COMM Graduate Course Offerings
Spring 2016
COMM 636: Survey of Organization Communication (Holladay)
Theoretical and empirical literature on human communication and complex organizations;
the study of messages, interaction, and meaning in the process of organizing; topics include
superior-subordinate communication, communication networks and technologies,
language, message flow, symbols and organizational culture, negotiation and conflict, and
power and politics.
COMM 637: Organizational Communication Seminar: Issues Management (Coombs)
Issues management centers on the systematic use of communication to influence public
policy decisions. More recently the concept has expanded to include direct influence on
corporate behaviors related to social issues. The seminar will explore the roots of issues
management, including its connection to corporate advocacy as a form of corporate
rhetoric and ties to agenda building. We will also consider the evolution of issues
management to a direct influence on corporate behavior. The topics related to the change
include boycotts and other forms of stakeholder pressure, the anti-corporate activists, and
the way the online world provides potential to increase stakeholder power through the
lens of strategic communication.
COMM 640: Rhetorical Theory (Mercieca)
There are multiple ways to construct a course about rhetorical theory. I have designed this
course with a specific goal in mind: namely, to explore the relationships between different
schools of thought in what traditionally has been thought of as rhetoric and philosophy. In
our discussions we will treat rhetorical theory as inherently bound up with the study of
ethics, politics, and epistemology. The guiding assumptions of this course are twofold: first,
rhetorical theory is a central part of the history of ideas; and, second, rhetorical theory is
implicitly and explicitly a part of all philosophy—even those theories that we would not
ordinarily consider to be about rhetoric. By the end of this course you will be well versed
in the history of the idea of rhetorical theory, which will give you a much more
sophisticated understanding of communication in general.
In other words:
\ We will read the rhetorical tradition broadly rather than deeply.
\ We will approach the study of rhetorical theory meta-theoretically.
\ We will treat rhetorical theory as rhetoric (as texts that seek to persuade).
\ We will study each theory for what it teaches us about rhetoric and for what it teaches
COMM 650: American Public Discourse since 1865 (Jones Barbour)
This is a survey course of American public address, focusing on public address since 1865.
In this course, we will explore the relationship between rhetoric and history by examining
a wide variety of “texts,” in order to examine the ways rhetoric opens up and constrains
human understanding and action. We will engage in critical analysis of specific examples of
public address in their historical, political, social and philosophical contexts, as well as pay
attention to some of the broader theoretical and methodological questions the field of
public address scholarship is occupied with.
COMM 658: Seminar in Communication & Culture: Global perspectives on
Propaganda and New Media (Kluver)
The rise of new media, (especially the Internet and social media), has had a significant
impact on political discourse, identity, and organization. Websites have become highly
instrumental in global information flows, and various forms of social media have become
critical in galvanizing virtual publics across national borders. Further, Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton recently identified a free and open internet as a “US national interest,”
which has ushered in a vibrant debate over the ideological nature of network technologies.
Although some have seen in the rise of social media a disposition towards greater public
engagement and a more democratic discourse, it is clear that in many ways, political
discourse has become more fractured, less responsible, and more likely to drown out
opposing perspectives than to welcome them.
The course will draw upon previous studies and theories of political discourse, rhetoric,
and propaganda and attempt to discover the ways in which new media enhances political
discourse, undermines it, or otherwise transforms political movements and discourse. The
course will examine a wide variety of geopolitical and domestic conflicts, including
"youtube wars," the role of facebook and twitter in galvanizing support, the practice and
future of "public diplomacy,” and digital media and the development of new
ideological/religious/political communities across national boundaries.
COMM 663: Seminar in TCMS: Media Processes & Effects (Ramasubramanian)
This graduate seminar focuses on the processes through which mass media influence our
everyday lives. In particular, it examines social scientific approaches to understand how
viewers select, interpret, and respond to mediated messages. We will cover a wide range of
topics such as media representations of race/ethnicity and gender/sexuality, intergroup
processes, news framing, political advertising, persuasive messages, entertainment media,
popular culture, health campaigns, positive media psychology, new media technologies,
pro-social media, and critical media literacy.
Grad students from a variety of backgrounds (such as media studies, org comm., health
comm., rhetoric, sociology, political science, psychology, digital humanities, and geography)
have previously enrolled in this course. This course counts towards the Digital Humanities
grad certificate program.
COMM 670: Health Communication Seminar: Clinician-patient communication,
quality of care, and health outcomes (Interpersonal and organizational perspectives)
(R. Street)
The course will examine how more effective communication between clinicians and
patients can contribute to patient safety, higher quality of care, and improved health
outcomes. We will examine common problems affecting clinician-patient communication,
what health care organizations can do to facilitate more productive interactions, and the
pathways through which communication can lead to health improvement.