The School of Communication offers an M.A. in Communication Studies. Full-time students typically take two years to complete the program. For information about the application process, please visit our Applying page.[Back To Top]
Graduate class of 2008
The M.A. in Communication Studies provides advanced study of language, interaction, and communication in relational, cultural, and societal contexts. Individuals in the specialization draw from international developments in critical and cultural studies to explore culture and communication, develop a deeper understanding of the intercultural and international dimensions of communication, and explore communication as an interactive process across diverse social relationships, activities and contexts. The program of study prepares students for scholarly or applied careers in communication.
Students in the Communication Studies specialization have a program of study with the following characteristics:[Back To Top]
| Core Theory and Methods | 1 Course |
| Courses within the Specialization | 4 Courses |
| Research Tools | 2 Courses |
| Electives | 2 Courses |
| Thesis or Additional Course | 1 Course |
COMM 601. Seminar. Theory & Research Methods in Communication
This seminar is an introduction to the history and trajectory of the field of communication and to the process of graduate study. During the semester you will begin your study of the discipline's scholarship, journals, professional associations, epistemological foundations and paradigmatic distinctions. You will also begin to develop a scholarly voice in your writing. This will be one of the most demanding, yet ultimately rewarding, courses you will ever take. We have developed this course to provide you with the tools you will need to survive and prosper in the graduate program and in the discipline of communication.[Back To Top]
COMM 610. Seminar: Advanced Communication Theory
This seminar critically examines the role of theories and meta-theories in the progress of social science generally, and of communication theories specifically. It examines (a) theory construction and evaluation, (b) evolution, social construction and accumulation of knowledge, and (c) influences of cultural, reflexive and anthropocentric biases (i.e., creating the world in our image) of scholarly thought. The course intends students. (a)To obtain an advanced understanding of the nature and function of theories in the endeavors of social science and the investigation of the empirical world; (b) To achieve an advanced comprehension of the tenets and comparative characteristics of communication-relevant theories and meta-theoretical perspectives; (c) To demonstrate ability to analyze, synthesize, compare and contrast relevant theoretical literature and ideas.[Back To Top]
COMM 620. Seminar: Quantitative Methods
This seminar examines the presuppositions underlying quantitative research methods such as experimental and survey design as well as the tools of analysis necessary to understand and interpret findings from such methodologies. In so doing, the knowledge and skills essential to the conduct of empirical research, data analysis, and interpretation will be developed. The emphasis is on hands-on experience in the use of the statistical tools available in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). This is partially achieved via the completion of in-class activities as well as 'learning-by-doing' assignments completed outside of class. The primary product from this course will be a small-scale individual or group research project and report of same.[Back To Top]
COMM 640. Seminar: Critical & Rhetorical Methods
This seminar explores critical methods for conducting research. We examine various rhetorical artifacts from a number of different theoretical lenses. Students learn to conduct rhetorical criticism and build rhetorical theory by completing a research project. Students also become familiar with various rhetorical forms, strategies, and different critical vocabularies. We will examine a number of different methods of rhetorical criticism spanning a broad range of ideological assumptions. [Back To Top]
COMM 660. Seminar: Ethnographic Methods
This seminar is designed as an introduction to ethnographic research along a continuum from art to science, with emphasis on the intersection of the two. The course is designed to pursue two goals. (a) to give an overview of ethnographic methods, including philosophical assumptions, issues, approaches, criteria for judging ethnographic work, and current exemplars, and (b) to assist students in “trying out” techniques and writing strategies as they compose their own research project. We learn how research techniques are interrelated with writing strategies. Students will collect data in the field by observing (writing field notes, videotaping, audiotaping) interviewing (videotaping or audiotaping), and investigating texts (documents, diaries, photographs, films, etc.). Students will try out varied writing/representation strategies, including. autoethnography, grounded theory, co-constructed narrative, interactive interviewing, creative non-fiction, poetry, fiction, and performance. [Back To Top]
COMM 665. Seminar: Conversation Analysis in Communication Research
Within the broad range of discourse approaches to the study of language and social interaction, this seminar focuses on the methods, techniques, and contributions of "Conversation Analysis" (CA) to an understanding of everyday communication. Particular attention will be given to ongoing analysis of audio/video recordings, and transcriptions, of diverse conversational activities and events. While seminar activities will involve lectures and discussions of relevant literature, the bulk of our time and efforts will be given to “data/listening sessions” – repeated, informally rigorous, and grounded attempts to identify and substantiate patterns of human conduct-in-interaction. The grist for our mill, then, are naturally occurring interactions and transcriptions, submitted to repeated listenings and discussions. The semester and seminar will be divided into two related halves. In Part I, we will begin by examining the basic working and methodological assumptions of CA. An emphasis will be given to storytelling activities in everyday life. In Part II, emphasis will be given to research projects selected by seminar participants. [Back To Top]
COMM 706. Seminar: Organizational Communication
This seminar examines internal organizational communication and to a lesser degree external communication, in terms of organizational structure and networks; organizational culture; power, control, and politics; organizational identification; organizational socialization; corporate advocacy; organizational empowerment and spirituality, assessment of organizational communication systems, and global organizational communities. The seminar explores theory development and research methods as they apply to the organizational communication literature. [Back To Top]
COMM 707. Seminar: Instructional Communication
This seminar examines communication in the instructional setting, as it applies at various educational levels, specifically in terms of teacher verbal and nonverbal immediacy, communication apprehension, student motivation, cultural factors, power differentials, instructional modalities, distance learning, technology advancements, and computer-mediated communication. [Back To Top]
COMM 715. Seminar: Nonverbal Communication
This seminar examine the richness of nonverbal human behavior, including the sending and receiving of body movements, gesture, touch, vocalic, chronemics, eye behavior, facial expressions and proxemic behavior and how they work in conjunction with language.. It examines how these nonverbal message codes communicate gender, power, culture, deception, warmth, anxiety, stress, immediacy, emotion, and intimacy. While the focus is on face to face behavior the effects of mediated nonverbal cues are also examined. The opportunity to conduct original research is included in the course. [Back To Top]
COMM 721. Seminar: Health Communication
Health communication is a field of study that encompasses theories, research, and applications of the symbolic processes by which people, both individually and collectively, understand, share ideas about, and accommodate to health and illness. This seminar is designed to be an overview of significant concepts and issues that have emerged in health communication scholarship. The sources for this scholarship are interdisciplinary, but the core of our attention will be focused on the communicative implications of the personal, cultural, and political complexities of health. Emphasis is placed on health beliefs, practices, policies, and the core communication competencies of a health citizen. Students will develop a research project in a health communication context of their own choosing. [Back To Top]
COMM 735. Seminar: Relational Communication
This seminar seeks to probe the communicative processes by which human relationships form, maintain, experience, enjoy, actualize and terminate human relationships. The focus is on friendships, romances, sexual relationships, marriages, and families. Process of attraction, uncertainty reduction, intimacy, relational maintenance, relationship stages, love, sexuality, intimacy, transgression, privacy, relationship dialectics, relational politics, conflict, and disengagement are examined in depth. The course includes an opportunity to conduct original research. [Back To Top]
COMM 740. Seminar: Rhetorical Theory
This seminar explores different ways of thinking about the role and importance of rhetoric in the field of communication. In this class we explore a number of different perspectives on rhetoric and human communication in an attempt to better understand historical and contemporary theories of rhetoric. Rhetorical theory undergirds the practice of human communication. Definitions of “rhetoric” vary widely but all assume that language is, in one way or another, an important and fundamental tool of persuasion, information exchange, and thought. We will endeavor to develop a theory of rhetoric that is both intelligent and informed which describes an understanding of rhetoric by examining and evaluating the theories of various rhetorical theorists. To that end, we will critically examine the work of a number of different theorists, practitioners, philosophers, and thinkers. [Back To Top]
COMM 745. Seminar: The Rhetoric of Women’s Rights
This seminar explores the rhetoric that constitutes the movement for women’s rights in the United States. Roughly divided into three “waves” of activism, we begin by exploring the rhetoric of the women’s suffrage movement (1848-1925) before turning to the revival of feminist thought in the rhetoric of the 1960s and 70s. We contrast these earlier veins of feminist thinking with contemporary feminist rhetoric and the current movement to enhance equality for both women and men. Various forms of rhetoric including speeches, pamphlets, books, consciousness raising activities, magazines, blogs, ‘zines, music and art comprise the data we examine more closely. [Back To Top]
COMM 750. Topics: Comm & Emotion
The seminar in Communication and Emotion deals with the production of emotional expression, the inherent communicative nature of emotion, the relationship of emotion and cognition, and the reception of emotional information. We will examine the evolution and biology of emotion, the socialiation of emotion, and cultural display rules of emotion. [Back To Top]
COMM 750. Topics: Comm & Leadership
This seminar is designed to explore current theory and research on the communicative aspects of leadership behavior in various contexts. The sources of leadership scholarship are interdisciplinary and this course reviews a wide spectrum of lenses and methodologies through which leadership has been viewed. Ultimately, attention will be focused on the communicative implications of leadership. Students will develop a research project on a leadership topic of their choosing. [Back To Top]
COMM 750. Topics: Performance Studies
Performance Studies is an interdisciplinary scholarly practice that critically examines the embodiment and enactment of written and spoken human communication in a variety of social and cultural contexts and practices, including ritual, play, narrative, storytelling, folklore, and popular media. More generally, performance studies scholars employ multiple methods--primarily ethnography, critical textual analysis, and performance--to study the ways humans enact and embody their identities and relationships in everyday life. Besides producing a conference-ready original research paper or project, students will also engage weekly readings through written and performed responses. [Back To Top]
COMM 751. Seminar: Dark Side of Relational Comm
The "dark side" of communication, taken broadly, is a primitive metaphor intended to represent at least three basic claims regarding human relations. (a) Those aspects of communication that are normatively or expertly taken to be destructive, dysfunctional, evil, immoral, malicious, criminal, abusive, exploitative, lunatic, or otherwise really icky, naughty or not at all very nice. (b) Those aspects of communication that are ideologically or presumptively viewed as dark, but should not be (e.g., things presumed to be bad that function to produce preferred outcomes). (c) Those aspects of communication that are imbued presumptively and ideologically with goodness or badness, but should not be (i.e., things presumed to be good that function to produce dispreferred outcomes). (d) Those aspects of communication that are simply poorly understood, lying in the shadows of scholarly activity, staying in the darkness of ignorance. [Back To Top]
COMM 752. Seminar: Gender and Communication (may be repeated with different content)
In this seminar gender is not viewed as a nominal, demographic variable (male/female), but instead gender is viewed as the fabric of life, socially constructed and ever changing through communication. Organizing shapes gender and gender shapes organizing through communicative practices including talking, constructing identities, displaying bodies, and any other forms of expression (art, politics, play, parenting, etc.). Taking a social constructivist and postmodern perspective on gendering and organizing, we will identify and as much as possible deconstruct dominant, hegemonic meanings of gender, race, and sexuality. Our ultimate aim is to search for, find, create, and shape alternative, more egalitarian ways of organizing in the modern workplace. [Back To Top]
COMM 755. Seminar: Public Address (may be repeated with different content)
This seminar deals with rhetoric and the American Presidency. We will examine the interaction of presidential communication, the public and the institution of the presidency. In this examination we will explore the concept that the president, the public in whose name the president acts and the media are rhetorical constructions. As we will explore, that rather simple proposition has some rather dramatic implications for political life in this country. [Back To Top]
COMM 771. Seminar: Intercultural Communication
This seminar focuses on the study of interpersonal communication among individuals from different cultural backgrounds. The course provides an advanced understanding of the relevant scholarly literature; emphasizes the various theories, perspectives, and
approaches to the study of intercultural communication; provides a survey of concepts, processes, and variables that affect encounters among people from different cultures; and examines the research issues relevant to the study of intercultural communication phenomena. Analysis of cultural influences on human communication acts. Emphasis on cultural values, perception, social organizations, language, and nonverbal codes. [Back To Top]
COMM 780. Seminar: Communication & Politics
This seminar will help acquaint you with some of the research pertaining to contemporary political communication events and processes, with a particular focus on electoral campaign communication and presidential rhetoric. [Back To Top]
COMM 783. Seminar: Medical Interaction
This seminar focuses on communication in medical interviewing. A variety of types of clinical encounters will be examined, with primary focus given to patient-oncologist interactions. Opportunities will be provided to work with diverse literature, and to analyze naturally occurring video recorded interactions involving cancer patients, family members, and doctors. All (or most all) sessions will involve repeated and informal analysis of video recorded and transcribed medical interviews. The overriding focus of the seminar will be to begin to discover the kinds of interactional patterns providers and patients co-produce throughout medical interviews, particularly during visits within the Moores Cancer Center at UCSD. Emphasis will be given to making and analyzing "collections" of interactional phenomena, and seeking to substantiate their patterned nature. [Back To Top]
COMM 792. Seminar: Persuasion
This seminar examines theory and research in influence, persuasion, and compliance gaining across interpersonal, organizational, political and mediated contexts. Topics include classic theories of persuasion, principles conformity, liking, credibility, reciprocity, consistency, dissonance, commitment, self persuasion, authority, power, scarcity, emotional appears, cognitive factors, and fear. Focus on theories of influence and persuasion as well as practical applications is covered. [Back To Top]
COMM 798. Special Study (1-3 units) (C/NC)
Contract with professor required. Arranged with professor directing the special study and the Director of Graduate Studies to ensure it will count in the student’s planned Program of Study. Maximum of 6 units applied to the masters degree (if no outside of department course are taken). [Back To Top]