Department of Communication Studies

Bachelor of Arts

Laurie Arliss, Professor and Chair

Communication studies is the home of Ithaca College's liberal arts approaches to understanding human interaction in its many forms. Students and faculty in the Department of Communication Studies seek to understand the way in which culture both affects and results from communication, as they explore a diversity of communication forms, practices, and organizations in an increasingly complex global culture. The department emphasizes small, interactive classes and close student-faculty interaction; its courses and cocurricular activities both provide a foundation in communication theory and skills and encourage multiple avenues of inquiry within which students can craft their own meaningful academic experiences.

The department offers two majors and three minors.

The communication studies major combines theory and practice in classes that focus on how, why, and with what effects people communicate -- creating and sharing meaning, whether it be in the workplace, an informal gathering of friends, a family celebration, or a nationwide political process (to name just a few possibilities). A major in communication studies develops competence in theoretical analysis as well as the practical implementation of communication. The program is recommended for students who want a broad liberal arts background as preparation for careers in such fields as public relations, business, government, social services, and law, or for graduate study.

The culture and communication major is offered in cooperation with the Roy H. Park School of Communication and other departments at the College. This interdisciplinary program makes connections between two areas of inquiry: 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 relationships, students consider culture and communication from a variety of intellectual perspectives across schools and divisions at the College. A degree in culture and communication prepares students for graduate study, whether law school or business school, or master's and doctoral programs in a range of critical studies areas. Students interested in this major should contact the coordinator, Bruce Henderson, professor of communication studies, 422 Muller Center.

The minors offered in the department -- communication studies, culture and communication, and health communication -- allow considerable flexibility so that a student can select courses which best complement his or her major. Those seeking a broad disciplinary focus can opt for the communication studies minor, while those who wish to cross disciplinary lines can select the culture and communication minor. Health communication is also an interdisciplinary minor. All minors must be declared through consultation with the departmental chair; minor advisers guide students in course selection.

Communication Studies, B.A.
Culture and Communication, B.A.
Communication Studies Minor
Culture and Communication Minor
Health Communication Minor

Requirements for Honors in Communication Studies

Departmental honors are awarded based on a senior project done under the sponsorship of a faculty member and its successful defense in an oral examination conducted by a faculty committee. A cumulative GPA of 3.50 is required. Students must propose the project by the end of the penultimate semester before graduation and must complete it by the middle of the semester they plan to graduate.

Requirements for the Major in Communication Studies -- B.A.

(The major's name change, from speech communication, is pending NYSED approval.)

Required courses

SPCM 11000	Public Communication	3
SPCM 12000	Communication, Culture, and Rhetoric	3
SPCM 14000	Small Group Communication	3
SPCM 14900	Fundamentals of Interpersonal Communication	3
SPCM 21500	Argumentation and Debate	3
SPCM 23000	Analysis and Performance of Literature	3
	Total, required courses	18

Restricted electives

Select 12 credits in applications in communication studies:

SPCM 22500	Health Communication (3)
SPCM 24300	Interviewing (3)
SPCM 31100	Advanced Public Communication (3)
SPCM 32400	Rhetoric and Social Order (3)
SPCM 33200	Folklore and Cultural Performances (3)
SPCM 33300	Analysis and Performance of Prose (3)
SPCM 33400	Group Performance of Literature (3)
SPCM 33500	Analysis and Performance of Poetry (3)
SPCM 34600	Gender and Interpersonal Communication (3)
SPCM 34700	Intercultural Communication (3)
SPCM 34800	Family Communication (3)
SPCM 38900	Selected Topics (3)
SPCM 39700	Directed Readings (3)
SPCM 42900	Seminar in Public Communication (3)
SPCM 43900	Seminar in Literary and Cultural Performance (3)
SPCM 44900	Seminar in Interpersonal Communication (3)
SPCM 45100	Communication and Social Influence (3)
SPCM 49500	Internship (3)
	Total, applications in communication studies	12

Select 6 credits in theories of communication studies:

SPCM 32600	Classical Theories of Rhetoric (3)
SPCM 32700	Modern and Contemporary Theories of Rhetoric (3)
SPCM 35300	Language and Social Interaction (3)
SPCM 45900	Seminar in Communication Theory (3)
	Total, theories of communication studies	6

Select 3 credits in research methods in communication studies:

SPCM 32800	Uses and Methods of Communication Criticism (3)
SPCM 34100	Communication Research Methods (3)
	Total, research methods in communication studies	3

Select 6 credits of electives in communication studies:

At least 3 credits must be taken at level 3 or 4, and 1 credit at level 4.

Summary

Total, required courses	18
Total, restricted electives	27
Unrestricted electives	75
Total, B.A. in communication studies	120

Communication studies majors have 75 elective credits, but they are encouraged to elect at least one 18- to 27-credit sequence outside the department as a minor concentration or cognate area. No more than two grades below a C (2.00) will be accepted in courses toward fulfilling requirements of the major.

Requirements for the Major in Culture and Communication -- B.A.

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.

Core courses

WRTG xxxxx	Any level-1 composition course from WRTG 10600 through WRTG 16500 (except WRTG 10100)	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* or	3
WRTG 32000	Public Essay	3
CLTC 48000	Seminar in Culture and Communication	3
	Total, core courses	18

*Course has prerequisite(s) that the student is responsible for meeting. (Note: Virtually all the prerequisites are minimal -- a specified number of courses in the liberal arts, class standing, etc.)

Areas of inquiry foundation courses (taken by all majors)

International and intercultural communication

TVR 22000

Global Flow of Information

3

Media and cultural studies

TVR 12100

Introduction to Mass Media

3

Organizational culture and technology

STCM 20000

The Digital Workplace

3

Visual and cinema studies

CNPH 10100	Introduction to Film Aesthetics and Analysis	3
	Total, foundation courses	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
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

International and intercultural communication area 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 in the 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, 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:

Television-radio

TVR 32400	European Mass Media*
TVR 42600	Seminar in Geomedia*

Strategic communication

STCM 36000

Communication in Culturally Diverse Organizations*

Health promotion and physical education

HPS 11000	War, Hunger, and Genocide: An International Health Perspective
HPS 25000	International Health Issues*

Anthropology

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*

History

HIST 20300	Introductory Geography*
SOCI 20900	Ethnic United States since the Civil War*
HIST 32000	The United States and the Third World*

Politics

POLT 12900	Introduction to Global Studies
POLT 32800	International Conflict*
POLT 32900	Third World Politics*

Religious studies

RLST 20100	Religion and Culture*
RLST 20200	Religion and Society*

Sociology

SOCI 11600	Introduction to Multicultural Studies
SOCI 20700	Race and Ethnicity*
SOCI 30300	Global Race and Ethnic Relations*

Communication studies

SPCM 33200	Folklore and Cultural Performances*
SPCM 34700	Intercultural Communication*
	Total, international and intercultural communication area of inquiry	21

*Course has prerequisite(s) that the student is responsible for meeting. (Note: Virtually all the prerequisites are minimal -- a specified number of courses in the liberal arts, class standing, etc.)

Media and cultural studies area of inquiry

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 in 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:

Television-radio

TVR 12200	Introduction to Media Aesthetics and Analysis
TVR 31200	Government and Media*
TVR 32200	New Telecommunication Technologies*
TVR 33500	Electronic Media Criticism*
TVR 38800	Alternative Media*
TVR 46000	Senior Seminar: Topics in Media Effects*

Cinema, photography, and media arts

CNPH 21400	Hollywood and American Film	4
CNPH 30300	Images of Men and Women in Mass Media*

Communication studies

SPCM 33200

Folklore and Cultural Performances*

Anthropology

ANTH 10400	Cultural Anthropology
ANTH 34500	Life Stories: An Ethnographic Approach*

Art history

ARTH 13500	Visual Culture*
ARTH 13700	Visual Persuasion*
ARTH 25500	The Mediated Image*

History

HIST 27200

History of the Future*

Politics

POLT 10200	Media and Politics
POLT 34200	Liberalism and Marxism*
POLT 34300	Feminist Theory*

Sociology

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 *

Music

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

Health promotion and physical education

HPS 13000

Healthy Viewings: Media, Medicine, and Health

Sport management and media

SPMM 29500	Social Aspects of Sport*
SPMM 39400	Sport in Film and Literature*
	Total, media and cultural studies area of inquiry	21-22

*Course has prerequisite(s) that the student is responsible for meeting. (Note: Virtually all the prerequisites are minimal -- a specified number of courses in the liberal arts, class standing, etc.)

Organizational culture and technology area of inquiry

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 -- by examining 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 the examination of issues of organizational life, including the permeable boundary between organizations and society at large.

STCM 34000	Research and Evaluation in Communication Management and Design	3
STCM 45000	Communication and Learning Technologies: Theory, Application, and Policy	3

Choose one of the following courses:

COMP 10500	Introduction to Web Development*
COMP 11000	Computers and Information Technology Systems*
STCM 15000	Professional Applications of Technology*
RLS 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:

Strategic communication

STCM 25100	Organizational Communication, Culture, and Conflict
STCM 32000	Leadership Communication*
STCM 36000	Communication in Culturally Diverse Organizations*

Television-radio

TVR 32200

New Telecommunications Technologies*

Health promotion and physical education

HPS 14000	Cyborgs, Clones, and Policy: New Technologies in Health and Medicine
HPS 22500	Health Communication

Politics

POLT 10200

Media and Politics

Sociology

SOCI 21200	Sociology of Work*
SOCI 29300	Introduction to Social Institutions and Organizations*
SOCI 30100	Technology and Society*

Business

MGMT 20600	Organizational Behavior and Management*
MKTG 39100	Electronic Commerce: Legal Issues*
MGMT 46000	Seminar in Organizational Development and Change*
	Total, organizational culture and technology area of inquiry	21

*Course has prerequisite(s) that the student is responsible for meeting. (Note: Virtually all the prerequisites are minimal -- a specified number of courses in the liberal arts, class standing, etc.)

Visual and cinema studies area of inquiry

The visual and cinema studies 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 situate 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 looks at critical studies from the perspective of the humanities rather than from a social science perspective. It entails theory, history, and criticism courses from all five schools at Ithaca College.

CNPH 30100	Nonfiction Film Theory* or	3
CNPH 30000	Fiction Film Theory*	3

Choose six courses from the following, at least three at level 3 or above, and no more than three from any department:

Cinema, photography, and media arts

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*

Television-radio

TVR 33500	Electronic Media Criticism*
TVR 46000	Senior Seminar: Topics in Media Effects*

Art history

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*

English

ENGL 22500

Literary Modernism and the Visual Arts*

Philosophy and religion

PHIL 24000	Philosophy in Film*
PHIL 32600	Seminar in Aesthetics*

Theater arts

THPA 36400	Aesthetics and Criticism of Drama*
	Total, visual and cinema studies area of inquiry	21-22

*Course has prerequisites that student is responsible for meeting. (Note: Virtually all the prerequisites are minimal -- a specified number of courses in the liberal arts, class standing, etc.)

Completion of an outside field

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, and 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.

Minors

Requirements for the minor in communication studies

Level-1 and level-2 electives	9
Level -3 and level-4 electives	9
Total, minor in communication studies	18

Requirements for the minor in culture and communication

Core courses

CLTC 10000	Introduction to Culture and Communication	3
SPCM 12000	Communication, Culture, and Rhetoric	3

Visual and cinema studies

CNPH 10100

Introduction to Film Aesthetics and Analysis

3

Media and cultural studies

TVR 12100

Introduction to Mass Media

3

International and intercultural communication

TVR 22000

Global Flow of Information

3

Organizational culture and technology

STCM 20000

The Digital Workplace

3

Summary

	Core courses	6
	Areas of inquiry requirements	12
	One course at level 3 or above from the additional requirements for any of the listings in the four areas of inquiry in the culture and communication major	3
	Total, culture and communication minor	21

Requirements for the minor in health communication

STCM 11100	Presentation Media and Visual Design	3
SPCM 11000	Public Communication or
SPCM 11500	Business and Professional Communication	3
SPCM 22500	Health Communication or
HLTH 22600	Health Communication	3
HLTH 20500	Critical Health Issues	3

Human communication/practice

Select one course from the following:

STCM 10800	Human Communication in Organizations
SPCM 14000	Small Group Communication
SPCM 14900	Fundamentals of Interpersonal Communication
SPCM 15000	Introduction to Communication Theory
SPCM 21500	Argumentation and Debate
SPCM 31100	Advanced Public Communication
SPCM 35300	Language and Social Interaction	3

Health policy/analysis

Select one course from the following:

ECON 30400	Economics of Health Care
POLT 36500	The Politics of Health
PHIL 23000	Bioethics
SOCI 31400	Sociology of Health and Medicine
SOCI 31600	Women and Health
ANTH 48000	Medical Anthropology
HLTH 25000	International Health Issues
HLTH 30400	Economics of Health Care
HLTH 15200	Introduction to Health and Physical Education	3

Applications/technology

Select one course from the following:

STCM 15000	Professional Applications of Technology
HPS 35000	Communicating in Health Service Organizations
HLTH 31700	Community Health
HLTH 33000	Health Promotion in the Workplace
MKTG 31200	Principles of Marketing	3
	Total, health communication minor	21