Communication and Media Studies
The Communication and Media Studies (CMS) program prepares students to become discerning media consumers, producers, critical thinkers, confident speakers, skilled writers, and creative storytellers. CMS is an interdisciplinary field that draws from programs and departments on campus to enable students to study a wide range of topics and develop critical academic and professional skills including media and information literacy; persuasive writing; public speaking; strategic communication; critical analysis; project management; and research design and execution.
CMS is a versatile and flexible major that pushes students to expand their understanding of human communication, culture, and social institutions. The knowledge, understanding, and skills students acquire in CMS prepares them for a wide range of opportunities after graduation--in grassroots organizations, non-profits, global media companies, political offices, legal professions, journalism, education, and everything in-between. CMS students critically assess information sources, address issues of representation and equity in media and communication systems, and learn to communicate effectively in a variety of media channels to a range of different audiences. These skills make our graduates not only exceptionally qualified for a wide variety of careers, but prepared to engage in the world thoughtfully and ethically, with a broad understanding of what it means to be a responsible global citizen.
Distribution Credit in CMS
Student can complete their Humanities Distribution credit with CMS courses. Students taking one Humanities course can take CMS 101 Intro to Communication & Media Studies or CMS 201 Contemporary Popular Film & TV. Students who choose to take two Humanities courses must take both CMS 101 Intro to Communication & Media Studiesand CMS 201 Contemporary Popular Film & TV.
Meghan Grosse, Chair
Stephanie Brown
Affiliated Faculty
Dale Daigle
Richard De Prospo
Heather Harvey
Caroline Le Bon
Kenneth Schweitzer
CMS SCE Senior Capstone Experience 2-4 Credits
The Senior Capstone Experience is an intensive research or creative project on a topic chosen by the student and guided by a faculty mentor. Students typically complete the Capstone in the spring of their senior year. However, planning for the SCE begins in the spring of their junior year with the submission of an SCE application during advising week. The Capstone is graded Pass, Fail, or Honors.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
CMS 101 Intro to Communication & Media Studies 4 Credits
This course introduces students to core issues in communication and media studies, examining theories and models of communication, the relationship between media and society, and the histories and trends in newspaper, music, television, film, advertising, and electronic and digital technologies. To accomplish this, the course explores key problems, scholarly paradigms, and theoretical formulations through materials drawn from academic scholarship, the popular press, and multimedia.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
CMS 150 Public Speaking 4 Credits
Class presentations, job interviews, internships: pubic speaking is part of our everyday life. This course teaches students the main principles of public speaking; practice in composition, delivery, and criticism of informative, persuasive, and entertaining speeches. Particular attention is paid to speaking with media and public speaking in a digital world.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
CMS 190 CMS Internship 4 Credits
Internships provide opportunities for students to experience hands-on learning in a position or work environment connected to the study of CMS. Students wishing to complete an internship must establish an agreement with a faculty advisor and register for internship credits before beginning their internship. Internships are graded on a Pass/Fail system. 45 hours are required per credit.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
CMS 191 Introductory Podcasting Practicum 1 Credit
The Communication and Media Studies Practicum at Radio Free George gives students the opportunity to develop hands-on skills in podcasting production. Students who participate will develop original programming that will be distributed through various podcasting platforms. Students are encouraged to think broadly and creatively about the topic/s for your program. No previous podcasting or production experience is required to participate.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
CMS 194 Special Topics 4 Credits
Special Topics courses are courses outside of the normal departmental offerings that are chosen based on student interest and faculty expertise. Students may repeat Special Topics courses if they have different titles.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
CMS 200 World Cinema I 4 Credits
Understanding contemporary moving image culture and media-from YouTube, to Snapchat, to IMAX-requires a working understanding visual analysis. The history of cinema provides the best way to comprehend and contextualize the moving image in popular culture. This course is a history of world cinema from film dawn to post WWII cinema (roughly 1895-1960) which present the films of this era in a way that understands them as integral works within an historical visual landscape. This course emphasizes understanding filmmaking form (how to watch a movie), aesthetics, and filmmaking techniques, and analyzing content/narrative. Lab required for film screenings.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Even Years
CMS 201 Contemporary Popular Film & TV 4 Credits
This course teaches students to develop a critical understanding of the role of popular movies and television in their own lives and in U.S. culture. The course looks at issues of the relationship of media to social violence, gender identities, sexual identities, technology, minority cultures, and the role of the U.S. media globally.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Odd Years
CMS 202 World Cinema II 4 Credits
A continuation of World Cinema I, this course looks at film history roughly from 1960-present, presenting various modes of international cinema production and its contemporary evolution as closely interconnected. Covering the US, the UK, Italy, Czech, Senegal, Algeria, Japan, India, and France, we place an emphasis on hybrids of all these 'national' styles, as well as challenging the politically charged notion of national cinema itself. Secondly, we explore how changes in global contemporary filmmaking evolved the US film industry and helped to challenge Hollywood's global dominance. Thirdly, we trace how new industrial channels exposed regional and 'minor' film industries to global audiences. Lab required for film screenings.
Requisites: Pre or co-req: CMS 200
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
CMS 205 Persuasion: The User Experience 4 Credits
This course examines persuasion as a communicative strategy. Attempts at persuasion surround us everywhere: in the advertisements we see, in the messages we receive on social media, in the debates we have over meals, and even in the layout of our grocery stores. Students consider the history of persuasion in mediated and non-mediated contexts and the ways in which technology keeps users clicking, watching, and participating. In addition to practicing critical analysis of persuasive messages, this class encourages the production of original persuasive content that is both effective and ethical.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
CMS 220 Global Media & Technology 4 Credits
This course examines the structures and impacts of global communication networks. We consider the economic, cultural, political, technical, and environmental consequences of increasingly globalized media. We discuss early work in the field of international communications and continue through to contemporary discussions of global media networks. Throughout the semester, we examine how different entities wield power and assert influence in this global media landscape and how digital technologies can be used to both challenge and reaffirm those existing hierarchies.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
CMS 224 Introduction to Journalism 4 Credits
This course will cover the foundations of reporting, writing, fact checking, and editing. Other topics such as the history and ethics of journalism will be discussed.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
CMS 250 Intermediate Comm & Media Theory 4 Credits
Theory may seem like a scary word, but theory helps us to make sense of the world. Theories shape how we understand reality, relationships, and the media around us, and aids in creating media of our own. Theory tells us more about how we communicate every day, provides tools for deeper comprehension of our media landscape, and prepares us for lives consciously lived. This course exposes students to the major theories of communication and media studies, their application to the academic and professional inquiry in the field, and their importance in everyday life. The course also teaches students to write in and across the field, and prepares them for upper level critical, analytical, and theoretical based communication and media studies thinking and research.
Requisites: Pre-req: CMS 101
Term(s) Offered: Fall, All Years
CMS 260 Video Editing 4 Credits
This course introduces students to the art and craft of video editing and to the editor's role in bringing stories to life for the audience. A good video editor draws on artistic, technological and organizational skills in cutting and assembling a video that emotionally connects to an audience. Students will acquire and develop these skills using the various tools and techniques of editing during hands-on workshops and in project-based learning. Although other editing software can be used, this course focuses on Davinci Resolve 18, which combines editing, world-class color grading, visual effects, motion graphics and audio post-production all in one software tool. It is free and works on both Windows and MacOS. No previous experience in video production or video editing is required.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, All Years
CMS 261 Video Production 4 Credits
This course introduces students to the major filmmaking disciplines including producing, directing, cinematography, production design, sound and editing. Through workshops there will be hands-on opportunities to develop skills with filmmaking tools including cameras, sound and lighting equipment, and editing software. Students will produce their own videographic workover the course of the semester. Prior experience in production and/or editing is not required.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
CMS 290 Comm & Media Studies Internship 4 Credits
Internships provide opportunities for students to experience hands-on learning in a position or work environment connected to the study of CMS. Students wishing to complete an internship must establish an agreement with a faculty advisor and register for internship credits before beginning their internship. Internships are graded on a Pass/Fail system. 45 hours are required per credit.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
CMS 291 Intermediate Podcasting Practicum 1 Credit
The Communication and Media Studies Practicum at Radio Free George gives students the opportunity to develop hands-on skills in podcasting production. Students who participate will develop original programming that will be distributed through various podcasting platforms. Students are encouraged to think broadly and creatively about the topic/s for your program. This intermediate-level practicum requires previous experience in podcast production and/or the completion of CMS 191.
Requisites: Pre-req: CMS 191
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
CMS 294 Special Topics 4 Credits
Special Topics courses are courses outside of the normal departmental offerings that are chosen based on student interest and faculty expertise. Students may repeat Special Topics courses if they have different titles.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
CMS 297 Independent Study 4 Credits
An agreement between a sponsoring faculty and a student letting the student study a topic of interest not offered at WC. 45 hours are required per credit.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
CMS 300 Creative and Information Economies 4 Credits
This course introduces students to the political economic approach to communication and media studies and considers its application to specific media and entertainment industries. To understand media content, media technologies, and the economies built around them, we must look more deeply at the effects commercialization and corporate concentration have on these systems. In this course, we will consider issues like privacy, citizenship, globalization, labor, alternative media, digital media, and the ways in which we construct shared culture through media.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, Non Conforming
CMS 301 Research Methods in CMS 4 Credits
This course is designed to introduce students to the quantitative and qualitative research methods used to study communication and media. We will focus on critical analysis, evaluation, study design, research ethics, the application of research to everyday decision-making, and what communication and media research can tell us about phenomena in the world around us. This course treats students as CMS practitioners, which means they are expected to participate in the recursive process of scholarly inquiry and apply their skills to formulate research questions, study design, and research implementation.
Requisites: Pre-req: CMS 250
Term(s) Offered: Fall, All Years
CMS 302 Qual& Descrptve Mthds in Social Sciences 4 Credits
This course provides an overview of qualitative and descriptive research methodologies shared across various fields in the social sciences. You will explore the epistemological underpinnings of qualitative and descriptive research, develop an understanding of researcher positionality, learn about ethics as they relate to research with human subjects, and deepen your critical and close reading skills as they apply to understanding methodological decision making in the social sciences. This class will develop your abilities to read academic literature across the social sciences and across methodologies, write a literature review, conduct participant observations, surveys, and interviews, complete qualitative and descriptive data analysis, and write and present a research study. Student researchers will finish the class with the ability to employ a range of theories and methods including: survey development, ethnography, grounded theory, phenomenology, case study, narrative inquiry, content and discourse analysis, social media research, and archival research.
Requisites: Pre-req: CMS 250
Term(s) Offered: Spring, All Years
CMS 315 International Cinema 4 Credits
Study of European film and its history. Special attention is given to the various dimensions of film structure and criticism, with emphasis on foreign language films (with English subtitles). Selected films are viewed and analyzed.
Cross-listed as: Ilc*305/Cms*315
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
CMS 317 German Cinema (English) 4 Credits
Explores the history and cultural background of German cinema, its topics, forms of representation and relationship to main issues of German history; major themes, movements, and trends, and the construction of identity and difference with special focus on gender. Apart from the historical and narrative context of the films, we will also consider how movies produce meaning and how our perspectives as viewers are guided. While this course is not an introduction to Film Studies, it will give students a general idea how to think and write about film in a critical way. Films are screened outside of class; if students cannot attend the screenings, they must watch the films before the class discussion on their own time.
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Non Conforming
CMS 334 Media and Politics 4 Credits
This course explores the role of the media in politics from various perspectives, providing an overview of the following: the history of media in the United States; the legal issues that relate to the media; the impact that the media has on public opinion; the substance (or lack of substance) of the media's coverage of the news, government and elections; biases of the news media; and the increasing conglomeration of the news media through mergers. Throughout the course, these issue areas will be discussed in a larger context involving questions of freedom, representation, and political participation.
Requisites: Pre-req: POL 102
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Non Conforming
CMS 338 Narrative Journalism 4 Credits
A study of narrative journalism, what is required to tell a story thoroughly, and how to determine the best form for the story. Narrative journalism blends in-depth reporting and research, investigative journalism, first-person perspective, and narrative writing. Includes reading the genre, researching, reporting, writing, recording, giving constructive criticism, and revising.
Requisites: Pre or co-req: ENG 221
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Even Years
CMS 339 History of Journalism Ethics 4 Credits
Traces the history of journalism ethics through challenges to and practices of ethical journalism, as students research, report, present, analyze, write, and revise to demonstrate the knowledge they gain. Topics include yellow journalism, muckraking, new journalism, gonzo journalism, the use of anonymous sources, new new journalism, and fake news.
Requisites: Pre or co-req: ENG 221
Term(s) Offered: Spring, Odd Years
CMS 354 Visual Anthropology 4 Credits
The goal of visual anthropology is to immerse students in the study and production of ethnographic media and documentary film. We will begin by exploring the varied genres of historical anthropological documentary which range from salvage ethnography to ethnofiction and include more recent attempts to empower cultures by encouraging them to visually capture their own unique social, political and expressive worldviews. We will also examine and critique other cultural forms of visual media ranging from film and photography to petroglyphs and tattoos. Once we have an understanding of the varied approaches to media production, students will engage in the creative process of developing an idea for an ethnographic film, storyboarding, shooting film, and editing complete ethnographic documentaries.
Term(s) Offered: Fall, Even Years
CMS 370 The Harlem Renaissance 4 Credits
This interdisciplinary seminar examines African American literature and intellectual thought of the 1920s and 1930s. Take this course and learn about different conceptualizations of the black aesthetic, and about the impact race, class, and gender had on key figures like Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, and Wallace Thurman.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
CMS 390 Comm & Media Studies Internship 4 Credits
Internships provide opportunities for students to experience hands-on learning in a position or work environment connected to the study of CMS. Students wishing to complete an internship must establish an agreement with a faculty advisor and register for internship credits before beginning their internship. Internships are graded on a Pass/Fail system. 45 hours are required per credit.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
CMS 394 Special Topics 4 Credits
Special Topics courses are courses outside of the normal departmental offerings that are chosen based on student interest and faculty expertise. Students may repeat Special Topics courses if they have different titles.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
CMS 397 Independent Study 4 Credits
An agreement between a sponsoring faculty and a student, letting the student study a topic of interest not offered at WC. 45 hours are required per credit.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
CMS 401 Film Theory 4 Credits
This course engages with, uses, and challenges various theoretical ideas and approaches to film. Throughout the semester, we address questions such as: What is cinema, and what are film studies? How do we relate to and interact with films? What are the relationships among film and the larger global society? We discuss the historical and cultural context in which particular theories emerged and learn the language of idea-inflected film criticism. Additionally, we look at how film studies have used influenced and theoretical lines of thought such as Marxism, semiotics, formalism, psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, feminism, critical race theory, sexuality studies, queer theory, and critiques of neocolonialism. Class includes screening time.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Non Conforming
CMS 450 Current Issues in CMS 4 Credits
The Senior Seminar fosters rigorous reflection on students' CMS training while exploring continuing debates in the field. This course requires students to critically reflect not only on their research topics, but to provide critical feedback to peers. Students will complete written and oral work in anticipation of and preparation for embarking on their Senior Capstone Experience. Beyond this, students will collaborate to develop an accessible resource on a current topic in the field and spend time preparing for job and/or graduate school applications.
CMS 460 Book History & American Print Culture 4 Credits
This course surveys the interdisciplinary field of book history, with an emphasis on American print culture from the nineteenth century to the present. Students explore topics related to the creation, publication, dissemination and reception of American print communication (e.g., books, periodicals, and newspapers). Students also learn and practice advanced research methods used by literary historians and print culture scholars.
Term(s) Offered: Other, Odd Years
CMS 490 Comm & Media Studies Internship 4 Credits
Internships provide opportunities for students to experience hands-on learning in a position or work environment connected to the study of CMS. Students wishing to complete an internship must establish an agreement with a faculty advisor and register for internship credits before beginning their internship. Internships are graded on a Pass/Fail system. 45 hours are required per credit.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
CMS 494 Special Topics 4 Credits
Special Topics courses are courses outside of the normal departmental offerings that are chosen based on student interest and faculty expertise. Students may repeat Special Topics courses if they have different titles.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years
CMS 497 Independent Study 4 Credits
An agreement between a sponsoring faculty and a student, letting the student study a topic of interest not offered at WC. 45 hours are required per credit.
Term(s) Offered: All Terms, All Years