BT天堂

This course provides a survey of the media and its function in today鈥檚 society. It introduces students to the basic concepts and tools necessary to think critically about media institutions and practices. In addition to the analysis of diverse media texts, the course considers wider strategies and trends in marketing, distribution, audience formation and the consequences of globalization. By semester鈥檚 end, students will understand the basic structures of today鈥檚 media and be able to provide advanced analysis that weighs the social and political implications of its products.

In this digital tools training course, students will learn skills and gain hands-on experience with a range of digital publishing tools to build and curate a web platform with compelling, sharable content. They will become familiar with key storytelling platforms and technologies including Wordpress, Tumblr, Vine, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. They will acquire hands---on experience with essential software including Adobe's Photoshop, Illustrator, Encoder, and Final Cut Pro; and they will learn to manipulate HTML and CSS with a basic Integrated Design Environment. In this highly hands---on course, students will learn basic web design and work collaboratively to create and launch a dynamic new digital brand online.

This course provides historical background to understand how contemporary communication practices and technologies have developed and are in the process of developing and reflects on what communication has been in different human societies across time and place. It considers oral and literate cultures, the development of writing systems, of printing, and different cultural values assigned to the image. The parallel rise of mass media and modern western cultural and political forms and the manipulation and interplay of the properties and qualities conveyed by speech, sight, and sound are studied with reference to the printed book, newspapers, photography, radio, cinema, television, new media.

What is globalization? Why study the media? What is the relationship between the media and globalization? What are the consequences of media globalization on our lives and identities? This course critically explores these questions and challenging issues that confront us today. Globalization can be understood as a multi-dimensional, complex process of profound transformations in all spheres 鈥� technological, economic, political, social, cultural, intimate and personal. Yet much of the current debates of globalization tend to be concerned with 鈥渙ut there鈥� macro-processes, rather than what is happening 鈥渋n here,鈥� in the micro-processes of our lives. This course explores both the macro and the micro. It encourages students to develop an enlarged way of thinking 鈥� challenging existing paradigms and providing comparative perspectives.

The skills learned in this course will prepare students for upper-division communication courses, and provide students with basic research methods in the field of communication. Students will become familiar with a range of research methods (survey, interview, ethnography, discourse, and political economy.

Studies rhetoric as a historical phenomenon and as a practical reality. Considers how words and images are used to convince and persuade individuals of positions, arguments or actions to undertake, with particular attention to advertising, politics and culture. Studies the use of reason, emotion, and commonplaces, and compares visual and verbal techniques of persuasion.

The senior thesis research seminar allows students to work in a small group setting with a professor,where they draw from and hone research methods and theories they have learned in the Global Communications major and across their entire BA education. It culminates in a major piece of primary research that the student presents to an audience of peers and faculty.he seminar is designed to demonstrate cumulative knowledge, while teaching advanced research skills valued in the workforce and necessary for graduate school. The thesis is required for students seeking honors in the major.

In consultation with a faculty member, the student undertakes a senior project related to the field or pratice of journalism and media production. Written projects are normally 25-30 pages. The project can take the form of a feature-length magazine article, a long-form piece of video or audio journalism, a multi-media production including iconography and illustrative material, or a strategic business plan for a journalism or media product such as a magazine or online platform. (https://aupforms.formstack.com/workflows/senior_project)