COMM 1A:
Media Technologies, People, and Society (COMM 211)
(Graduate students register for COMM 211.) Open to non-majors. Introduction to the concepts and contexts of communication. A topics-structured orientation emphasizing the field and the scholarly endeavors represented in the department.
Last offered: Autumn 2009
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
COMM 1B:
Media, Culture, and Society (AMSTUD 1B)
The institutions and practices of mass media, including television, film, radio, and digital media, and their role in shaping culture and social life. The media's shifting relationships to politics, commerce, and identity.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
COMM 103S:
Media Entertainment
The impact of media entertainment on individuals, social groups, and societies. Sources include a diverse cross-section of entertainment. Introduction to psychological and socio-psychological theories. Empirical findings relating to media entertainment as a stimulus and a reception phenomenon. What renders diverse genres of media content and format enjoyable? Why do individuals pursue entertainment experiences in ever-increasing numbers? What is the political impact of apolitical media entertainment?
Terms: Sum
| Units: 3-5
COMM 104:
Reporting, Writing, and Understanding the News
Techniques of news reporting and writing. The value and role of news in democratic societies. Gateway class to journalism. Prerequisite for all COMM 177/277 classes. Limited enrollment. Preference to sophomores and juniors.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-CE
COMM 106:
Communication Research Methods (COMM 206)
(Graduate students register for COMM 206.) Conceptual and practical concerns underlying commonly used quantitative approaches, including experimental, survey, content analysis, and field research in communication. Pre- or corequisite: STATS 60 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
COMM 108:
Media Processes and Effects (COMM 208)
(Graduate students register for COMM 208.) The process of communication theory construction including a survey of social science paradigms and major theories of communication. Recommended: 1 or PSYCH 1.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
COMM 112S:
Bending the Truth: Propaganda in Media and Culture
What is propaganda? What role does it play in our lives? And how do we conceive of propaganda's relationship to politics and culture? This course will examine the evolution of propaganda from the early 20th century to the present. It will take up examples from advertising, journalism, cinema, painting and digital media. By the end of the course, students will have a broad understanding of the tactics by which various interest groups have sought to influence public communication.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 3-5
COMM 113S:
Make up your mind: Judgment and Decision Making
Ever have trouble making up your mind? Every day, millions of people struggle to make wise decisions. Ironically, even when we toil over decisions, they are often plagued with bias. This interactive lecture-based course will explore the core theories and current research on heuristics and biases in human inference. In addition, the course will cover essential communication and psychology findings that shed light on different aspects of the decision making process. The final project is a student-designed empirical research proposal that will have practical applications as well as theoretical importance.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 3-5
COMM 114S:
Online Manipulation: Persuasion, Contagion, and Compliance-Gaining in Online Media
Political campaigns "micro-target" their messages to individuals according to the issues each cares about. Endorsements of products and brands spread through Facebook. Mobile devices sense physical activity and coach people to meet diet and exercise goals. Using social-scientific research and real-world examples, this course examines the social and psychological processes by which communication technologies are used to change people's attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. By the end of the course, students will understand the psychology of persuasion and social influence, and they will have applied this to the design and criticism of new technologies, interventions, and messages.
| Units: 3-5
COMM 116:
Journalism Law (COMM 216)
(Graduate students register for 216.) Laws and regulation impacting journalists. Topics include libel, privacy, news gathering, protection sources, fair trial and free press, theories of the First Amendment, and broadcast regulation. Prerequisite: Journalism M.A. student or advanced Communication major.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
COMM 117:
Digital Journalism (COMM 217)
(Graduate students register for COMM 217.) Seminar and practicum. The implications of new media for journalists. Professional and social issues related to the web as a case of new media deployment, as a story, as a research and reporting tool, and as a publishing channel. Prerequisite: Journalism M.A. student or consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
COMM 120:
Digital Media in Society (AMSTUD 120)
(Graduate students register for 220.) Contemporary debates concerning the social and cultural impact of digital media. Topics include the historical origins of digital media, cultural contexts of their development and use, and influence of digital media on conceptions of self, community, and state. Priority to Juniors and Seniors.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
COMM 125:
Perspectives on American Journalism (COMM 225)
(Graduate students register for COMM 225.) An interrogation of the practice of American journalism, focusing on the political, social, cultural, and economic forces that have shaped the U. S. press since the early 1800s. Aimed at producers as well as consumers of news, the objective of this course is to provide a vocabulary and framework for judging the quality of everyday journalism. Prerequisite: 1 or junior standing.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
COMM 131:
Media Ethics and Responsibility (COMM 231)
(Graduate students register for COMM 231.) The development of professionalism among American journalists, emphasizing the emergence of objectivity as a professional and the epistemological norm. An applied ethics course where questions of power, freedom, and truth autonomy are treated normatively so as to foster critical thinking about the origins and implications of commonly accepted standards of responsible journalism.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-ER
COMM 132:
The Internet, Public Action and Development (COMM 232)
Recent events in many parts of the world have raised interesting questions on the relationship between the Internet, democracy and the quest for a better life. The "cyberspace" has changed the way in which people can mobilize, debate and act while those in positions of power have used it to monitor, stifle and control. What makes this drama fascinating is that the cyberspace in itself is changing rapidly. Governments, corporations, peoples' movements and other forces are engaged in a battle to shape the cyberspace through technological innovations, laws and policies. This course seeks to explore such changes with the view to understand what consequences they will have on public action, democracy and development.nnThis course is intended as a research seminar wherein one fourth of the course will consist of lectures and the rest will comprise of a research paper that will be produced by teams of students. Each team will take a broad topic and will provide a synthesis of relevant literatures. Thus, the course offers a broad scope for students to explore major issues in the field, such as the impact of Internet regulation on social development (especially health and education), the impact of social media on the quality of governance and on socioeconomic development, and the effect on society of differing types of defamation laws that protect or fail to protect anonymous speech. Since three-fourths of the course will be student-led, we hope that it will provide an interesting space for collaboration among students from different disciplines, and a great learning experience for the facilitators as well. Open to juniors, seniors, graduate students.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
COMM 136:
Democracy and the Communication of Consent (COMM 236, POLISCI 134)
(Graduate students register for COMM 236.) Focus is on competing theories of democracy and the forms of communication they presuppose, combining normative and empirical issues, and historical and contemporary sources. Topics include representation, public opinion, mass media, small group processes, direct democracy, the role of information, and the prospects for deliberative democracy.
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
COMM 137:
The Dialogue of Democracy (AMSTUD 137, COMM 237, POLISCI 232T, POLISCI 332T)
All forms of democracy require some kind of communication so people can be aware of issues and make decisions. This course looks at competing visions of what democracy should be and different notions of the role of dialogue in a democracy. Is it just campaigning or does it include deliberation? Small scale discussions or sound bites on television? Or social media? What is the role of technology in changing our democratic practices, to mobilize, to persuade, to solve public problems? This course will include readings from political theory about democratic ideals - from the American founders to J.S. Mill and the Progressives to Joseph Schumpeter and modern writers skeptical of the public will. It will also include contemporary examinations of the media and the internet to see how those practices are changing and how the ideals can or cannot be realized.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER, WAY-SI
COMM 140:
Digital Media Entrepreneurship (COMM 240)
(Graduate students register for COMM 240.) Primarily for graduate journalism and computer science students. Silicon Valley's new media culture, digital storytelling skills and techniques, web-based skills, and entrepreneurial ventures. Guest speakers.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
COMM 147:
Modern History and Future of Journalism (COMM 247)
(Graduate students register for COMM 247.) The birth and evolution of local and national television news. The modern history of newspapers. Can they survive in the era of online journalism?
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
COMM 160:
The Press and the Political Process (COMM 260, POLISCI 323R)
(Graduate students register for COMM 260.) The role of mass media and other channels of communication in political and electoral processes.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
COMM 162:
Campaigns, Voting, Media, and Elections (COMM 262, POLISCI 120B)
This course examines the theory and practice of American campaigns and elections. First, we will attempt to explain the behavior of the key players -- candidates, parties, journalists, and voters -- in terms of the institutional arrangements and political incentives that confront them. Second, we will use current and recent election campaigns as "laboratories" for testing generalizations about campaign strategy and voter behavior. Third, we examine selections from the academic literature dealing with the origins of partisan identity, electoral design, and the immediate effects of campaigns on public opinion, voter turnout, and voter choice. As well, we'll explore issues of electoral reform and their more long-term consequences for governance and the political process.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
COMM 166:
Virtual People (COMM 266)
(Graduate students register for COMM 266.) The concept of virtual people or digital human representations; methods of constructing and using virtual people; methodological approaches to interactions with and among virtual people; and current applications. Viewpoints including popular culture, literature, film, engineering, behavioral science, computer science, and communication.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
COMM 167:
Advanced Seminar in Virtual Reality Research
Restricted to students with previous research experience in virtual reality. Experimental methods and other issues.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-3
COMM 168:
Experimental Research in Advanced User Interfaces (COMM 268, COMM 368, ME 468)
Project-based course involves small (3-4) person teams going through all parts of the experimental process: question generation, experiment design, running, and data analysis. Each team creates an original, publishable project that represents a contribution to the research and practicum literatures. All experiments involve interaction between people and technology, including cars, mobile phones, websites, etc. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
| Repeatable
for credit
COMM 169:
Computers and Interfaces (COMM 269)
(Graduate students register for COMM 269.) Interdisciplinary. User responses to interfaces and design implications of those responses. Theories from different disciplines illustrate responses to textual, voice-based, pictorial, metaphoric, conversational, adaptive, agent-based, intelligent, and anthropomorphic interfaces. Group design project applying theory to the design of products or services for developing countries.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-CE, WAY-SI
COMM 171:
Multimedia Reporting and Production for Public Issues (COMM 271)
(Graduate students register for 271.) Production of multimedia assignments for traditional news beats using audio, still photography, graphics and video. 2-hour lab class for creative, conceptual and technical skills for production of multimedia stories. Prerequesite: Journalism MA student or instructor's consent.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
COMM 172:
Media Psychology (COMM 272)
(Graduate students register for COMM 272.) The literature related to psychological processing and the effects of media. Topics: unconscious processing; picture perception; attention and memory; emotion; the physiology of processing media; person perception; pornography; consumer behavior; advanced film and television systems; and differences among reading, watching, and listening.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
COMM 176:
Advanced Digital Media Production (COMM 276)
In-depth reporting and production using audio, images and video. Focus on an in-depth journalism project with appropriate uses of digital media: audio, photography, graphics, and video. Topics include advanced field techniques and approaches (audio, video, still) and emphasis on creating a non-fiction narrative arc in a multimedia piece of 10-12 minutes. Prerequisite: COMM 275 or consent of instructor
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
COMM 177C:
Specialized Writing and Reporting: Environmental Journalism (COMM 277C, ENVRES 277C)
(Graduate students register for COMM / ENVRES 277C.) Practical, collaborative, writing-intensive course in environmental journalism. Science and journalism students learn how to identify and write engaging stories about environmental issues and science, how to assess the quality and relevance of environmental news, how to cover the environment and science beats effectively, and how to build bridges between the worlds of journalism and science. Limited enrollment: preference to journalism students and students in the natural and environmental sciences. Prerequisite: 104 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
COMM 177D:
Specialized Writing and Reporting: Magazine Journalism (COMM 277D)
(Graduate students register for COMM 277D.) How to report, write, edit, and read magazine articles, emphasizing long-form narrative. Tools and templates of story telling such as scenes, characters, dialogue, and narrative arc. How the best magazine stories defy or subvert conventional wisdom and bring fresh light to the human experience through reporting, writing, and moral passion. Prerequisite: 104 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
COMM 177G:
Specialized Writing and Reporting: Covering Silicon Valley (COMM 277G)
(Graduate students register for COMM 277G.) Business reporting basics in the context of Silicon Valley's technology scene. Prerequisite: 104 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
COMM 177I:
Specialized Writing and Reporting: Investigative Reporting (COMM 277I)
Graduate students register for COMM 277I.) Under the supervision of editors from the Center for Investigative Reporting, students will work on a group investigative project with the end-goal of publication and distribution through CIR's California Watch project. The class will emphasize the history and role of investigative reporting as well as skills and techniques needed to do it. Limited enrollment. Prerequisite: instructor consent. Go to http://comm.stanford.edu/faculty/grimes for application instructions.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
COMM 177S:
Specialized Writing and Reporting: Sports Journalism (COMM 277S)
(Graduate students register for COMM 277S.) Workshop. The history of sports writing from the 20s to present. Reporting, interviewing, deadline writing, and how to conceptualize and develop stories. Students write features and news stories for publication in a new sports section in 'The Cardinal Inquirer', an online publication of the graduate program in journalism. Prerequisite: 104 or consent of instructor.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
COMM 177Y:
Specialized Writing and Reporting: Foreign Correspondence in the Middle East (COMM 277Y)
(Graduate students register for COMM 277Y.) What's involved in working as a journalist in one of the most important and dangerous parts of the world.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
COMM 180:
Topics in Learning and Technology: Enhancing Human Learning and Performance using Sensors (COMM 280, CS 377H, EDUC 328X)
Content changes each year. Sensor data in many domains in society are becoming available for guiding individual and collective decision-making and action - with the intended outcomes of enhancing learning and performance. Domains include health and wellness, sports, transportation, environmental sustainability. We will conduct the course as a problem-focused hands-on interdisciplinary design workshop, integrating foundational theory and findings as needed. Design topics include use scenarios, information display, user interaction, social media, and dependent variables.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| Repeatable
for credit
COMM 182:
Virtual Communities and Social Media (COMM 282)
(Graduate students register for CMM 282.) Taught by the originator of the terms virtual community and smart mobs. How the concept of community has changed from agricultural to industrial to networked societies. Much class discussion takes place in social cyberspaces.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
COMM 190:
Senior Project
Research project. Prerequisite: senior standing.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 5
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Bailenson, J. (PI);
Bettinger, J. (PI);
Fishkin, J. (PI);
Garcia, D. (PI);
Glasser, T. (PI);
Iyengar, S. (PI);
Krosnick, J. (PI);
Nass, C. (PI);
Reeves, B. (PI);
Roberts, D. (PI);
Turner, F. (PI)
COMM 195:
Honors Thesis
Qualifies students to conduct communication research. Student must apply for department honors thesis program during Spring Quarter of junior year.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 5
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 15 units total)
Instructors: ;
Bailenson, J. (PI);
Bettinger, J. (PI);
Fishkin, J. (PI);
Garcia, D. (PI);
Glasser, T. (PI);
Iyengar, S. (PI);
Krosnick, J. (PI);
Nass, C. (PI);
Reeves, B. (PI);
Roberts, D. (PI);
Turner, F. (PI)
COMM 199:
Individual Work
For students with high academic standing. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Bailenson, J. (PI);
Bettinger, J. (PI);
Brinkley, J. (PI);
Fishkin, J. (PI);
Frankel, G. (PI);
Garcia, D. (PI);
Glasser, T. (PI);
Grimes, A. (PI);
Iyengar, S. (PI);
Krosnick, J. (PI);
Lev-On, A. (PI);
Luskin, R. (PI);
Markoff, J. (PI);
Nass, C. (PI);
Noveck, B. (PI);
Pomerantz, G. (PI);
Reeves, B. (PI);
Rheingold, H. (PI);
Roberts, D. (PI);
Turner, F. (PI);
Voelker, D. (PI);
Wheaton, J. (PI);
Zachary, G. (PI)
COMM 206:
Communication Research Methods (COMM 106)
(Graduate students register for COMM 206.) Conceptual and practical concerns underlying commonly used quantitative approaches, including experimental, survey, content analysis, and field research in communication. Pre- or corequisite: STATS 60 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
COMM 208:
Media Processes and Effects (COMM 108)
(Graduate students register for COMM 208.) The process of communication theory construction including a survey of social science paradigms and major theories of communication. Recommended: 1 or PSYCH 1.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
COMM 211:
Media Technologies, People, and Society (COMM 1A)
(Graduate students register for COMM 211.) Open to non-majors. Introduction to the concepts and contexts of communication. A topics-structured orientation emphasizing the field and the scholarly endeavors represented in the department.
Last offered: Autumn 2009
| Units: 4-5
COMM 216:
Journalism Law (COMM 116)
(Graduate students register for 216.) Laws and regulation impacting journalists. Topics include libel, privacy, news gathering, protection sources, fair trial and free press, theories of the First Amendment, and broadcast regulation. Prerequisite: Journalism M.A. student or advanced Communication major.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
COMM 217:
Digital Journalism (COMM 117)
(Graduate students register for COMM 217.) Seminar and practicum. The implications of new media for journalists. Professional and social issues related to the web as a case of new media deployment, as a story, as a research and reporting tool, and as a publishing channel. Prerequisite: Journalism M.A. student or consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
COMM 220:
Digital Media in Society
Contemporary debates concerning the social and cultural impact of digital media. Topics include the historical origins of digital media, cultural contexts of their development and use, and influence of digital media on conceptions of self, community, and state. Priority to Juniors and Seniors.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
COMM 225:
Perspectives on American Journalism (COMM 125)
(Graduate students register for COMM 225.) An interrogation of the practice of American journalism, focusing on the political, social, cultural, and economic forces that have shaped the U. S. press since the early 1800s. Aimed at producers as well as consumers of news, the objective of this course is to provide a vocabulary and framework for judging the quality of everyday journalism. Prerequisite: 1 or junior standing.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
COMM 231:
Media Ethics and Responsibility (COMM 131)
(Graduate students register for COMM 231.) The development of professionalism among American journalists, emphasizing the emergence of objectivity as a professional and the epistemological norm. An applied ethics course where questions of power, freedom, and truth autonomy are treated normatively so as to foster critical thinking about the origins and implications of commonly accepted standards of responsible journalism.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
COMM 232:
The Internet, Public Action and Development (COMM 132)
Recent events in many parts of the world have raised interesting questions on the relationship between the Internet, democracy and the quest for a better life. The "cyberspace" has changed the way in which people can mobilize, debate and act while those in positions of power have used it to monitor, stifle and control. What makes this drama fascinating is that the cyberspace in itself is changing rapidly. Governments, corporations, peoples' movements and other forces are engaged in a battle to shape the cyberspace through technological innovations, laws and policies. This course seeks to explore such changes with the view to understand what consequences they will have on public action, democracy and development.nnThis course is intended as a research seminar wherein one fourth of the course will consist of lectures and the rest will comprise of a research paper that will be produced by teams of students. Each team will take a broad topic and will provide a synthesis of relevant literatures. Thus, the course offers a broad scope for students to explore major issues in the field, such as the impact of Internet regulation on social development (especially health and education), the impact of social media on the quality of governance and on socioeconomic development, and the effect on society of differing types of defamation laws that protect or fail to protect anonymous speech. Since three-fourths of the course will be student-led, we hope that it will provide an interesting space for collaboration among students from different disciplines, and a great learning experience for the facilitators as well. Open to juniors, seniors, graduate students.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
COMM 236:
Democracy and the Communication of Consent (COMM 136, POLISCI 134)
(Graduate students register for COMM 236.) Focus is on competing theories of democracy and the forms of communication they presuppose, combining normative and empirical issues, and historical and contemporary sources. Topics include representation, public opinion, mass media, small group processes, direct democracy, the role of information, and the prospects for deliberative democracy.
| Units: 4-5
COMM 237:
The Dialogue of Democracy (AMSTUD 137, COMM 137, POLISCI 232T, POLISCI 332T)
All forms of democracy require some kind of communication so people can be aware of issues and make decisions. This course looks at competing visions of what democracy should be and different notions of the role of dialogue in a democracy. Is it just campaigning or does it include deliberation? Small scale discussions or sound bites on television? Or social media? What is the role of technology in changing our democratic practices, to mobilize, to persuade, to solve public problems? This course will include readings from political theory about democratic ideals - from the American founders to J.S. Mill and the Progressives to Joseph Schumpeter and modern writers skeptical of the public will. It will also include contemporary examinations of the media and the internet to see how those practices are changing and how the ideals can or cannot be realized.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
COMM 238:
Democratic Theory: Normative and Empirical Issues (COMM 338)
Conflicting visions in terms of normative conflicts and empirical evidence. How citizens communicate with each other and their representatives, and how their representatives deliberate. Topics include theories of deliberation, how democracy is transformed when brought to the mass public, how informed a public is needed, and potential pathologies of small group communication in settings including juries, town meetings, and contemporary public consultations. Readings include Madison, Burke, Mill, Lippmann, Dewey, Schumpeter, Dahl, Sunstein, and Mansbridge.
| Units: 1-5
COMM 240:
Digital Media Entrepreneurship (COMM 140)
(Graduate students register for COMM 240.) Primarily for graduate journalism and computer science students. Silicon Valley's new media culture, digital storytelling skills and techniques, web-based skills, and entrepreneurial ventures. Guest speakers.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
COMM 247:
Modern History and Future of Journalism (COMM 147)
(Graduate students register for COMM 247.) The birth and evolution of local and national television news. The modern history of newspapers. Can they survive in the era of online journalism?
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
COMM 260:
The Press and the Political Process (COMM 160, POLISCI 323R)
(Graduate students register for COMM 260.) The role of mass media and other channels of communication in political and electoral processes.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 4-5
COMM 262:
Campaigns, Voting, Media, and Elections (COMM 162, POLISCI 120B)
This course examines the theory and practice of American campaigns and elections. First, we will attempt to explain the behavior of the key players -- candidates, parties, journalists, and voters -- in terms of the institutional arrangements and political incentives that confront them. Second, we will use current and recent election campaigns as "laboratories" for testing generalizations about campaign strategy and voter behavior. Third, we examine selections from the academic literature dealing with the origins of partisan identity, electoral design, and the immediate effects of campaigns on public opinion, voter turnout, and voter choice. As well, we'll explore issues of electoral reform and their more long-term consequences for governance and the political process.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
COMM 266:
Virtual People (COMM 166)
(Graduate students register for COMM 266.) The concept of virtual people or digital human representations; methods of constructing and using virtual people; methodological approaches to interactions with and among virtual people; and current applications. Viewpoints including popular culture, literature, film, engineering, behavioral science, computer science, and communication.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
COMM 268:
Experimental Research in Advanced User Interfaces (COMM 168, COMM 368, ME 468)
Project-based course involves small (3-4) person teams going through all parts of the experimental process: question generation, experiment design, running, and data analysis. Each team creates an original, publishable project that represents a contribution to the research and practicum literatures. All experiments involve interaction between people and technology, including cars, mobile phones, websites, etc. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
for credit
COMM 269:
Computers and Interfaces (COMM 169)
(Graduate students register for COMM 269.) Interdisciplinary. User responses to interfaces and design implications of those responses. Theories from different disciplines illustrate responses to textual, voice-based, pictorial, metaphoric, conversational, adaptive, agent-based, intelligent, and anthropomorphic interfaces. Group design project applying theory to the design of products or services for developing countries.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
COMM 271:
Multimedia Reporting and Production for Public Issues (COMM 171)
(Graduate students register for 271.) Production of multimedia assignments for traditional news beats using audio, still photography, graphics and video. 2-hour lab class for creative, conceptual and technical skills for production of multimedia stories. Prerequesite: Journalism MA student or instructor's consent.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
COMM 272:
Media Psychology (COMM 172)
(Graduate students register for COMM 272.) The literature related to psychological processing and the effects of media. Topics: unconscious processing; picture perception; attention and memory; emotion; the physiology of processing media; person perception; pornography; consumer behavior; advanced film and television systems; and differences among reading, watching, and listening.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
COMM 273:
Public Issues Reporting I
Reporting and writing on government and public policies and issues; their implications for the people and the press. Required for journalism M.A. students.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-4
COMM 274:
Public Issues Reporting II
Student teams study one major public policy issue that has broad societal impact. Students report and write individually, and as a team produce a body of journalism that advances the understanding of a new issue each year, published on a web site and offered for publication to newspapers and other media outlets. Prerequisites: 273, Journalism M.A. student.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
COMM 275:
Multimedia Storytelling: Reporting and Production Using Audio, Still Images, and Video
Multimedia assignments coordinated with deadline reporting efforts in COMM 273 from traditional news beats using audio, still photography, and video. Use of digital audio recorders and audio production to leverage voice-over narration, interviews, and natural sound; use of digital still cameras and audio to produce audio slideshows; and the combination of these media with video in post-production with Final Cut Pro. Prerequisite: Journalism M.A. student. Corequisite: COMM 273.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
COMM 276:
Advanced Digital Media Production (COMM 176)
In-depth reporting and production using audio, images and video. Focus on an in-depth journalism project with appropriate uses of digital media: audio, photography, graphics, and video. Topics include advanced field techniques and approaches (audio, video, still) and emphasis on creating a non-fiction narrative arc in a multimedia piece of 10-12 minutes. Prerequisite: COMM 275 or consent of instructor
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
COMM 277C:
Specialized Writing and Reporting: Environmental Journalism (COMM 177C, ENVRES 277C)
(Graduate students register for COMM / ENVRES 277C.) Practical, collaborative, writing-intensive course in environmental journalism. Science and journalism students learn how to identify and write engaging stories about environmental issues and science, how to assess the quality and relevance of environmental news, how to cover the environment and science beats effectively, and how to build bridges between the worlds of journalism and science. Limited enrollment: preference to journalism students and students in the natural and environmental sciences. Prerequisite: 104 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
COMM 277D:
Specialized Writing and Reporting: Magazine Journalism (COMM 177D)
(Graduate students register for COMM 277D.) How to report, write, edit, and read magazine articles, emphasizing long-form narrative. Tools and templates of story telling such as scenes, characters, dialogue, and narrative arc. How the best magazine stories defy or subvert conventional wisdom and bring fresh light to the human experience through reporting, writing, and moral passion. Prerequisite: 104 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
COMM 277G:
Specialized Writing and Reporting: Covering Silicon Valley (COMM 177G)
(Graduate students register for COMM 277G.) Business reporting basics in the context of Silicon Valley's technology scene. Prerequisite: 104 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
COMM 277I:
Specialized Writing and Reporting: Investigative Reporting (COMM 177I)
Graduate students register for COMM 277I.) Under the supervision of editors from the Center for Investigative Reporting, students will work on a group investigative project with the end-goal of publication and distribution through CIR's California Watch project. The class will emphasize the history and role of investigative reporting as well as skills and techniques needed to do it. Limited enrollment. Prerequisite: instructor consent. Go to http://comm.stanford.edu/faculty/grimes for application instructions.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
COMM 277S:
Specialized Writing and Reporting: Sports Journalism (COMM 177S)
(Graduate students register for COMM 277S.) Workshop. The history of sports writing from the 20s to present. Reporting, interviewing, deadline writing, and how to conceptualize and develop stories. Students write features and news stories for publication in a new sports section in 'The Cardinal Inquirer', an online publication of the graduate program in journalism. Prerequisite: 104 or consent of instructor.
Last offered: Winter 2010
| Units: 4-5
COMM 277Y:
Specialized Writing and Reporting: Foreign Correspondence in the Middle East (COMM 177Y)
(Graduate students register for COMM 277Y.) What's involved in working as a journalist in one of the most important and dangerous parts of the world.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
COMM 278:
Journalism and Imaginative Writing in America (AMSTUD 257, ENGLISH 257)
Walt Whitman spent twenty-five years as a journalist before publishing his first book of poems. Mark Twain was a journalist for twenty years before publishing his first novel. Topics include examination of how writers¿ backgrounds in journalism shaped the poetry or fiction for which they are best known; study of recent controversies surrounding writers who blurred the line between journalism and fiction. Writers include Whitman, Fanny Fern, Twain, Pauline Hopkins, Theodore Dreiser, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ernest Hemingway, Meridel LeSueur.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
COMM 280:
Topics in Learning and Technology: Enhancing Human Learning and Performance using Sensors (COMM 180, CS 377H, EDUC 328X)
Content changes each year. Sensor data in many domains in society are becoming available for guiding individual and collective decision-making and action - with the intended outcomes of enhancing learning and performance. Domains include health and wellness, sports, transportation, environmental sustainability. We will conduct the course as a problem-focused hands-on interdisciplinary design workshop, integrating foundational theory and findings as needed. Design topics include use scenarios, information display, user interaction, social media, and dependent variables.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| Repeatable
for credit
COMM 282:
Virtual Communities and Social Media (COMM 182)
(Graduate students register for CMM 282.) Taught by the originator of the terms virtual community and smart mobs. How the concept of community has changed from agricultural to industrial to networked societies. Much class discussion takes place in social cyberspaces.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
COMM 289:
Journalism Master's Project
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
COMM 290:
Media Studies M.A. Project
Individual research for coterminal Media Studies students.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 2 units total)
Instructors: ;
Bailenson, J. (PI);
Bettinger, J. (PI);
Brinkley, J. (PI);
Fishkin, J. (PI);
Frankel, G. (PI);
Garcia, D. (PI);
Glasser, T. (PI);
Grimes, A. (PI);
Iyengar, S. (PI);
Krosnick, J. (PI);
Nass, C. (PI);
Reeves, B. (PI);
Roberts, D. (PI);
Turner, F. (PI)
COMM 291:
Graduate Journalism Seminar
Required of students in the graduate program in Journalism. Forum for current issues in the practice and performance of the press. The seminar frequently features Bay Area Journalists as guest speakers. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 3 units total)
COMM 299:
Individual Work
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-4
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Bailenson, J. (PI);
Bettinger, J. (PI);
Brinkley, J. (PI);
Fishkin, J. (PI);
Frankel, G. (PI);
Garcia, D. (PI);
Glasser, T. (PI);
Grimes, A. (PI);
Iyengar, S. (PI);
Krosnick, J. (PI);
Lewis, P. (PI);
Luskin, R. (PI);
Markoff, J. (PI);
Nass, C. (PI);
Noveck, B. (PI);
Pomerantz, G. (PI);
Reeves, B. (PI);
Rheingold, H. (PI);
Roberts, D. (PI);
Turner, F. (PI);
Voelker, D. (PI);
Wheaton, J. (PI);
Zachary, G. (PI)
COMM 301:
Communication Research, Curriculum Development and Pedagogy
Designed to prepare students for teaching and research in the Department of Communication. Students will be trained in developing curriculum and in pedagogical practices, and will also be exposed to the research programs of various faculty members in the department. Required of all Ph.D. students.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1
COMM 307:
Summer Institute in Political Psychology
Lectures, discussion groups, and workshops addressing many applications of psychology to the analysis of political behavior. Public opinion, international relations, political decision-making, attitudes and beliefs, prejudice, social influence and persuasion, terrorism, news media influence, foreign policy, socialization, social justice.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 3
| Repeatable
for credit
COMM 308:
Graduate Seminar in Political Psychology (POLISCI 324)
For students interested in research in political science, psychology, or communication. Methodological techniques for studying political attitudes and behaviors. May be repeated for credit.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1-3
| Repeatable
for credit
COMM 310:
Method of Analysis Program in the Social Sciences (ANTHRO 446A)
Colloquium series. Creation and application of new methodological techniques for social science research. Presentations on methodologies of use for social scientists across departments at Stanford by guest speakers from Stanford and elsewhere. See http://mapss.stanford.edu.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1
| Repeatable
for credit
COMM 311:
Theory of Communication
Required of Communication doctoral students.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 1-5
COMM 314:
Doctoral Research Methods II B
Part of the doctoral research methods sequence. Focus is on the logic of qualitative research methods and modes of inquiry relevant to the study of communication and meaning. Prerequisite: Communication Ph.D. student, or consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-5
COMM 317:
Doctoral Research Methods I
Approaches to social science research and their theoretical presuppositions. Readings from the philosophy of the social sciences. Research design, the role of experiments, and quantitative and qualitative research. Cases from communication and related social sciences. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1-5
COMM 318:
Doctoral Research Methods II
Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-5
COMM 320G:
Advanced Topics in New Media and American Culture
Primarily for Ph.D. students. Prerequisite: 220 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1-5
COMM 326:
Advanced Topics in Human Virtual Representation
Topics include the theoretical construct of person identity, the evolution of that construct given the advent of virtual environments, and methodological approaches to understanding virtual human representation. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1-5
COMM 331G:
Communication and Media Ethics
Limited to Ph.D. students. Advanced topics in press ethics and responsibility. Prerequisite: 231 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1-3
COMM 338:
Democratic Theory: Normative and Empirical Issues (COMM 238)
Conflicting visions in terms of normative conflicts and empirical evidence. How citizens communicate with each other and their representatives, and how their representatives deliberate. Topics include theories of deliberation, how democracy is transformed when brought to the mass public, how informed a public is needed, and potential pathologies of small group communication in settings including juries, town meetings, and contemporary public consultations. Readings include Madison, Burke, Mill, Lippmann, Dewey, Schumpeter, Dahl, Sunstein, and Mansbridge.
| Units: 1-5
COMM 360G:
Political Communication (POLISCI 425)
Limited to Ph.D. students. Advanced topics. Prerequisite: 260 or consent of instructor.
| Units: 1-5
COMM 368:
Experimental Research in Advanced User Interfaces (COMM 168, COMM 268, ME 468)
Project-based course involves small (3-4) person teams going through all parts of the experimental process: question generation, experiment design, running, and data analysis. Each team creates an original, publishable project that represents a contribution to the research and practicum literatures. All experiments involve interaction between people and technology, including cars, mobile phones, websites, etc. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
for credit
COMM 372G:
Seminar in Psychological Processing
Limited to Ph.D. students. Advanced topics. Prerequisite: 272 or consent of instructor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1-5
COMM 380:
Curriculum Practical Training
Practical experience in the communication industries. Prerequisites: graduate standing in Communication, consent of instructor. Meets requirements for Curricular Practical Training for students on F-1 visas. 380 May be repeated four times for credit. (Staff)
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 20 units total)
COMM 397:
Complementary Project
Individual research for Ph.D. candidates.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-6
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 18 units total)
COMM 398:
Major Research Project
Individual research for Ph.D. candidates.
Terms: Win, Spr
| Units: 1-6
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 18 units total)
COMM 399:
Advanced Individual Work
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-9
| Repeatable
for credit
(up to 72 units total)
Instructors: ;
Bailenson, J. (PI);
Brinkley, J. (PI);
Fishkin, J. (PI);
Glasser, T. (PI);
Iyengar, S. (PI);
Krosnick, J. (PI);
Luskin, R. (PI);
Nass, C. (PI);
Noveck, B. (PI);
Reeves, B. (PI);
Roberts, D. (PI);
Turner, F. (PI)
Terms: Aut, Sum
| Units: 0
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Bailenson, J. (PI);
Fishkin, J. (PI);
Frankel, G. (PI);
Glasser, T. (PI);
Grimes, A. (PI);
Iyengar, S. (PI);
Krosnick, J. (PI);
Nass, C. (PI);
Reeves, B. (PI);
Roberts, D. (PI)
COMM 802:
TGR Dissertation
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 0
| Repeatable
for credit
COMM 134:
Public Participation and Public Policy (COMM 234)
Examines the role of public participation in public policy making. Around the world, policymakers seek to engage their publics. But, even though public participation is important, it is also problematic. Public meetings can become dysfunctional and turn into media spectacles instead of actually gathering the opinions of the public. The question becomes, when and how should the public be consulted in order to effectively impact public policies? There are consequences of engaging the public, and this seminar explores the methods used to engage publics around the world.
| Units: 4-5
COMM 177K:
Specialized Writing and Reporting: Human Rights Journalism (COMM 277K)
(Graduate students register for COMM 277K.) The evolution of human rights law and enforcement, and the role of journalists in uncovering, pursuing, and publicizing political violence, detention, and torture. Case studies from S. Africa, Latin America, Israel and Palestine, N. Ireland, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Sudan and Darfur. Human rights issues in the U.S. in the aftermath of 9/11. Students conduct research and write journalistic reports on foreign and domestic issues. Prerequisite: 104 or consent of instructor.
| Units: 4-5
COMM 212:
Models of Democracy (COMM 312, POLISCI 237, POLISCI 337)
Ancient and modern varieties of democracy; debates about their normative and practical strengths and the pathologies to which each is subject. Focus is on participation, deliberation, representation, and elite competition, as values and political processes. Formal institutions, political rhetoric, technological change, and philosophical critique. Models tested by reference to long-term historical natural experiments such as Athens and Rome, recent large-scale political experiments such as the British Columbia Citizens' Assembly, and controlled experiments.
| Units: 3-5
COMM 234:
Public Participation and Public Policy (COMM 134)
Examines the role of public participation in public policy making. Around the world, policymakers seek to engage their publics. But, even though public participation is important, it is also problematic. Public meetings can become dysfunctional and turn into media spectacles instead of actually gathering the opinions of the public. The question becomes, when and how should the public be consulted in order to effectively impact public policies? There are consequences of engaging the public, and this seminar explores the methods used to engage publics around the world.
| Units: 4-5
COMM 236G:
Democracy, Justice, and Deliberation (COMM 336G)
Decision processes that make a normative claim to resolve questions of public choice, at any of these levels of choice: first principles, constitutions, public policies, or particular outcomes. Topics include democratic theory, the theory of justice and issues of deliberation in small groups, public consultations, conventions, juries, and thought experiments popular in contemporary political theory. Readings include Madison, de Tocqueville, Mill, Marx, Rawls, Nozick, Ackerman, and Schudson. Preference to graduate students. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
| Units: 1-5
COMM 239:
Questionnaire Design for Surveys and Laboratory Experiments: Social and Cognitive Perspectives
The social and psychological processes involved in asking and answering questions via questionnaires for the social sciences; optimizing questionnaire design; open versus closed questions; rating versus ranking; rating scale length and point labeling; acquiescence response bias; don't-know response options; response choice order effects; question order effects; social desirability response bias; attitude and behavior recall; and introspective accounts of the causes of thoughts and actions.
| Units: 4
COMM 244:
Democracy, Press, and Public Opinion (COMM 344)
The democratic tradition provides conflicting visions of what a democracy is or might be, offering different views of the role of the press and citizens in engaging public issues. Focus is on democratic theory with empirical work on public opinion and the role of the media. Topics include campaigns, the effects of new technology, competing strategies of public consultation, public journalism, and possibilities for citizen deliberation. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
| Units: 1-4
COMM 277K:
Specialized Writing and Reporting: Human Rights Journalism (COMM 177K)
(Graduate students register for COMM 277K.) The evolution of human rights law and enforcement, and the role of journalists in uncovering, pursuing, and publicizing political violence, detention, and torture. Case studies from S. Africa, Latin America, Israel and Palestine, N. Ireland, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Sudan and Darfur. Human rights issues in the U.S. in the aftermath of 9/11. Students conduct research and write journalistic reports on foreign and domestic issues. Prerequisite: 104 or consent of instructor.
| Units: 4-5
COMM 312:
Models of Democracy (COMM 212, POLISCI 237, POLISCI 337)
Ancient and modern varieties of democracy; debates about their normative and practical strengths and the pathologies to which each is subject. Focus is on participation, deliberation, representation, and elite competition, as values and political processes. Formal institutions, political rhetoric, technological change, and philosophical critique. Models tested by reference to long-term historical natural experiments such as Athens and Rome, recent large-scale political experiments such as the British Columbia Citizens' Assembly, and controlled experiments.
| Units: 3-5
COMM 325G:
Comparative Studies of News and Journalism
Focus is on topics such as the roles and responsibilities of journalists, news as a genre of popular literature, the nexus between press and state, and journalism's commitment to political participation.
| Units: 1-5
COMM 336G:
Democracy, Justice, and Deliberation (COMM 236G)
Decision processes that make a normative claim to resolve questions of public choice, at any of these levels of choice: first principles, constitutions, public policies, or particular outcomes. Topics include democratic theory, the theory of justice and issues of deliberation in small groups, public consultations, conventions, juries, and thought experiments popular in contemporary political theory. Readings include Madison, de Tocqueville, Mill, Marx, Rawls, Nozick, Ackerman, and Schudson. Preference to graduate students. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
| Units: 1-5
COMM 344:
Democracy, Press, and Public Opinion (COMM 244)
The democratic tradition provides conflicting visions of what a democracy is or might be, offering different views of the role of the press and citizens in engaging public issues. Focus is on democratic theory with empirical work on public opinion and the role of the media. Topics include campaigns, the effects of new technology, competing strategies of public consultation, public journalism, and possibilities for citizen deliberation. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
| Units: 1-4
COMM 361:
Field Experimentation in Political Communication Research
The design of large-scale field experiments. Recent developments in analysis of experimental data including matching, propensity scores, and other techniques that address the problem of selection bias. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
| Units: 4
COMM 374G:
Freedom and Control of Communication
The meaning of freedom of public communication in democratic communities, focusing on the tensions between freedom and control, rights and opportunities, individual liberty and political equality.
| Units: 1-5
COMM 379:
History of the Study of Communication
The origins of communication/media theory and research emphasizing the rise of communication as a separate field of study. The influence of schools of thought concerning the scope and purpose of the study of communication. Readings include foundational essays and studies. Prerequisite: Ph.D. student or consent of instructor.
| Units: 1-5
COMM 386:
Media Cultures of the Cold War (ARTHIST 475)
The intersection of politics, aesthetics, and new media technologies in the U.S. between the end of WW II and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Topics include the aesthetics of thinking the unthinkable in the wake of the atom bomb; abstract expressionism and modern man discourse; game theory, cybernetics, and new models of art making; the rise of television, intermedia, and the counterculture; and the continuing influence of the early cold war on contemporary media aesthetics. Readings from primary and secondary sources in art history, communication, and critical theory.
| Units: 3-5
