Communication

Degrees and Certificates

Classes

COM 8001 : Qualitative Research Methods

Qualitative approaches to communication research including phenomenology, ethnography, rhetorical criticism, and semiotic analysis. Emphasis on the performative turn in ethnography and alternative forms of ethnographic writing. Primary work consists of semester-long original study. With Departmental permission, this course can substitute for Senior Project.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

COM 8008 :Y

COM 8002 : Quantitative Research Methods

Fundamentals of quantitative communication research. After reviewing the philosophy and practice of social scientific inquiry, students engage in research design and execution, thematic and statistical inference, and presentation of research results.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

COM 8008 :Y

COM 8003 : Internship in Communication

Internships at area businesses and organizations supervised by a faculty member. Graduate students may only take this course once.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 and COM 8100) and (COM 8001 or COM 8002)

COM 8004 : Communication Directed Study

Individual research project in an advanced area of communication, conducted under the guidance of a faculty member. Requires permission of Program Director.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 and COM 8100) and (COM 8001 or COM 8002)

COM 8005 : Special Topics

Contemporary topics in communication. Taught on an occasional basis to reflect critical and changing debates and inquiries in the discipline. NOTE: Graduate Director Approval for all student registrations will be required.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8006 : Thesis Direction I

Independent capstone research experience under the direction of a graduate faculty advisor. Satisfactory completion requires a successful defense of a prospectus. Requires permission of Program Director.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

COM 8001 and COM 8002 and COM 8008 and COM 8100

COM 8007 : Thesis Direction II

Independent capstone research experience under the direction of a graduate faculty advisor. Satisfactory completion requires a successful defense of a completed research project. Requires permission of Program Director.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

COM 8001 and COM 8002 and COM 8008 and COM 8100

COM 8009 : Personal Brand Promotion

Discover and develop your personal brand. Engages comprehensive strategies and competitive advantages in many areas of self-promotion in Communication.

Credits

1

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8010 : Becoming an Academic

Prepares Master's students interested in academic professions. Introduces students to the life of an academic, the PhD experience, the job search process, preparing and presenting research through conferences and publications, building an academic reputation, and developing a Curriculum Vitae (CV).

Credits

1

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8011 : Health Promotion Messages

Guides students through process of planning and strategy development; developing and pretesting concepts, messages, and materials; implementing program, assessing effectiveness and making refinements.

Credits

1

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8013 : IGR Dialogue

Sustained, co-facilitated, social justice-oriented pedagogical approach helps participants broaden perspectives, identify shared meaning, and build relationships across different social and cultural identities. Learn tools of intergroup dialogue while experiencing and theorizing about the dialogic process. Learn more at www.villanova.edu/igr.

Credits

1

Prerequisites

COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8100 : The Communication Perspective

Grounds students in communication theory by introducing them to theoretical and ethical issues involved in strategic discourse. Tracing historical and contemporary issues in the development of communication study, the course examines meaning-making and its consequences in various contexts.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

COM 8008 :Y

COM 8101 : Performance Studies

Examines performance across contexts: public to interpersonal, verbal to nonverbal, stage to everyday life. Uses performance, rhetorical, and cultural studies theory to experience the strategic nature of performance in aesthetic, political, interpersonal, organizational, and cultural contexts. Emphasizes both analyzing and creating performance.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8102 : Persuasion and Advocacy

Using the principles of persuasion from classical and contemporary rhetorical theory and criticism, students engage message analysis and construction; audience/situational analysis; and strategic oratory.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8200 : Teambuilding & Small Group

Theories of small group communication; methods for conducting small group research; models of group development; group processes (e.g., decision-making, conflict, coordination); effective group functioning and processes in varied organizational contexts; practice-oriented team-building strategies; effective and shared group leadership; individual, team, and organizational outcomes.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8201 : Health Communication

Examines interpersonal, organizational and mediated communication in various health domains. It includes a review of relevant health communication theory and methods to inform such areas as developing and evaluating public health campaigns, doctor/patient communications, and communication about health in organizations.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8203 : Org. Research & Consulting

Course is designed to prepare students to understand and analyze organizations as researchers and to prepare them to conduct consulting interventions in organizations as communication consultants.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8204 : Conflict & Negotiation

The role of communication in the development and management of conflict and negotiation; types of conflict, resolution strategies, and power relationships. Applications may include intercultural/international conflict; conflict in organizations; and conflicts between and among stakeholders.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8205 : Intercultural Communication

The origin of culture, different paradigms and research methods, intercultural communication in various contexts, and migration experience. Topics include cultural dimensions; individual differences; interpersonal and intergroup interactions; cultural shock and adaptations; communication competence; and conflict management.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8206 : Diversity & Organizing

Explores the relational, axiological and cultural implications of communication practices in the negotiation of difference and social identity as central to the organizing process.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8207 : Organizational Communication

Centrality of communication to organizing and practices of organizational life. Theoretical and historical perspective on organizational structure and culture, communication networks, decision making, socialization, training, consulting, and workplace democracy.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8208 : Public Communication Campaigns

This course explores a variety of public communication campaigns and case studies in the field of public relations including examples in media relations, crisis communication and planning. Following the review of cases, student teams are created and spend the remainder of the semester developing a professional communication campaign for a client. The final project is a presentation of this overall public relations plan.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8209 : International Public Relations

This class explores public relations theory, research, and practice in an international context.Through various readings, writing assignments, and discussions, students will develop a body of knowledge that should help them in future work as a communication scholar or professional.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8210 : Leadership Communication

Study of effective leadership. Examines communication environment and organizational politics. Participant model of leadership; group/team observation and participation.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8211 : Communication and Identity

Examines the communication negotiation of and struggle over identity in different contexts. Draws on specific theoretical works/traditions to explore areas such as gender, race, sexuality and class.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8212 : Communication and Advocacy

Acquaints students with ways of critically assessing the use of communication for social, economic, and/or cultural transformation. Course will incorporate perspectives from at least one of the following areas: rhetoric, critical/cultural studies, communication campaigns, organizational communication or media studies.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8300 : Public Relations Writing

Areas covered include journalistic style of writing; targeting audiences, practice in fundamentals and media relations techniques. Students will create portfolio writing samples, e.g. industry standard news releases, pitch letters and features, Q&A documents, crisis statements and position papers.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8301 : Strategic Public Relations

The course explores the foundation of public relations, including history/evolution, media relations, client relationships, working with management, ethical counsel and crisis communication, as well as core concepts in PR writing. Students also engage PR planning skills, such as creating appropriate, goal-driven strategies and tactics, while taking on a client and presenting a PR plan for review and critique.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8302 : Advertising

Advertising campaign planning, including research, audience segmentation, strategy, creative development, execution, media planning, and evaluation; advertising & IMC; brand development; new and non-traditional advertising; digital advertising, client management; advertising & society.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8303 : Mass Media Industries

Surveys media industries - newspaper, film/home video, broadcast television, cable television and the Internet - focusing on how consumer demand, technology and government policies interact to affect industry behavior. Examines audiences as products of mass media industries.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8304 : Journalism

Covers principles of journalism through theoretical, methodological, critical, and practical lenses. Areas of study include history, ethics, production, consumption, impact on individuals and society, content, and industry structure, all with an emphasis on the current and future state of journalism in the new media environment.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8305 : Media Literacy

This course examines the reciprocal relationship between culture and technology in the emergence of communication media. Students explore socio-cultural, economic, historical, and philosophical perspectives relevant for understanding the conjunctures in which media as technologies are problematized in culture and society.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8306 : Media Production

Provides an overview of the video production experience for those who want to include media production in business, advocacy, research and education.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8307 : Visual Communication & Culture

Theoretical and methodological introduction to the study of images as communicative and cultural phenomena. Theories of the image; implications for visual communication and culture; analysis and production of images in a variety of media and contexts.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8308 : Theories & Effects of Mass Com

Social scientific investigation of media effects and history of mass communication research. Globalization of mass media, direction and impact of new forms of communication, emerging media technologies and media convergence.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8309 : Public Opinion

Influences of strategic communication on attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of message recipients. definitional, ethical and methodological issues; rhetorical and social scientific approaches to opinion and attitude change; application to advertising, public relations, politics, and health communication.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8310 : New Media

Covers new media from multiple perspectives including communication theory, the history of technology, cultural studies, and software studies. Topics include eletronic media, digital media, markets, platforms, and algorithmic culture.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8313 : Communication Directed Study

Individual research project in an advanced area of communication, conducted under the guidance of a faculty member. Requires permission of Program Director.

Credits

1

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 and COM 8100) and (COM 8001 or COM 8002)

COM 8314 : Photoshop

Introduce students to Adobe Photoshop software. Learn how to use Photoshop to alter existing images, to create new material, such as banners or logos.

Credits

1

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8315 : Video Shooting Lab

Designed to give students who already have a basic understanding of video shooting a chance to explore issues of lighting, framing, lens choice, white balance, and shutter speed.

Credits

1

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8316 : Audio Production

Introduce students to the technology and related issues in the production of audio-only work. Combined theory and production lab devoted to developing critical and theoretical skills around sound and focusing on technology and software.

Credits

1

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8317 : Basic Web Design

Covers the basic concepts of web design and the technologies used to create interactive media.

Credits

1

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8318 : Crisis Communication

Essential strategies and tools needed by professional communicators. Proven techniques for crisis statements, talking points for media interviews, briefs for management and legal counsel and message vehicles for the post-crisis environment. Agency teams formed to manage crisis through developed materials.

Credits

1

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8319 : Cultural Studies

Introduces students to interdisciplinary area of Cultural Studies. Explores Cultural Studies' intellectual influences, emergence in the post-war era, and proliferation thereafter, with particular attention to its relevance for the study of communication.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8320 : Digital Media Design

Designed to provide a broad-based overview of the Media Arts & Design industry, focusing on the research, strategies and methods that go into designing and preparing media for consumption via a variety of delivery methods (including traditional mass media, online, and mobile devices). Students will gain a theoretical understanding of and practical experience with: digital photography and videography, web design and development, and multimedia production.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8321 : Critical Studies in Advert.

Students examine the reciprocal relationship between culture and commerce in understanding advertising. Students examine the socio-cultural, ontological, economic, historical, and philosophical perspectives relevant for understanding advertising as cultural expression. Through historical and contemporary examples, students explore the social significance of advertising practices and products.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8322 : Audience Analysis

Introduction to audience analysis including review of services provided by media research organizations and procedures of applied survey research for the media.

Credits

3

Prerequisites

COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y and COM 8002 :Y

COM 8403 : Spec Top in Applied Organ Com

Concentrated workshop in a specific area of applied organizational communication. Possible topics include: facilitating participation in organizations, leading diversity and social change, multicultural leadership for training teams and conflict mediation processes.

Credits

1

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 :Y and COM 8100 :Y) and (COM 8001 :Y or COM 8002 :Y)

COM 8405 : Internship in Communication

Internships at area businesses and organizations supervised by a faculty member. Graduate students may only take this course once.

Credits

1

Prerequisites

(COM 8008 and COM 8100) and (COM 8001 or COM 8002)

COM 9001 : Portfolio

Students select, revise, and expand projects undertaken during graduate coursework at Villanova. Students reflect on and showcase application of a communication perspective to specific aesthetic, ethical, intellectual, or social problems.  Public defense is required for successful completion of course.

Credits

3

COM 9080 : Thesis Continuation

Continuation of supervised research for students writing master's theses. Permission of Chair or Graduate Director required.

Credits

0

Prerequisites

COM 8001 and COM 8002 and COM 8008 and COM 8100