Culture and Communication

Patricia R. Zimmermann, Professor and Coordinator

Major in Culture and Communication

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 Organizational Communication, Learning, 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/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.

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

Core Courses

377-xxxxx	Any level 1 composition course from 377-10600 through 377-16500 (except 377-10100;
	placement based on verbal SAT and a writing sample) (3)
319-11000	Public Communication (3)
721-10000	Introduction to Culture and Communication (3)
319-12000	Communication, Culture, and Rhetoric (3)
377-31800	Writing from Cultural Experience* (3) or
377-32000	Public Essay (3)
721-48000	Seminar in Culture and Communication (3)
	Total	18

Areas of Inquiry Foundation Courses (taken by all students)

International/Intercultural Communication

221-22000

Global Flow of Information (3)

Media and Cultural Studies

221-12100

Introduction to Mass Media (3)

Organizational Culture and Technology

225-20000

The Digital Workplace (3)

Visual and Cinema Studies

222-10100	Introduction to Film Aesthetics and Analysis (3)
	Total	12

Students select one of four areas of inquiry and complete its specific requirements:

International/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 Tiananmen Square to Times Square. The international/intercultural communication area of inquiry is a unique 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.

221-26200

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

221-32400	European Mass Media*
221-42600	Seminar in Geomedia*

Organizational Communication, Learning, and Design

225-36000

Communication in Culturally Diverse Organizations*

Health Policy Studies

640-11000	War, Hunger, and Genocide: An International Health Perspective
640-25000	International Health Issues*

Anthropology

339-22000	Southeast Asia: Its Peoples and Cultures*
339-22500	South Asia: India and Its Neighbors*
339-23500	Jewish Cultures: A World View*
339-24100	Modern Africa*
339-27000	North American Indians*
339-28500	Caribbean Cultures*
339-31000	Culture and Personality*

History

311-20300	Introductory Geography*
331-20900	Ethnic United States since the Civil War*
311-32000	The United States and the Third World*

Politics

310-12900	Introduction to Global Studies
310-32800	International Conflict*
310-32900	Third World Politics*

Religious Studies

344-20100	Religion and Culture*
344-20200	Religion and Society*

Sociology

331-11600	Introduction to Multicultural Studies
331-20700	Race and Ethnicity*
331-30300	Global Race and Ethnic Relations*

Speech Communication

319-33200	Folklore and Cultural Performances*
319-34700	Intercultural Communication*	18
	Total	21

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

319-32800

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

221-12200	Introduction to Media Aesthetics and Analysis
221-32200	New Telecommunication Technologies*
221-31200	Government and Media*
221-33500	Electronic Media Criticism*
221-38800	Alternative Media*
221-46000	Senior Seminar: Topics in Media Effects*

Cinema and Photography

222-21400	Hollywood and American Film (4)
222-30300	Images of Men and Women in Mass Media*

Speech Communication

319-33200

Folklore and Cultural Performances*

Anthropology

339-10400	Cultural Anthropology
339-34500	Life Stories: An Ethnographic Approach*

Art History

376-13500	Visual Culture*
376-13700	Visual Persuasion*
376-25500	The Mediated Image*

History

311-27200

History of the Future*

Politics

310-10200	Media and Politics
310-34200	Liberalism and Marxism*
310-34300	Feminist Theory*

Sociology

331-11600	Introduction to Multicultural Studies
331-13000	Youth and Youth Cultures*
331-20700	Race and Ethnicity*
331-21000	Women's Lives*
331-22800	Men's Lives*
331-32500	Race, Class, and Gender *

Music

555-13000	Music in Society
555-25100	Music and the Media
555-25600	Women in Popular Music: From Bessie Smith to MTV
555-25700	History of American Popular Song

Health Policy Studies

640-13000

Healthy Viewings: Media, Medicine, and Health

Sport Management and Media

667-29500	Social Aspects of Sport*
667-39400	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 -- either a specified number of courses in the liberal arts, or 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 -- 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.

225-34000	Research and Evaluation in Organizational Communication, Learning, and Design	3
225-45000	Communication and Learning Technologies: Theory, Application, and Policy	3
	Total	6

One of the following courses:

312-10500	Introduction to Web Development*
312-11000	Computers and Information Technology Systems*
225-15000	Professional Applications of Technology*
661-13900	Computer Applications in Recreation*
660-13900	Computer Applications in Physical Education*
662-13900	Computer Applications in Health Education*
663-13900	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:

Organizational Communication, Learning, and Design

225-25100	Organizational Communication, Culture, and Conflict
225-32000	Leadership Communication*
225-36000	Communication in Culturally Diverse Organizations*

Television-Radio

221-32200

New Telecommunications Technologies*

Health Policy Studies

640-14000	Cyborgs, Clones, and Policy: New Technologies in Health and Medicine
640-22500	Health Communication

Politics

310-10200

Media and Politics

Sociology

331-21200	Sociology of Work*
331-29300	Introduction to Social Institutions and Organizations*
331-30100	Technology and Society*

Business

882-20600	Organizational Behavior and Management*
884-39100	Electronic Commerce: Legal Issues*
882-46000	Seminar in Organizational Development and Change*	12
	Total	21

Visual and Cinema Studies Area of Inquiry

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.

222-30100	Nonfiction Film Theory* (3) or
222-30000	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:

Cinema & Photography

222-21400	Hollywood and American Film (4)
222-24000	History of Photography*
222-30300	Images of Men and Women in Mass Media*
222-44000	Contemporary Photographic Issues*

Television-Radio

221-33500	Electronic Media Criticism*
221-46000	Senior Seminar: Topics in Media Effects*

Art History

376-11000	Introduction to Art
376-11400	Architecture across Cultures
376-23300	Great Spaces: An Introduction to Urban Design*
376-25200	Twentieth-Century European Art*
376-28500	Art since 1960*
376-34100	Women Artists and Cultural Change*
376-34200	Images of Women in Western Art*

English

307-22500

Literary Modernism and the Visual Arts*

Philosophy

314-24000	Philosophy in Film*
314-32600	Seminar in Aesthetics*

Theater Arts

305-36400	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 -- either a specified number of courses in the liberal arts, or 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, or English, as well as various communication programs. Total credits in the minor or outside field must be 18 credits and may not include any courses selected for the major.

Culture and Communication Minor

Core Courses

721-10000	Introduction to Culture and Communication (3)
319-12000	Communication, Culture, and Rhetoric (3)	6

Visual and Cinema Studies

222-10100

Introduction to Film Aesthetics and Analysis (3)

3

Media and Cultural Studies

221-12100

Introduction to Mass Media (3)

3

International and Intercultural Communication

221-22000

Global Flow of Information (3)

3

Organizational Culture and Technology

225-20000	The Digital Workplace (3)	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