COMM 1210 Perspectives on Human Communication

Instructor Contact:

Name, Tajshen Campbell, Ph.D.

Email: tajshen.campbell@colorado.edu

About the Course:

This course is designed from a Master Template

This is an overview course designed to introduce you to the issues and ideas that are central to the study of communication. A basic assumption of most communication research is that conversation, images, and language matter; they both reflect and define our social world. In this course, we will consider how our ways of communicating with one another are tied to who we think we are and to our relationships with others. We will also think about how institutions, such as business, government, and the media, influence communication between individuals and within society as a whole. Our survey of the area of communication will involve two important facets. First, we will introduce you to some of the most compelling questions and applications of communication scholarship with the hope that this will provide a forum for thinking about the role of communication both in your day-to-day life and in the engagement with important social issues. Second, we will work to help you acquire a specialized vocabulary for describing and analyzing communication events. Learning a specialized vocabulary is beneficial because it allows us to step back from our everyday experiences and see things from a different perspective.

Objectives:

• Evaluate communication, in both personal and public forums, in order to understand its potential impact.
• Critically examine how communication practices, at the personal, institutional, and societal levels, reflect our social norms, and play a role in defining the nature of our society.
• Recognize the field of communication broadly and the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado specifically.
• Describe the broad range of research and theoretical work carried out by communication scholars.

Required Texts:

• Textbook: O’Hair, et al. (2019). Real communication: An introduction. Plymouth, MI: Bedford/St. Martin’s. (University of Colorado Edition)
• Additional Media
• Supplemental Readings

Grading (out of n points):

• Out of 1000

• • Discussion (250 pts.)
  • Midterm Exam (150 pts.)
  • Reflection Papers (300 pts.)
  • Reading Quizzes (100 pts.)
  • Final Exam (150)
  • Community Engagement & Participation (50 pts.)