Our strategically integrated curriculum, engaging coursework, and supportive instruction and feedback offer educational experiences that equip students for lifelong success.
Who We Are
The Department of Communication, Media, and Persuasion is the only program in the Mountain West to combine the theoretical and interpersonal focus of a communication arts department with the skills and media focus of mass communication department. This combination allows us to offer a dynamic curriculum to everyone who studies in our program - providing them a leg up over the competition.
Our faculty embody this dynamism, bringing together diverse experiences and viewpoints both within and outside of the classroom. Areas of specialization include advertising education; crisis communication; image repair; media psychology; narrative; social media and social movements; sport communication and PR; rhetorical analysis and criticism; and visual rhetoric and semiotics.
Our Mission
The Department of Communication, Media, and Persuasion is driven by a commitment to creativity, innovation, and relevance. Our strategically integrated curriculum, engaging coursework, and supportive instruction and feedback offer educational experiences that equip students for lifelong success.
Undergraduate programs are designed to provide a broad understanding and critical appreciation of the role of communication in human life as well as marketable skills in current media technologies and knowledge of professional practices. Our graduate program is highly flexible, allowing students to design a learning experience to meet their personal and professional interests.
Communication, Media, and Persuasion faculty work together to develop student intellectual curiosity and potential, to produce innovative and relevant research and creative work, and to contribute to the global community as recognized professionals and scholars.
Ready to ROAR with us?! Check out our programs.
Learning Outcomes
The Department of Communication, Media, and Persuasion administers a Bachelor of Arts in Communication with emphases in Corporate Communication; Rhetoric, Media, and Social Change; Visual Communication; and Multi-Platform Journalism; as well as minors in Public Relations/Advertising, Visual Media, Journalism, Communication, and Advocacy.
The primary objectives related to the Bachelor of Arts program in Communication are to assist all students in developing the following:
- The ability to engage in critical thinking.
- The ability to communicate effectively in writing.
- The ability to communicate effectively through oral presentation.
- The ability to engage in effective applied problem-solving for personal and professional goals.
- The ability to construct and evaluate strategic verbal and visual messages.
- The ability to use effective information research strategies.
- An understanding of the role of communication in interpersonal, group/team, corporate, political, cultural, mediated, and historical contexts.
- Knowledge and skill useful to graduates' professional success.
- Knowledge and skill applicable to graduates' personal lives.
Effective communication is vital to successful social interaction and depends upon an adequate breadth of knowledge. The Communication, Media, and Persuasion curriculum program offerings emphasize the importance of a strong liberal arts education as well as relevant technical skill development in preparing students for communication careers and for participation as members of a diverse global society.