Communication

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Courses

For course descriptions not found in the UC San Diego General Catalog, 2012–13, please contact the department for more information.

Lower Division

Core Requirement

COMM 10. Introduction to Communication (4)

Introduction to the history, theory, and practice of communication, including language and literacy, representation and semiotics, mediated technologies and institutional formations, and social interaction. Integrates the study of communication with a range of media production (for example, writing, electronic media, film, performance). Students will not receive credit for COGN 20 and COMM 10. Course is offered fall, winter, and spring quarters.

Other

COGN 87. Freshman Seminar (1)

The Freshman Seminar Program is designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small seminar setting. Freshman seminars are offered in all campus departments and undergraduate colleges, and topics vary from quarter to quarter. Enrollment is limited to fifteen to twenty students, with preference given to entering freshmen. Prerequisites: none.

Upper Division

Core Requirements

COMM 100A. Situated Practices (4)

A critical introduction to processes of interaction and engagement in lived and built environments. Includes historical survey of theories/methods, including actor network theory, conversation analysis, ethnography, ethnomethodology, cultural linguistics, performance, and social cognition; and integrates scholarly study with production-oriented engagement. Students will not receive credit for COHI 100 and COMM 100A. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 100B. Interpretive Strategies (4)

A critical introduction to the practice and the effects of representation within historically situated cultural contexts. Surveys a range of theories/methods in interpretations and identity to understand the effects of these practices upon the form and content of various representational genres, and integrates scholarly study with production-oriented engagement. Students will not receive credit for COCU 100 and COMM 100B. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 100C. Social Formations (4)

A critical introduction to structures of communication formed across the intersections of the state, economy, and civil society. Includes historical survey of communication industries, legal and policy-based arenas, civic and political organizations, and other social institutions; and integrates scholarly study with production-oriented engagement. Students will not receive credit for COSF 100 and COMM 100C. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 190. Junior Seminar in Communication (4)

The junior seminar entails a detailed examination of a specific topic from the field of communication, exploring in greater depth theories and methods introduced in the core communication curriculum. Seminars are limited to thirty students, with a heavy focus on class participation. Students complete a research project with a significant final product (typically a research paper). Prerequisites: Junior standing.

Intermediate Level Courses

COMM 101. Media Production Lab (MPL)

COMM 101D. MPL: Nonlinear/Digital Editing (4)

Prepare students to edit on nonlinear editing facilities and introduce aesthetic theories of editing: time code editing, time line editing on the Media 100, digital storage and digitization of audio and video, compression, resolution, and draft mode editing. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 101E. MPL: Ethnographic Methods for Media Production (4)

This is a practical course on ethnographic fieldwork—obtaining informed consent interviewing, negotiating, formulating a research topic, finding relevant literature, writing a research paper, and assisting others with their research. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 101K. MPL: Documentary Sketchbook (4)

Digital video is the medium used in this class both as a production technology and as a device to explore the theory and practice of documentary production. Technical demonstrations, lectures, production exercises, and readings will emphasize the interrelation between production values and ethics, problems of representation, and documentary history. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 101M. MPL: Communication and Computers (4)

This course introduces students to computers as media of communication. Each quarter students participate in a variety of networking activities designed to show the interactive potential of the medium. Fieldwork designed to teach basic methods is combined with readings designed to build a deeper theoretical understanding of computer-based communication. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 101N. MPL: Sound Production and Manipulation (4)

Advanced seminar in sound production, design, editing. Students create projects by recording original sounds, editing on a Pro-Tools system. We consider the potential of sound in film, radio, TV, and the web by reviewing work and reading sound theory. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 102. Methods of Media Production Practicum (MMPP)

COMM 102C. MMPP: Media and Design of Social Learning Contexts (6)

A combined lecture/lab course cross-listed in the Department of Communication, and Human Development. Students attend lecture, write field notes, and spend three hours per week in specially designed after-school settings working with children and designing new educational media and producing special projects. Students will not receive credit for COMT 115 and COMM 102C. Prerequisites: COMM 100A or HDP 1.

COMM 102D. MMPP: Practicum in Child Development (6)

A combined lecture and laboratory course for students in Human Development and the Department of Communication. Students should have a background in communication or human development. Students will be expected to spend four hours per week in a supervised practical after-school setting at one of the community field sites involving children. Additional time will be devoted to readings and class prep, as well as six hours a week transcribing field notes and writing a paper on some aspect of the field. Students will not receive credit for COMT 116 and COMM 102D. Prerequisites: COMM 100A or HDP 1.

COMM 102M. MMPP: Studio Television (6)

This course offers students the opportunity to produce and engage in critical discussions around various television production formats. We will study and produce a variety of projects, including public service announcements, panel programs, scripted drama, and performance productions. Students will not receive credit for COMT 104 and COMM 102M. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 102P. MMPP: Television Analysis and Production (6)

An introduction to the techniques and conventions common in television production with equal emphasis on method and content. Studio sessions provide students with opportunities to experiment in framing subject matter through a variety of cinematographic methods. Students will not receive credit for COMT 101 and COMM 102T. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 102T. MMPP: Television Documentary (6)

An advanced television course that examines the history, form, and function of the television documentary in American society. Experimentation with documentary techniques and styles requires prior knowledge of television or film production. Laboratory sessions apply theory and methods in the documentary genre via technological process. Integrates research, studio, and field experience of various media components. Students will not receive credit for COMT 103 and COMM 102T. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 103. Communication and Media (CM)

COMM 103D. CM: Documentary History and Theory (4)

History of nonfiction film and video. Through film and written texts we survey the nonfiction film genre, considering technological innovations, ethical issues, and formal movements related to these representations of the “real.” Students write a research paper in lieu of a final. Students will not receive credit for COCU 124 and COMM 103D. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 103E. CM: History of Electronic Media (4)

This course considers the social, cultural, economic, and technological contexts that have shaped electronic media, from the emergence of radio and television to their convergence through the Internet, and how these pervasive forms of audiovisual culture have impacted American society. Students will not receive credit for COSF 130 and COMM 103E. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 103F. CM: How to Read a Film (4)

This course increases our awareness of the ways we interpret or make understanding from movies to enrich and increase the means by which one can enjoy and comprehend movies. We will talk about movies and explore a range of methods and approaches to film interpretation. Readings will emphasize major and diverse theorists, including Bazin, Eisenstein, Cavell, and Mulvey. Students will not receive credit for COCU 125 and COMM 103F. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 104. Comparative Media Systems (CMS)

COMM 104D. CMS: Asia (4)

The development of media systems in Asia, focusing on India and China. Debates over nationalism, regionalism, globalization, new technologies, identity politics, censorship, privatization, and media piracy. Alignments and differences with North American and European media systems will also be considered. Students will not receive credit for COSF 140A and COMM 104D. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 104E. CMS: Europe (4)

The development of media systems and policies in Europe. Differences between European and American journalism. Debates over the commercialization of television. The role of media in postcommunist societies in Eastern Europe. Students will not receive credit for COSF 140B and COMM 104E. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 104F. CMS: Africa (4)

This course will critically examine the role of the mass media in sub-Saharan Africa in the areas of colonial rule, nationalist struggles, authoritarianism, and popular movements. It will examine general trends regionally and internationally, as well as individual national cases, from the early twentieth century to the Internet news services of the information age. Students will not receive credit for COSF 184 and COMM 104F. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 104G. CMS: Latin America and the Caribbean (4)

The development of media systems and policies in Latin America and the Caribbean. Debates over dependency and cultural imperialism. The news media and the process of democratization. Development of the regional television industry. Students will not receive credit for COSF 140C and COMM 104G. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 104M. CMS: Middle East (4)

The conflict between the state of Israel and the group of people known as Palestinians is arguably the most intractable conflict in the world today. This course is a critical engagement with debates about this conflict, and the different representations of these debates. Students will not receive credit for COSF 188 and COMM 104M. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 104XL. CMS: Foreign Language Discussion (1)

Students will exercise advanced foreign language skills to discuss materials and the correspondingly numbered Department of Communication language foreign area course. This section is taught by the course instructor, has no final exam, and does not affect the grade in the core course. Students will not receive credit for COSF 140CX and COMM 104XL. Prerequisites: concurrent enrollment in COMM 104G, CMS: Latin America and the Caribbean.

COMM 105. Communication Technologies (CT)

COMM 105G. CT: Computer Games Studies (4)

Course considers computer games both as media and as sites of communication. Games are studied through hands-on play and texts from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Course encompasses commercial, academic, and independent games. Students will not receive credit for COCU 177 and COMM 105G. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 105M. CT: Mobile Communication (4)

Movement is central to our lives. This course draws on the latest research into how we travel, trade, and move. Diverse topics will be covered, including kids in cars, the New York subway, and theories of mobility. Students will not receive credit for COHI 128 and COMM 105M. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 105T. CT: Telecommunications (4)

This course provides a sustained historical focus on the developing social form and industry structure of US telecommunications, beginning with the post office. Policy issues are regularly incorporated into readings and discussions. Emphasis is placed on the emergence, around the turn of the century, of the regulated national telephone network system dominated by AT&T and its extension. Students will not receive credit for COSF 141 and COMM 105T. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 106. Cultural Industries (CI)

COMM 106F. CI: Film Industry (4)

A study of the social organization of the film industry throughout its history. Who makes films, by what criteria, and for what audience. The changing relationships between studios, producers, directors, writers, actors, editors, censors, distributors, audience, and subject matter of the films will be explored. Students will not receive credit for COSF 186 and COMM 106F. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 106G. CI: Tourism: Global Industry and Cultural Form (4)

The largest industry in the world has far-reaching cultural ramifications. We will explore tourism’s history and its contemporary cultural effects, taking the perspective of the “toured” as well as that of the tourist. Students will not receive credit for COCU 130 and COMM 106G. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 106I. CI: Internet Industry (4)

The political economy of the emergent Internet industry, charted through analysis of its hardware, software, and services components. The course specifies leading trends and changing institutional outcomes by relating the Internet industry to the adjoining media, telecommunications, and computer industries. Students will not receive credit for COSF 127 and COMM 106I. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 106T. CI: Television Culture and the Public (4)

How and what does television communicate? Emphasis will be on contemporary US television programming, placed in comparative and historical context. Special topics may include: TV genres, TV and politics, TV and other media. Frequent in-class screenings. Students will not receive credit for COCU 140 and COMM 106T. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 107. Visual Culture (4)

How visual images contribute to our understanding of the world and ourselves. Theoretical approaches from media studies, art history, gender studies, and social theory will be used to analyze cultures of science, art, mass media, and everyday life. Students will not receive credit for COCU 108 and COMM 107. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 108. Politics of Bodies (POB)

COMM 108D. POB: Disability (4)

Cultural and historical ways of defining and understanding disability relative to communication and assistive technologies, including the impact of digital technologies and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Course use of audiovisual texts and writings from fields including science and technology studies, and cultural studies. Students will not receive credit for COCU 141C and COMM 108D. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 108E. POB: Embodiment in Theory and Practice (4)

This course will explore the construction of gendered bodies and gendered sexuality in postindustrial culture(s) through political, historical, and media analysis. Topics may include abortion, eating disorders, body modification, work and consumption, AIDS, and genetic engineering. Students will not receive credit for COCU 137 and COMM 108E. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 108G. POB: Gender and Biomedicine (4)

Historical and cultural aspects of media, information, imaging technology use in biomedical research, clinical care, health communication to constructions of gender and identity. We approach the subject through audiovisual texts and writings from fields including science and technology studies and cultural studies. Students will not receive credit for COCU 141B and COMM 108G. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 109. Mass Communication (MC)

COMM 109D. MC: Advertising and Society (4)

Advertising in historical and cross-cultural perspectives. Ideology and organization of the advertising industry; meaning of material goods; gifts in capitalist, socialist, and nonindustrial societies; natures of needs, desires, and whether advertising creates needs, desires; and approaches to decoding the advertising messages. Students will not receive credit for COCU 170 and COMM 109D. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 109E. MC: Political Economy of Mass Communication (4)

The social, legal, and economic forces affecting the evolution of mass communications institutions and structure in the industrialized world. The character and the dynamics of mass communications in the United States today. Students will not receive credit for COSF 180 and COMM 109E. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 109N. MC: American News Media (4)

History, politics, social organization, and ideology of the American news media. Surveys of the development of the news media as an institution, from earliest new newspapers to modern mass news media. Students will not receive credit for COSF 171A and COMM 109N, Prerequisites: SOCI 1 or COMM 10.

COMM 109P. MC: Propaganda and Persuasion (4)

Propaganda, in political-economic, national settings; Soviet Union; Nazi Germany; US World War I and II. Propaganda films, contribution of filmmakers to propaganda campaign. Explore issues in propaganda; persuasive communication; political propaganda; persuasive advertising; public relations; practical, ethical perspectives. Students will not receive credit for COSF 143 and COMM 109P. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 110. Language, Literacy, and Communication (LLC)

COMM 110E. LLC: Learning to Read (4)

This course explores learning to read as a process involving individual, cultural, and social resources. Reading difficulty is understood as induced by lack of resources, such as access to books or access to strategies for decoding; comprehension; and analysis of written text. Activities of reading are taken as a basic context for understanding patterns of chronic and pervasive reading difficulty in their populations. Students will not receive credit for COHI 119 and COMM 110E. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 110G. LLC: Communication in Organizations (4)

Organizations are analyzed as historically evolving discursive systems of activity mediated by talk, text, and artifacts. The class covers sense making, coordinating, symbolizing, talking, negotiating, reading and writing, storytelling, joking, and visualizing in organizations. Exemplary case studies, employing several complementary theoretical frameworks, are used to analyze these communicative processes. Students will not receive credit for COHI 125 and COMM 110G. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 110I. LLC: Social Organization and the Individual (4)

Course examines the historical growth of literacy, interrelation between literate technology and social organization, and the impact of literacy on individuals. Examines questions on impediments to teaching reading/writing skills to normal children in technological societies and relation between literacy/national development in Third World countries. Students will not receive credit for COHI 121 and COMM 110I. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 110M. LLC: Communication and Community (4)

This course examines forms of communication that affect people’s everyday lives. Focusing on ways that ethnic communities transmit and acquire information and interact with mainstream institutions, we examine a variety of alternative local media, including murals, graffiti, newsletters, and community radio. Students will not receive credit for COHI 122 and COM 110M. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 110P. LLC: Language and Human Communication (4)

This course examines the interaction of language and culture in human communication. Beginning with language evolution, the course then discusses a broad range of human languages, including indigenous languages, sign languages, and hybrid languages spoken in urban centers. Students will not receive credit for COHI 134 and COMM 110P. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 110T. LLC: Language, Thought and Media (4)

This course examines the ways in which various communicative channels mediate human action and thought. A basic premise of the course is that human thought is shaped in important ways by the communicative devices used to communicate. There is a particular emphasis on how thought develops, both historically and in the individual. Students will not receive credit for COHI 117 and COMM 110T. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 111. Communication and Cultural Production(CCP)

COMM 111F. CCP: Folklore and Communication (4)

Folklore is characterized by particular styles, forms, and settings. Course introduces a range of folklore genres from different cultures, historical periods, oral narrative, material folk arts, dramas, rituals. Study of the relationship between expressive form and social context. Students will not receive credit for COCU 127 and COMM 111F. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 111G. CCP: Popular Culture (4)

An overview of the historical development of popular culture from the early modern period to the present. Also a review of major theories explaining how popular culture reflects and/or affects patterns of social behavior. Students will not receive credit for COCU 162 and COMM 111G. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 111M. CCP: Popular Music, Social Practice, and Cultural Politics (4)

Focuses on popular music as a social, aesthetic, historical, political formation. Relationship between musical and extramusical forces (institutions, communities, industries, identities) will be examined. Music making, hearing, performance will be engaged as sites of expressive practice, cultural politics, social identity. Students will not receive credit for COCU 183 and COMM 111M. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 111N. CCP: Cartoons (4)

This class relates cartoon programming for children to the history of Western childhood and the contemporary American culture of the child. While other classes may deal with the effects of television on children, this one is designed to encourage students to review the long-standing Western traditions of hope and fear associated with children that shape these concerns. Students will not receive credit for COCU 166 and COMM 111N. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 111P. CCP: Performance and Cultural Studies (4)

Explores performance as a range of aesthetic conventions (theatre, film, performance art) and as a mode of experiencing and conveying cultural identity. Texts include critical writing from anthropology, psychology, linguistics, media studies, as well as film/video, play scripts, live performance. Students will not receive credit for COCU 160 and COMM 111P. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 111T. CCP: Cultural Politics of Sport (4)

Examine sports as play, performance, competition, an arena where there are politics, culture, power, identity struggles. Establishing the social meanings of sport, we address ethics, race, class, nation, gender, body, science, technology, entertainment industries, commerce, spectatorship, consumption, amateurism, professionalism. Students will not receive credit for COCU 172 and COMM 111T.  Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 111W. CCP: Politics of World Music (4)

What is “world music”? How, where, and why did it come into being? Is it a naturally occurring category of music? What makes it distinct from other music? We critically examine history of world music, analyzing how it is produced, circulated, and consumed. Students will not receive credit for COSF 183 and COMM 111W. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 112. Interaction and Mediation (IM)

COMM 112G. IM: Language and Globalization (4)

The interaction of language and culture in human communication. New and old languages, standard and dialect, dominant and endangered are the special focus. Selected languages as examples of how languages exist in contemporary contexts. Students will not receive credit for COHI 135 and COMM 112G. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 112M. IM: Communication and Social Machines (4)

An examination of the questions that developments in robotics pose to the scholars of communication: How do we communicate when our interlocutors are nonhumans? How do we study objects that are claimed to be endowed with social and affective character? Students will not receive credit for COHI 113 and COMM 112M. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 112T. IM: Interaction with Technology (4)

In this class we will look closely at the everyday ways in which we interact with technology to discuss sociocultural character of objects, built environments; situated, distributed, and embodied character of knowledges; use of multimodal semiotic resources, talk, gesture, body orientation, gaze in interaction with technology. Students will not receive credit for COHI 112 and COMM 112T. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 114. Communication and Social Institutions (CSI)

COMM 114E. CSI: Gender, Labor, and Culture in the Global Economy (4)

This course introduces students to different theories of globalization and of gender. Against this theoretical background, students critically examine the gendered (and racialized) nature of labor in the production of material, social, and cultural goods in the global economy. Students will not receive credit for COSF 185 and COMM 114E. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 114F. CSI: Law, Communication, and Freedom of Expression (4)

Examination of the legal framework of freedom of expression in U.S. Covers fundamentals of First Amendment law studying key cases in historical content. Prior restraint, incitement, obscenity, libel, fighting words, public forum, campaign finance, commercial speech, and hate speech are covered. Students will not receive credit for COSF 139A, COSF 139, COSF 139B and COMM 114F. Prerequisites: COMM 10 or DOC 2 or POLI 40.

COMM 114G. CSI: Gender and Science (4)

This course will focus on arguments about cognitive differences between men and women in science. We will review current arguments about essential differences, historical beliefs about gender attributes and cognitive ability, and gender socialization into patterns of learning in school. Students will not receive credit for COHI 136 and COMM 114G. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

COMM 114P. CSI: Public History and Museum Studies (4)

This course will explore the role that “public history”—history as created for general audiences—plays in communicating cultural and national identities by examining museum exhibitions, their controversies, and how material objects mediate interpretations of the past. Students will not receive credit for COCU 129 and COMM 114P. Prerequisites: COMM 10.

Advanced Level Courses

COMM 120. Advanced Media Production (AMP)

COMM 120I. AMP: Social Issues in Media Production (4)

Analyze forms of social issue media production, photography, audio/radio, arts, crafts, web, print zines, political documentary. Students work with several forms of media making: video, audio, web design, and a project in their chosen format. Students will not receive credit for COMT 122 and COMM 120I. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two of COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 120M. AMP: Media Stereotypes (4)

An examination of how the media present society’s members and activities in stereotypical formats. Reasons for and consequences of this presentation are examined. Student responsibilities will be (a) participation in measurement and analysis of stereotype presentations. (b) investigating techniques for assessing both cognitive and behavioral effects of such scripted presentations on the users of media. Students will not receive credit for COMT 105 and COMM 120M. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two of COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 120N. AMP: News Media Workshop (4)

Designed for students working in student news organizations or off-campus internships or jobs in news, public relations, or public information. A workshop in news writing and news analysis. Students will not receive credit for COMT 110 and COMM 120N. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 120P. AMP: Digital Media Pedagogy (4)

This course develops critical understanding of educational uses of digital media through firsthand experience in public educational settings, and readings/discussions of challenges, benefits, and pitfalls of educational applications of media technology. Three hours/week of fieldwork required. Students will not receive credit for COMT 109 and COMM 120. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 120W. AMP: Writing for Digital Media (4)

Practice, history, and theory of writing for digital media. Text combines with images, sounds, movement, and interaction. New network technologies (e-mail, blogs, wikis, and virtual worlds) create new audience relationships. Computational processes enable texts that are dynamically configured and more. Students will not receive credit for COMT 108 and COMM 120W. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 121. Practicum in Communication (4)

This is a small hands-on class about how to represent an academic communication department to a wider community. Students create quarterly electronic newsletters and special events. Selected readings on the entrepreneurial university and communication are required. Students will not receive credit for COMT 125 and COMM 121. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 125. Transparent Society (4)

How have politics, media, and society made visible features of life that were once hidden? From the women’s health movement to gay liberation to laws requiring public disclosure, frankness challenges civility, privacy, and taste. How can this be understood? Students will not receive credit for COSF 173 and COMM 125. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 126. Children and Media (4)

A course that analyzes the influence of media on children’s behavior and thought processes. The course takes a historical perspective, beginning with children’s print literature, encompassing movies, music, television, and computers. Students will study specific examples of media products intended for children and apply various analytic techniques, including content analysis and experimentation to these materials. Students will not receive credit for COHI 123 and COMM 126. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 127. Problem of Voice (4)

This course will explore the problem of self-expression for members of various ethnic and cultural groups. Of special interest is how writers find ways of describing themselves in the face of others’ sometimes overwhelming predilection to describe them. Students will not receive credit for COCU 120 and COMM 127. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 128. Education and Global Citizenship (4)

Concepts, possibilities, and dilemmas inherent in the notion of global citizenship. Formulate goals and instructional strategies for global education, expected competence of individuals within society. Examine roles that communication and curriculum play in the formation of identity, language use, and civic responsibility of global citizens. Students will not receive credit for COHI 115 and COMM 128. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 129. Race, Nation, and Violence in Multicultural California (4)

How does media representation of race, nation, and violence work? Taking multicultural California as our site, we will explore how social power is embedded in a variety of visual texts, and how media not only represents but also reproduces conflict. Students will not receive credit for COCU 164 and COMM 129. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 131. Communication, Dissent, and the Formation of Social Movements (4)

Emergence of dissent in different societies, and relationship of dissent to movements of protest and social change. Movements studied include media concentration, antiwar, antiglobalization, death penalty, national liberation, and labor. Survey of dissenting voices seeking to explain the relationship of ideas to collective action and outcomes. Students will not receive credit for COSF 123 and COMM 131. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 132. Advanced Studies in Communication, Politics, and Society (4)

Specialized study of communication, politics, and society with topics to be determined by the instructor for any given quarter. May be repeated for credit three times. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 133. Television and Citizenship (4)

Television is a contested site for negotiating the rationales of inclusion and exclusion associated with citizenship and national belonging. Historical and contemporary case studies within international comparative contexts consider regulation, civil rights, cultural difference, social movements, new technologies, and globalization. Students will not receive credit for COSF 129 and COMM 133. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 137. Black Women Filmmakers (4)

Students examine film and video media produced by black women filmmakers worldwide. This course will use readings from the writings of the filmmakers themselves as well as from film studies, women’s studies, literature, sociology, and history. Students will not receive credit for COCU 123 and COMM 137. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 138. Black Women, Feminism, and Media (4)

This course examines the challenges that arise in using feminist theory to understand black women’s experience in Africa and the United States. It also looks at the mass media and popular culture as arenas of black feminist struggle. Students will not receive credit for COSF 124 and COMM 138. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 139. Black Popular Music (4)

Examine black popular music as social practice, as cultural product, and historically. African American musical expressions, discussions of race and intercultural exchange, power, social change, sound and identity, music industry, black performance. Music making, hearing, performance are examined. Students will not receive credit for COCU 182 and COMM 139. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 140. Cinema in Latin America (4)

Analysis of the changing content and sociopolitical role in Latin America of contemporary media, including the “new cinema” movement, recent developments in film, and popular television programming, including the telenovela. Examples drawn from Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, and other countries. Students will not receive credit for COCU 110 and COMM 140. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 141. African Cinema (4)

History, theory, and aesthetics of African cinema developed by selected filmmakers from the continent. Through film screenings and a wide range of readings, students will discuss such topics as cinema and national identity, cinema and social change, and Hollywood dominance. Students will not receive credit for COCU 126 and COMM 141. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 142. Cuban Cinema (4)

Overview of the Cuban Revolution (1959–2000) and cultural policies through the study of its film production, as a cultural industry and representational style. Cuban film in context of domestic and international events, particularly treatment of race and gender dynamics. Students will not receive credit for COCU 131 and COMM 142. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 143. Science Fiction (4)

Focuses on science fiction’s critical investigation of history, identity, and society across a range of media forms, including film, television, and literature. Students will not receive credit for COSF 133 and COMM 143. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 144. American Television in the 1970s (4)

Course will explore the politics and culture of the 1970s through the lens of network television programming and the decade’s most provocative sitcoms, dramas, variety shows, and news features. Students will analyze television episodes and read relevant media studies scholarship. Students will not receive credit for COCU 178 and COMM 144. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 145. History, Memory, and Popular Culture (4)

What role does popular culture play in shaping and creating our shared memory of the past? The course examines diverse sources such as school textbooks, monuments, holidays and commemorations, museums, films, music, and tourist attractions. Students will not receive credit for COCU 165 and COMM 145. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 146. Advanced Studies in Cultural Production (4)

Specialized advanced study in cultural production with topics to be determined by the instructor for any given quarter. May be repeated for credit three times. Students will not receive credit for COCU 175 and COMM 146. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 151. The Information Age: Fact and Fiction (4)

Analysis of the forces propelling the Information Age. An examination of the differential benefits and costs, and a discussion of the presentation in the general media of the Information Age. Students will not receive credit for COSF 126 and COMM 151. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 152. Global Economy and Consumer Culture (4) 

This course critically examines social and economic forces that shape the making of this new global consumer culture by following the flows of consumption and production between the “developed” and “developing” worlds in the 1990s. We will consider how consumers, workers, and citizens participate in a new globalized consumer culture that challenges older distinctions between the “First” and the “Third World.” In this course, we will focus on the flows between the U.S., Asia, Latin America. Students will not receive credit for COSF 160 and COMM 152. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 153. Architecture as Communication (4)

This course examines how buildings, cities, towns, gardens, neighborhoods, roads, bridges, and other bits of infrastructure communicate. We consider both the materiality and language like properties of physical things in order to understand how built environments are represented, experienced, and remembered. Students will not receive credit for COCU 181 and COMM 153. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 155. Latino Space, Place, and Culture (4)

Develop a critical understanding of the history, politics, and poetics of the Latino barrio as a distinct urban form. Course covers key concepts such as the production of space, landscapes of power, spatial apartheid, everyday urbanism, urban renewal and gentrification. Students will not receive credit for COCU 168 and COMM 155. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 156. Colonialism and Communication (4)

This course examines colonial narratives, slave accounts, essays, and stories by both colonizers and colonized. It also explores the issue of nationalism in determining the limits of colonialism among minority groups in the United States and in the Third World. Students will not receive credit for COCU 179 and COMM 156. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 157. Borderlands (4)

Communicative and identity aspects of “marginality”—belonging to more than one race, community, or nationality, and on the literature about insiders and outsiders. Considers contemporary race-critical and feminist theory, including cyborg anthropology, the historical concept of race in America, and the problematics of multiple memberships of various sorts. Students will not receive credit for COHI 129 and COMM 157. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 160. Political Economy and International Communication (4)

The character and forms of international communications. Emerging structures of international communications. The United States as the foremost international communicator. Differential impacts of the free flow of information and the unequal roles and needs of developed and developing economies in international communications. Students will not receive credit for COSF 181 and COMM 160. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 162. Advanced Studies in Cultural Industries (4)

We examine how people interact with products of popular culture, production of cultural goods by looking at conditions in cultural industries. We examine film, music, publishing, focusing on how production is organized, what kind of working conditions arise, how products are distributed. Students will not receive credit for COSF 128 and COMM 162. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 163. Concepts of Freedom (4)

This course examines some of the changing cultural, social, technological, and political meanings; practices; and aspirations that together constitute what is and has been called freedom. Students will not receive credit for COCU 136 and COMM 163. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 166. Surveillance, Mediation, and the Risk Society (4)

Contributions of the field of communication to the study of surveillance and risk. Critical and legal perspectives on consumer research, copyright enforcement, the surveillance capacity of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), closed-circuit television, interactive media, and the “rhetorics of surveillance” in television and film. Students will not receive credit for COSF 182 and COMM 166. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 167. Reproductive Discourse and Gender (4)

This course examines the controversies surrounding the development and use of the new technologies of human genetics and reproduction. Of particular interest is the way in which these new practices challenge traditional understanding of “human nature” while enforcing traditional understandings of gender. Students will not receive credit for COCU 139 and COMM 167. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 168. Bilingual Communication (4)

This course is designed to introduce students to multiple settings where bilingualism is the mode of communication. Examination of how such settings are socially constructed and culturally based. Language policy, bilingual education, and linguistic minorities, as well as field activities included. Students will not receive credit for COHI 114 and COMM 168. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 169. Deaf Culture in the U.S. (4)

The relationship between small groups and dominant culture is studied by exploring the world of deaf people who have for the past twenty years begun to speak as a cultural group. Issues of language, communication, self-representation, and social structure are examined. Students will not receive credit for COHI 124 and COMM 169. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 170. Biography and Life Stories (4)

Course examines several different ways of telling stories as a form of communication: our own life and about the lives of others. There are also the occasions that the life stories of ordinary people are told at and celebrated, for example, funerals, Festschrifts, retirement dinners, fiftieth-anniversary parties, and retrospective art shows. Students will not receive credit for COHI 127 and COMM 170. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 171. Environmental Communication (4)

Survey of the communication practices found in environment controversies. The sociological aspects of environmental issues will provide background for the investigation of environmental disputes in particular contested areas, such as scientific institutions, communities, workplaces, governments, popular culture, and the media. Students will not receive credit for COCU 148 and COMM 171. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 175. Cultures of Consumption (4)

This course examines the cultural politics of consumption across time and cultures through several concepts: commodity fetishism; conspicuous consumption; taste; class; and identity formation; consumption’s psychological, phenomenological, and poetic dimensions; and contemporary manifestations of globalization and consumer activism. Students will not receive credit for COCU 145 and COMM 175. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 176. Communication and Religion (4)

The secularization thesis—that as society becomes more modern and standards of living rise, the importance of religion will diminish and be confined to the private sphere—may be wrong. We address religion, communication, culture, and politics in the United States. Students will not receive credit for COSF 135 and COMM 176. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 177. Culture, Domination, and Resistance (4)

Explores theories and narratives of cultural power, contemporary practices of resistance. Texts from a wide range of disciplines consider how domination is enacted, enforced, and what modes of resistance are employed to contend with uses and abuses of political power. Students will not receive credit for COCU 169 and COMM 177. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 179. Global Nature/Global Culture (4)

Considers globalization’s impact on concepts of nature in and through media texts, information systems, circulation of consumer goods and services, the emergence of global brands, science, health initiatives, environmental media activism, technology transfer in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Students will not receive credit for COCU 141A and COMM 179. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

COMM 180. Advanced Studies in Communication Theory (4)

How are messages created, transmitted, and received? What is the relationship between thinking and communicating? How are linguistic processes embedded in sociocultural practices? Course discusses classic texts in the field of communication theory stemming from linguistics, semiotics, philosophy of language, literary theory. Students will not receive credit for COHI 137 and COMM 180. Prerequisites: COMM 10 and two from COMM 100A, 100B, 100C.

Other

COMM 193. Advanced Topics in Communication: General (2)

Specialized study in general communication with topics to be determined by the instructor for any given quarter. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisites: must be taken with AIP 197.

COMM 194. Research Seminar in Washington, D.C. (4)

(Same as PS 194, USP 194, Hist 193, SocE 194, Erth 194.) Course attached to six-unit internship taken by students participating in the UCDC program. Involves weekly seminar meetings with faculty and teaching assistants and a substantial research paper. Prerequisites: participation in UCDC program.

COMM 196A. Honors Seminar in Communication (4)

Preparation of an honors thesis, which can be either a research paper or a media production project. Open to students who have been admitted to the honors program. Grades will be awarded upon completion of the two-quarter sequence. Students will not receive credit for COGN 191A and COMM 196A. Prerequisites: admission to the honors program.

COMM 196B. Honors Seminar in Communication (4)

Preparation of an honors thesis, which can be either a research paper or a media production project. Open to students who have been admitted to the honors program. Grades will be awarded upon completion of the two-quarter sequence. Students will not receive credit for COGN 191B and COMM 196B. Prerequisites: admission to the honors program.

COMM 198. Directed Group Study in Communication (4)

Directed group study on a topic or in a field not included in the regular curriculum by special arrangement with a faculty member. May be taken three times for credit. Prerequisites: consent of instructor. (P/NP grades only.)

COMM 199. Independent Study in Communication (4)

Independent study and research under the direction of a member of the faculty. May be taken three times for credit. Prerequisites: consent of instructor. (P/NP grades only.)

Graduate

COGR 200A. Introduction to the Study of Communication as Social Force (4)

This course focuses on the political economy of communication and the social organization of key media institutions. There will be both descriptive and analytical concerns. The descriptive concern will emphasize the complex structure of communication industries and organizations, both historically and cross-nationally. The analytic focus will examine causal relationships between the economic and political structure of societies, the character of their media institutions, public opinion, and public attitudes and behaviors expressed in patterns of voting, consuming, and public participation. The nature of evidence and theoretical basis for such relationships will be critically explored. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 200B. Introduction to Study of Communication: Communication and Culture (4)

This course focuses on questions of interpretation and meaning. This course will examine how people use texts to interpret the world and coordinate their activities in social groups. Students will study both theories of interpretation in the conventional sense and theories about the act of interpreting. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 200C. Introduction to the Study of Communication: Communication and the Individual (4)

This course will draw on theorists who examine human nature as constituted by social, material, and historical circumstances. This course considers the media in relation to the ontogenetic and historical development of the human being and an examination of the individual as socially constituted in a language-using medium. The role of new communication technologies as part of research methodologies is explored in lecture-seminar. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 201B. Ethnographic Methods for Communication Research (4)

A supervised and coordinated group project will allow students to develop competence in a variety of ethnographic approaches to communication. Subjects covered include choosing a fieldwork site, setting or process for participation; entry and development of relationships; techniques of observation, interviewing, note taking, and transcription. Course may also include photography and video as research tools. All participant observation and interviewing strategies fall under the review of the Committee on Human Subjects. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 201C. Discourse Analysis (4)

Review and critique of studies employing discourse analysis, focusing on the ways that “discourse” is identified, recorded, and reported. A working notion of discourse will develop from works representing diverse disciplinary approaches. Students will record, transcribe, and report on segments of talk in an everyday setting. All participant observation and interviewing strategies fall under the review of the Committee on Human Subjects. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 201D. Historical Methods for Communication Research (4)

Different approaches to conducting historical research in communication. Such approaches may include the social history of communication technology; structuralist and poststructuralist accounts of language, media, and collective memory; and new historicist treatments of cultural history. Sources, documentation, and the nature of argument from historical evidence are emphasized. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 201J. Comparative Analysis (4)

The logic of comparative analysis and its role in communication research. Scientific inference in qualitative research. Selection of cases. Problems of translation across cultures. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 201L. Qualitative Analysis of Information Systems (4)

Historical and ethnographic studies of information systems—the design and use of information and communication technologies in their social, ethical, political, and organizational dimensions. Objects of study range from the invention of file folders to e-mail use and distributed databases as communication systems. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 201M. Content Analysis (4)

History uses methodology of quantitative analysis of media content. Includes conceptual issues concerning the quantification of meaning and practical procedures for coding and data analysis. Students read examples of studies using content analysis and carry out their own pilot analyses. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 201N. Genealogical Analysis (4)

Training in genealogical analysis based on Foucault and Nietzsche. Weekly exercises in genealogical methods, and class discussions of findings. A final paper: a genealogy of an object, practice, utterance, or discourse.  Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 210. Information and Society (4)

The social, legal, and economic forces affecting the evolution of mass communication institutions and structure in the industrialized world. Differential impacts of the free flow of information and unequal roles and needs of developed and developing economies. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 211. Memory Practices (4)

Examines theories of social and distributed memory—Maurice Halwachs to Ed Hutchins, John Sutton, and nature of the Archive (Foucault and Derrida), reading databases (as memory prostheses), beginning with Manovich’s work. Enquiry into mediated nature of memory practices. Prerequisites: graduate standing.

COGR 215. Regulation of Telecommunications (4)

The course will look at the history of, and rationales for, the regulation of mass communications in the United States. The course will cover both broadcasting and common carrier regulation. We will analyze telecommunications regulatory structures as they were constituted historically with the 1934 Communications Act and examine their breakdown in the late 1970s. In a larger vein, the course will examine the rise and functions of regulatory agencies in modern American history. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 219. Discourse and Organizations (4)

A central part of organizational life is talk: interaction both in formal and informal meetings and social situations. In this course we will examine the discourse of organizations, drawing on conversational analysis, discourse analysis and the sociology or organizations. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 220. The News Media (4)

History, politics, social organization, and ideology of the American news media. Special attention will be paid to: historical origins of journalism as a profession and “objective reporting” as ideology; empirical studies of print and TV journalism as social institutions; and news coverage of Vietnam and its implications for theories of the news media.

COGR 221. The State (4)

What is that thing we call the “state”? What is its relationship to government, citizenship, and power? Will consider different approaches to the study and theorization of the state, from European Enlightenment to post-9/11 reflections on sovereignty, rights, future. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 223. Communication Law and Policy (4)

This course examines the legal and policy framework for free speech in the United States. We cover First Amendment case law, free speech theory, copyright, and the different legal and regulatory treatment historically accorded print, broadcasting, cable television, telephone, and Internet. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 224. Geographies of Difference, Exclusion, and Conflict (4)

This course is a critical geography of how territorial environments shape entanglements of power and conflict between dominant and subordinate groups, and how, in turn, such conflict between these actors reshapes spatial landscapes. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 225A. Introduction to Science Studies: Part 1 (4)

Study and discussion of classic themes and texts in history of science, sociology of science, and philosophy of science, and of work that attempts to develop an interdisciplinary science studies approach. Prerequisites: enrollment in the Science Studies Program or consent of instructor.

COGR 225B. Seminar in Science Studies (4)

Study and discussion of a selected topic in the science studies field with an emphasis on the development of research and writing skills. The topic varies from year to year. Prerequisites: enrollment in the Science Studies Program or consent of instructor.

COGR 225C. Colloquium in Science Studies (4)

A forum for the presentation and discussion of research in progress in science studies by graduate students, faculty, and visitors. Students must attend the colloquium series for their entire first and second years. They receive course credit in one quarter each year. Prerequisites: enrollment in the Science Studies Program.

COGR 225D. Introduction to Science Studies Part II (4)

Continuing the introduction developed in Part 1, this course examines recent key topics and problem situations in science studies. Emphasis is on recent theoretical perspectives and empirical studies in communication, history, philosophy, and sociology of science and technology, and the interplay between them. Prerequisites: completion of COGR 225A, HIGR 238, Phil 209A, or SOCG 255A or consent of instructor.

COGR 237. Performance Theory (4)

Course is designed to introduce graduate students to the disciplinary, intellectual, and artistic genealogies of performance studies that bring together critical work from the fields of anthropology, art history, communication, critical gender studies, ethnic studies, film studies, literature, and theatre studies. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 238. The Frankfurt School on Mass Culture Social Theory (4)

This reading seminar will consider works by Frankfurt School theorists (Horkheimer, Adorno, Pollock, Lowenthal, Marcuse, Benjamin, Habermas) on mass media, mass culture, idology, art, authority and the individual, and their relevance in the analysis of contemporary capitalism. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 239. Computer Game Studies (4)

Course considers computer games as media, rule systems, technology, and sites of communication. Approaches include hands-on play and reading material from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Course encompasses both commercial games and the longer, more diverse academic and independent traditions. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 240. The Culture of Consumption (4)

(Cross-listed with HIGR 273.) This course will explore the development and cultural manifestations of consumerism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Topics will include the rise of museums, the development of mass market journalism and literature, advertising, and the growth of commercial amusements. Readings will focus primarily, but not exclusively, on the United States. Students will be encouraged to think comparatively. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 241. Geography and Communication (4)

Geographies as media of political cultural communication. Not simply mapping but also territorial engineering as a way of constituting geographical significance. Cross-mapping practices—intersecting representational practices—as political forms of communication. Geographies as visual practices of power. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 242. Globalization (4)

Examination of historical and contemporary reorderings of space, time, and experience through culture and commerce, social movements, war and trade, communication institutions and practices. Considers various disciplinary modes of analyzing the forms of life produced by these processes as well as the possibilities for intervention and transformation. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 243. Media Technologies (4)

Media technologies from books to electronic media. Consideration of both technological design processes and shifting uses of media. Reflection on media and broader patterns of technological innovation. Attention to the distinctive role of media in technological change. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 244. Cultural Studies (4)

Course traces theoretical approaches to the study of culture from the Birmingham School to poststructuralist critiques of power, resistance, consumption and pleasure. Students combine critical theory and empirical research in order to interpret the cultural politics of everyday life. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 245. Science and Technology Studies and Communication (4)

Course explores human-technology interaction, social constructivism, actor-network theory, gender and technology, critical and cultural studies of science and technology, and public understandings of science and technology. Emphasis on what STS can contribute to the study of media and communication. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 246. Playable Media (4)

Course provides an introduction to the design, evaluation, and development of media that invite and structure play. This includes digital and nondigital games, as well as related forms. Exercises, readings, and projects are required. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 247. Writing for Media (4)

Course explores the potential and constraints specific to writing for one or more media forms. Approaches include writing exercises, studying media, reading theoretical and historical texts, and project work. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 248. Visual Culture (4)

The visual is an increasingly important component of communication in everyday life. This course covers post-1968 theories of visual culture in domains such as art, film, news, the media, popular culture, medicine, sciences, and many other aspects of everyday life. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 250. Third World Cinema Screening (4)

Course examines the historical impetus, development, and construction of “Third Cinema”—a particular style of media making in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. An interdisciplinary approach interrogates how Third Cinema influences world cinema of today. Additional screening session required. Prerequisites: graduate standing.

COGR 251. Media Theory (4)

Theories of the media considered in a historical and comparative context from the rise of preprint reproduction technologies to the digital age. Focuses on communication processes and practices in terms of formality, technology, the politics of subjectivity, and institutions. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 252. Race and Racism (4)

Seminar focuses on race as a social, phenomenal, historical and political formation. The seminar will address the historical emergence and theorization of race and the contemporary ways in which race/racism is a modern principle of social division, exclusion and political mobilzation. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 253. Cultural Study of Music and Sound (4)

Seminar will focus on music and sound as social, aesthetic, historical, can political formations and phenomena. The relationship between musical and extramusical forces will be examined. This course intensively addresses cultural politics of sound/music making, hearing and performance. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 254. Intellectual Property (4)

The conceptual and regulatory boundaries of intellectual property law are increasingly challenged by technological change and by ownership claims over non-Western forms of creativity. Course focuses on those challenges from three interrelated perspectives: historical, philosophical and political. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 255. Studies in Political Theory (4)

Considers classical and contemporary texts in primarily western political thought with an eye toward understanding how such theory is and/or might be brought to bear in grounding different approaches and agendas in the study of communication. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 256. Postcolonial Theory (4)

This course provides an overview of intellectual and political thought developed through decolonization struggles in Africa and the Caribbean, and the subsequent emergence of postcoloniality from Subaltern Studies in the 1980s to contemporary work shaped by globalization and neoliberal philosophies. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 257. Communication and Social Theory (4)

Social theory forms the theoretical foundation for much work in communication, including political communication, questions of the public and public opinion, propaganda and ideology. The course will consider Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Simmel, Dewey, Habermas, the Frankfurt School and its critics. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 258. Language in Human Communication (4)

In this course language is broadly conceived as a medium of communication, expressed multimodally. Among the topics of this course are: origins of speech and gesture, culture and language, language and social practice and language in performance. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 259. Space, Place, and Media (4)

The course focuses on built environments and the production of space from an interdisciplinary, perspective, using the critical and methodological tools of communication, anthropology, geography, history, psychology, political science, and urban studies. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 261. Mediational Approaches to Culture/Mind (4)

This course will examine theories of mind in which cultural mediation is given a leading role. The work of anthropologists, psychologists, and communication scholars will be studied in depth. Emphasis will be placed on the methodological implication of cultural theories of mind for empirical research. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 275. Topics in Communication (4)

Specialized study in communication, with topics to be determined by the instructor for any given quarter.

COGR 278. Talking Culture, Culture Talking: Voices of Diversity (4)

(Cross listed with EDS 278). This course explores the discourse of culture in American society and the problem of silenced or unheard voices. The interaction of individual and collective voice, language, and identity are discussed as they bear on the ways that culture moves through important social institutions such as schools. Of particular interest are issues of teaching, learning, displacement, inclusion, marginality, and the speaking center. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 280. Advanced Workshop in Communication Media (4)

This course is a project course in which students prepare a production or experiment using one of the forms of media. The course is designed to allow students to experiment in a communication form other than the usual oral presentation in class or a term paper. Students can do a video production, a coordinated photographic essay or exhibit, a computer instructional game, a published newspaper or magazine article directed at a special audience, a theatrical presentation, or some form other than those listed. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 281. Understanding Everyday Life (4)

In this course we review how we might go about studying and thinking about the everyday life both as a concept and as a domain of study. The course will have a balance of both theoretical and empirical work. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 282. Reading and Memory (4)

Approaching reading from a historical perspective, the course concentrates on two analytic frames to connect memory to texts: ideas about “the memory palace,” locating memories in things, and figured worlds theory, treating objects as forms of intellectual scaffolding and memory. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 283. Political Economy (4)

Political economy is an older interdisciplinary approach explaining how the state, political environment, law, and economic system influence each other. The course engages classic texts, with attention to issues in the political economy of communication toward the end. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 294. The History of Communication Research (4)

Intellectual history of the field of communication studies from Robert Park to the present. Explication and assessment of major research approaches and classic studies representing both empirical and critical traditions. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 296. Communication Research as an Interdisciplinary Activity (4)

A course that introduces students to the interdisciplinary nature of the field of communication research as represented by the work of faculty in the Department of Communication. Through faculty research, students are presented with concrete examples of communication research theory and practice that can provide them with insights for conducting their own research projects. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 298. Directed Group Study (1–12)

The study and analysis of specific topics to be developed by a small group of graduate students under the guidance of an interested faculty member. Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor.

COGR 299. Graduate Research (1–12)

Advanced independent study in communication under the guidance of Department of Communication faculty.

COGR 500. Practice Teaching in Communication (4)

A doctoral student in communication is required to assist in teaching undergraduate Department of Communication courses for a total of six quarters. One meeting per week with the instructor, one meeting per week with the assigned sections, and attendance at the lecture of the undergraduate course in which he or she is participating are part of this requirement.