Topics vary from year to year.

This course requires students to research, create, and deliver speeches on topics and issues that reflect personal beliefs and values. In doing so they discern diverse materials, consider logical and ethical demands, and analyze their audience in order to create socially and globally responsible rhetorical messages.

This course introduces students to the importance of communication within organizations. Organizational communication theory is discussed as it relates to climate, dyads, small group, public, and mediated communication. Students apply theory in several business writing and speaking assignments.

Leadership Communication introduces students to the art, science, and practice of influencing and being influenced by others in diverse contexts. The course explores the role of communication in building credibility, exercising power, motivating, and expressing one's leadership style. It also considers the topics of followership, the ethics of leadership, leadership development, and leading in times of crisis. The course serves as a foundation for future studies in the leadership communication stream within the Department of Media and Communication.

In this course, students examine the role of public relations within and among various sectors of society including business, government, and nonprofit organizations. Case studies are used to illustrate the profession and practice of public relations where possible, and ethical standards in public relations are emphasized. Media, consumer, employee, and community relations, as well as ethical standards in the public relations industry are examined.

The journalistic principle of serving the public interest has been understood as serving one's own public, social class or nation. With the global reach of media, journalism's public becomes the citizens of the world. How are ethical principles of objectivity, balance and independence understood in a global context? How can journalism help citizens understand local, national, and global problems such as poverty, environmental degradation, technological inequalities and political instability?

An active exploration of graphic design essentials, creative ideation methods, and visual communication techniques. Students use creative thinking methodologies to experiment with a wide range of design approaches, evaluate the aesthetic and conceptual value of specific design solutions, and sharpen their creative, critical thinking, and perceptual skills.

This introductory course in the art and craft of digital video production familiarizes students with the classical approach to cinematic aesthetics and techniques. Students work individually and collaboratively as they produce, shoot, and edit short films. Emphasis is placed on analyzing films from a filmmaker's perspective.

Course covers the art of cinema as it explores issues and ideas related to the study of film as an aesthetic, moral, textual, social, and technical art. In doing so, it will help students investigate and discover how to read and interpret narrative film from a variety of perspectives. It will also give students the opportunity to create short films that explore cinematic expression from a hands-on perspective.

This writing-intensive course orients students to the demands of academic research and writing within the media and communication major. By course completion, the diligent student should be able to write lucid, academic, and researched prose in the genres of cultural critique, scientific reporting, and term papers. Central to the course are the twin emphases of critical thinking strategies and research methods in the information age.