Information for Prospective Students

Temple University’s School of Media and Communication (SMC) is excited to continue

providing the best education in media and communication to its students. As part of our

commitment, two new majors will be offered for students starting in the Fall semester of 2017.

These majors are Communication and Social Influence, which will be housed in Temple

University’s Department of Communication and Social Influence (CSI), and Public Relations,

which will be found in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations (ADV & PR).

The Communication and Social Influence (CSI) major prepares students to be public

communication leaders in various settings. Utilizing Temple’s unique setting as an urban

institution, CSI majors will learn to be effective communicators in various subsets of global and

national communities. Each student will become an expert in one of three concentrations: civic

engagement, risk or conflict. Civic engagement focuses on communication of politics and

advocacy. Risk deals with communication regarding health, scientific environments and

security. Conflict focuses on communication for community and individual conflict

management and resolution. Diversity and intercultural communication will also be key areas of

study within the CSI major for all concentrations.

The Department of Advertising and Public Relations (ADV & PR) contains two distinct

majors: Advertising and Public Relations. The Advertising major will remain the same as it has

been offered in previous semesters. The Public Relations (PR) major has been designed to

align with current industry trends and offers organizational leadership classes as well. Many

new courses have been added to the curriculum to mirror advancements in the PR field. The

existing PR minor will continue to be offered to incoming and existing students of other majors.

The new departments and majors offer students unique opportunities to grow their

education in innovative fields that will prepare them for future employment.

Communication and Social Influence Curriculum:

CLASS DESCRIPTION

PUBLIC SPEAKING

Students prepare, present, and evaluate speeches on significant topics of public concern. This course emphasizes the three skills necessary for successful professional public speaking: selecting the appropriate content, organizing ideas, and using an effective delivery style. Students make progress to more advanced principles of public speaking including critical thinking, the discovery and evaluation of arguments and evidence, audience analysis and adaptation, peer evaluation, speech composition, and persuasion. This course prepares students to make professional presentations in our increasingly diverse workplace.

INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION AND

SOCIAL INFLUENCE

This course provides an overview of the theory, research, and practice of communication and social influence. Students will be introduced to risk, political, and conflict communication techniques and cutting-edge research and how it all applies and relates to current event and contemporary culture. Career paths and opportunities for Communication and Social Influence majors will also be explored.

PERSUASION

Persuasion viewed from the perspectives of both the persuader and the person being persuaded. The course is designed to make students more effective in both roles and to raise challenging ethical questions. It covers the role of persuasion in politics, product advertising, education, and much more.

This course gives students the opportunity to understand the function and form of argument within daily life, to better understand the difference between effective

ARGUMENTATION AND ADVOCACY argument and fallacy, and to create and present effective and logical arguments. Information and theories related to means of persuading and informing an audience through written and spoken words form a central part of this course. Students explore specific areas of current events and policy. Public performance and debate are utilized throughout this course.

SOCIAL INFLUENCE INQUIRY

The study of communication and social influence crosses epistemological boundaries, from the humanities to the social sciences. This course provides a foundation of different ways to define and seek out knowledge that, through communication, influences our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Most importantly, it will educate students on how to ask a good question and to think critically about the knowledge they are generating about various communication processes.

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT CONCENTRATION:

COMMUNICATION AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

The course will generate discussion and debate concerning how we should approach the purpose and function of communication in relation to civic engagement at the national, regional, and local levels across the globe. The role of the citizenry, their communication agency, and what should be our normative expectations for citizens will be a centerpiece of our dialogue. Particular focus will be given to a wide range of communicative (mass, mediated interpersonal, interpersonal) activities.

ENJOYMENT & CIVIC LIFE

People derive a variety of pleasure from various forms of civic engagement and communication plays a key role in these processes. This course will survey the

landscape of social scientific and humanistic approaches to the hedonic and eudemonic (meaningful enjoyment) motivations associated with communicating about civic activities. Focus will be given to a wide range of entertainment messages types (e.g., satire, irony, sarcasm) provided in different settings (e.g., drama, comedy) that all deal with various types of civic engagement. The course adopts a global perspective and will focus on a variety of communication processes taking place in Europe, Oceania, and the Middle East to allow comparisons to be made with the United States.

RESISTANCE, PROTESTS, AND SOCIAL

MOVEMENTS (WI)

This course investigates the various means through which social and political campaigns are conceived, constructed, and performed. This class focuses on aspects of social movements pertinent to the expression of culture, race, and identity, including notions and reactions to concepts of race and racism. Students will examine historical foundations of events that affected the Civil Rights movement.

RHETORIC AND CIVIC CULTURE

This course examines the strategies and implications of human discourse within a variety of political settings. Topics include persuasion in electoral campaigns, political sign-usage, implications and consequences of everyday choices, and the relationship between media and political ideology.

SPEECHWRITING (WI)

Students prepare speeches for their own presentations and ghost write speeches for others. Emphasis is on audience analysis, speech construction, style, persuasion, and manuscript preparation. Students study the practices and speeches of prominent speechwriters as well as great speeches in American history. This course is writing intensive.

This course investigates the public use of

COMMUNICATION, ATTITUDES, AND

OPINION

reason and communication as it relates to attitude and opinion formation and collective will to influence social, political, and economic outcomes. Topics include investigations of the traditional and digital public sphere, the role of mass, social, and emergent media in attitude and opinion formation, communicative acts that influence attitude and opinion formation, and how collective will affects civic engagement. From a normative perspective, the course will cover the history, theories, methods, and practice of attitude and opinion formation using a communication and social influence lens.

CONFLICT COMMUNICATION CONCENTRATION:

CONFLICT AND COMMUNICATION

BEHAVIOR

This course addresses how conflict analysis and intervention requires knowledge of verbal and nonverbal behavior that influences dimensions of trust, control, and intimacy in conflict. Nonverbal and verbal indicators of conflict in terms of emotion, identity, relationship, and persuasive functions are reviewed.

INTERCULTURAL AND CROSS-CULTURAL

CONFLICT

This course addresses the theories of intercultural and cross-cultural communication as they relate to how people from different cultural backgrounds manage conflict. Students learn how culture affects the recognition and response to conflict and why third-culture and third-party interventions can constructively address cultural tensions

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

This course introduces students to theories and practices of civil disobedience as a form of political persuasion. Students learn about the tactics, strategies, moral debates, philosophical foundations, and persuasive

appeals of disruption, intervention, and noncompliance.

URBAN ORGANIZING

This course teaches students how to mobilize community members into political forces for social change. Students learn to assess social and political problems, communicate with target populations, and devise plans of action. The course focuses on urban contexts and concerns.

CONFLICT AND INFLUENCE: IDENTITY,

EMOTION AND POWER

In this course, students learn the ways conflict is driven by identity, emotion and power. This course addresses how these drivers create and reflect conflict and how interpersonal and social conflict management must attend to these drivers to secure constructive resolution.

MULTIPARTY CONFLICT PROCESSES

Intergroup and intragroup conflicts require complex conflict management processes. This course examines primary multiparty conflict processes of dialogue, facilitation, and multiparty mediation with a focus on analysis of these processes in environmental and public policy disputes.

RISK COMMUNICATION CONCENTRATION:

COMMUNICATION AND BEHAVIOR CHANGE

This course educates students to understand the role that communication plays in behavior prediction and change models. Theories such as the Health Belief Model, Social Cognitive Theory, and the Integrated Model of Behavior Change are discussed in relation to contemporary health, political, science, and other pro-social campaigns. The class covers effective use of fear appeals, conformity, compliance gaining and other theories of social influence, as well as the diffusion of new behaviors through social networks.

RHETORIC OF HATE AND VIOLENCE

This course examines the way people communicate hate and violence through speech, physical acts, media depictions, and art. Students examine ways that hate and violence work to persuade, coerce, or force behavioral and cognitive change among individuals, groups, governments, and nations.

RISK COMMUNICATION (WI)

This course educates students to understand the current research and practice of communicating health, scientific, and environmental risk. Issues addressed in this course include the public understanding of issues that pose risks, such as climate change, global infectious diseases, and engineering the human genome. Different perspectives of risk communication of how people make sense of and use information about risk, and techniques for communicating risk across multiple channels (e.g. mass media, interpersonal, mobile and social) are covered. This course is writing intensive.

MISPERCEPTIONS AND MISINFORMATION

Many people hold beliefs about science, health, and or politics that are unsupported or completely false. This course explores the psychological and social factors that make people vulnerable to deceptive communication, misinformation, and conspiracy theories and why it is often difficult to correct misinformed beliefs. This course covers theories of cognitive biases, conformity, identity protection, motivated reasoning, cultural cognition and many more.

RHETORIC OF SCIENCE

This course focuses on the role of persuasion in the production of scientific knowledge and technological artifacts, professional discursive practices, and public understandings of science and technology. Students engage in critical analysis of major theoretical and methodological traditions in the rhetoric of science and technology.

NARRATIVE PERSUASION

This course offers students an opportunity to study how narratively structured messages are developed, as well as when and why they are persuasive. Narratively-structured messages offer persuasion and social influence communicators a unique way to deliver information to diverse audiences. From Hollywood films to online advocacy videos, narratives are used to deliver persuasive messages through mass, entertainment, social, and emergent media. Topics include theories and uses of narrative persuasion and media engagement ranging from entertainment education to political docudramas.

CULTURE COURSES:

INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

This course considers how culture influences communication processes by examining theories of intercultural communication and looking at many of the different processes that make up cultural differences.

COMMUNICATION, CULTURE, AND IDENTITY

This course explores how individual and collective identities are constructed, maintained, and transformed. From rhetorical and sociological perspectives, this course highlights the fundamental role of intersectionality (i.e., the connections between gender, sexual orientation, class, race, ethnicity, and bodily difference when shaping who is who and what is what) in the construction of personal and social identities. In this class, students will learn not only theoretical issues such as similarity and difference, selfhood and mind, self-image and public-image, but also will be able to analyze the influences and consequences of a mediated discourse of identity.

METHOD COURSES:

RHETORICAL CRITICISM (WI)

This course surveys contemporary approaches to rhetorical criticism. Students study different critical methods: neo-classical, dramatistic, narrative, metaphoric, social movement, genre, ideographic, gender, and post-modern. Using contemporary critical practice, students learn to analyze linguistic cultural artifacts (e.g., speeches, poems, magazine ads, TV shows, films, and videos) and critique their influences and consequences on everyday living.

SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH METHODS OF

SOCIAL INFLUENCE

This course addresses research of social influence from a social science perspective. This course provides students with a working knowledge of how to ask a research question and how to choose a method to address a research question, provides an overview of a broad range of qualitative and quantitative methods, engages students in the challenges of conducting research in the digital era, and offers a cursory glance at data analysis. The course covers key ethical issues involved in the study of individuals and publics.

EXPERIENCE COURSES:

CSI 3985 - INTERNSHIP ORCSI 3986 – STUDY AWAY INTERNSHIPCSI 3987 - PRACTICUM ORCSI 3991 - DIRECTED RESEARCH

Students will earn credit by putting what they learn in the classroom into practice. Practicum credit can be earned through the following means: (1) Internship (through either domestic or study away experience), (2) Directed Research (advised by a faculty member), or (3) Community Engagement (that builds on content covered in CSI courses). Students can choose their method of course completion, but approval for the

means selected is required.

SENIOR SEMINAR COURSE:

SENIOR SEMINAR

Senior seminar is an upper level capstone experience in which students are asked to integrate knowledge and skills from the range of courses taken during their major. The focus is on synthesis, cohesion, and integration of knowledge for all CSI majors. The capstone will include upper level argumentation training, a heavy emphasis on formal writing, and the completion of a social influence campaign.

GENERAL EDUCATION:

CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

(GENED)

The course introduces students to the study of contemporary American social movements from a communication perspective. Our primary focus is on the symbolic strategies social movements use to attract members, address counter-movements, and engage dominant social institutions. The course progresses through three sections: a discussion of the characteristics and types of social movements, an examination of the persuasive tactics used by social movements, and an analysis of the persuasive materials/tactics used by social movements. These materials and tactics include documentaries, speeches, videos, social media posts as well as protests, campaigns, and violent acts. The course also teaches students how to understand social movements using perspectives from political science, sociology, and economics/business.

Public Relations Curriculum:

CLASS DESCRIPTION

PUBLIC SPEAKING (offered through CSI)

Students prepare, present, and evaluate speeches in significant topics of public concern. This course emphasizes the three skills necessary for successful professional public speaking: selecting the appropriate content, organizing ideas, and using an effective delivery style. Students make progress to more advanced principles of public speaking including critical thinking, the discovery and evaluation of arguments and evidence, audience analysis and adaption, peer evaluation, speech composition, and persuasion. The course prepares students to make professional presentations in our increasingly diverse workplace.

COMMUNICATING LEADERSHIP

This course introduces students to leadership studies from a communication perspective. Through all course activities (e.g., readings, discussion, and case studies) students will gain a broad understanding of how leadership emerges and is enacted on a daily basis through communication.

PRACTICAL GRAMMAR FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS

Students are taught the basics of grammar, sentence structure, punctuation and word usage; these basic skills are foundational to majoring in writing-intensive pursuits such as public relations, journalism and other communications studies. By the end of this course, a proficiency in the mechanics of writing will provide students with the skills to perform well in the more advanced level writing required throughout their collegiate career.

NEWS WRITING AND MEDIA RELATIONS

Students are taught the fundamentals of writing for various types of news media, including print, broadcast and web-based. The theory and practice of media relations will also be studied. Students will learn the basic forms of journalistic writing—news, feature and

opinion.

INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC RELATIONS

This course is a general introduction to public relations processes, strategies, applications, and tactics. The purpose of the class is to provide students with a solid understanding of the theoretical, historical, and ethical principles of this field and introduce public relations as a viable career option. The course will focus on the strategic planning process, major communication theories, and applicable tactics to achieve public relations objectives. Current trends in diversity and globalization in the field of public relations will also be discussed.

RESEARCH METHODS

This course is designed to give students a basic proficiency in a variety of research techniques professionals use to get to know their target audiences. It includes segments on the use of electronic databases and data sets, surveys, focus groups, observation, and much more. Students will conduct their own research project and present the results in a professional written report and oral presentation.

COMMUNICATING ORGANIZATIONAL

CHANGE

In this course, students analyze the forces that drive individuals, teams, and organizations to change. They examine a range of theoretical concepts and practices of leading change in organizational, community, political and global contexts. Students examine impediments to change and survey a range of communication approaches for making organizational change more effective. This course will develop students’ understanding of the change process and provide them with practical skills for managing and leading change.

LEADING GROUPS AND TEAM BUILDING

This course provides students with both an understanding and the skill necessary to be an effective team member, team leader & team facilitator. Students will be able to understand what makes an effective and ineffective team, facilitate teamwork and a positive communication climate, understand team roles, develop knowledge and skills in verbal and nonverbal communication relevant to a team’s transactional processes, develop

knowledge and skills in managing conflict and solving problems in a group or team, plan and implement a project that reflects the mission of their team, reflect and assess self and others regarding team skills, and understand the importance of ethics and diversity in groups and teamwork.

GLOBAL COMMUNICATION AND LEADERSHIP

This course focuses on communication processes and issues that arise in multinational and global organizations. This course explores the relationship [among] culture, communication, technology, and ways of organizing across national contexts and in different types of organizations (nonprofit, voluntary, civic, governmental, small business and corporate systems). The communicative and ethical dimensions of international organizations are addressed.

PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORY

Using a critical lens, this course shall enable students to explore practical public relations problems and opportunities influencing the field through application of public relations theory.

PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITING

This designated Writing-Intensive course explores all aspects of writing for public relations, including news releases, newsletter and brochure copy, speech writing, writing for websites and digital media, writing for internal audiences, understanding campaign planning and evaluation, and more.

DIGITAL MEDIA, SOCIAL MEDIA, AUDIENCE ANALYTICS FOR

PR PUBLIC RELATIONS

One of the most critical skills in modern public relations is a strong understanding of the tools measuring digital marketing performance, the key metrics and their meaning. Students will need to know how to analyze the data, find the story in the data and present the data story in a compelling way. This course will provide students with the basics of digital tools and the key digital tools in the industry, and become better prepared for the modern communication world.Law and ethics are a crucial component of public relations practice. In addition, the growing importance of issues surrounding

LAW, ETHICS, DIVERSITY AND MEDIA ISSUES

OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

diversity and the ever-changing media landscape has become equally crucial. This course explores and supplies students the critical knowledge of these areas through theoretical perspectives, analyses of ethical issues public relations professionals and organizational and community leaders confront, discussions and case studies of ethical reasoning and practical, philosophical and theoretical concerns affecting everyday matters of moral choice and of moral judgment, and current trends on these topics in the media and public relations.

INDUSTRY ESSENTIALS FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS

(1ST 7 WEEKS)

This intense seven-week course is designed to provide a foundational knowledge on essential business topics from a strategic public relations perspective including economics and economic indicators, financial statements, the law and corporate disclosure, corporate social responsibility, and corporate reputation, among others.

CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS (2ND 7 WEEKS)

This intense seven-week course is designed to provide a foundational knowledge on essential crisis communication practices and techniques from a strategic public relations perspective including understanding the differences between a crisis and an emergency, risk assessment, legal restrictions and implications, and how a crisis can affect operations, employee morale and productivity, business relationships, stock price and corporate reputation, among others. Both the perspectives of practitioners and academics will be presented.

PUBLIC RELATIONS FIELD EXPERIENCE

(PRACTICUM)

The Public Relations Communication Field Experience compliments the Public Relations student’s formal education. For many students, the Field Experience is the first opportunity to gain experience in a communication career path, while still receiving academic credit. The Field Experience should acquaint students with actual professional practices in their disciplines.

PUBLIC RELATIONS CASE STUDIES

Students will use and further develop critical thinking skills for managing public relations, particularly as it relates to the implementation and evaluation of full scale public relations plans. In particular, students will examine current events, as well as case studies of organizational management and decision-making outcomes – with a specific focus on the role of public relations, ethics, planning, and new technologies.

PUBLIC RELATIONS CAPSTONE

This is the final course in the public relations sequence. It will enable students to put into practice all of the theoretical knowledge, research skills, interpersonal and group skills, writing skills, and creative problem solving abilities they have developed throughout their public relations studies. This course will help students approach public relations strategically so they will be able to apply public relations techniques and theories to the creation, execution and management of public relations campaigns. This is a challenging and heavily team-oriented course, but a valuable and realistic one in terms of preparing students for the workplace with experience in the practical skills of campaign design and management.

PR Minor Curriculum:

CLASS DESCRIPTION

INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC RELATIONS

This course is a general introduction to public relations processes, strategies, applications, and tactics. The purpose of the class is to provide students with a solid understanding of the theoretical, historical, and ethical principles of this field and introduce public relations as a viable career option. The course will focus on the strategic planning process, major communication theories, and applicable tactics to achieve public relations objectives. Current trends in diversity and

globalization in the field of public relations will also be discussed.

PUBLIC SPEAKING

Students prepare, present, and evaluate speeches in significant topics of public concern. This course emphasizes the three skills necessary for successful professional public speaking: selecting the appropriate content, organizing ideas, and using an effective delivery style. Students make progress to more advanced principles of public speaking including critical thinking, the discovery and evaluation of arguments and evidence, audience analysis and adaption, peer evaluation, speech composition, and persuasion. The course prepares students to make professional presentations in our increasingly diverse workplace.

NEWS WRITING & MEDIA RELATIONS

Students are taught the fundamentals of writing for various types of news media, including print, broadcast and web-based. The theory and practice of media relations will also be studied. Students will learn the basic forms of journalistic writing—news, feature and opinion.

COMMUNICATING ORGANIZATIONAL

CHANGE

In this course, students analyze the forces that drive individuals, teams, and organizations to change. They examine a range of theoretical concepts and practices of leading change in organizational, community, political and global contexts. Students examine impediments to change and survey a range of communication approaches for making organizational change more effective. This course will develop students’ understanding of the change process and provide them with practical skills for managing and leading change.

PUBLIC RELATIONS THEORY

Using a critical lens, this course shall enable students to explore practical public relations problems and opportunities influencing the field through application of public relations

theory.

RESEARCH METHODS

This course is designed to give students a basic proficiency in a variety of research techniques professionals use to get to know their target audiences. It includes segments on the use of electronic databases and data sets, surveys, focus groups, observation, and much more. Students will conduct their own research project and present the results in a professional written report and oral presentation.

DIGITAL MEDIA, SOCIAL MEDIA, AUDIENCE

ANALYTICS FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS

One of the most critical skills in modern public relations is a strong understanding of the tools measuring digital marketing performance, the key metrics and their meaning. Students will need to know how to analyze the data, find the story in the data and present the data story in a compelling way. This course will provide students with the basics of digital tools and the key digital tools in the industry, and become better prepared for the modern communication world.

This flow chart explains the specific breakdown of the CSI and ADV & PR departments under

SMC:

For questions about the CSI department, please contact:

Dr. Lance Holbert

Professor and Chair

Department of Communication and Social Influence

r.lance.holbert@temple.edu

For questions about the ADV & PR department, please contact:

Prof. Dana Saewitz

Chair

Department of Advertising and Public Relations

dsaewitz@temple.edu