Communication (BA)

Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences
Degree Offered: Bachelor of Arts
Minor Offered: General Communication

We live in an information society where knowledge is increasingly specialized and areas of expertise grow increasingly narrow. This development places a premium on our abilities to converse among specialties, to discover commonalities, and to respect differences across fields of study, across racial and cultural groups, and across international boundaries. We come to know the liberal arts and sciences through communication. Furthermore, a study of communication cultivates human abilities, social sciences, and natural sciences. A degree in Communication enables students to better understand themselves as communicators by gaining greater understanding of the audiences they address and the communication process in which they participate. Communication graduates are able to:

1. Critique discourse conveyed through one or more of the following channels - interpersonal, public, mass media - in relation to the purpose of discourse, the effectiveness of its presentation, and the standards of argumentation and reasoning employed.
2. Advocate a position on a given topic by identifying issues, marshaling arguments and evidence, and employing appropriate presentational standards.
3. Research, analyze, organize, and present oral or written discourse appropriate to specific audiences.
4. Understand and apply significant theories of rhetoric.
5. Understand and apply significant theories of the structure and processes of mass communication.
6. Understand and apply significant theories in the communication sciences.
7. Understand and apply the ethical and philosophical framework of decision-making concerning their communication in personal, public and professional contexts in a variety of models.
8. Understand and apply appropriate qualitative, quantitative, and critical methodologies.
9. Identify, engage in and reflect upon learning experiences beyond the classroom such as service learning, study abroad, and/or internships that foster civic responsibility and enhance the academic curriculum in which the student is enrolled.

Students develop their communication skills through coursework and through application outside the classroom. The Communication program offers a number of active learning communities, including newspaper, magazine, campus radio station, television, forensics, and other projects that students and faculty pursue together. Outstanding students of communication may be eligible to join the Truman chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, a national communication honor society; in addition, the campus chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists encourages journalistic excellence through local, regional, and national activities.

To complete the Communication major at Truman, students must gain familiarity with the foundations of communication studies. They will be required to take a foundational core of courses addressing communication theory, rhetoric, mass communication, and ethics. This core of study reflects the concern of the faculty that all Communication students share a common grounding in the discipline’s theory, methodology, criticism, and practice.

This distribution of courses ensures that students have a breadth of knowledge in communication studies. This breadth, in turn, should assist them in assuming leadership roles in such areas as: business, education, government service, journalism, law, ministry, and graduate studies, particularly in humanities and social sciences.

All students in the Communication major must fulfill requirements for the degree as listed below.

To become a communication major, students must have a 2.0 overall GPA and not be on academic probation. No grade of “D” in major courses will be accepted toward a Communication major or toward a Communication minor.

DEPARTMENTAL HONORS IN COMMUNICATION

Seniors who wish to graduate with Honors in
Communication must meet the following:

1. 3.50 or better overall GPA
2. 3.50 or better GPA in the major
3. Satisfactory completion of research project or comparable evaluated internship.
4. Present at Truman’s Student Research Conference, Lambda Pi Eta conference, SPJ or professional conference, or publish a paper. A paper that has been submitted for publication would qualify. “Present” means the student was a major contributor to the research paper who participated meaningfully in all parts of the project. The faculty mentor is responsible for verifying the level of participation.
5. Concurrence of majority of non-abstaining Communication faculty.
6. Submit application to division office the first week of the final semester.

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS: