Comm 300's Class Schedule

Course Syllabus

Communication 300 INTEGRATING COMMUNICATION
A SURVEY OF COMMUNICATION THEORY, CONCEPTS, PRINCIPLES, AND PRACTICES

I.WHAT IS COMMUNICATION? CONSTITUTIVE THEORIES

Week 1: Sept. 3-5 A. INTRODUCTION What is communication? Subject areas included in communication. What is theory & method? - in social sciences and in arts-humanities
Reading - Ch. 1: "The Communication Process: An Overview" pp. 4-31

Week 2: Sept. 10-12 B. INTRODUCING COMMUNICATION PROCESS/CONTEXT Segments: source, message, medium, receivers, feedback Micro and macro levels: face-to-face and mediated interpersonal, interactional, organizational specialized media, mass media History: contextual levels to processual frames pre-human, oral, print, and electronic eras
Reading: Ch. 2 "Verbal Communication, Part 1" pp.32-47 Ch. 3 "Nonverbal Communication" pp. 66-97

Week 3: Sept. 17-19 C. SPECIALIZATIONS IN COMMUNICATION Communication careers, arts, and student organizations Emphases and specializations in the School of Communication, SDSU

Paper #1: "Describing a Communication Experience" - due Sept. 19

II. ON WHICH LEVELS DO WE THEORIZE COMMUNICATION? COGNITIVE, MICRO, AND MACRO THEORIES

Week 4: Sept. 24-26 A. THE INTRA-PERSONAL DOMAIN OF COMMUNICATION - COGNITION, EMOTION, AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCE Perceiving, interpreting, feeling, thinking, speaking, writing Central concepts and principles of communication within the individual Human information processing vs. psychoanalysis The psychology of communication
Reading: Ch. 13 "Communicating in a Multicultural Society" pp. 362-393

Week 5: Oct. 1-3 B. MACRO COMMUNICATION ACTIVITIES AND THEORIES Communication technologies: aural, print, electronic relays Institutional/Structural factors economic/corporate, political, sociological, cultural Making media: journalism, TV-film, advertising, public relations International and intercultural Central concepts and theories of macro (mass) comm
Reading: Ch. 8 "Communicating with Media" pp. 220-247

Week 6: Oct. 8-10 C. MICRO COMMUNICATION ACTIVITIES AND THEORIES Expressing: informing, creating, criticizing, ritualizing, affecting Regulating: negotiating, managing, coordinating, decision-making Connecting: bonding, networking, conversing Central concepts and principles of interpersonal comm Interaction as an analytic frame
Reading: Ch. 5 "Communicating Interpersonally" pp. 124-155

TEST #1 - TUES., OCT. 8

Week 7: Oct. 15-17 D. ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION Reading: Ch. 6 "Communicating in Small Groups" pp. 156-187 Ch. 7 "Communicating within Organizations" pp. 188-219
Ch. 11 "Coping with Conflicts" pp. 312-335

III. WHAT HAPPENS IN THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS? SPECIALIZED THEORIES

Week 8: Oct. 22-24 A. COMMUNICATION SOURCES: THEORIES OF AUTHORSHIP Sources of communication: individuals, artists, groups, institutions Relation of "author" to communication text, event, and interaction Television, film, and new media production News and information vs. fiction and arts Reading: Ch. 9 "Presenting Oneself Effectively" pp. 250-281

Paper #2: "Levels of Communication" - due Oct. 22

Week 9: Oct. 29-31 B. COMMUNICATION MESSAGES: LANGUAGE, TEXT, AND EVENT Human signs and codes: verbal and nonverbal Form and content of message design: semiotics, encoding-decodiing, structuralism, content analysis, polysemy, narrative, formalism vs. realism, rhetoric, postmodern pastiche Reading: Ch. 2 "Verbal Communication, Part 2" pp. 47-65 Ch. 10 "Influencing Others" 282-311

Weeks 10-11: Nov. 5-7, Nov. 12-14 C. COMMUNICATION CHANNELS: MEDIATION Traditional one-to-one and modern mass transmission media One-way vs. interactive technologies Theories of media proper: medium vs. message (McLuhan), gatekeeping, communication subsidies, political economy, information theory Organizational structures Theories of media control: libertarian vs. authoritarian liberal pluralism, hegemony, technological determinism Advertising and public relations Telecommunications and media management Reading: Ch. 14 "Understanding Mass Communication" pp. 394-429

TEST #2: TUES., NOV. 5

Weeks 12-13: Nov. 19-21, Nov. 26 D. COMMUNICATION RECEIVERS AND EFFECTS: AUDIENCES AND INTERPRETATION Varieties of receivers and audiences, reception theory Society and institutions: families, schools, medicine, politics, business Interpersonal influence, persuasion Theories of media effects: limited vs. powerful effects, uses and gratifications, diffusion, agenda-setting, cultivation, spiral of silence, ritual event Situational variables in interpretation: subjectivity, predispositions, group membership, timing, context Active reception and interpretation vs. ideological hegemony

Paper #3 "Paper #3" Due Nov. 19 (or in-class Dec.3)

(Thanksgiving Break)

IV. HOW DOES COMMUNICATION SITUATE MEANING AND CULTURE? CRITICAL THEORIES

Week 14: Dec. 3-5 IN-CLASS STUDENT PRESENTATIONS Week 15: Dec. 9-11 THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEANING IN HUMAN LIFE AND SOCIETY The art and science of communicating Inherited "essentialist" vs. postmodern "constructivist" positions Rhetorical, behavioral, social, and critical theories Cassirer "animal symbolicum" and Frankel "search for meaning" Review of central themes