Communication Major (B.A.)

Communication Major (B.A.)

Communications Students in class

What is communication?

Communication is the study of efforts to create, share and control meaning. Communication occurs in face-to-face contexts, via speech and the body, and through technologies as old as writing and as new as social media. In this degree program, students explore the role of communication in relationships between people, cultures, industries and technologies. Through courses in rhetoric, media studies, and language and social interaction, students learn how different modes of communication shape understanding and social relations. Our goal is to help you become a critically-engaged citizen and skilled communication professional prepared for work in a wide variety of fields, from business and marketing to community organizing and government.

Why study communication at UNH?

Students in communication study real-world political issues, news events, cultural phenomena and communication between friends, family members, colleagues, community members and strangers. To enhance their coursework, students may also learn digital media production in the state-of-the-art Communication Media Lab; engage in multi-modal digital, film, audio, and web-based research and scholarship with the student and faculty group UNH CAMRA; facilitate meaningful conversations and collaborate with our local communities on topics important to civil society through the Civil Discourse Lab; host social, educational and networking events with the honor society Lambda Pi Eta; and gain experience and expertise through a communication internship.

Potential careers

  • Academic counselor
  • Human resources administrator
  • Journalist
  • Marketing specialist
  • Media writer
  • Non-profit director
  • Producer
  • Public relations professional
  • Social media analyst

Contact

Andrew Sharp

Academic/Career Counselor
Phone: (603) 862-2991
Office: Communication, Horton Social Science Center Rm 101, Durham, NH 03824

Connect with us

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  • headshot
    Alumni
    Mitchell Lebowitz '97
    Communication Major | New Teacher Support Coach
    I am currently a new teacher support coach at University of North Carolina in Charlotte, NC. I support 35 teachers in four different schools. My job is to go into classrooms and see how I can best support new teachers in areas of planning, instruction and assessment. I also provide professional...
    Learn More
    Alumni
    Mitchell Lebowitz '97
    Communication Major | New Teacher Support Coach
    I am currently a new teacher support coach at University of North Carolina in Charlotte, NC. I support 35 teachers in four different schools. My job is to go into classrooms and see how I can best support new teachers in areas of planning, instruction and assessment. I also provide professional...
    Learn More
  • photo of Abigail McIntosh with Michael Soha
    Wildcats
    Abigail McIntosh '19
    Communication Major
    Abigail McIntosh believes the university experience is “beautiful because students are supposed to come out on the other side a totally different version of themselves.” The high school version of Abigail initially “wrote off” UNH as a less appealing option because it was close to her hometown of...
    Learn More
    Wildcats
    Abigail McIntosh '19
    Communication Major
    Abigail McIntosh believes the university experience is “beautiful because students are supposed to come out on the other side a totally different version of themselves.” The high school version of Abigail initially “wrote off” UNH as a less appealing option because it was close to her hometown of...
    Learn More
  • photo of Adam Bovie with Michael Soha
    Wildcats
    Adam Bovie '19
    Communication and International Affairs Majors
    As a sophomore from Vassalboro, Maine, Adam Bovie started making a podcast with some friends — essentially, they recorded some sessions of a game they liked to play and, after some editing, Adam would post it online. On the surface, says Adam, this would seem to have no special relation to UNH. “I...
    Learn More
    Wildcats
    Adam Bovie '19
    Communication and International Affairs Majors
    As a sophomore from Vassalboro, Maine, Adam Bovie started making a podcast with some friends — essentially, they recorded some sessions of a game they liked to play and, after some editing, Adam would post it online. On the surface, says Adam, this would seem to have no special relation to UNH. “I...
    Learn More
  • photo of Sam Mahra
    Alumni
    Sam Mahra ’01
    Communication and Sociology Majors | Higher Ed Communications and Marketing
    What are some of my strongest memories of UNH? I was relatively shy and started to gain my confidence once I started getting involved with clubs and activities. I never thought I'd join a fraternity, but I ended becoming President of...
    Learn More
    Alumni
    Sam Mahra ’01
    Communication and Sociology Majors | Higher Ed Communications and Marketing
    What are some of my strongest memories of UNH? I was relatively shy and started to gain my confidence once I started getting involved with clubs and activities. I never thought I'd join a fraternity, but I ended becoming President of...
    Learn More
  • hamel-kelsey
    Alumni
    Kelsey Hamel ’15
    Communication Major | Account Coordinator at a PR Agency
    Read more about Kelsey's success using her degree in Communication on UNH Tales
    Learn More
    Alumni
    Kelsey Hamel ’15
    Communication Major | Account Coordinator at a PR Agency
    Read more about Kelsey's success using her degree in Communication on UNH Tales
    Learn More

View All Communication Major (B.A.) Spotlights

Curriculum & Requirements

The purpose of the communication major is to prepare students to engage more knowingly with the communicative patterns, problems and practices that they will encounter in their personal, professional and civic lives. This purpose requires that students learn to move beyond commonplace and conventional understandings of "communication" and acquire sophisticated perspectives — workable orientations — for describing, analyzing, reflecting upon and engaging with those patterns, problems and practices. Accordingly, the major not only acquaints students with a variety of empirical, critical, historical, theoretical and pragmatic perspectives on communication phenomena, but encourages them to formulate workable orientations of their own for engaging with communication issues and questions. Students who graduate with a communication major are prepared to become thoughtful and proficient "communication decision-makers" during their postgraduate lives.

Students wishing to declare communication as a major should contact the department's academic adviser, Andrew Sharp, for application information and requirements.

Majors must complete ten courses (40 credits) with a 2.0 overall average in the major. The distribution of required courses for the major is as follows:

Complete the following three introductory courses: 1
CMN 455Introduction to Media Studies4
CMN 456Propaganda and Persuasion4
CMN 457Introduction to Language and Social Interaction4
Select three 500-level communication analysis courses 212
Select four upper-division courses 316
Total Credits40

A maximum of 8 credits of independent study (CMN 795 Independent Study) may be counted toward the major. CMN 799H Honors Thesis and CMN 796 Comm-Entary Journal cannot be used to fulfill an advanced course requirement. The Discovery Program Capstone requirement may be fulfilled by completing any 700-level communication course except CMN 796 Comm-Entary Journal. CMN 795 Independent Study can only fulfill the capstone requirement with department approval and can be repeated for a maximum of 8 credits.

Transfer students must complete 20 credits of their communication coursework at UNH to complete the major satisfactorily. Exchange students may transfer no more than 10 approved credits from another institution to be applied toward completion of the communication major at UNH.

Candidates for a degree must satisfy all of the University Discovery Program requirements in addition to satisfying the requirements of each individual major program. Bachelor of arts candidates must also satisfy the foreign language proficiency requirement.

Major department courses may not be used to satisfy Discovery category requirements except in the case of a second or dual major.

Explore Program Details

  1. Students will be able to describe the Communication discipline and its central questions. We expect students to be able to:
    • Explain and synthesize the history of Communication theory
    • Articulate the differences between approaches within the discipline (media studies, language and social interaction, and rhetorical studies)
    • Identify contemporary debates within the field
    • Distinguish Communication scholarship from other areas of study
    • Understand the role of Communication scholarship in society
    • Articulate the relevance of communication in civic life, including an ability to apply key concepts in the field to world events, situations, or problems
  1. Students will be able to think critically about communication processes by applying communication theories and concepts. We expect students to be able to:
    • Identify theories, perspectives, principles, and concepts relevant to the discipline
    • Recognize academic writing, identify the work’s thesis, explain its method, assess the evidence used, and determine its significance.
    • Engage with communicative patterns, processes, problems, and practices that they encounter in their personal, professional and civic lives
    • Acquire effective frameworks for describing, analyzing, reflecting upon, and engaging with those patterns, processes, problems, and practices.
  1. Prepare students to become thoughtful and proficient communicators.  We expect students to be able to:
    • Become critical consumers of messages
    • Understand how meanings are constructed by speakers and audiences
    • Evaluate claims and arguments, and to be able to explain how they are grounded
    • Recognize the collaborative construction of meaning and its relation to social change
    • Explore the ways in which various forms of communication constitute, maintain, and transform social life
    • Formulate coherent arguments/theses, provide support for their perspectives, and communicate them clearly and logically
    • Select creative and appropriate modalities and technologies to accomplish communicative goals
    • Adapt messages and coordinate communication with others recognizing the diverse needs of individuals, groups, and contexts
More to Explore

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