Public Communication and Culture Studies

These three areas are: public relations and organizational cultures, public advocacy and democratic cultures, and intercultural/international communication and global cultures.  Each area has a practical element in which written and oral communication skills and interpersonal awareness are developed, yet the PCCS degree is designed to emphasize the intellectual, historical, and critical perspectives emerging from the intersections between and among these three larger areas of communication inquiry.  This “triadic” approach is among some of the more unique approaches to understanding how communication is more than a skill to be mastered, but a larger process through which democratic and professional possibilities are shaped and social realities constructed.

The program is committed to student success in learning to

• Write effective audience-oriented texts within multiple communication contexts
• Speak effectively within multiple rhetorical contexts
• Understand critically the histories and institutional contexts of communication practices
• Understand critically the research traditions and tools within the field of communication
• Understand organizational, civic and global perspectives on communicative practices
• Apply critical and interpretive approaches to analyze media content and institutions
• Integrate the theory and practice of communication in multiple contexts