Communications

Provides an overview of the principles and purpose and practices of public relations. The history of the field will be explored along with present day messaging, tools and tactics utilized by PR professionals and entrepreneurs supporting projects and events in film, music, fashion, beauty, and otherentertainment industries. Areas of focus will include crisis communications, branding, and buzz generating strategies.

Credits: 3

Provides an overview of fundamental concepts and strategies necessary to build diverse audiences for a variety of arts experience. Topics include market research, audience segmentation, and application of the “4 P’s” of marketing strategy in an arts context. Students develop the knowledge and communication skills to conceive, develop and report a strategic plan to promote an arts event or business.

Credits: 3

PREREQ: AMG1100 Or COM1500

This course focuses on American traditions of art, looking at racial construction, class hierarchies, gender and representation, patronage and politics, as well as the impact of new technologies. Together we ask how did colonialism, notions of frontier, forced enslavement, ideas about domesticity, and other historical phenomena shape American conceptions of art and artists to 1914?

Credits: 4

Examining the intersections of visual culture, communications, and disability, this course reconsiders our basic concepts of communication, technology and culture; at the same time it also develops new understandings of disability and the technocultural environments in which it exists. Students explore critical accounts of disability, measuring them against theories of the visual, technology and communication.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: ARH1010 Or ARH1020 Or COM1500

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.

Credits: 4

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.

Credits: 4

The art of the spoken word is studied in many of its forms, including political speeches, story-based podcasts, and slam poetry. Students research and create concise stories; examine the role that rhythm, cadence, structure, and sound patterns play in creating a memorable performance; and then practice delivering the message for their intended audience. Uses and impacts for inspiring, informing, and persuading are considered.

Credits: 2

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.

Credits: 4

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.

Credits: 3

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.

Credits: 4

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.

Credits: 4

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.

Credits: 4

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.

Credits: 4

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.

Credits: 4

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.

Credits: 4

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.

Credits: 4

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.

Credits: 3

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.

Credits: 4

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.

Credits: 4

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.

Credits: 4

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.

Credits: 3

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.

Credits: 4

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 sharpened.

Credits: 4

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.

Credits: 4

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.

Credits: 3

PREREQ: COM2050 Or CMS2050

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.

Credits: 3

Provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the fundamentals needed to build an integrated marketing communications plan, from creating a common objective, aligning strategies, and producing a consistent message. By strategically aligning various marketing functions and leveraging each disciplines strength’s, (i.e. paid advertising, public relations, social media, point of purchase and digital marketing), students can more purposefully design campaigns for maximum impact.

Credits: 3

Knowing how to get work done through meetings is an increasingly important skill set. Students explore the discursive strategies used in a variety of multicultural business meetings, both face-to-face and virtual. Using communication methods, students analyze why some meetings are considered productive and others not so much, as well as the roles, relationships, conflict, and written documentation enacted therein.

Credits: 2

After reviewing basic presentation skills and techniques, student gain experience handling digital devices to record presentations of themselves and others. Providing hands-on instruction and practice for conducting and recording professional presentations and interviews (still frame and in motion), the course also covers essential production elements: shooting and editing, interviewing and selecting sound bites, and writing and voicing.

Credits: 2

Learn how to write, edit, punch up and perform your own unique standup comedy piece. The course will focus on creating comedic stories, joke construction and performance techniques. An essential part of being successful is learning to give and receive feedback. The class will provide a safe, non-judgmental environment where feedback can be shared and everyone can continuously improve.

Credits: 2

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.

Credits: 4

Hands-on work in the TV studio from conceptualization to post-production. In small groups, students will gain a practical understanding of writing, camera work, editing and working with on-camera personalities. The course will be structured as follows: demonstrating skillful use of equipment, enacting production techniques, and coordinating shooting logistics.

Credits: 3

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.

Credits: 3

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.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: WRI1110 Or WRI2110 Or Or

Explore how history is produced and represented in various media, including documentary film, podcasts, Twitter, blogs and other forms of professional writing. In addition to learning from real-world examples, gain experience analyzing and constructing compelling historical narratives for broad audiences, including researching, writing, producing, recording, and editing a history-based podcast or other multimedia project.

Credits: 4

This hands-on course invites students to transform oral histories into captivating digital projects. From archiving and transcribing interviews to producing video and audio clips, podcasts, and interactive maps, participants will learn the art of narrative production. Students work on uncovering the past and the present by amplifying voices, and creating a lasting legacy through the lens of modern technology.

Credits: 4

Building on the foundations of JOU 2515 and 2915, this hands-on course enables students to make the transition from reporting for print and online publications to reporting for radio and television news broadcasts. Students gain experience shooting, writing, and editing television news stories and are introduced to the basics of live television studio production. Recommended prior course: JOU 3500.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: JOU2515 Or COM1400

Building on skills developed in COM3375 Podcasting and Audio Storytelling, students will create longer audio reporting projects with more complex structures. Focus will be on audio documentary and nonfiction narrative storytelling and production.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: COM3375

An introduction to issues and developments in multimedia journalism. Students critique and create stories for publication online, learning how to assemble story packages that combine media elements, including text, video, audio, and images. Includes some exploration of the use of social media and other techniques to promote stories. May be taken concurrently with JOU 2515 or 2915. Completion of JOU 3500 is strongly recommended before taking JOU 3160.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: JOU2515

Building on skills from Multimedia Tools, students approach video in a photojournalistic style. They learn to identify interesting characters with remarkable stories. In nonnarrative video storytelling—where students capture vérité scenes and create cinematic sequences—the focus is on having people tell their stories in their own words. This personal approach allows the viewer to relate and to emotionally engage.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: JOU3500 Or JOU3160

How do we create meaningful writing for an online readership that scrolls quickly and relies less on the printed page than any other generation? Students will write essays, features, and criticism and identify online publications that suit each project, while guest lecturers offer insight on engaging social media to share reported stories. Students co-edit Expose, Purchase's online expository writing magazine.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: WRI1110