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.

A hands-on introduction to single-camera filmmaking using digital video camcorders and non-linear editing. Production assignments will foster student skills in the art of visual storytelling: from pre-production, shot composition and lighting to continuity editing and post production audio.

This course will provide an overview of the theories, tensions, and debates within the study of critical media literacy as it applies to K-12 classrooms and community organizations. Current practical and analytic research in this area will be examined. This course has a required civic engagement component; students will work with and on behalf of youth in the community on media literacy-related projects. This course is one of the required courses for the Media Literacy Certificate and satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Comm majors.

The concerns, controversies, theoretical perspectives, and body of knowledge on the issue of violence on television, in video games, on the Internet and in social media are examined. All students will work in groups to conceptualize and carry out an original research project on the topic. Social science research studies on the topic of media violence comprise the weekly reading assignments, and students submit brief reflection papers on the main points from the readings each week.

This course blends interdisciplinary theory, analysis, research, applied practice, and creative exploration of the interconnections between fashion and storytelling.

This course combines reading and discussion with application of theoretically informed methods in the study of everyday social interaction. We will: 1) Read and discuss representative studies of social interaction and communicative behavior in cultural context. 2) Do graduated classroom and field exercises to assemble methodological tools and accumulate data for your final paper. The final paper will be based on accumulated data - especially recordings and transcripts - from your field site. Satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Comm majors.

This course will examine the different ways that communication and digital technologies are shaping notions of work and labor. We will engage with ongoing debates on topics such as the sharing economy (e.g., Uber/Lyft driving), microwork (e.g., Amazon Mechanical Turk), microcelebrity (e.g. YouTube stars and Instagram influencers), tech entrepreneurship both in Silicon Valley and other parts of the world, as well as the work that goes into making popular consumer technologies like the iPhone.

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.

This is a stand-alone independent study designed by the student and faculty sponsor that involves frequent interaction between instructor and student. Qualitative and quantitative enrichment must be evident on the proposed contract before consent is given to undertake the study.

This course draws together theory and research from the discipline of Communication, skills and interdisciplinary understandings developed through students' various general education courses, and their own insights as students, emerging leaders, and collaborators in the Peer Advising Program.