printer friendly pageCOMM 104W: 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: WAY-CE
Instructors:
Zacharia, J. (PI)
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: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
COMM 123: Argumentation and Persuasion (COMM 223)
We all know that appeals based on logic and sound evidence often fail where less rational appeals that "shouldn't" work, succeed. This course examines persuasion, the influencing of attitudes, beliefs or behavior, and locates within that broad subject argumentation, the process of reasoning methodically from evidence. Argumentation, the socially acceptable method of persuasion, typically confines itself to the rules of logic and has as its goal the recognition of states and causal relationships held by the arguer to objectively exist. Other methods of persuasion can succeed while flouting those rules, but only within limits, as the story of the Emperor's New Clothes reminds us. This course will explore whether those limits be accounted for by the capacity limitations and heuristics and biases of human information processing. Topics to be covered include evolutionary explanations; the central and peripheral routes to persuasion; source, channel and receiver factors; attitude-behavior consistency; the roles of involvement, elaboration, affect and social influence; critical thinking skills and logical fallacies. Limited enrollment; preference to juniors, seniors and graduate students, and within these, to Communication majors.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
Instructors:
Voelker, D. (PI)
COMM 130N: The idea of a free press
Preference to freshmen. An examination of the meaning of freedom of the press, tied to but not bound by various Supreme Court rulings on the scope and purpose of the First Amendment's speech and press clauses. Discussions will include a look at the recent and rapid computerization of communication and what it portends for the future of a free press.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
Instructors:
Glasser, T. (PI)
COMM 133: Need to Know: The Tension between a Free Press and National Security Decision Making (COMM 233)
The course will examine the dynamic interaction at the highest levels of government and the media when news coverage of secret national security policy and operations impinges on United States defense, diplomatic and intelligence decision making. Attitudes, practices and actions by the media and the government will be explored through a series of case studies and simulations. Former editors, reporters and government officials will appear as guest speakers. The goal of the course is to inform students about the vital but often fraught relationship between a free press and the government in a democratic society, especially in the management of national security affairs. And to give students background and experience in how to weigh clashing interests and make enlightened decisions that serve the public and national interest. Preference to juniors, seniors, graduate students. The instructor is a former Washington bureau chief of The New York Times. By application only. Please e-mail gaoun@stanford.edu to request an application. Completed applications are due March 15.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
Instructors:
Taubman, P. (PI)
COMM 135: Deliberative Democracy and its Critics (AMSTUD 135, COMM 235, COMM 335, POLISCI 234P, POLISCI 334P)
This course examines the theory and practice of deliberative democracy and engages both in a dialogue with critics. Can a democracy which emphasizes people thinking and talking together on the basis of good information be made practical in the modern age? What kinds of distortions arise when people try to discuss politics or policy together? The course draws on ideas of deliberation from Madison and Mill to Rawls and Habermas as well as criticisms from the jury literature, from the psychology of group processes and from the most recent normative and empirical literature on deliberative forums. Deliberative Polling, its applications, defenders and critics, both normative and empirical, will provide a key case for discussion.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Fishkin, J. (PI)
;
Siu, A. (PI)
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
Instructors:
Grimes, A. (PI)
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
Instructors:
Brinkley, J. (PI)
COMM 165N: Cars: Past, Present, and Future
Focus on the past, present and future of the automobile, bridging the Humanities, Social Sciences, Design, and Engineering. Focus on the human experiences of designing, making, driving, being driven, living with, and dreaming of the automobile. A different theme will be featured each week in discussion around a talk and supported by key readings and media. The course is informed by history, archaeology, ethnography, human-technology interaction, mechanical engineering, and cognitive science. Preference to freshmen.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Nass, C. (PI)
;
Shanks, M. (PI)
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: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI, GER:DB-SocSci
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