About Communication

The Communication program provides students opportunities to develop verbal, nonverbal and visual communication knowledge and skills through the exploration of communication studies, film, television and video, journalism, and convergent media. Students may select from one of three concentrations for the Communication degree: (a) Communication Studies, (b) Digital Cinema, or (c) Social Media and Public Engagement.

The Communication Studies Concentration focuses on the understanding and skill acquisition related to the communication practices that occur in the everyday interactions of social actors in a variety of contexts. Our research and teaching focuses on interpersonal communication; small group, organizational and cross-cultural communication; analysis of public rhetoric and discourse; and conflict resolution, mediation, and negotiation.

The Social Media and Public Engagement concentration provides students with the practical and conceptual competencies required to live and work productively in a 21st-century media landscape. Whether seeking meaningful employment, maintaining healthy online relationships, or practicing thoughtful citizenship, students emerge from the SMPE concentration with skills and dispositions in personal reputation management, content strategy, online journalism, visual storytelling, design thinking and new media entrepreneurship.

The Communication program emphasizes connections between conceptual understanding, critical thinking, communication behaviors, and message construction. Faculty bring a broad range of academic and professional training and accomplishments to the classroom, and the department’s student-centered program emphasizes skill-building, critical thinking, research and writing.

Students may earn credit for on-campus practical experiences with University media outlets, public relations and marketing, as well as teaching and research assistance to faculty. Communication majors intern throughout and beyond the local community at newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations, social service organizations, government agencies, advertising and public relations firms, and many businesses and nonprofit organizations.