Communication (B.A.) 180 units
Program Description
The Communication Department features the integration of theories and criticism with the essential skills for media production, professional engagement, and meaningful research. Graduates will be able to make a positive, professional, and important contribution in Media Environments, Digital Journalism, Organizational Contexts, Advertising, Public Relations, and Communication and Media Studies. Students will study, research and analyze the perspectives that will lead to their becoming inclusive, ethical, and effective leaders and participants in global and local communities. They will acquire skills in critical analysis, speaking, writing, and visual presentations across all media. They will learn about the changing world of today’s media as well as the long history of the relationship between communication, self, and society and they will be prepared for a broad array of careers. All graduates must complete 13 core cores in communication and elect one of two options: Media Productions emphasizing digital journalism that converges print, audio, visual, and video; Public, Professional, and Organizational Communication that converges the study of Advertising, Public Relations and Organizational Communication.
Student Learning Outcomes
Students graduating with a B.A. in Communication from Cal State East Bay will be able to:
- Create, analyze, edit, and respond to written, spoken, and visual messages in multiple formats and contexts.
- Research and evaluate effective communication including design and production techniques and quantitative, qualitative, and critical inquiry.
- Effectively communicate as leaders and participants in collaborative and individual contexts involving divergent ideas, conflicts, and relationships across cultural and gender differences.
- Explain and illustrate the construction and maintenance of shared communities that influence and are influenced by communication using critical, cultural, racial, socio-political, gender and justice perspectives.
- Explain and illustrate concepts of ethical and democratic leadership applying major communication perspectives, including rhetorical and discursive processes, purposes, and relevant media.
- Explain and illustrate the role identity plays in communication within global and local contexts and in negotiating paradoxes of participation.
Career Opportunities
Communication skills are essential in both work and social settings. Recruiters and placement officers for all types of organizations and positions rank oral and written communication skills at the very top of the list. The department’s graduates have entered the following careers:
- Advertising Executive
- Business Executive
- Communication Specialist
- Consultant
- Copy Editor
- Copywriter
- Corporate Communications Director
- Corporate Communicator
- Critic
- Customer Service Representative
- Debate Speech Coach
- Employee Relations Representative
- Film Editor
- Graphic Artist
- Human Resource Administrator
- Impression Management Specialist
- Interviewer
- Journalist
- Media Consultant
- Media Specialist
- News Director
- Newscaster
- News Writer
- Photojournalist
- Professor
- Public Information Specialist
- Public Relations Representative
- Publications
- Radio Programmer
- Sales Representative
- Specification Writer
- Talk Show Host
- Teacher
- Technical Writer
- Television Producer
- Trainer
- Writer
Features
The Communication Department is proud to be responsible for The Pioneer and The Pioneer Online. These are the centerpieces of our digital media production, multimedia journalism and ad sales initiatives. The Pioneer is not only a campus paper, but an East Bay community newspaper. It is distributed on campus and to 150 news stands in seven surrounding communities, from Fremont to San Lorenzo including 5 BART stations. Our growing online newspaper, which includes video and radio podcasts is available to anyone around the world. http://thepioneeronline.com/ In the coming months, we will be launching College Newsnet International (CNI), which our East Bay journalism students students will govern. It is a global news service written and produced by college journalism students from around the world. Our students and others from the Bay Area and indeed all of California will contribute content to this new online publication.
Students post their video work through a portal called Pioneer Web TV and have access to one of the largest studios in the East Bay, fully equipped with lighting gear, sets and a control room. http://pioneerwebvideo.com/home.html#3 The Department is also well endowed with field ENG equipment, including cameras, lights, mixers, and microphones and editing labs with software, which includes both AVID and Final Cut Pro. Students also produce radio podcasts and have full access to appropriate studio and field gear. They provide the campus and surrounding communities with news, special events coverage, profiles and web streaming for sports, concerts, and featured campus lectures.
The Pioneer has a very successful sales advertising force, which operates under the auspices of our public relations and advertising option in the curriculum. Their work selling ads to our community businesses supports the award-winning journalism in the newspaper and online.
The Department of Communication manages the Communication Lab, which serves the entire university providing communication-related support services. Upper division Communication majors and graduate students serve as tutors, who help students research, organize, and deliver their speeches and presentations. The Department also offers campus internship programs for credit and each year awards a number of scholarships to Communication majors. Juniors, seniors and graduate students are trained to be tutors to all students enrolled in the presentation of public speeches in a supportive environment. The lab is also home to a new Debate Club, which competes regionally and nationally and which will soon sponsor “Speech Night” regularly on campus.
The department has affiliations with the National Communication Association (NCA), the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (ASJMC), the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA), and the California Intercollegiate Press Association (CIPA). The department also sponsors a campus chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA).
Major Requirements (B.A.) 96 units
Because requirements are subject to change, consult an advisor in the Department of Communication for clarification and interpretation of your major requirements. The B.A. degree requires a total of 180 units.
- The core major consists of 52 units;
- the Media Production Option consists of 44 units;
- the Professional, Public and Organizational Communication Option consists of 44 units.
- GE/USHG/UWS consists of 84 units (some courses may double-count units - see your advisor).
- Free Electives (if any) consist of any remainder units to reach the 180 total units (see your advisor).
Required Core Courses (52 units)
Option Requirements
Students must complete one of the two following options in addition to completing the prerequisites and required core courses listed above:
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