This course is designed to offer a framework for understanding the processes involved in news production and its impact on public opinion. We will examine various social forces that shape news content, including individual, political, economic, and institutional factors. We will also examine research and theory on the implications of today's new media environment, with a focus on its relationship with citizens' engagement in public life. This course serves as an Integrative Experience (IE) requirement for BA-COMM majors.

This course examines the ways food is made meaningful through discourse and performance. While the need for food to satisfy hunger and strengthen the body is universally understood, what counts as food, its relative abundance or scarcity, and its relationship to the body, identity and culture are socially created and highly symbolic. Still, for most people what we eat and why we choose to eat it seems common sense. Meanings attached to what is edible or inedible, good or bad, nutritional or unhealthy, gourmet or junk food are highly subjective and deeply cultural.

As forms of communication contribute to the growing integration of the planet, the planet itself is threatened by unprecedented environmental and economic crises. This course will examine ecology and sustainability through the mediating logic of communication technologies, institutions and texts, as well as insights drawn from a variety of disciplines. Students will develop an interdisciplinary theoretical and practical framework that will allow them connect their everyday life to the dynamics of the socio-environmental world.

An exploration of the counter-cultural movements of the 1960s and 70s and later, hosted by someone who was there and lived to tell the tale. Through the medium of documentary and fiction films, we will delve into the musical, sexual, artistic, political and spiritual upheavals that rocked America and Europe back then and that continue to reverberate today. This course satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Comm majors.

An exploration of the counter-cultural movements of the 1960s and 70s and later, hosted by someone who was there and lived to tell the tale. Through the medium of documentary and fiction films, we will delve into the musical, sexual, artistic, political and spiritual upheavals that rocked America and Europe back then and that continue to reverberate today. This course satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Comm majors.

This course explores the genre of Experimental Film and Video with a critical eye toward the history and current articulations of this form of production in both feature film and short form movies and videos. The course begins with an introduction to the genre, then explores Experimental Film; video according to three different categories: Experimentation with Narrative, Experimentation with Structure/Form, and Experimentation with the line between Fact and Fiction.

Semiotics is the study of meaning within society. It deepens our understanding of culture, communication and philosophy, and provides us with a theoretical and practical framework for analyzing the world. The course will introduce and develop the semiotic approach, using literature, politics, film, TV, music, and our everyday surroundings and conversations.

We will view, analyze, and discuss films from the recent past and present from a filmmaker?s perspective, along with some limited hands-on work in pre-production techniques. Students will view, analyze, and critique works from modern documentary masters such as Betsy West & Julie Cohen ("RBG"), Michael Moore ("Where to Invade Next"), Questlove ("Summer of Soul"), Robert Kenner ("Food Inc."), and others to further their understanding of the documentarian's art and craft.

We will view, analyze, and discuss films from the recent past and present from a filmmaker?s perspective, along with some limited hands-on work in pre-production techniques. Students will view, analyze, and critique works from modern documentary masters such as Betsy West & Julie Cohen ("RBG"), Michael Moore ("Where to Invade Next"), Questlove ("Summer of Soul"), Robert Kenner ("Food Inc."), and others to further their understanding of the documentarian's art and craft.

An examination of the art, craft, and business of screenwriting from theoretical and practical perspectives. Topics include screenplay format and structure, story, plot and character development, dialog and scene description, visual storytelling, pace and rhythm, analysis of professional and student scripts and films.