COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT THESIS/CAPSTONE
2013 - 2014
All Communication majors complete a senior thesis or capstone course in their senior year.
Thesis students complete substantial papers based on their original research.
Capstone students make films, write feature-length magazine articles, or create public relations materials for a real-world client. Students emerge from thesis or capstone with an example of their best work, suitable for including in applications for jobs and graduate school.
PREREQUISITE INFORMATION
All students enrolled in any section of thesis/capstone must complete the following lower division required courses before taking thesis/capstone:
□ COMM 1 (Introduction to Interpersonal Communication)
□ COMM 2 (Introduction to Media Studies) or 2GL (Introduction to Global Media Studies)
□ COMM 12 (Technology & Communication)
□ COMM 20 (Public Speaking)
□ COMM 30 (Introduction to Digital Filmmaking)
□ COMM 40 (Introduction to Journalism) or 40 EL (Introduction to Journalism- Experiential Learning)
• There are additional prerequisites for each thesis/capstone section. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have completed them before the quarter in which you plan to take thesis/capstone. Enrolling in a prerequisite during the same quarter as thesis/capstone doesn’t count.
• Acceptance into any thesis/capstone section is contingent upon the student successfully completing all prerequisites prior to the quarter in which the student is enrolled in thesis/capstone. A student who drops or fails a prerequisite will not be eligible to take thesis/capstone and will forfeit their slot in a thesis/capstone section.
• Please plan accordingly and give yourself enough time to complete these courses.
FALL 2013
• Thesis: Open Topics (Soukup)
WINTER 2014
• Thesis: Games and Civic Life (Raphael)
• Thesis: Organizational Communication (Boren)
SPRING 2014
• Thesis: Media and Global Citizenship (Chopra)
• Thesis: The Science of Happiness (SunWolf)
• Capstone: Digital Filmmaking (Mahamdi)
• CANCELED--Capstone: Journalism (Kelley)--CANCELED
• Capstone: Public Relations (Barr)
FALL 2013
OPEN TOPIC (THESIS)
Professor: Paul Soukup
Students will pair up and pick a topic per the approval of the instructor. Each team will complete a research paper and give an oral presentation of their research.
Prerequisites
• All COMM lower division requirements (COMM 1, 2/2GL, 12, 20, 30 and 40/40EL)
• COMM 110 or 111
• At least one COMM List A course
WINTER 2014
GAMES AND CIVIC LIFE (THESIS)
Professor: Chad Raphael
We learn to collaborate with others in large part through play – in school playgrounds, sports teams, and families. Recognizing this, educators have often employed games and simulations for learning, including Model United Nations, moot courts, and mock elections. Today, there is growing interest in harnessing young people’s fascination with computer games to teach social studies, politics, law, and history. Organizations are designing ways of training employees, engaging the public, and making decisions that are patterned after digital games. Thus, people are increasingly participating in public life and community service through games and simulations that can have an impact on the real world. How can we best take advantage of these tools to empower youth to learn, to develop their public voices, and to influence the public sphere? How should these media be designed? How can research help us answer these questions? Students need not have extensive experience in playing or studying learning games because we will conduct our research collaboratively. As a class, we will design and conduct a common study. In two-person thesis teams, students will have an opportunity to draw on the data gathered by the whole class and to add their own research questions to the study. This will allow us to gather and analyze our own original data in a short period of time, making the thesis experience manageable for all of us. It will also offer the freedom to identify additional questions that each team wants to pursue.
Prerequisites
• All COMM lower division requirements (COMM 1, 2/2GL, 12, 20, 30 and 40/40EL)
• COMM 110 (Quantitative Research Methods)
• At least one COMM List A course. Recommended (but not required) courses include:
COMM 120A (Environmental Communication)
COMM 122A (Media and Advocacy)
COMM 123A (Media and Youth)
COMM 125A (Media Audience Studies)
COMM 163A (Internet Communities and Communication)
COMM 170A (Communication Law)
COMM 172A (Communication and Sport)
COMM 183A (Communication, Development and Social Change)
COMM 185A (New Media and Communication)
• Recommended (but not required) List B course:
COMM 161B (Communication Media and Technology in Education)
ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION (THESIS)
Professor: Justin Boren
Humans have an inherent need to organize into collectives that attempt to accomplish a common goal. In doing so, the collective constitutes an organization through the use of communication. In this course, we will take an in-depth exploration of organizations through the lens of communication. Specifically, we will explore how and why organizations are constituted, the benefits and pitfalls of organizing, and the impact of the organization on its direct and indirect stakeholders. We will read and discuss original research on organizational theory, development, and behavior. We will also explore contemporary organizational communication topics, including some of the following: organizational culture; gender, sexuality, and ethnicity in organizations; stress, burnout, and social support; work and life engagement/interaction/interface; emotion labor; bullying and mobbing; socialization; decision-making; bargaining and negotiation; training and development for organizations; positive organizational communication; qualitative and quantitative organizational communication research methods.
As a class, we engage in these research topics through extensive discussion, reflection, and critique. Students will be expected to read original research articles. Students will work in pairs (or alone) to design and implement a qualitative or quantitative data-driven research paper on organizational communication. Students will present their findings to a larger audience at the end of the course.
Prerequisites
• All COMM lower division requirements (COMM 1, 2/2GL, 12, 20, 30 and 40/40EL)
• COMM 110 (Quantitative Research Methods)
• COMM 111 or 111G (Qualitative Research Methods)
• COMM 151A (Organizational Communication) is the preferred prerequisite. Students can, with prior approval of the instructor, take one of the following courses (in order of preference) instead of COMM 151A to meet this prerequisite: PSYC 157, MGMT 160, SOCI 127, or SOCI 149.
SPRING 2014
MEDIA AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP (THESIS)
Professor: Rohit Chopra
In our interconnected world, we are increasingly faced with the question of what it means to be a global citizen. Broadly encompassing notions of global belonging, awareness, engagement, and responsibilities, ideas of global citizenship converge but also clash with national, regional, ethnic, and religious identifications and sentiments. This course examines the opportunities and challenges presented by media in shaping understandings of global citizenship. Media such as print, cinema, television, and the Internet foster mutual understanding and solidarity across borders but also contribute to tensions and conflict between groups and peoples through the perpetuation of stereotypes, propaganda, and misinformation. We will examine how media in our global present profoundly shape our sense of ourselves as members of local, national, and global communities connected through an intricate web of similarity and difference. Paying particular attention to the ethical implications of media constructions of global citizenship, we will assess how the unequal power structures of global media might prioritize certain issues and perspectives as more worthy of global attention and might marginalize or ignore other issues.
Prerequisites
• All COMM lower division requirements (COMM 1, 2/2GL, 12, 20, 30 and 40/40EL)
• COMM 111 or 111G (Qualitative Research Methods)
• At least one COMM List A course. Recommended (but not required) courses include:
COMM 126A (Violence and Communication)
COMM 163A (Internet Communities and Communication)
COMM 179A (The Internet, Faith, and Globalization), COMM 180A (Global Audiences)
COMM 181A (Global Media Industries)
COMM 182A (Global News Issues)
COMM 183A (Communication, Development and Social Change)
COMM 184A (Postcolonial Identity and Communication)
COMM 185A (New Media and Communication)
COMM 187A (Cinema in the Age of Globalization)
• Recommended (but not required) List B course:
COMM 186B (Global Interpersonal Communication)
THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS (THESIS)
Professor: SunWolf
When we get what we wanted, why doesn't that always make us happy? Our relationships are embedded in the pursuit or loss of happiness. Topics include the transient nature of happiness, our brain’s biological happiness system, the effects of tragic or fortunate events, mental blind spots, compassion, prosocial behavior, gratitude, flourishing, and the pursuit of pleasure. We will look at how happiness is affected by winning or by losing, as well as why predicting our future happiness (when we choose mates, careers, or material acquisitions) is flawed. Students will gain an understanding of what might (or might not) bring them and those they care about sustained happiness—for decisions they will be making throughout their lives.
This senior seminar will extend the interdisciplinary review of research and theories from COMM 100A. Students will select one interpersonal issue of interest to them in which to apply our new readings, synthesizing and extending what is known about happiness to explain the challenges and issues within that social issue. No partner is needed. Final projects involve individual work, but other assignments will involve working in small teams that will teach an outside class or group about research from the emerging scholarship in the Science of Happiness and demonstrate how it explains specific issues in our relationships.
Prerequisites
• All COMM lower division requirements (COMM 1, 2/2GL, 12, 20, 30 and 40/40EL)
• COMM 110 (Quantitative Research Methods) and COMM 111 or 111G (Qualitative Research Methods)
• COMM 100A (The Science of Happiness)
• One additional advanced interpersonal course from among the following:
COMM 102A (Persuasion)
COMM 104A (Group Communication)
COMM 105A (Multicultural Folktales and Storytelling)
COMM 106G (Gender, Health, and Sexuality)
COMM 107A (Intercultural Communication)
COMM 108A (Communication and Gender)
COMM 109A (Friendships and Romances)
COMM 176A (Biology of Human Communication)
COMM 186B (Global Interpersonal Communication)
DIGITAL FILMMAKING CAPSTONE
Professor: Yahia Mahamdi
The goal of the Digital Filmmaking Capstone is to produce quality short films in any of the following genres: documentary, fiction, poetic, experimental, or any combination of these modes of storytelling. Students work in small production groups of 2-3 to produce 15-minute films, ideally from scripts that have been written in COMM 130B.
In addition to the film projects, each student is required to write an essay outlining his/her overall vision as a filmmaker and how this vision helped frame their Capstone project. The essay will draw on theories and concepts such as mise-en-scene, montage, auteur theory, the long take, film reflexivity, defamiliarization, cinema verite, and observational documentary to link the student’s practical experience to the various theoretical concepts of filmmaking.
Prerequisites
• All COMM lower division requirements (COMM 1, 2/2GL, 12, 20, 30 and 40/40EL)
• COMM 130B (Global Screenwriting)
• Two of the film/television COMM List B courses from among the following:
131B (Short Fiction Production)
132B (Short Documentary Production)
133B (Expanded Cinema)
134B (Master Shot/Studio Production)
• One of the following advanced COMM courses related to film and television:
COMM 121A (Diversity and Media)
COMM 123A (Media and Youth)
COMM 125A (Media Audience Studies)
COMM 136A (Genre, Auteur & Narrative Strategies)
COMM 137A (Film History/Theory)
COMM 138A (Television History/Theory)
COMM 139A (Global Documentary)
COMM 162B (Visual Cultural Communication)
COMM 187A (Cinema in the Age of Globalization)
COMM 171A (Business of Media)
COMM 188A (The Fantastic in Film and Literature)
CANCELED--JOURNALISM CAPSTONE--CANCELED
Professor: Barbara Kelley
The goal of the journalism capstone project is to produce a 3500-word magazine piece of publishable quality on a significant community issue. Students are encouraged to view their final project as a portfolio piece they can use as evidence of superior writing/reporting ability when applying for graduate school, internships or media-related jobs. Students will submit a written story proposal, including a preliminary list of sources and projected reporting strategy; perform a comprehensive literature search; and thoroughly research the story via interviews, archival research, and first-hand observation. Students will also edit their peers’ work throughout the quarter, participate in class discussions, and submit multiple drafts of the final project. In addition to the finished magazine piece, students will write a reflection noting how previous journalism courses and class discussions, Communication and Core courses, and university experiences have all combined to inform their ability to complete their project. In the reflection, students will consider both ethics and audience.
Note: The pre-requisites for a journalism capstone do NOT require students to complete additional courses to graduate; students simply need to fulfill upper division COMM requirements in part by taking two List B journalism courses and one List A course related to journalism, media studies or multi-cultural communication.
Prerequisites
• All COMM lower division requirements (COMM 1, 2/2GL, 12, 20, 30 and 40/40EL)
• COMM 141B (Advanced Journalism)
• At least one additional journalism List B course prior to Spring quarter, from among:
COMM 142B (Online//Digital Journalism)
COMM 143B (Special Topics in Journalism)
COMM 146B (Magazine Journalism)
COMM 149B (Science News)
Special permission from the instructor may be given to a student who requests to substitute a comparable journalism course taken at a different institution for one of these List Bs.
• One advanced course related to journalism, media studies, or multi-cultural communication, which may be taken concurrently with Capstone, from among the following:
COMM 121A (Diversity and Media)
COMM 122A (Media and Advocacy)
COMM 125A (Media Audience Studies)
COMM 139A (Global Documentary)
COMM 161B (Communication Media and Technology in Education)
COMM 162B (Visual Cultural Communication)
COMM 164A (Race, Gender, and Public Health)
COMM 168A (Race, Gender, and Politics in the News)
COMM 170A (Communication Law)
COMM 171A (Business of Media)
COMM 182A (Global News Issues)
COMM 185A (New Media and Communication)
COMM 186B (Global Interpersonal Communication)
PUBLIC RELATIONS CAPSTONE
Professor: Buford Barr
Public Relations Capstone focuses on the application of communication, business, and core academic concepts and theories to the practice of business communications, including the basic communication skills, planning/execution process, and functions that compose public relations within a corporate, business entity or agency. Topics include integrated marketing communications, branding, marketing, mainstream media, and social/digital media. Business ethics and social responsibility are heavily emphasized.
The Capstone Project is to develop a public relations plan for an actual organization in a real business situation or to implement an existing PR plan. Working as a PR agency, students will develop a complete PR plan book designed to achieve the client's corporate and marketing objectives, the PR tactics for outbound and inbound communication and a formal presentation of the plan to the client and his/her staff. The focus is on research, creative problem solving, critical thinking, planning, project management, accountability and ethics. (5 units)
Prerequisites
• All COMM lower division requirements (COMM 1, 2/2GL, 12, 20, 30 and 40/40EL)
• COMM 110 or 111 or 111G
• COMM 150B (Public Relations Theories and Principles)
• COMM 152B (Public Relations Strategies and Practices)
