SC&I Courses

In a digital age, researchers have access to large-scale data describing complex social systems. This seminar offers an introduction to tools and techniques used to obtain and analyze such data. The course examines computational social science methods and their applications. Theoretical discussion is combined with hands-on programming training.

Current mass communication theories and approaches analyzed from a research perspective. Topics include: critical theory; audience ethnography, uses and gratifications; socialization processes and effects; and agenda setting.

A study of the processes through which scholarly, scientific, and technical ideas are communicated: mentoring; professional, national, and international networks; scholarly and scientific publishing; and other aspects of specialized information transfer.

Examines newly emerging mediated communication technologies (e.g., mobile phones and internet) affect social relationships and organizations; also, how social forces affect adoption and usage patterns of mediated technologies.

Students engage in a theoretical examination of experiential media (e.g., augmented reality, virtual reality). Readings provide a perspective on the development of experiential media, including implications for the transformation of media content forms and platforms in an experiential context. Students consider methodological and critical approaches to studying experiential media.

This course focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of communication programs designed to change health behavior of individuals, groups, and entire populations.

This course overviews majors themes of interpersonal health communication including issues such as physician-patient communication, relationships for individuals with health issues, and the relationship of communication to physical and mental health outcomes.

Focuses on how mediated communication is transforming health/medical practice and affecting health policy processes. Topics range from the way mediated communication sources affect the search for an acquisition of health information to the way these technologies are used to affect the behavior of individuals, groups and entire populations.

This course examines the language and social interaction (LSI) approach to studying human communication. We consider the epistemological and theoretical underpinnings of LSI scholarship;overview key research traditions within LSI; and explore the unique contributions of LSI scholarship to the communication discipline across its several subfields.

This course focuses on the intersections of law, policy, and technology, examining attempts to regulate digital media and information flows.  The course considers the tensions among freedom, control, individual liberty, and societal good inherent in attempts to regulate a developing media landscape.