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VPA:: Degrees: Communication and Media Studies

Program Overview and Learning Outcomes

Communication and Media Studies (CMS) at Clayton State is an unconventional degree program. A Bachelor of Arts degree administered by the Department of Visual and Performing Arts, CMS emphasizes training in the liberal arts: literature, theater, art, philosophy, and languages.

The ability to write and speak well, the ability to think critically about differing media and modes of communication, the ability to recognize quality in written, visual, and multimedia texts--these are broad-based, flexible skills that enrich our graduates' lives. In addition, these same skills offer graduates the tools that they need to thrive in professions revolutionized by rapidly evolving communication technologies.

Learning Outcomes

Graduates of the B.A. program in Communication and Media Studies will demonstrate the following characteristics:

1. Communicate effectively in visual, written, spoken and non-verbal forms by achieving congruence in messages sent and messages received on all major levels of communication, including interpersonal, small group, large group, mediated group and mass communication.
2. Demonstrate critical and analytical skills by examining fully a diverse range of messages, both mediated and non-mediated, appraising form and content of message, purpose of message, role of audience, and use of channel and practicing informed and relevant decision making when engaged in specific communication situations, particularly regarding the demands and opportunities of those situations.
3. Recognize the relationships between communication efforts, both mediated and non-mediated, the role of those efforts in society throughout history and across various global cultures.
4. Learn and apply aesthetics to media product, exploring the nature of beauty, art, and taste and performing critical analyses of art and culture, past and present, national and international.
5. Cite and apply principles of ethics, differing conceptions of right conduct, moral character, and justice, and the central role of ethical behavior in sustaining human culture and communication.
6. Define the major forms of international communication and global media and recognizing recent technological innovations.
7. Exhibit readiness to enter a communication- or media-related career through successful completion of an appropriate internship.