Communication Arts Course Catalog

AFRICAN/COMARTS/LIS 444: Technology and Development in Africa and Beyond

3 credits

Surveys the past 20 years of digital technology and communications culture on the African continent, cross-referenced with discourse on technology experiences in other parts of the developing world, through the framework of development studies. Readings include case studies of micro-tech practices as well as political and social use of new media, and government and NGO-led tech interventions. Information Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) is a key area of focus. Cross-discipline areas include communications and media studies, African, Latin American and International area studies, as well as the social anthropology of technology and science, and design. Think critically about technology use in the context of different tech cultures from around the world. Apply this perspective towards new media solutions to social problems.

ASIAN/COMARTS 443: Indian Cinema in the U.s. and Beyond

Credits unavailable

India is home to one of the largest film industries in the world, Bollywood. Beyond Bollywood, India has a thriving film culture that caters to its many regional languages. Explore India's diverse, yet interconnected film and media cultures as well as the global resonances of Indian- and South-Asian-inflected media elsewhere. Examine questions of diasporic identity through media produced by the South Asian American community. Consider questions of genre, style and auteurship, ethnicity, decolonization, gender non-conformity, caste, settler colonialism, censorship and linguistic nationalism that shape cinematic discourses in the country and its intersection with South Asian diaspora in the United States.

ASIANAM/COMARTS 420: Asian Americans and Media

3 credits

Examines representations of Asian American in American media using historical, analytical, and critical approaches. Issues of cultural production, identity, race, politics, and gender are linked to examinations of specific media forms.

CHICLA/COMARTS 347: Race, Ethnicity, and Media

Credits unavailable

Introduction to the changing images of race and ethnicity in U.S. entertainment media and popular culture. Surveys history, key concepts and contemporary debates regarding mediated representation of ethnic minorities. Critical and cultural studies approaches are emphasized.

CHICLA/COMARTS 419: Latinx/es and Media

Credits unavailable

Critical and historical survey of the participation and representation of Latinx/e peoples U.S. film, television, and popular culture, with a primary focus on Hispanic representation in Hollywood-produced imagery. The counter-images of Latinx/e media producers also will be explored.

COMARTS 100: Introduction to Speech Composition

3 credits

Develop written and spoken communication skills through hands-on learning while studying audience- centered public speaking. Focus on becoming more confident and comfortable as a speaker and writer. Strengthen your library research skills and digital literacy. Gain essential skills for success in college courses and life beyond the university, from job interviews to professional presentations, to research talks.

COMARTS 110: Artificial Intelligence in Story and Screen

3 credits

Explore how artificial intelligence (AI) gains meaning through the stories we tell about it. Through close readings of both nonfiction texts and science fiction narratives, examine how our AI-driven culture is shaped by the media texts that structure, theme, and provide perspective on new technologies. Learn how film, television, and other popular forms of media narrative are powerful forms of literature that influence the development and understanding of AI technologies - and how those visions in turn shape our perceptions of humanity.

COMARTS 150: Behind the Media

1 credits

Are you interested in how the media we love (TV, films, video games, podcasts, etc.) are made? Meet the makers behind the media. Hear directly from industry professionals, from directors to designers, from editors to actors, about their work and role in the media production process. Connect each week with a different industry professional to examine their work and the broad world of media production.

COMARTS 155: Introduction to Digital Media Production

4 credits

Teaches the skills needed to produce, engage with, and understand new and emerging technologies within the context of communication and creative expression. Become a more critical consumer and producer of digital media.

COMARTS 181: Elements of Speech-honors Course

3 credits

The process of oral communication; principles of effective speaking; application of principles in selected speaking and reading projects.

COMARTS 198: Directed Study

1–3 credits

Elementary level directed study project(s) under supervision of faculty member. Graded on a credit/no credit basis.

COMARTS 199: Directed Study

1–3 credits

Elementary level directed study project(s) under supervision of faculty member. Graded on a lettered basis.

COMARTS 200: Introduction to Digital Communication

3 credits

An introduction to digital communication and how it shapes our everyday lives. Develop digital communication skills, explore digital media tools and trends, and examine expressions of power online.

COMARTS 213: Study Abroad in Communication Arts Introductory Topics

Credits unavailable

A study abroad equivalency that does not equate to a UW-Madison course. Requires current enrollment in a UW-Madison sponsored study abroad program.

COMARTS 222: Reboots, Remakes, & Retellings

Credits unavailable

Why do certain stories and characters persist and reappear through adaptation, reboots and retellings? What are the challenges and possibilities of adaptation, what do they tell us about media, literature, meaning, narrative, and creativity, and what is their cultural significance? Learn to critically examine adaptations across multiple media, including film, television, literature, games, comics, apps, and online media. Gain a broader understanding of how popular narratives, myths, heroes, and villains work and a deeper awareness of artistic style.

COMARTS 250: Introduction to Contemporary Media

3 credits

Key concepts for the critical analysis of television, film, radio, and digital media. Focusing primarily on meanings, aesthetics, technology, media industries, representations, and audiences.

COMARTS 260: Communication and Human Behavior

3 credits

Concepts and processes relevant to the study of communication and human behavior including approaches to communication inquiry, the dynamics of face-to-face interaction, and the pragmatic and artistic functions of public communication.

COMARTS 262: Argumentation and Debate

3 credits

Develop your skills of argument to productively engage people in a diverse society. Learn to discuss differences with others and to contribute positively to a dynamic and diverse society. Critically examine the roles of advocates and audience members. Gain an understanding of the contexts and significance of argument in democratic societies, identity the components and qualities of arguments, construct cogent ethical arguments, and evaluate the arguments of others.

COMARTS 266: Theory and Practice of Group Discussion

Credits unavailable

Structure and dynamics of small group decision-making. Critical and creative problems in group interaction processes.

COMARTS 269: "we the People": Voices of Democracy

3 credits

Explores language and how it shapes, contributes to, and/or undermines our shared understanding of national identity, political affiliation, civic engagement, civility, and dialogue across difference.

COMARTS 272: Introduction to Interpersonal Communication

3 credits

Survey of concepts, theories, and research concerning communication across all phases of interpersonal relationships, focusing on both theoretical and practical applications.

COMARTS 273: Theory and Practice of Interpersonal Communication

Credits unavailable

Survey of concepts, theories, and research concerning communication across all phases of interpersonal relationships, focusing on both theoretical and practical applications.

COMARTS 298: Directed Study

1–3 credits

Intermediate level project under the direction of faculty member e.g., independent reading with research paper, production project, or member of research team. Graded on a credit/no credit basis.

COMARTS 299: Directed Study

1–3 credits

Intermediate level project under the direction of faculty member e.g., independent reading with research paper, production project, or member of research team. Graded on a letter basis.

COMARTS 300: Film Comedy

Credits unavailable

An exploration of the comedy genre, examining theories of humor in film; introducing conceptual tools for critical appreciation and analysis; and investigating different subgenres and tendencies prominent in various phases and traditions of popular film comedy.

COMARTS 308: Topics in Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture

3 credits

Explore various topics in rhetoric, politics, and culture.

COMARTS 309: Topics in Communication and Social Dynamics

Credits unavailable

Explore topics related to emerging communication practices and experiences, including those related to new information and communication technologies or new applications of such technologies.

COMARTS 310: Topics in Rhetoric and Communication Science

Credits unavailable

Explore various topics in rhetoric or communication science.

COMARTS 313: Topics in Film and Media Studies

3 credits

Explore various topics in film and media studies, history, and theory.

COMARTS 315: The Rhetoric of Reproductive Justice

Credits unavailable

Study the history of reproductive justice activism in the United States. Consider the legal basis for reproductive rights and key Supreme Court decisions relating to birth control and abortion. Examine core questions: how have reproductive rights been defined differently in different historical moments? What are rights in the context of reproduction? Who has reproductive freedom, and whose reproduction has been controlled? What role does race play in the history of reproductive justice? How does class influence people's access to reproductive healthcare? How does analyzing gender help us understand the history of reproductive justice?

COMARTS 317: Rhetoric and Health

Credits unavailable

Investigate how the concept of health is rhetorically constructed and deployed in a number of different contexts. Explore how language and argument shape our understanding of health, how health is positioned in opposition to illness and disability, and how the meaning of health has become a site of argument and controversy.

COMARTS 318: Introduction to Health Communication

3 credits

Explore the diversity of health experiences and the ways in which health communication affects our lives, whether it is through interpersonal conversations about health issues, exposure to health information in the media, or through our personal involvement with the healthcare system.

COMARTS 323: The Business and Culture of Disney

Credits unavailable

Analyze The Walt Disney Company and its prominence as a purveyor of narratives, consumer products, and dreams in global culture. Examine the business and culture of Disney to reveal how creators, capitalists, and consumers all relate to the corporate media empires that shape everyday life.

COMARTS 325: Media and Human Behavior

Credits unavailable

Investigate the ways in which individuals use, create, and respond to media content in the context of increasingly blurred boundaries between "mass" and "interpersonal" media. We will consider social scientific theories and research on a wide array of topics, including media uses and effects with regard to social connection, learning, judgments, perceptions, stereotypes, violence, consumption, and political participation.

COMARTS 330: Music Industries and Popular Culture

3 credits

The popular music industries are a vital part of the media industries. Music is the soundtrack to our lives. It provides the score to our quietest moments alone and our loudest parties with friends. Music helps us create and understand our identities and those of others. It is both a form of subversive activism and one of the most commercially valuable commodities in the media industries. Explore the contemporary popular music industries and the roles businesses, artists, audiences, fans, and technologies play in shaping music as a media industry. Focus specifically on the disruption that the internet, digital technologies, and social media have ushered in over the last two decades and the new ways artists, listeners, and businesses are discovering, promoting, sharing and experiencing music. Talk about the music you love, how it gets made, and why that matters for how we understand creative industries, ourselves, and each other.

COMARTS 335: Social Media as Literature

3 credits

Analysis of artistic and expressive communication in social media as forms of literature.

COMARTS 343: Human Communication in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (ai)

3 credits

Explore the rapidly evolving landscape of communication technologies, with a particular focus on generative artificial intelligence (AI), and discuss its role in communication contexts. Examine the transformative effects of these emerging technologies on individual, social, and professional lives. Consider the potential dark sides of AI, including ethical concerns, biases, and the implications of over-reliance on technology in communication.

COMARTS 344: Social Media & Well-being

Credits unavailable

One of the most widely debated and consequential issues of our time is how social media use affects users' well-being. Examine the ways in which social media use can promote well-being (e.g., by being a source of self-affirmation, social support, and social capital) and hinder it (e.g., by provoking envy and fear-of-missing out). Special attention is paid to how users' well-being deficits (e.g., low self-esteem, depression, anxiety) prompt them to use social media in beneficial or harmful ways.

COMARTS 345: Online Communication and Personal Relationships

Credits unavailable

Examines how personal relationships unfold in online communication contexts (social network sites, online dating, mobile computing). Topics include impression formation and management, deception and trust, self-perception and identity, social support and relationship maintenance.

COMARTS 346: Critical Internet Studies

Credits unavailable

Traces the Internet's history, reception, audience, industries, rhetorics, fictional and filmic narratives, and potential as a purveyor and transmitter of culture and values.

COMARTS 350: Introduction to Film

3 credits

Explains how films work using classics such as "Citizen Kane," "Vertigo," "Battleship Potemkin," and "Do The Right Thing." Study film as an art form and a medium, cover all the major film types (silent, classical, and contemporary narrative cinema, art cinema, animation, documentary, and experimental film), and get introduced to two basic approaches to film criticism: authorship criticism and genre criticism. Learn to recognize film techniques--mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound--and to analyze how filmmakers make us watch, think, and feel.

COMARTS 351: Television Industries

3 credits

Critical overview of the cultural industries driving television in the United States, from broadcast networks and cable to downloading and streaming, focusing on economic and regulatory structures, programming practices, labor, globalization, audiences, and adaptations to changing conditions in the digital age.

COMARTS 354: Film Genres

Credits unavailable

Explores six major film genres -- musical; thriller; comedy; horror; drama; and melodrama -- investigating their narrative and stylistic conventions and the principles underlying them. Critical, historical, and theoretical approaches examine definitional criteria and ambiguities; key elements, functions, goals, and effects; and significant subgenres, cycles, and trends.

COMARTS 355: Introduction to Film and Tv Production

4 credits

Learn to create film, video, and television content from script to screen through a hands-on introduction to the principles and practices of media production. Gain skills in screenwriting, videography, production design, editing and more, while engaging with various approaches to visual storytelling.

COMARTS 357: History of the Animated Film

Credits unavailable

Survey of the development of animation as a motion picture production technique, as a film genre, a part of the Hollywood classical cinema, and an independent art form.

COMARTS 358: Documentary Film: Representation and Reality

Credits unavailable

Explore the blurred lines between fact and fiction in documentary film. Examine the motivations behind filmmakers' unconventional approaches to portraying "reality," and analyze how experimental techniques reshape our understanding of truth and representation.

COMARTS 359: Sports Media

3 credits

Examines sports media using the frameworks of media and cultural studies. The relationship between sports and popular culture provides an important site for understanding and critiquing the media's relationships to social, cultural, economic, and political structures. Topics for discussion will include sports media industries and technologies; representations of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, and other identities; and the intersection of sports media cultures with such issues as activism and social change, ethics and morality, gambling and fantasy sports, celebrity athletes, and fandom.

COMARTS 360: Introduction to Rhetoric in Politics and Culture

Credits unavailable

An introduction to the study of rhetoric in politics and culture. Explores the interrelationship of theory, criticism, and practice. Students gain an understanding of rhetoric as a social force emerging from political and cultural contexts and as an influence on those contexts.

COMARTS 361: Introduction to Quantitative Research in Communication

Credits unavailable

An introduction to social science research methods and statistical analyses applicable to the study of communication research and mass media effects.

COMARTS 362: The Discourse of Dictators, Demagogues & Extremists

Credits unavailable

Analyze the persuasive communication of demagogues, dictators, and extremists, including speeches, manifestos, branding, imagery, music, films, conspiracy theories, and social media campaigns. Compare the charismatic and fear-based appeals of current leaders to public figures and groups of the past. Explore and critique recurring and distinctive elements of speech. Address core questions: When people lose confidence in existing political orders, how do demagogues, dictators, and extremists emerge to exploit these uncertainties and gain power? What makes their rhetoric and leadership styles so seductive? Why are so many people willing to become loyal, often fanatical followers? How do some leaders seize and sustain state power while others spiral slowly toward self-destruction? How does studying this discourse help us understand ways to critique and counter authoritarianism and extremism today?

COMARTS 368: Persuasion and Social Influence

3 credits

Study social influence and persuasion. Learn how to improve your persuasive and social influence skills, lower an audience's resistance to a persuasive message, and be a savvier consumer of persuasive messages and techniques. Explore nonconscious and emotional social influence processes in social media and other settings, especially in the context of influencers, marketing, advertising, and communication campaigns. Create a persuasion campaign, with both online and interpersonal components.

COMARTS 369: Rhetoric of the U.s. Presidential Election

Credits unavailable

Approach the U.S. presidential election from a rhetorical perspective. Analyze how individual candidates and political parties use and abuse language and other symbols to 1) identify with U.S. voters; 2) advance an agenda to address a current need; 3) present a particular narrative of U.S. history, identity, and national purpose; and 4) convince U.S. citizens to support their candidacy and policies on Election Day.

COMARTS 370: Great Speakers and Speeches

3 credits

Significant speeches from throughout history, generally from the United States. Speakers studied include Pericles, Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass, Emma Watson, John F. Kennedy, Barbara Jordan, Nelson Mandela.

COMARTS 371: Communication and Conflict Resolution

Credits unavailable

Examines intra- and interpersonal theories of the causes and functions of conflict. Focuses on message strategies for conflict resolution and/or management. Both theoretical and applied issues.

COMARTS 372: Rhetoric of Campaigns and Revolutions

Credits unavailable

Public discourse as it affects and reflects the process of dynamic social change. Historical and contemporary instances of rhetorical processes.

COMARTS 373: Intercultural Communication & Rhetoric

3 credits

The transnational movement of people, goods, and discourses blurs the boundaries between the local and global, making intercultural communication and rhetoric essential to our personal and public lives. We explore how rhetoric and communication function between and across cultures and examine how culture, history, and power constitute our cultural identities, our modes of communication, and how we engage with others.

COMARTS 375: Ethics of Entertainment Media

Credits unavailable

Develop skills for viewing and interrogating entertainment media through the lens of ethical theory and to articulate their own ethical stance on a diverse range of media, including documentary film, sports entertainment, reality television, and digital media. By approaching ethics from a media studies perspective, ask questions about how media are produced, how audiences are created and engaged, how communities and cultures are represented, and how we should respond to these different forms of media and the ethical questions that they raise.

COMARTS 377: Topics in Digital Studies (communication Science & Rhetoric)

Credits unavailable

Explore topics in communication science and rhetoric, with a digital focus.

COMARTS 379: Global Technology & Digital Culture

Credits unavailable

Digital media, devices, and networks are deeply embedded in our cultural fabric and are reshaping cultures worldwide. While networks enable instant communication and sharing, they aren't neutral, and their benefits aren't evenly distributed. Examine how digital environments affect global cultures differently, and how local differences shape the use of technology. Explore what being 'global' means in the context of rapid, technologically facilitated changes and analyze how these technologies impact offline experiences within communities based on nationality, region, race, gender, and class.

COMARTS 402: The Psychology of Communication

Credits unavailable

The role and function of information processing in human communication behavior.

COMARTS 448: Media and National Identity

Credits unavailable

Examination of the various roles that film, television, and other media play in creating, challenging, and negotiating national and global identities.

COMARTS 449: Sound Cultures: Podcasting and Music

3 credits

Sound plays a crucial but understudied role in experiences of media and cultural life. From the mundane sounds of our daily routines to the irresistible refrains of our favorite songs, sound (in its various guises as noise, music, echo, vibration, etc.) is fundamental to communications media and, more broadly, to our perceptions of the world around us. An introduction to the emerging field of sound studies and an investigation into the role sound and music (or lack thereof) play in various communications media. Through audio assignments such as the creation of podcasts, learn the basics of digital audio recording and editing software and how to present and distribute audio content via the Internet, specifically as podcasts. Gain practical skills for creating digital audio projects and a deeper appreciation for how paying attention to sound leads to unique understandings of history, culture, and media technologies.

COMARTS 450: Cultural History of Broadcasting

Credits unavailable

Traces the development of broadcasting as a cultural institution, examining the emergence of radio and television within the context of national identity and globalization.

COMARTS 451: Television Criticism

Credits unavailable

Analysis of selected television programming, interpretation of contemporary television programs, and survey of existing critical approaches.

COMARTS 454: Critical Film Analysis

Credits unavailable

Intensive analysis of selected films, using contemporary critical theories and methods.

COMARTS 455: French Film

Credits unavailable

Survey of French cinema from 1895 to the present. Emphasis on aesthetic trends, film movements, film industry, and cultural context.

COMARTS 458: Global Media Cultures

3 credits

Analysis of media systems, practices and uses from a global perspective.

COMARTS 459: New Media and Society

3 credits

Explores political, economic and cultural relationships between new media of communication and society, including issues of history, race, gender, class, globalization, national identity and everyday life.

COMARTS 461: Global Art Cinema

Credits unavailable

In the wake of World War Two, European directors began making films that employed location shooting, ambiguity, psychological realism, and unfamiliar stylistic flourishes. Such films drew on literary modernism, experimenting with time shifting, extreme duration, subjectivity, and reflexivity. "Art cinema," as it came to be called, is now the dominant storytelling mode of the contemporary film festival circuit and constitutes a robust alternative to mainstream genre cinema. Explores art cinema from a variety of national and transnational contexts, analyzing its narratives, styles, and cultural contexts. Investigates the work of directors from the first generation of art cinema, including Michelangelo Antonioni, Robert Bresson, Ingmar Bergman, and Agnès Varda, and more recent work by Aki Kaurismäki, Abbas Kiarostami, Wong Kar-wai, and Claire Denis.

COMARTS 463: Avant-garde Film

Credits unavailable

Examines the history and aesthetics of avant-garde/experimental film from its beginnings in the late 1910s to the present. Studies key aesthetic programs and their relations to adjacent movements in art and critical theory.

COMARTS 465: Editing and Post-production for Video and Film

4 credits

Focus on the theory and practice of video editing and post-production. Gain a thorough understanding of narrative editing techniques, color correction, audio post-production and the requisite software. Discusses the art of post-production and how post-production affects narrative function in moving picture media (including films, music videos, and television).

COMARTS 466: Writing for Television and Film

3 credits

Basic introduction to the elements of a successful dramatic screenplay. Particular emphasis placed on story concept, dramatic structure, character development, dialogue, and visual storytelling.

COMARTS 467: Filming on Set: Film & Television Workshop

4 credits

Learn the fundamentals of sync-sound moving image production, including directing, cinematography, lighting, sound recording, production design, color grading, and production logistics. Produce scenes from existing scripts, rotating through the positions of director, director of photography, production designer/camera assistant, gaffer, sound designer/mixer, and boom operator/editor. Gain experience in casting, location scouting, and set design. Develop a deeper understanding of crew dynamics, the art of storytelling, and the operation of digital cinema technologies essential to film and television/streaming drama.

COMARTS 468: Producing for Internet Tv and Film

Credits unavailable

Delve into the producer's role across a range of media content, from expensive film studios and major streamers to low-budget YouTube channels and music platforms. Learn the various roles of a producer including script analysis and conceptualizing and delivering video projects and documentation. Explore industry practice and standards regarding production management and examine the Internet as a platform for distribution, advertising, and audience. Create online videos with an emphasis on entrepreneurship.

COMARTS 470: Contemporary Political Discourse

Credits unavailable

Examines themes, genres, and significant instances of contemporary political discourse, as well as issues and concerns that arise in public discussions of political discourse. Case studies and theoretical analyses are considered.

COMARTS 474: Rhetoric of the Cold War

Credits unavailable

Examine the Cold War from a rhetorical perspective. Consider key texts, orators, movements, and foreign policy themes that have come to define the Cold War (1945-1991). Trace how these rhetorical strategies laid the groundwork for the contemporary moment, the "New Cold War."

COMARTS 476: Nature of Criticism-the Public Arts of Communication

Credits unavailable

A survey of rhetorical criticism methods. Apply methods to landmark historical and contemporary texts - from presidential war discourse to women's suffrage rhetoric to timely political debates.

COMARTS 478: Rhetoric and Power on the Internet

3 credits

Explores and analyzes Internet communication as a magnifier, transmitter, and limiter of power for both individual people and institutions with special attention to the roles of politics, social issues, and justice. Use rhetorical analysis to engage in the critical assessment of Internet media content that exerts power in their lives.

COMARTS 513: Study Abroad in Communication Arts

Credits unavailable

A study abroad equivalency that does not equate to a UW-Madison course. Requires current enrollment in a UW-Madison sponsored study abroad program.

COMARTS 518: Communication and Health Inequalities

3 credits

Explore the role of communication as a contributor to existing health inequalities and a means of helping to reduce them. Consider social scientific theories and research on a wide array of topics including communication inequalities and public discourse around social determinants of health.

COMARTS 540: Television Genres

Credits unavailable

An examination of a specific television genre, analyzing it as a narrative, economic, cultural, and political entity and exploring its role in perpetuating and/or challenging ideas of what society is or could be.

COMARTS 545: Media Audience Cultures

Credits unavailable

Explore the complexities of what it means to be a media audience. Consider how audiences engage media thoughtfully and actively. Approach audiences both qualitatively and theoretically, focusing on how audiencehood becomes more than just a position of watching, listening, and downloading the intended message. Study audiencehood as a site of voice, agency, identity construction, play, activism, and meaning-making across various media audience types - fans, haters, casual viewers; television, film, social media, games, and other media consumers; watchers, listeners, readers, gamers, and users; networked communities and isolated individuals. Analyze the different worlds, affective positions, practices, and socialities that make up "the audience."

COMARTS 547: Digital Game Cultures

Credits unavailable

An examination of the forms, practices, economies, institutions, politics, and modes of engagement that make digital games an important site of culture and power.

COMARTS 552: Contemporary Hollywood Cinema

Credits unavailable

An examination of contemporary Hollywood films focusing on the interrelations of cinematic narrative, style, technology, and institutions. Survey the work of major directors and consider the box office impact of key genres and film cycles.

COMARTS 556: The American Film Industry in the Era of the Studio System

Credits unavailable

Influences of industrial structure, trade policies, foreign markets and censorship on Hollywood's production practices up to 1948.

COMARTS 565: Communication and Interethnic Behavior

Credits unavailable

The relation of communication processes to interethnic and interracial attitudes and behavior. Social and psychological foundations of interethnic communication and conflict, group identification and communication processes, interpersonal communication and culture, communication about race and ethnicity, mass media content and effects.

COMARTS 570: Classical Rhetorical Theory

3 credits

Study of major theories of rhetoric from their origins in ancient Greece to Bacon, including theories of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian, Longinus, St. Augustine, and others.

COMARTS 573: Rhetoric of Globalization and Transnationalism

3 credits

Introduction to basic concepts in global and transnational rhetorical studies and provided with the analytic tools to examine discourses about globalization and transnationalism produced by key global actors including transnational corporations, states, global institutions such as the World Bank, media producers, human rights advocates, and activists.

COMARTS 575: Communication in Complex Organizations

Credits unavailable

Examine problem solving within complex organizations. Study communication pitfalls, decision-making biases, and problem-solving blind spots that negatively affect one's ability to communicate. Learn to innovate in teams and make high-quality decisions.

COMARTS 577: Dynamics of Online Relationships

Credits unavailable

Examines how people form their identities and manage their personal relationships using new communication technologies (social network sites, online dating, video games). Emphasis will be placed on how humans adapt to technology and use it for social purposes.

COMARTS 605: Digital Studies Capstone

1 credits

Create an online portfolio integrating material learned throughout the certificate program. Explore opportunities for professional and personal growth. Must be declared in Digital Studies Certificate with senior standing.

COMARTS 608: Special Topics in Media and Cultural Studies

Credits unavailable

Specialized topics and issues in media and cultural studies.

COMARTS 609: Special Topics in Production

3 credits

Specialized advanced subject matter in film, video or digital media production.

COMARTS 610: Special Topics in Rhetoric and Public Address

Credits unavailable

Specialized subject matter of current interest in rhetoric and public address.

COMARTS 612: Special Topics in Communication Science

Credits unavailable

Specialized subject matter of current interest in communication theory and research.

COMARTS 613: Special Topics in Film

3 credits

Specialized topics and issues in film history, theory, and criticism.

COMARTS 614: Field Experience in Communication

1 credits

Application of communication concepts to problems in such professional field settings as business organizations, media firms, political offices and organizations, and governmental agencies. Must be declared in Communication Arts.

COMARTS 615: Second Field Experience in Communication

1 credits

Application of communication concepts to problems in such professional field settings as business organizations, media firms, political offices and organizations, and governmental agencies. Must be declared in Communication Arts.

COMARTS 651: Documentary Film and Tv Production

Credits unavailable

Documentary storytelling and directing, covering all three phases of the documentary process (pre-production, filming and editing), while considering the techniques, aesthetics and ethics involved. Produce a polished, short documentary film or non-fiction video.

COMARTS 656: Advanced Screenwriting

Credits unavailable

An intensive, capstone-like experience in the art of screenwriting as it pertains to long form film and television. With an emphasis on visual storytelling, elements of this art to be discussed are character and plot development, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a writing tool, composing efficient action and realistic dialog, as well as creating a cinematic experience by expressing imagery in writing. Beyond completing a long form TV or film script, learn to critique screenplays via industry-standard coverage practices, engage in group discussions and critique our own work.

COMARTS 658: Capstone Films and Pilots Techniques: Film & Television Workshop

Credits unavailable

Explore advanced techniques and practical issues in producing, directing, cinematography, lighting, sound, production design, editing, and post-production. Develop artistic, collaborative production practices that are fundamental to cinematic storytelling in the film and television industry. Work as a crew member on short narrative film or television pilot projects.

COMARTS 659: Capstone Films and Pilots Production: Film & Television Workshop

Credits unavailable

Immersive short narrative or television pilot production experience with a focus on the work of department heads. Take on a key production role for a group project. Shape the storytelling concepts and cinematic design. Tackle creative and technical challenges while collaborating under real-world conditions and developing skills deployed in the film and television industry. Examine and troubleshoot issues in producing, directing, lighting, filming, designing, and editing fiction film and television.

COMARTS 669: Film Theory

Credits unavailable

Survey of significant trends within both classical and contemporary film theory. Designed for those interested in reading, analyzing, and evaluating the central concepts and intellectual history of writings about film, particularly with respect to film as a medium presenting an array of aesthetic, psychological, and social potentialities. Whereas classical film theory attempts to treat cinema as a unique art form, contemporary film theory addresses issues related to cinema as a mode of communication, a source of visual pleasure, and as an ideological tool. Much contemporary theory attempts to incorporate the insights of other critical and analytical paradigms, such as semiotics, psychoanalysis, feminism, queer theory, critical race theory, postmodernism, and cognitive science. Questions regarding the ontology of cinema, its relation to existing theories of art, its effects on spectators, and the various ways in which its formal properties create meaning are considered.

COMARTS 681: Senior Honors Thesis

3 credits

Research and preparation for writing senior Honors in the Major thesis under the direction of a faculty member.

COMARTS 682: Senior Honors Thesis

3 credits

Writing and completion of senior Honors in the Major thesis begun inCOM ARTS 681under the direction of a faculty member.

COMARTS 691: Senior Thesis

2–3 credits

Research and preparation for the writing of the senior thesis under the direction of a faculty member.

COMARTS 692: Senior Thesis

2–3 credits

Writing and completion of senior thesis begun inCOM ARTS 691under the direction of a faculty member.

COMARTS 698: Directed Study

1–3 credits

Advanced level project under the direction of faculty member e.g., independent reading with research paper, production project, or member of research team. Graded on a credit/no credit basis.

COMARTS 699: Directed Study

1–3 credits

Advanced level project under the direction of faculty member e.g., independent reading with research paper, production project, or member of research team. Graded on a letter basis.

COMARTS 760: Advances in Communication Theories

3 credits

In-depth review and evaluation of behavioral and social scientific theories of human communication.

COMARTS 762: Communication Research Methods

Credits unavailable

Epistemological and methodological principles of behavioral and social scientific research of particular relevance to communication research, including various research designs and modes of observation, casual inferences, and basic hands-on experiences in empirical research.

COMARTS 799: Independent Study

1–3 credits

Independent research and writing under the supervision of an instructor.

COMARTS 901: Introduction to Graduate Studies in Communication Arts

1 credits

An introduction to the department of Communication Arts and core areas of study: Communication Science, Film, Media and Cultural Studies and Rhetoric, Politics and Culture, and to key resources for graduate study. Includes an overview of the key methodologies and theories that define current scholarship in the field of Communication from the department's various areas of study. Provides information on how the department structures its graduate coursework and milestones to prepare for careers in the field. Fosters connections to campus partners and access to essential resources essential for success in graduate school. Discusses the challenges, issues, and successes surrounding graduate study in the field of Communications.

COMARTS 902: Film Colloquium

1 credits

Studies in advanced research in film history, theory and criticism.

COMARTS 903: Media and Cultural Studies Colloquium

1 credits

Current research in cultural studies, audience effects, broadcast regulation, history of broadcasting and comparative national systems.

COMARTS 904: Communication Science Colloquium

1 credits

Social scientific approaches to the study of interpersonal communication and media effects.

COMARTS 905: Rhetoric Colloquium

1–3 credits

Advanced research in rhetorical theory and criticism, and in the history of public address.

COMARTS 950: Seminar-radio Television Film

2–3 credits

An advanced review and exploration of theoretical and methodological developments in media studies.

COMARTS 955: Media History and Historiography

Credits unavailable

Post-structuralist historical theory, historiographical methods, and issues in historiography for students of media history. Introduction to archival research.

COMARTS 958: Seminar in Film History

Credits unavailable

Seminar probes theoretical questions concerning nature of historical knowledge, examines scholarly models and introduces methodologies and resources for research on the history of cinema.

COMARTS 967: Seminar-problems in Communication and Public Address

Credits unavailable

An examination of current theoretical and/or practical problems in communication and/or public address.

COMARTS 969: Seminar: Contemporary Rhetorical Theory

2–3 credits

A review of recent and ongoing theoretical developments in rhetorical theory.

COMARTS 970: Seminar in Communication Science

Credits unavailable

A critical review of theoretical developments in social scientific studies of communication and its psychological and/or social impact.

COMARTS 976: Seminar in Rhetorical Criticism

Credits unavailable

An examination of historical and/or ongoing developments in methodological and analytic approaches to rhetorical studies.

COMARTS 990: Research and Thesis

1–9 credits

Independent research and writing under the supervision of an instructor.

COMARTS/CURRIC 914: How Games Change US

Credits unavailable

Video games can be powerful experiences that take us to new worlds, teach us about complex systems, and provoke a range of emotions. Games transform us while we play, and some of these changes can be hard to predict and understand. Games can disrupt our sense of self, reshape our pleasures and feelings, lead us to question deeply held values, and allow us to experience new forms of embodiment through an avatar. A growing body of research in game studies engages with this potential for expansive change by focusing on player experience from a variety of methodological perspectives, including phenomenological, feminist and queer theory, critical disability studies, learning sciences, ecocriticism, and media archeology.

COMARTS/EDPSYCH 626: Youth Development and Social Media: Interdisciplinary Training Seminar

Credits unavailable

Advanced level seminar that involves critical analysis of conceptual and methodological issues underlying empirical research on how social media affect and are affected by adolescent development, provides a venue for feedback on design of research studies involving youth and social media, and fosters interdisciplinary approaches to studying connections between youth development and social media use.

COMARTS/FOLKLORE 522: Digital Storytelling for Social Media

Credits unavailable

Explore everyday communication in social media. Learn digital recording technologies for documenting everyday communication and the use of digital content in social media.

COMARTS/GEN&WS 316: Gender and Communication

Credits unavailable

Effective communication requires awareness of how gender influences communication and our capacity to build lasting and meaningful relationships. Learn about theories and concepts to understand how gender influences our interpersonal, professional, and social lives. Topics include terms and concepts relevant to the study of how we communicate about gender, sex and sexuality, including identity, language and nonverbal behavior, socialization, close personal relationships, education, work, violence, media and social movements.

COMARTS/GEN&WS 336: Race, Gender, and Technology

Credits unavailable

Explores and interrogates the historical and contemporary connections and between race, gender, and technology. Attention will be paid to the ways media and technology construct - and are constructed by - social, economic, political, and cultural formations of race and gender. Explores an array of social issues and challenges as well as a variety of media, technology, information and communication forms, practices, and systems. Connects the topics of critical race, feminist, and queer studies with the study of technology, with an emphasis on studies of digital technologies and cultures.

COMARTS/GEN&WS 418: Gender, Sexuality, and the Media

Credits unavailable

Examines images of gender and sexuality in the media, with a focus on contemporary media in the U.S. Using theories from cultural studies, film and media studies, gender studies, and communication explore different processes and practices of gender and sexuality. Look at the way that gender and sexuality are constructed through social, cultural, and economic forces, and the way that these identities intersect with other social identities such as race, ethnicity, and class. Consider the way that media impact our understanding of feminism and post-feminism, violence, celebrity, consumer culture, subcultures and activism.

COMARTS/HDFS/JOURN 616: Mass Media and Youth

Credits unavailable

Children's and adolescents' use of mass media and mass media effects on them. Particular attention is given to changes in comprehension and other cognitive activities that give insights into media use and effects.

COMARTS/ITALIAN 460: Italian Film

Credits unavailable

General survey of Italian cinema and of the relationship between film and the other arts. Consideration of the Italian and European socio-political context and developments in film theory.

COMARTS/JOURN/LSC 617: Health Communication in the Information Age

3 credits

Examines the role of communication in health, how the revolution in information technology has affected health communication, and the assumptions about health information and communication that drive current efforts to use technologies.

COMARTS/JOURN/RP&SE 312: Disability and the Media

3 credits

Examines the interaction between disability and media in modern society. Explore representations of disability in various forms of mass media, including television and film, social media, advertising, and others. Analyze how these representations affect disabled people directly, including the development of their identities, as well as how they influence disability attitudes and stigma throughout society. Discuss overt and casual ableism within media, as well as how the disability community uses media for activism. Discuss issues of access for disabled people (e.g., assistive technology, captions, audio descriptions), as well as the future of disability representations within media.

COMARTS/LIS 705: Introductory Analytics for Decision Making

Credits unavailable

Introduces key stages in the processes of gathering and analyzing data for decision making, including tasks, methods, and tools used at each stage. Topics include developing the research question from organizational goals, choosing appropriate data collection methods, sampling, basics of measurement and question design, managing and visualizing data, descriptive statistics and basic inferential statistics such as correlations, regressions, and ANOVA.

COMARTS/RELIGST 374: The Rhetoric of Religion

Credits unavailable

Rhetorical character of religious controversy and sectarian persuasion in Western religion.

Communication Arts course catalog