This course examines the vast store of folklore inspired by and directed at alcoholic beverages and their cultural reach. Folklore means traditional expressive practices ranging from the verbal arts (such as stories and songs) to material culture (such as crafts and medicine) to customary activities (such as rituals and beliefs). The range of folklore herein is both global and ancient; that is, it concerns the entire history of alcohol, which necessitates attention to the entire history of humanity in a global perspective. Virtually all kinds of alcoholic beverages will be examined.

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 is a graded introduction to the Communication major, designed to welcome advanced transfer students into the program and address some of their specific needs. This course builds on prior college experiences and introduces students to resources for upper-level UMass Communication majors.

Audiences for mass media are notoriously difficult to define, find, and study because they are dispersed, shifting, and interact with media in complex ways. This course will look at how both the academy and media industries come to claim knowledge and understanding of audiences, in terms of their theoretical and methodological approaches. Topics will include debates about audience power and activity, audience segmentation, how audiences have changed over time, rhetorical uses of ?the audience,? and the distinction between audiences and markets.

Not available at this time

Independent study in special subjects.

This course applies a communication perspective to the study of health, disease and illness. The course will introduce, investigate and explore the nature of communication processes that influence and/are influenced by health and health care contexts. Communication theories and practices will be applied to a variety of health issues including the physician-patient relationship, the design of health media campaigns, the influence of health promotion on human behavior, health literacy, Western and cultural expressions of health and the use of interactive technology.

This course looks at the ways race, racial identities, and interracial relations are formed through and by communication practices in present-day U.S. America. Though focusing on U.S. America in the current historical moment, the course takes into account the ways history as well as the transnational flows of people and capital inform and define conversations about race and racial identities. Race will be discussed as intersectional, taking into account the ways race is understood and performed in relation to gender, sexuality, class, and nation.

In this course we explore ways in which communication and culture are intertwined, focusing on cultural and social variability in patterns of perception, interaction, and meaning making. Topical foci include implications of subjectivity for communication; types of meaning in language and interaction; cultural and ritual organization of talk; language socialization; interethnic and intercultural communication; and gender and interaction. (Gen.Ed. SB, DU)

In this course we explore ways in which communication and culture are intertwined, focusing on cultural and social variability in patterns of perception, interaction, and meaning making. Topical foci include implications of subjectivity for communication; types of meaning in language and interaction; cultural and ritual organization of talk; language socialization; interethnic and intercultural communication; and gender and interaction. (Gen.Ed. SB, DU)