Courses
Link to the Catalog for Fall 2007 Courses
Special topics:
SPCM 396 (CRN 43398) Diversity In Organizations. 3hrs. Wright. Focuses on various components of diversity in organizations. Students will learn to think critically about organizational culture in relation to power, gender, race, social class, sexuality, and age. Topics to be covered include personnel, ethics, policies, staff needs and development, and relationships among colleagues. These topics and their links to organizational communication concepts such as assimilation and socialization and employee conflict and workplace satisfaction are examined.
SPCM 396 (CRN 30905) Mass Media and The Audience. 3hrs. Dixon. Presents information on how to conceptualize audiences, mass media use, and reception of media messages. This course also examines the character of the audience experience, uses and gratifications of mass media, social cognition, and studies of audiences as interpretive communities, such as rap music fans.
SPCM 396 (CRN 43402) The Rhetoric of Insults. 3 hrs. Conley. Insults and rebukes are part of a rich, but generally overlooked, tradition in the history of rhetoric. This course provides a brief survey of examples from Aristophanes to Zell Miller and explores the rhetorical and socio-political functions of vituperation. Students write short papers and prepare an analysis of an example of vituperation for an end of the term presentation.
SPCM 496 (CRN 35689) Communication and Leadership. 3 hrs. Lammers. Focuses on theories and research evidence regarding leadership and communication in small groups, in organizational and in institutional settings. The course includes a practicum on leadership in which students assess their own leadership behaviors and preferences using established and validated measures. Specific topics include leadership and gender, diversity, ethics, teams and culture.
SPCM 496 (CRN 35663) Race and Mass Media. 3hrs. Dixon. This course presents an overview of racial stereotypes in the mass media and the effects of stereotypical imagery on viewers. Discusses the structural and social origins of stereotypic media from multiple perspectives. The majority of the course focuses on published scholarship that systematically assesses the content and effects of racial representations from a social scientific perspective. Intersections between race, ethnicity, class, and gender will also be explored.
SPCM 496 (CRN 35675) Media and The Human Body. 3 hrs. Harrison. Explores the way the human body is portrayed within, and affected by, the mass media. The term “body” is broadly construed to apply to a wide range of corporeal issues that have been linked to identity, such as ability and disability, race, age, sexuality, social class, athletic prowess, and health. The effects of media portrayals on the bodies of audience members, especially effects on emotion, behavior, and health will be explored.
SPCM 496 (CRN 39890) Rhetoric of Globalization & Empire. 3 hrs. Shumate. Globalization has become a catch phrase in today’s popular culture. Everything from terrorist activities, to unstable markets, to the increasing growth of multinational corporations is attributed to globalization. This course delves into the organizational dynamics of globalization by examining three major types of organizations and their global dynamics: social movements, multinational corporations, and inter-governmental organizations (like the United Nations and World Health Organization). Students engage both current events and the academic debates related to globalization.
SPCM 496 (CRN35663) Rhetoric of Health. 3hrs. Jensen This course explores the rhetoric of health in the news, healthcare settings, and our day-to-day lives. Students will investigate how terms such as health and illness are defined in various contexts and how those definitions affect society and the individual. The class emphasizes the rhetoric of sexual education, health news coverage, and discourse about specific diseases. Special attention will be paid to how the rhetoric of health is intertwined with issues of gender, race, and class.
* SPCM 496 can be repeated provided topics are different.
** When enrolling in a 400 level course, make sure you are enrolling in the undergraduate CRN for 3 hours.
Link to the Catalog for Spring 2008 Courses
Special topics:
SPCM 396 Rhetorics & Practices of Crime, Punishment & Social Justice. 3hrs. Hartnett. Beginning in the late seventeenth century and continuing up to the present, Americans have argued about the death penalty and what it reveals about justice and freedom, opportunity and misfortune, good and evil, and race, class and gender. Studying arguments about the death penalty thus triggers related conversations about nothing less than the character of the United States.
SPCM 396 Diversity In Organizations. 3hrs. Wright. Focuses on various components of diversity in organizations. Students will learn to think critically about organizational culture in relation to power, gender, race, social class, sexuality, and age. Topics to be covered include personnel, ethics, policies, staff needs and development, and relationships among colleagues. These topics and their links to organizational communication concepts such as assimilation and socialization, employee conflict and workplace satisfaction will be examined.
SPCM 496 Health Communication: Organizational Processes. 3 hrs. Lammers. Considers the influence of management and administration of health care on communication processes involving providers and patients. Applies organizational communication scholarship to problems in the delivery of health services, including multiple health systems, government policy, finance, reimbursement, access to care, occupational satisfaction, patient satisfaction, clinical outcomes, the use of information technologies, and planning for population health. Emphasizes the influence of organizational settings on the core problems of delivering health services.
SPCM 496 Rhetoric of Health. 3 hrs. R. Jensen. Explores health rhetoric in the news, healthcare settings, and our day-to-day lives. Investigates how terms such as health and illness are defined in various contexts and how those definitions affect society and the individual. Special attention will be paid to how the rhetoric of health is intertwined with issues of gender, race and class.
SPCM 496 Communication and Globalization. 3hrs. Shumate. Globalization has become a catch phrase in today’s popular culture. Everything from terrorist activities, to unstable markets, to the increasing growth of multinational corporations is attributed to globalization. This course delves into the organizational dynamics of globalization by examining three major types of organizations and their global dynamics: social movements, multinational corporations, and inter-governmental organizations (like the United Nations and World Health Organization). Students engage both current events and the academic debates related to globalization.
SPCM 496 Communication and Governance. 3 hrs. Sulkin. This course explores political communication from an institutional perspective, focusing in particular on American national institutions (e.g., Congress, the Presidency, the Courts) and public policy. Specific topics include: the history of media-governmental interactions; the impact of the media on the behavior of political actors such as legislators and presidents; and the media's influence in the making of public policy (both domestic and foreign).
* SPCM 496 can be repeated provided topics are different.
** When enrolling in a 400 level course, make sure you are enrolling in the undergraduate CRN for 3 hours.