Communications

Degrees and Certificates

The Bachelor of Arts program of the Department of Communications provides students with two pathways through which to engage the world: journalism/media and digital video making. Students in a particular concentration may, and are encouraged to, take courses in the other concentration in order to enhance their experience. Graduates in the Communications major at Felician University will be able to:

  • Demonstrate proficiency in critical thinking, clear and precise oral and written communication, and integration of knowledge and skills from courses both inside and outside of the department;
  • Demonstrate proficiency in both traditional and electronic resources, and apply and demonstrate this proficiency in original work of a fictional or a documentary nature, either visual or journalistic;
  • Articulate the media's power to enhance and to obstruct the lives of the individual and society, and demonstrate a willingness to embrace those positive influences of the media and to expose those which are harmful.

Introductory level courses in each concentration provide thorough introductions to the specific fields for majors, minors, and students from other fields as well. Upper level courses challenge students to apply the basic knowledge gained through the introductory courses in carefully designed areas of specialization. The course sequence within each track culminates with a Senior Capstone Project, which is designed by the individual student with the guidance of a full-time member of the department’s faculty, and which will bring into clear focus the student’s expertise in his/her field, incorporate the knowledge and skills gained from courses outside the department, and reflect the student’s embrace of Franciscan values and the College’s mission.

All majors select between the two following concentrations:

Classes

COMM 103: Public Speaking

Credits 3
Extensive training is offered in voice projection, enunciation, articulation, and oral communication skills. Students will study the structure of successful speeches; they will research content for and deliver speeches in dramatic, historical, biographical, narrative, explanatory, persuasive, and extemporaneous formats.

COMM 106: Mass Media

Credits 3
A critical study of the mass media: newspapers, magazines, advertising, radio, television and film. Students are also introduced to the theories and techniques of effective communication.

COMM 110: Writing for Media

Credits 3

This course will provide a thinking- and exercise-intensive review of the basics of grammar, diction, syntax and writing style, with an emphasis on communicating through the print, broadcast and online media. The mechanics of news, features, editorial writing and interviewing as well as the ethics behind word choice will be presented. Adherence to the Associated Press Stylebook will be stressed.

COMM 115: Introduction to Digital Media Studies

Credits 3

This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to digital media studies, exploring the relationships between old and new media forms, and the ways that emerging technologies are reshaping industries, interpersonal relations, culture, and who we are as humans. Students will examine central debates in digital media studies related to issues of social justice, and experiment first-hand with dominant platforms and practices to better understand the shifting digital mediascape.

COMM 120: Film Analysis

Credits 3

The course studies the cinematic narrative structure of motion pictures by providing shot-by-shot analysis of several films. The discussion focuses on the filmmaker's creation of a motion picture’s rhythmic, as well as dramatic, structure through the composition of the shot, the role of movement both within the individual shot and from shot to shot, as well as the effect of sound on the visual images.

COMM 125: Digital Skills

Credits 3

This hands-on course introduces practical skills students need to be professional and successful digital content producers and storytellers. Students will gain experience with cutting-edge multimedia tools and techniques in producing words and images, audio and video, and interactivity. Students will produce high-quality professional content and narratives suitable for publication in online contexts and reputable media sites.

COMM 140: Introduction to Theatre

Credits 3
An introduction to the basic principles of theatre. The theatre utilizes varied methods of discourse in order to explore all aspects of theatrical production. The course will explore the work of the people who make theatre, from actors and playwrights to designers, critics, and audience members. The course will explore theatre terminology and basic theatre history. As theatre is a collaborative art, students will participate in the numerous tasks in putting on a production, including working collaboratively with other members of the class.

COMM 150: Media Analysis

Credits 3

This course studies the narrative structures and genre conventions of multimedia texts including but not limited to film, television, advertisement, music, and social media. The discussion focuses on the linguistic, visual, and narrative elements that shape meaning and representation in each medium. Students will develop analytical skills for interpreting and contextualizing media texts and genre.

COMM 205: Sounding Off: Culture and Production

Credits 3

Sound is fundamental to communication and, more broadly, to our perceptions of the world around us. This class introduces students to sound studies through an interdisciplinary approach to issues of culture, power, and the practice of digital audio production. Blending theory with hands-on practice, students will learn digital audio recording, composing, and editing software and how to present and distribute audio content via the Internet. Students will apply their knowledge of sound production and technology through assignments that engage with Felician University’s Radio Station as well as the I-lab.

COMM 210: Journalism

Credits 3
A thinking and writing-intensive introduction to journalism, considering the mechanics of news writing, news features, editorial writing, interviewing, and deadlines, as well as the ethics of reporting and the philosophy behind how stories are presented.

COMM 215: Broadcast Journalism

Credits 3
An introduction to the various forms of broadcast journalism, including radio and television. Special attention will be given to the specific requirements in research and presentation that each medium requires.

COMM 220: Writing for Media

Credits 3

This course will provide a thinking- and exercise- intensive review of rhetorical techniques and writing style, with an emphasis on persuasive communication. The mechanics of writing advertising copy, social media content, media pitches, and public relation campaigns, and the ethics behind word choice will be presented.

COMM 221: History of the Motion Picture: Fiction Films

Credits 3
A comprehensive overview of the international narrative cinema from the 1890s to the present. Each week there will be a screening and in-class analysis of one or more essential films from the country, movement, or period under discussion. The course examines film not only as an industrial, technological, political and social phenomenon, but especially as an art form. The course emphasizes cinema’s artistic genealogy and relationship to other art forms, including painting, literature, theater, and video.

COMM 222: History of the Motion Picture: Documentary Films

Credits 3
The course traces the evolution of the documentary from its early fascination with daily life and the lyrical documentaries of the 1930s through WWII propaganda films and the socially conscious films of the mid-century to the investigative reporting and personal essay forms of recent decades. The course examines the documentary not only as a technological, political and social phenomenon, but also as a form of artistic, personal expression. The course emphasizes documentary’s relationship to other non-fiction media such as journalism.

COMM 226: History of Broadcasting

Credits 3
A critical study of broadcasting, its historical development, and its impact on American culture. The eras of radio, television, and the Internet will be the principal areas of study. Through readings combined with historical audio and video, students will understand the roots of contemporary broadcast entertainment and information templates and strategies as developed in the media of the 20th century and as enhanced by contemporary digital technology. The course will also explore broadcasting as a profit center or conglomerate corporations and will critique broadcasting’s civic responsibilities during war and peace to bring the nation together and to give the people a voice.

COMM 230: Screenwriting I

Credits 3
An introduction to the craft of screenwriting through an examination of the principles, structure, and practice of writing for film, with special attention to the structure of individual scenes, the creations of characters, and the writing of dialogue. The student studies scenes from completed films to analyze the interaction of dialogue, action, and cinematic technique.

COMM 231: Screenwriting II

Credits 3
The course continues the study of the craft of screenwriting through an examination of plot and character in a screenplay for a short film. The student studies scenes from completed films to analyze the interaction of dialogue, action, and cinematic technique.

COMM 240: Videomaking I

Credits 3
This course acquaints the student with film/video language. The student reads basic texts of film/video theory and begins applying the ideas contained therein to an understanding of film and videomaking. This course also instructs the student in basic motion picture narrative techniques through the production and editing of three two-minute videos and one five-minute video, either fictional or documentary, as the student chooses. In producing these videos, the student learns and follows the standard pre-production, production, and post-production practices.

COMM 241: Videomaking II

Credits 3
This course continues the student’s study of film language by integrating the techniques and technology learned in COMM 218. The student is also introduced to various advanced techniques of sound and image editing. The work centers on three short exercises and the planning, shooting, and completion of a fifteen minute film, either documentary or fiction.

COMM 247: Acting I

Credits 3
The course introduces the student to the basic acting techniques. Students will learn techniques for improvisation, monologue, and multi-character scenes. Exercises to utilize the voice and body will be explored to help create a character.

COMM 248: Acting II

Credits 3
Students will work on taking the character from the page to the stage. Extensive monologue, improvisation, theatre games, and scene study work will facilitate the use of the body and voice to formulate characters and create truthful moments on stage. Comparison of the various major acting techniques will be presented.

COMM 250: Data and Society

Credits 3

Data practices infuse every aspect of contemporary life, from commerce and communication, to what it means to be a person in the digital age. This course will introduce students to the social and cultural forces shaping the construction and uses of data and algorithms. We will question how the datafication of society relates to broader issues of power, social justice, and inequality, and analyze ethical, emancipatory, and empowering uses of the technology. Students will leave the course with a better appreciation of the social implications associated with the use of data and algorithms.
The course welcomes students with a variety of backgrounds including information science and business students, interested in learning about social, political, and ethical implications of their field, as well as students with humanistic, and communications backgrounds interested in learning about the technology behind digitally mediated experience.

COMM 300: Research Methods in Communications

Credits 3

This course is designed to provide students with an introduction to qualitative research methods and techniques in Communications. The course will cover topics including sampling methods, multimodal content analysis, questionnaire design and implementation, interviews, focus groups, participant observation, and archival research. Students will develop their ability to review existing literature and to construct their own research. This course is ideal for students interested in pursuing careers in fields such as public relations, marketing, user experience, or media ethics.

COMM 310: Investigative Journalism

Credits 3
The course will study the process of researching and writing a news story. Examples of historically significant news stories will be studied while students research stories of their own. Special attention will be given to research and interview techniques.

COMM 316: Seminar in Broadcasting

Credits 3
The course will study the history and evolution of the modern broadcast newsroom. It will also provide: work as editor, producer, writer, reporter and anchor in a simulated newsroom setting; manage staff and editorial meetings which will determine story selection and assignments; write “teasers,” headlines and stories; report from the “field” and the anchor desk.

COMM 341: Videomaking III

Credits 3
The course is designed to advance the student’s knowledge of and experience with lighting and sound recording for digital video production begun in ENG 218 and ENG 219 by focusing on the physical properties of light waves and sound waves and the technology used to capture both on videotape and manipulate them in postproduction.

COMM 347: Practicum: Performance

Credits 3
This course is an advanced study of the craft of acting. It is a continuation of the work done in Acting 1 and 2. Students will have the opportunity to apply the skills they learned in their previous acting classes to a practical performance situation. They will spend a semester rehearsing a play and those rehearsals will culminate in a public performance. This course will give them the time to explore the process of creating a theatrical piece, and will ask them to create fully realized characters that go beyond the scope of one or two scenes.

COMM 401: Propaganda in Mass Media

Credits 3
The course examines the nature, history, techniques, and cultural impact of propaganda via original films and audio tapes from the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Hollywood, the US government in World War I and World War II, and Madison Avenue in concert with analytical readings from assigned texts. Special attention is given to the role of media, and the possible presence of propaganda, in American politics.

COMM 420: Independent Study

Credits 3
With instructor’s approval, a student may pursue a course of independent study in a specific area of communications. The course will involve tutorial meetings with the instructor, independent readings, and an in-depth research project. Restricted to juniors or seniors and may be taken in situations when a schedule conflict prevents a student from taking a regularly scheduled elective.

COMM 425: The Films of Alfred Hitchcock

Credits 3
This course will introduce the student to the study of a single filmmaker over the span of his career. Alfred Hitchcock will be studied because of his unparalleled mastery of the medium for telling a story both through conventional narrative techniques and increasingly subtle and complex cinematic structures. The films will range from his earliest extant silent films through his final films, nearly fifty years later.

COMM 452: Internship in Communications

Credits 3
This course offers Communications majors the opportunity to work in the field of communications for a minimum of 120 hours during the semester. Students must complete all paperwork to register for the Internship at least one semester before; students will meet with the Career Center and complete the application that will be sent to their advisor and site supervisor. This application will then be filed in the Career Center. Students must register for the class with the Registrar as well. They will be required to write a paper that is relevant to the Internship and maintain a journal that reflects their experience; the site supervisor will complete an evaluation form on their performance. This is a Pass/Fail course.

COMM 460: Senior Project

Credits 3
This project represents the culmination of the student’s work in Communications at Felician University. As such, this requires the student to demonstrate full mastery of the various theories and technological skills on which the program focuses. The project reflects the student’s area of concentration within the major and involves the creation of a fictional or journalistic video, a work of investigative journalism, an original screenplay, or a work of scholarly research.

GAIM 400: Gaming and Interactive Media Project

Credits 3

Advanced IMD majors will complete the design and implementation of one of the following products on digital computer-based systems: application software as a tool for users such as a knowledge management platform; application software for mobile devices; games; virtual reality; pervasive games; interactive video; publications such as websites that allow users to navigate, communicate and participate; social media; interactive art; interactive advertisement; interactive cinema; etc. As the capstone experience, all products should demonstrate the student's mastery of the interdisciplinary aspects of GAIM, from programming skills to conceptual and artistic
sensibilities.