Communication Major with a Media Studies Concentration

The Communication Major with a Media Studies concentration helps students engage and contribute to the media environment—the world of symbols and meanings, texts and contexts, form and content—from a critical and cultural perspective. Coursework is divided between theory and practice, with an emphasis on how theory informs and shapes practice and on how medium shapes message.

Requirements for the major are 32 hours: 14 hours in the Communication Core, 16 hours in a Concentration, and 2 elective hours of any Communication course. The Core consists of 4 courses in performance, theory, research, and a senior capstone (in which each student submits a portfolio and has a senior assessment interview). These four core courses should be completed in sequence.

To complement core courses, students select a concentration in Interpersonal Communication, Media Studies, Rhetoric and Culture, or Theater. Within each concentration, there are requirements and electives with course work progressing from introductory to advanced levels of study.

General Education Requirement. The following courses fulfill the oral communication competency requirement:

This requirement should be completed by the end of the sophomore year.

Along with specific requirements for any major, all students in the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degree programs must meet all general education and graduation requirements under a single catalog.

¹

COMM 302 Rhetorical Theory is an acceptable substitution.

²

COMM 311 Human Communication Research is an acceptable substitution.

³

At least one of the elective courses must be upper-division.