Communication Major (B.A.)

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:

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.

Thematic Concentrations

1. Histories and Traditions in Communication

Students who pursue this concentration examine the history of thought about communication and its practices with attention to its applicability in the contemporary world. Select from:

2. Political Communication and Public Space

Courses in this concentration invite critical and historical inquiry into the forms and expressions of public opinion, political advocacy, and social or political reformation, maintenance, and change. Select from:

3. Communication, Community and Everyday Life

Courses in this concentration explore our taken-for-granted ways of being in the world and how they emerge from our routine communicative interactions with each other. Select from:

4. Culture and Identities

Courses in this concentration offer a critical examination of the cultural and communicative practices that shape our sense of ourselves, our pasts, and our relationships with others. Select from:

5. Citizenship and Advocacy

Courses in this concentration explore the language practices, interpersonal understandings, oratorical skills, and writing strategies that enable people to formulate their identities as citizens and to engage discussions directed toward public and political advocacy. Select from:

6. Visual Communication

Courses in this concentration demonstrate how iconography, symbolism, and representations in art, photography, motion pictures, television and digitalized forms of communication have worked to create meaning. Select from: