Communication and Culture Major

The Communication and Culture major combines humanistic and social science approaches to the study of all aspects of human and mediated communication, including:

• the strategic application and implications of communication theories, tools, and techniques
• the institutions and industries engaged in the production and distribution of mediated content
• the receivers and their reciprocal relationship with such messages
• the media texts in their social, political, local and global cultural contexts

In our increasingly interconnected world, it is clear that the right words and images strategically chosen can be powerful instruments to help us move towards a more ethical world with greater social justice. The Communication and Culture major prepares the media professionals of tomorrow to use the power of mediated communication with responsibility, by training them to be critical consumers and ethical producers of mediated communication in all areas of their lives: personal, professional and civic.

The undergraduate program has three areas of concentration that students will explore:

• Communication Studies: Applications and Interactions
• Cultural Studies: Critique and Analysis
• Media Studies: Institutions and Audiences

Students take four classes in a primary concentration, and two each in a secondary concentration.

To declare a major in Communication and Culture, students must either have earned:

Option 1: 2.5 cumulative GPA + 30 earned credits

OR

Option 2: 2.0 cumulative GPA overall + 3.0 GPA in 2 CMS courses + 30 earned credits

• Qualifying CMS courses can include:
  • COMM 1000 + a major specific course (e.g., FITV 1501: Understanding Film)
  • OR
  • 2 major-specific courses (e.g., JOUR 1702: Introduction to Journalism + JOUR 2711: Intermediate Multimedia Reporting)

Effective March 2025, to declare a minor in Communication and Culture, students must have earned:

• 2.5 cumulative GPA overall + 30 earned credits + 3.0 in COMM 1000