/small data), and the strengths and the weaknesses of each; and think critically about objectivity, researcher standpoint, and research ethics.
What are the different forms messages take in spoken and written communication? After examining actual messages in different contexts and assessing their impact on individuals and groups, students learn how to craft messages and select the appropriate timing, style, and medium for delivery. Participants have the opportunity to design, deliver, and test the impact of new messages.
Negotiation is approached from a communication perspective in this course. Students explore the cooperative decision-making process in which individuals and groups work together to attempt to achieve goals that may initially seem divergent. By examining the way language is used to frame arguments and barriers, students practice planning, reframing, and bargaining to maintain roles and relationships.
Students learn how to inform and influence large audiences about noncommercial issues through a series of purposeful communication activities. By examining cases in environment, health, human and animal welfare, and disaster prevention, participants differentiate successful from unsuccessful campaigns and review the process for crafting appropriate mediated messages and selecting specific channels to produce a desired impact.
This advanced business communication course helps students develop professional writing, presentation, and digital communication skills. Emphasis is placed on leadership communication, ethics, intercultural awareness, and adapting messages for diverse stakeholders in a globalized business environment. Practical projects will prepare students for workplace success. Students will also analyze case studies, create strategic business messages, and deliver persuasive presentations.
Media literacy encompasses the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media. In this course, students learn to critically examine visual, audio, and online media while gaining an understanding of the media’s effect on culture and society.
The roles and theories of communication and leadership, together with the skills and traits of effective managers, are studied. Students examine how managers use behavioral modification and motivation techniques, develop coaching skills, manage change and conflict, and create a vision for their employees. The topics of strategy, organizational culture, and diversity are also included.
An examination of the history, cultural impact, and aesthetics of documentary film and video production. Through viewings, lectures, discussions, and hands-on exercises, students learn how to research, write, interview, direct, shoot, and edit a documentary. Using camcorders and editing equipment, students produce their own short documentaries. PREREQ: COM1400 Or FLM1050
Students critically examine the complex interplay between digital platforms and social structures, focusing on issues of justice, equity, and democracy. Students investigate how platforms, from social media and artificial intelligence to gig economy services, shape and are shaped by social, political, and economic forces. Through hands-on projects, students analyze current challenges and design improved platform futures.
Students learn how to influence others by crafting and orally delivering convincing messages that appeal to logic, reason, emotion, and feelings. Ancient rhetorical and contemporary scholarship is used to examine and compare persuasive speeches and advertisements. The class explores written, face-to-face, and digitally-mediated arguments in legal discourse, health, and marketing promotions. The student’s ability to identify speaking differences in style, arguments, and credibility is also sh
This course focuses on understanding communication in relationships (interpersonal) and within the mind (intrapsychic: thinking, alone time, analyzing, understanding the external world and how one communicates internally). Topics include communication styles and communication in the intimate relationship, within the family, and at the workplace.
How do brands communicate during times of crisis? Students will analyze case-studies, leverage best practices and develop their own campaigns to demonstrate how to successfully steer a brand through their most troubling hour. We will touch on key concepts including reputation management, spokesperson training and press conferences, rich and social media, and more in this public relations course.
Students will learn different styles of podcasting, best practices for developing and pitching a show, how to use professional audio recorders, basic audio editing techniques with Adobe Audition and how to build an audience and distribute a podcast once it’s complete.
COM 3710A Critical Look at Television in Society: From “I Love Lucy” to Honey Boo Boo4
Television is much more than a passive, incessant means of diversion-it is a powerful environment of ideas, emotions, and values that influences people’s thoughts, actions, and relationships. Students become acquainted with current issues concerning television in society and explore the impact of television on society. Aspects examined include the 1950s and mass culture, viewer response, serial/episodic structure, and the rise of cable.
Students learn the purpose and use of working in a TV studio from conceptualization to post-production. Through readings and in small groups, students will gain a practical understanding of writing, camera work, editing and working with on-camera personalities. PREREQ: COM1400 Or FLM1050
Students will work in small groups to produce, shoot and edit Purchase Presents, a television show focused on issues happening on campus. PREREQ: COM3720 Or JOU3160 Or PSW3400
One-semester media project or research paper that involves empirical research or library investigation. Course sections are overseen by faculty within each concentration to foster integration of prior coursework, and should be selected in consultation with academic advisors. PREREQ: WRI1110 Or WRI2110 Or Or
