To teach students how knowledge, relationships, and cultural patterns are created, revealed, and maintained through communication, students in the Department of Communication are required to take one course (5 credits) that is primarily methodological. Methods courses are designated as such because they:

• Have a class core learning objective that teaches a particular methodological approach
• Have at least one core assignment that is about application of the method
• Feature one (or more) of the following methodological approaches within the Communication field:
  • Case Analysis
  • Comparative Analysis
  • Content Analysis
  • Discourse Analysis
  • Ethnography
  • Experimental Methods
  • Historical Methods
  • Interview
  • Mixed Methods
  • Rhetorical Analysis
  • Survey Research
  • Textual Analysis
  • Visual Analysis
  • Other Methods

The following methods courses are taught most often in the Department:

COM 238 Rhetoric and Popular Culture
COM 301 Navigating Information Networks for Mass Media
COM 325 Communication, Cities, and Sustainability
COM 373 Communication in Small Groups
COM 377 Organizational Communication
COM 381 Content Analysis
COM 382 Social Scientific Approaches to Communication Research
COM 383 Qualitative Communication Research Methods
COM 389 Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Media
COM 420 Comparative Media Images
COM 426 International Media Systems
COM 431 Rhetorical Criticism
COM 435 Historic American Public Address
COM 436 Contemporary American Public Address
COM 442 History of Media Technology and Regulation
COM 472 Empirical Approaches to Interpersonal Communication
COM 486 Communication and Culture in Rome: Study Abroad
COM 495 Special Topics in Communication (*on a case-by-case basis)
COM 496 Honors Seminar