Department of Communication Studies

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Assistant Professor: Kidd, Department Head
Instructor: Whittemore

Mission

The communication minor at McMurry University seeks to develop communicators as advocates capable of bridging boundaries, whether they are cultural, professional, or technological.

Program Outcomes

The following program goals have been developed and recommended by the National Communication Association for communication studies and related programs:

1. Engage in Communication Inquiry: Formulate questions appropriate for Communication scholarship and engage in Communication scholarship using the research traditions of the discipline.
2. Create Messages Appropriate to the Audience, Purpose, and Context: locate and use information relevant to their audiences, purposes, and contexts; and select and present messages in creative and appropriate modalities and technologies to accomplish communicative goals.
3. Critically Analyze Messages: identify meanings that are embedded in messages, articulate characteristics of mediated and nonmediated messages, recognize the influence of messages, engage in active listening, and enact mindful responses to messages.
4. Demonstrate Self-Efficacy: articulate personal beliefs about abilities to accomplish communication goals and evaluate personal communication strengths and weaknesses.
5. Apply Ethical Communication Principles and Practices: identify ethical perspectives, explain the relevance of those perspectives, and articulate the ethical dimensions of communication situations. Students should choose to communicate with ethical intention, propose solutions for (un)ethical communication, and evaluate the ethical elements of a communication situation.
6. Utilize Communication to Embrace Difference: articulate the connection between communication and culture and respect diverse perspectives and the ways they influence communication.
7. Influence Public Discourse: frame and evaluate local, national, and/or global issues from a communication perspective and utilize communication to respond to such issues and advocate for courses of action.

Programs

• Communication Studies, BA

• Communication & Ministry Minor
• Communication Minor

Courses

• COMM XX99 - Special Topics
• COMM 334(A-C) - Topics in Professional Communication
• COMM 336(A-D) - Topics in Rhetoric
• COMM 1310 - Principles of Communication
• COMM 2330 - Business & Professional Communication
• COMM 2335 - Communication Theory
• COMM 2345 - Public Speaking
• COMM 2350 - Argumentation & Advocacy
• COMM 3305 - Intercultural Communication
• COMM 3345 - Internet, Media & Society
• COMM 3355 - Communication and Diversity
• COMM 3369 - Topics in Rhetoric
• COMM 3375 - Argumentation & Persuasion
• COMM 3380 - Conflict Management
• COMM 4335 - Communication Ethics
• COMM 4388 - Internship in Communication

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