111 - 120 of 145 results for: COMM

For students interested in research in political science, psychology, or communication. Methodological techniques for studying political attitudes and behaviors. May be repeated for credit.

Basic communication theory for first-year Ph.D. students in the Department of Communication. Introduction to basic writings and concepts in communication research. The goal is an introduction to issues in the field that are common in communication research. First half of the class will emphasize classic literature about field organization, history and theory. Second half will emphasize contemporary theory in areas that students select. Email instructor for permission to enroll.

This course offers an introduction to the practice and politics of ethnographic fieldwork. It provides a "how to" of ethnographic research, in which students will conduct an ethnographic project of their own, complemented by weekly readings and discussions. In the process, we will discuss the theory and epistemology of fieldwork, along with the practicalities and politics of fieldwork in different domains. We will examine different stages of ethnographic research (entering the field, conducting and recording fieldwork, exiting the field and writing it up), different methods (observations, interviews, "going along"), as well as distinct styles of ethnographic work (virtual ethnography, organizational ethnography, narrative ethnography, etc.). The course will serve as a participative workshop for students to exchange field notes, share practical advice, and consolidate their research interests. Email instructor for permission to enroll.

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.

An introduction to a broad range of social science research methods that are widely used in PhD work. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

This course will focus on advanced research on social media with an emphasis on interpersonal dynamics. The course will emphasize key theories from psychology and communication that bear on behavior and social media. Students will develop a research project in the course that draws on one of the primary methods from the social media space. Email instructor for permission to enroll.

In this course we develop a model of how language reflects social and psychological dynamics in social media and other technologically-mediated contexts. The course lays out the main stages of analyzing language to understand social dynamics, including using theory to identify key discourse features, feature extraction, and classification and prediction. The course will draw on action-oriented language approaches to understand how people use language (e.g., grounding and joint action models), and then build on this approach to understand how discourse features from natural language can be used to answer questions from a wide range of social science questions, and ultimately, to the design of new technologies. Email instructor for permission to enroll.

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: PhD student or consent of instructor.

( COMM 128 is offered for 5 units, COMM 228 is offered for 4 units. COMM 328 is offered for 3-5 units.)This seminar covers the intersection of politics, media and art in the U.S. from the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Topics include globalization and financialization; the rise of the New Right; the personalization of media technology, from television to computing; postmodernism and political art; feminism, queer, and sex-positive activism; identity politics and the culture wars. Open to juniors, seniors, and graduate students.