Algorithms and data increasingly power our private and civic life. Companies, nonprofits, and governments have invested heavily in data mining?the bulk collection of user behavior data from web platforms to understand public opinion and to forecast trends. A lot of fashionable terms, such as artificial intelligence and big data, are being thrown around these days. The public and regulators also become increasingly wary of the dark side of algorithms ?

Social media has brought together like-minded people but also divided nations, leading to concerns over disinformation, radicalization, and polarization, as well as algorithmic manipulations. In this course, students learn the central role internet communities play in knowledge diffusion, innovation, activism, and mobilization. The first part of the class will review online fandoms and important social movements afforded by social media technologies. Students will discuss implications of digital media on civil society and social changes.

This course provides an introduction to theories of social interaction and research. It is designed as a selective overview with specific focus on language and social interaction approaches (e.g., pragmatics, discourse analysis, conversation analysis, ethnography of communication, critical discourse analysis). These views of communication can be applied across various channels, across various contexts, and at various levels (from individual and relational to societal and political). Required of students specializing in this area.

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.

We will view, analyze, and discuss films by modern documentary masters such as Michael Moore ("Sicko"), Chris Paine, ("Revenge of the Electric Car"), Seth Gordon ("The King of Kong - A fistful of Quarters"), Pamela Yates ("Granito") and many others to further the understanding of the documentary craft and art from a filmmaker's perspective. Students will also do preproduction (research and treatment) for their own short documentary, along with shorter hands-on exercises in writing narration, interview techniques, etc.

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 fields like Anthropology, Geography, Biology, Physics, and Spirituality. Students will develop an interdisciplinary framework to examine conflicts over nature and the social construction of nature and ecology.

This is a graded introduction to the Communication major, designed to welcome first year students into the major and inform them of opportunities for their advancement in the department and beyond. The course introduces students to the five subject areas offered in the major and provides a brief overview of the field of communication as well as the major issues and topics that motivate the inquiries conducted in courses and in research.

This is a graded introduction to the Communication major, designed to welcome first year students into the major and inform them of opportunities for their advancement in the department and beyond. The course introduces students to the five subject areas offered in the major and provides a brief overview of the field of communication as well as the major issues and topics that motivate the inquiries conducted in courses and in research.

This is a graded introduction to the Communication major, designed to welcome first year students into the major and inform them of opportunities for their advancement in the department and beyond. The course introduces students to the five subject areas offered in the major and provides a brief overview of the field of communication as well as the major issues and topics that motivate the inquiries conducted in courses and in research.

This is a graded introduction to the Communication major, designed to welcome first year students into the major and inform them of opportunities for their advancement in the department and beyond. The course introduces students to the five subject areas offered in the major and provides a brief overview of the field of communication as well as the major issues and topics that motivate the inquiries conducted in courses and in research.