B.A. in Communication
Through the courses in this program, you will learn how to identify and evaluate the dynamic relationships involved in personal, career, and ministry communications. You will also get the chance to closely examine how meaning is created through language and how to apply that in future careers.
The National Communication Association (NCA) advances Communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media, and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific, and aesthetic inquiry.
As described by the NCA,
- Communication graduates are able to adapt to different audiences and adjust messages appropriately using a variety of communication channels.
- Communication graduates are active listeners who effectively process and respond to all types of messages.
- Communication graduates are keen observers of their environments, able to identify barriers to effective information exchange and adjust their communication practices when necessary.
- Communication graduates are prepared to communicate with ethical intention and to evaluate the ethical elements of any communication situation.
- Communication graduates recognize and respect diverse perspectives and are able to adapt their communication in diverse cultural contexts.
- Communication graduates are able to frame and evaluate local, national, and/or global issues using a communication perspective to productively respond to those issues.
Source: “College Graduates with Communication Degrees Have the Knowledge and Skills Employers Need,” flyer published by the NCA.
What Can I Do with a Communication Degree?
- Editing and Design
- Journalism and Media
- Marketing
- Public Relations
- Copywriting
- Brand Strategy
- Social Media Management
- Teaching
- Web Production
- Event Planning
- Human Resource Management
Sample Core Courses
Communication Theory
This course is an introductory examination of a broad range of theories analyzing, describing and testing the human communication process from personal ministry to broader social contexts. This analysis will include the examination of theoretic models drawn from interpersonal, intrapersonal, small group, nonverbal and intercultural communication. What communication theory illuminates, informs, or displays your project?
Media, Culture, and Society
This course carefully examines popular cultural forms, institutions, rituals, artifacts, practices and worldviews. Topics range from private and public mediated experiences of popular culture in movies, news, music, fashion and advertising along with their relationships with wider cultural contexts and biblical verities. How does what you are creating (or doing) as a cultural artifact push the “horizons of the possible” (Andy Crouch’s wording)? Who are your 3, 12, and 120 in terms of networking?
Rhetorical Analysis
This course immerses students in the key themes and issues that have shaped rhetorical theory and practice from the classical era to the present. Through a series of reading and writing assignments, students interrogate the role of rhetoric in society, the rhetorical nature of knowledge and learning, and examine the uses of rhetoric in a Christian context, both global and local. Students will be given the task of examining the communication strategies of Christian organizations by applying appropriate rhetorical theories. What rhetorical analysis strategies enlighten and explain your project?
Communication Research Methods
This class provides an introduction to the intellectual foundations and practical methods of qualitative and quantitative research in order to engage with the problem of how we know what we know, how we ask questions about what we don’t know, and how we go about finding reasonable answers. We will then focus on achieving competency in gathering, organizing, interpreting and presenting research information using ethically sound research strategies.
Students will evaluate published studies to analyze validity measures, reliability of research results and ethical issues in conducting and reporting research.
This course will guide each student to propose and conduct research for a directed research project to be conducted with a mission’s agency or community nonprofit: the research results will become an integral part of the communications portfolio. This course is designed to provide both a broad overview of the research process and practical experience in conducting research. What research (what kind of research) will enhance your project? How will that research aid you in your exploration in your project?