The Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies at the College at Florham is an interdisciplinary liberal arts major that prepares students for a wide-range of communication careers as well as for advanced academic study.

The BA in Communication Studies requires students to take courses in media studies, organizational communication, global communication, and writing, which introduce them to major areas of study and practice. Cognate courses in visual and performing arts, sociology, psychology, marketing and management provide additional perspectives on communication issues and practices.

The Bachelor's degree culminates in an internship in a communications-related firm where students acquire real-world experience. Many internships have resulted in employment opportunities after graduation. Graduates of the program are employed throughout the northeast in a variety of corporations as editors, writers, technical writers, marketing representatives, public relations specialists, assistant producers, among others. Many students have gone into teaching and the law.

Required Courses (18 Credits)

COMM 2001 Introduction to Communication Studies

This course examines the diverse range of phenomena that make up our everyday experience of communication and bring to bear critical theoretical traditions to help us consolidate and make sense of such phenomena. The structure of the course reflects the fact there are two main schools in the study of communication. The first sees communication as the transmission of messages. It is concerned with how senders and receivers encode and decode and sees communication as a process by which one person affects the behavior or state of mind of another. The second school sees communication as the production and exchange of meanings. It is concerned with how messages, or texts, interact with people in order to produce meanings and examines the roles of texts in our culture.

COMM 3018 Mass Communication

This course examines the use and impact of the varied communication media that are now available. It explores the history of and contemporary trends in print, broadcast and digital media, and investigates issues of media ethics, censorship and media law as well as the social and psychological impact of the mass media.

COMM 3019 Global Communication

This course surveys a broad range of communcation issues related to the area of globalization. It explores international, intercultural, and multicultural communication and diversity issues related to gender, race and ethnicity, the role of technology and the impact of the "global village" on the nature of work. Time is also spent exploring how globalization has led to compressions of time and space, and significant changes in our social relationships. Finally, students engage in several cultural immersion projects in order to experience firsthand the impact globalization has on the communication that takes place in their every day lives.

COMM 3022 Communication Research

A field such as Communication defines itself by the integrity of its research. To be capable of reading and making contributions to a field's literature, it is essential that a student have a working knowledge of research methods. This course is designed to help students develop skills to critically interact with the discipline's research through an examination of the fundamental concepts and terminology of social science research.

COMM 4005 Literary and Communication Theory

This course considers the contribution and impact of literary theory within contemporary communication studies. It examines perspectives such as semiotics, hermeneutics, phenomenology, structuralism, and post-structuralism and explores what literary theory contributes to our understanding of human communication processes.

COMM 4001 Communication Internship

The communication internship requires a minimum of 150 hours of work in a communications-related position, e.g. public relations, advertising, journalism, broadcasting, corporate communications, etc. The final grade is based on the student's log, a written evaluation from his or her supervisor, and a final evalation paper.

If you have any questions about the BA in Communication Studies, please email the Department Chairperson, Dr. Jennifer Lehr, at jennifer@fdu.edu.

This page last updated on March 26, 2009, by Gary P. Radford.