Bruce Henderson, Professor and Coordinator
The major makes connections between two intellectual areas: the study of how culture informs and shapes all aspects of communication, and its corollary area of investigation - how communication is the process through which culture is created, modified, and challenged. To explore these dynamic relationships, students consider culture and communication from a variety of intellectual perspectives from schools and divisions at the College.
This unique interdisciplinary program draws from the curricula and faculties in the Departments of Speech Communication, Television-Radio, Cinema and Photography, and Communication Management and Design. Majors must complete six core courses and one foundation course for each area of inquiry, satisfy the requirements for a minor in a complementary field, achieve foreign language proficiency, and complete the full requirements for one of four areas of inquiry. The areas of inquiry are international and intercultural communication, media and cultural studies, organizational culture and technology, and visual and cinema studies. In addition to work in the four foundation areas, students select liberal arts courses from a wide range of areas, including English, art history, theater arts, web development, sociology, music, politics, modern languages and literatures, business, and health policy studies.
Culture and communication majors build an interdisciplinary intellectual framework that forges connections between a variety of ways to study culture and a diversity of communication forms, practices, and organizations. The interdisciplinary curriculum provides students with diverse and easily transferable conceptual skills in critical thinking, analytical writing, and research methods across the humanities and social sciences. The major and minor not only offer preparation to enter an increasingly complex global culture, but also open up a wide, flexible range of opportunities not limited to one communications enterprise or postgraduate area of study. The culture and communication program emphasizes intellectual agility and lifelong learning skills required for success in a constantly changing world.
| WRTG-xxxxx | Any level-1 composition course from WRTG-10600 through WRTG-16500 (except WRTG-10100; placement based on verbal SAT and a writing sample) (3) | |
| SPCM-11000 | Public Communication (3) | |
| CLTC-10000 | Introduction to Culture and Communication (3) | |
| SPCM-12000 | Communication, Culture, and Rhetoric (3) | |
| WRTG-31800 | Writing from Cultural Experience* (3) or | |
| WRTG-32000 | Public Essay (3) | |
| CLTC-48000 | Seminar in Culture and Communication (3) | |
| Total | 18 |
Areas of Inquiry Foundation Courses (taken by all students)
| TVR-22000 | Global Flow of Information (3) |
| TVR-12100 | Introduction to Mass Media (3) |
| OCLD-20000 | The Digital Workplace (3) |
| CNPH-10100 | Introduction to Film Aesthetics and Analysis (3) | |
| Total | 12 |
Students select one of the following four areas of inquiry and complete its requirements:
| International and intercultural communication (21) | |
| Media and cultural studies (21) | |
| Organizational culture and technology (21) | |
| Visual and cinema (21) | 21 |
| Total, B.A. in culture and communication | 51 |
Language Requirement: Culture and communication majors are required to complete a foreign language through the intermediate level or to demonstrate equivalent proficiency as part of their degree requirements. This may require up to four courses, depending on the level of proficiency demonstrated.
Areas of Inquiry
The infrastructure of global communication systems manifests itself in text and images speeding around the world, from Hurricane Katrina to the Iraq war. The international and intercultural communication area of inquiry is an interdisciplinary liberal arts program that recognizes the importance of developing rich, nuanced understandings of increasingly multicultural and technologically connected international environments.
This program draws on multiple perspectives in the humanities and technical and social sciences (such as anthropology, politics, and sociology), as well as on comparative media studies, which investigates different cultural, national, and ethnic groups. Through this area of inquiry, students learn how cultures are produced, transmitted, and transformed through the discourses of literature, language, sounds and images, and nonverbal communication.
| TVR-26200 | Qualitative Mass Media Research Methods | 3 |
Choose six courses from the following, at least three at level 3 or above, and no more than three from any department:
| TVR-32400 | European Mass Media* | |
| TVR-42600 | Seminar in Geomedia* |
| OCLD-36000 | Communication in Culturally Diverse Organizations* |
| HPS-11000 | War, Hunger, and Genocide: An International Health Perspective | |
| HPS-25000 | International Health Issues* |
| ANTH-22000 | Southeast Asia: Its Peoples and Cultures* | |
| ANTH-22500 | South Asia: India and Its Neighbors* | |
| ANTH-23500 | Jewish Cultures: A World View* | |
| ANTH-24100 | Modern Africa* | |
| ANTH-27000 | North American Indians* | |
| ANTH-28500 | Caribbean Cultures* | |
| ANTH-31000 | Culture and Personality* |
| HIST-20300 | Introductory Geography* | |
| SOCI-20900 | Ethnic United States since the Civil War* | |
| HIST-32000 | The United States and the Third World* |
| POLT-12900 | Introduction to Global Studies | |
| POLT-32800 | International Conflict* | |
| POLT-32900 | Third World Politics* |
| RLST-20100 | Religion and Culture* | |
| RLST-20200 | Religion and Society* |
| SOCI-11600 | Introduction to Multicultural Studies | |
| SOCI-20700 | Race and Ethnicity* | |
| SOCI-30300 | Global Race and Ethnic Relations* |
| SPCM-33200 | Folklore and Cultural Performances* | |
| SPCM-34700 | Intercultural Communication* | 18 |
| Total | 21 |
*Course has prerequisite(s) that the student is responsible for meeting. (Note: Virtually all the asterisked prerequisites are minimal - a specified number of courses in the liberal arts, class standing, etc.)
One of the fastest-growing fields of study at academic institutions around the world, media and cultural studies integrates both the humanities and the social sciences in its attempt to understand cultural artifacts, practices, and ways of life - often, although not exclusively, centering on media and popular culture.
The area of inquiry in media and cultural studies incorporates courses from 12 departments across four schools. In addition to the departments more traditionally associated with cultural studies, this area also includes courses in art history, sport studies, music, and health policy studies.
This area of inquiry differs significantly from the visual and cinema studies area of inquiry in that the latter draws more heavily from the humanities, including art history, literary theory, and cinema studies. Media and cultural studies draws more from the social sciences, notably anthropology, sociology, and politics, in its attempt to understand social and cultural practice - in particular, media as social and cultural phenomena. Media and cultural studies addresses audiences, industries, economics, and effects, as well as media content.
| SPCM-32800 | Uses and Methods of Communication Criticism | 3 |
Choose six courses from the following, at least three at level 3 or above, and no more than three from any department:
| TVR-12200 | Introduction to Media Aesthetics and Analysis | |
| TVR-32200 | New Telecommunication Technologies* | |
| TVR-31200 | Government and Media* | |
| TVR-33500 | Electronic Media Criticism* | |
| TVR-38800 | Alternative Media* | |
| TVR-46000 | Senior Seminar: Topics in Media Effects* |
| CNPH-21400 | Hollywood and American Film (4) | |
| CNPH-30300 | Images of Men and Women in Mass Media* |
| SPCM-33200 | Folklore and Cultural Performances* |
| ANTH-10400 | Cultural Anthropology | |
| ANTH-34500 | Life Stories: An Ethnographic Approach* |
| ARTH-13500 | Visual Culture* | |
| ARTH-13700 | Visual Persuasion* | |
| ARTH-25500 | The Mediated Image* |
| HIST-27200 | History of the Future* |
| POLT-10200 | Media and Politics | |
| POLT-34200 | Liberalism and Marxism* | |
| POLT-34300 | Feminist Theory* |
| SOCI-11600 | Introduction to Multicultural Studies | |
| SOCI-13000 | Youth and Youth Cultures* | |
| SOCI-20700 | Race and Ethnicity* | |
| SOCI-21000 | Women's Lives* | |
| SOCI-22800 | Men's Lives* | |
| SOCI-32500 | Race, Class, and Gender * |
| MUNM-13000 | Music in Society | |
| MUNM-25100 | Music and the Media | |
| MUNM-25600 | Women in Popular Music: From Bessie Smith to MTV | |
| MUNM-25700 | History of American Popular Song |
| HPS-13000 | Healthy Viewings: Media, Medicine, and Health |
| SPMM-29500 | Social Aspects of Sport* | |
| SPMM-39400 | Sport in Film and Literature* | 18-19 |
| Total | 21-22 |
*Course has prerequisite(s) that the student is responsible for meeting. (Note: Virtually all the asterisked prerequisites are minimal - a specified number of courses in the liberal arts, class standing, etc.)
The organizational culture and technology area of inquiry provides students with the opportunity to explore this fundamental component of human experience - the relationship between human agency and social structure - through the lens of the impact of technology on organizations. Students draw links between the ways technology influences the flow of information and knowledge and the problem of organizational culture, including practices of influence, control, and conflict perpetuated in and through cultural forms. Coursework includes a focus on the capabilities of specific technologies of communication and opportunities for examination of issues of organizational life, including the permeable boundary between organizations and society at large.
| OCLD-34000 | Research and Evaluation in Organizational Communication, Learning, and Design | 3 |
| OCLD-45000 | Communication and Learning Technologies: Theory, Application, and Policy | 3 |
| Total | 6 |
One of the following courses:
| COMP-10500 | Introduction to Web Development* | |
| COMP-11000 | Computers and Information Technology Systems* | |
| OCLD-15000 | Professional Applications of Technology* | |
| TRLS-13900 | Computer Applications in Recreation* | |
| PHED-13900 | Computer Applications in Physical Education* | |
| HLTH-13900 | Computer Applications in Health Education* | |
| EXSS-13900 | Computer Applications in Exercise and Sport* | 3 |
Choose four courses from the following, at least two at level 3 or above, and no more than two from any department:
| OCLD-25100 | Organizational Communication, Culture, and Conflict | |
| OCLD-32000 | Leadership Communication* | |
| OCLD-36000 | Communication in Culturally Diverse Organizations* |
| TVR-32200 | New Telecommunications Technologies* |
| HPS-14000 | Cyborgs, Clones, and Policy: New Technologies in Health and Medicine | |
| HPS-22500 | Health Communication |
| POLT-10200 | Media and Politics |
| SOCI-21200 | Sociology of Work* | |
| SOCI-29300 | Introduction to Social Institutions and Organizations* | |
| SOCI-30100 | Technology and Society* |
| MGMT-20600 | Organizational Behavior and Management* | |
| MKTG-39100 | Electronic Commerce: Legal Issues* | |
| MGMT-46000 | Seminar in Organizational Development and Change* | 12 |
| Total | 21 |
*Course has prerequisite(s) that the student is responsible for meeting. (Note: Virtually all the asterisked prerequisites are minimal - a specified number of courses in the liberal arts, class standing, etc.)
This area of inquiry focuses on how 21st-century visual communications structure meaning within social, political, historical, and aesthetic contexts. Within the last 20 years, the field of cinema studies has shifted away from an exclusive emphasis on the film itself as an isolated object toward critical theory and methodology that situates film, video art, installation, performance, theater, hybrid forms, photography, advertising, certain forms of fine art, and digital art forms as parts of a larger, more complex visual culture.
Visual and cinema studies is distinguished from the other three areas of inquiry in this major by its concentration on visually mediated communication forms. It emphasizes close textual analysis and historiographic research of both high and popular cultural media and visual forms.
The visual and cinema studies area of inquiry focuses on critical studies from a humanities, rather than a social science, perspective. It entails theory, history, and criticism courses from across all five schools at Ithaca College.
| CNPH-30100 | Nonfiction Film Theory* (3) or | |
| CNPH-30000 | Fiction Film Theory* (3) | 3 |
Choose six courses from the following, at least three at level 3 or above, and no more than three from any department:
| CNPH-21400 | Hollywood and American Film (4) | |
| CNPH-24000 | History of Photography* | |
| CNPH-30300 | Images of Men and Women in Mass Media* | |
| CNPH-44000 | Contemporary Photographic Issues* |
| TVR-33500 | Electronic Media Criticism* | |
| TVR-46000 | Senior Seminar: Topics in Media Effects* |
| ARTH-11000 | Introduction to Art | |
| ARTH-11400 | Architecture across Cultures | |
| ARTH-23300 | Great Spaces: An Introduction to Urban Design* | |
| ARTH-25200 | Twentieth-Century European Art* | |
| ARTH-28500 | Art since 1960* | |
| ARTH-34100 | Women Artists and Cultural Change* | |
| ARTH-34200 | Images of Women in Western Art* |
| ENGL-22500 | Literary Modernism and the Visual Arts* |
| PHIL-24000 | Philosophy in Film* | |
| PHIL-32600 | Seminar in Aesthetics* |
| THPA-36400 | Aesthetics and Criticism of Drama* | 18-19 |
| Total | 21 |
*Course has prerequisites that student is responsible for meeting. (Note: Virtually all the asterisked prerequisites are minimal - a specified number of courses in the liberal arts, class standing, etc.)
Culture and communication majors are also required to complete an outside field that complements their area of inquiry - an existing minor in another department, or an outside field individually designed in consultation with the student's adviser and approved by the culture and communication coordinator. Some suggested minors are sociology, politics, psychology, art history, writing, history, philosophy, anthropology, or English, as well as various communication programs. Total credits in the minor or outside field must be 18 and may not include any courses selected for the major.
| CLTC-10000 | Introduction to Culture and Communication (3) | |
| SPCM-12000 | Communication, Culture, and Rhetoric (3) | 6 |
| CNPH-10100 | Introduction to Film Aesthetics and Analysis | 3 |
| TVR-12100 | Introduction to Mass Media | 3 |
| TVR-22000 | Global Flow of Information | 3 |
| OCLD-20000 | The Digital Workplace | 3 |
| One course at level 3 or above from the additional requirements for any of the four area of inquiry listings in the culture and communication major | 3 | |
| Total, culture and communication minor | 21 |
