Bachelor of Arts in Communication

Graduates of the BA in Communication program will be able to make a positive, professional, and important contribution in the field of communication (Media Environments; Organizational Contexts; and Graduate School) by becoming inclusive, ethical, and effective leaders and participants in global and local communities.

The Bachelor of Arts in Communication features both the study of communication theory and criticism, and the development of practical skills. At a time when media (print, telephone, television, Internet), modes of communication (oral, written, visual), and contexts (face-to-face, public, and organizational) converge in our careers and daily lives, the program offers the first state-university program in the Bay Area to cover this interrelated spectrum of today's communication in new and traditional forms. Students may select from a broad range of courses in three exciting options:

We also offer an undergraduate Minor in Communication.

• Create, analyze, edit, and respond to written, spoken, and visual messages in multiple formats and contexts.
• Research and evaluate effective communication including design and production techniques and quantitative, qualitative, and critical inquiry.
• Effectively communicate as leaders and participants in collaborative and individual contexts involving divergent ideas, conflicts, and relationships across cultural and gender differences.
• Explain and illustrate the construction and maintenance of shared communities that influence and are influenced by communication using critical, cultural, racial, socio-political, gender and justice perspectives.
• Explain and illustrate concepts of ethical and democratic leadership applying major communication perspectives, including rhetorical and discursive processes, purposes, and relevant media.
• Explain and illustrate the role identity plays in communication within global and local contexts and in negotiating paradoxes of participation.