Course information contained within the Bulletin is accurate at the time of publication in August 2023 but is subject to change. For the most up-to-date course information, please refer to the Course Catalog.
CSI 0801. Contemporary American Social Movements. 3 Credit Hours.
This course introduces students to the study of contemporary American social movements from a communication perspective. Our primary focus is on the symbolic strategies social movements use to attract members, address counter-movements, and engage dominant social institutions. The course progresses through three sections: a discussion of the characteristics and types of social movements, an examination of the persuasive tactics used by social movements, and an analysis of the persuasive materials/tactics used by social movements. These materials and tactics include documentaries, speeches, videos, social media posts as well as protests, campaigns, and violent acts. The course also teaches students how to understand social movements using perspectives from political science, sociology, and economics/business. NOTE: Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed STRC 0801, STRC 0901 or
CSI 0901.
Course Attributes: GU, SI
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 0836. Interpersonal Communication: Critical Competencies for Professional and Personal Success. 3 Credit Hours.
The primary goal of this course is to help you enhance your interpersonal communication competence so you have successful interpersonal communication with your family, friends and work colleagues. In the first phase of the course you will assess your own communication skills. You will develop and set personal goals and an action plan by which to create the change you wish to see. In the course you will learn the basic components of interpersonal communication situations (communicators, content, and contexts) and you will investigate how interpersonal communication needs and effectiveness change throughout life (in early childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age, and old age). The course includes frequent small group discussions which will allow you to integrate course and research information for personal skill development. The course will provide a reflective and supportive environment in which to expand your communication skills and knowledge. NOTE: This course fulfills the Human Behavior (GB) requirement for students under GenEd and Individual & Society (IN) for students under Core.
Course Attributes: GB
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 0901. Honors Contemporary American Social Movements. 3 Credit Hours.
This honors course provides an advanced introduction to the study of contemporary American social movements from a communication perspective. Our primary focus is on the symbolic strategies social movements use to attract members, address counter-movements, and engage dominant social institutions. The course progresses through three sections: a discussion of the characteristics and types of social movements, an examination of the persuasive tactics used by social movements, and an analysis of the persuasive materials/tactics used by social movements. These materials and tactics include documentaries, speeches, videos, social media posts, as well as protests, campaigns, and violent acts. The course also teaches students how to understand social movements using perspectives from political science, sociology, and economics/business. NOTE: Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed STRC 0801, STRC 0901, or
CSI 0801.
Cohort Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Cohorts: SCHONORS, UHONORS, UHONORSTR.
Course Attributes: GU, HO, SI
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 1111. Introduction to Public Speaking. 3 Credit Hours.
Students will prepare, present, and evaluate speeches on significant topics of public concern. The course focuses on the three skills necessary for successful professional public speaking: selecting the appropriate content, organization, and using an effective style of delivery. Students also study more advanced principles of public speaking including critical thinking, the discovery and evaluation of arguments and evidence, audience analysis and adaptation, peer evaluation, speech composition, and persuasion. The course prepares students for making professional presentations in our increasingly diverse workplace. NOTE: Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed STRC 1111, STRC 1911 or
CSI 1911.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 1112. Introduction to Communication and Social Influence. 3 Credit Hours.
This course provides an overview of the theory, research, and practice of communication and social influence. Students will be introduced to risk, political, and conflict communication techniques and cutting-edge research and how it all applies and/or relates to current events and contemporary culture. Career paths and opportunities for Communication and Social Influence majors are also explored. NOTE: Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed STRC 2111.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 1113. Persuasion. 3 Credit Hours.
Persuasion viewed from the perspectives of the persuader and persuadee. The course is designed to make students more effective in both roles, and also to raise troubling ethical questions. It covers politics, product advertising, education, and much more. NOTE: Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed STRC 2112.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 1201. Communication and Civic Engagement. 3 Credit Hours.
The course will generate discussion and debate concerning how we should approach the purpose and function of communication in relation to civic engagement at the national, regional, and local levels across the globe. The role of the citizenry, their communication agency, and what should be our normative expectations for citizens will be a centerpiece of our dialogue. Particular focus will be given to a wide range of communicative (mass, mediated interpersonal, interpersonal) activities.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 1401. Conflict and Communication Behavior. 3 Credit Hours.
This course is designed to introduce theories and concepts pertaining to conflict management with an emphasis on the role of communication in creating, reflecting, and remediating conflict. In addition, emphasis will be given to increasing awareness of productive and disruptive conflict patterns and how conflict behaviors may be affecting interpersonal and organizational relationships.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 1601. Communication and Behavior Change. 3 Credit Hours.
Students of this course will develop a strong understanding of the role that communication plays in behavior prediction and change models. Theories such as the Health Belief Model, Social Cognitive Theory, and the Integrated Model of Behavior Change will be discussed in relation to contemporary health, political, science, and other pro-social campaigns. The class will also cover effective use of fear appeals, conformity, compliance gaining and other theories of social influence, and the diffusion of new behaviors through social networks.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 1911. Honors Introduction to Public Speaking. 3 Credit Hours.
In this honors section of public speaking, students will research, prepare, present, and evaluate speeches on significant topics of public concern. The course focuses on the three skills necessary for successful professional public speaking: selecting the appropriate content, organization, and using an effective style of delivery. Students prepare for more advanced principles of public speaking including critical thinking, the discovery and evaluation of arguments and evidence, audience analysis and adaptation, peer evaluation, speech composition, and persuasion. The course prepares students for making professional presentations in our increasingly diverse workplace. NOTE: Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed STRC 1111, STRC 1911, or
CSI 1111.
Cohort Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Cohorts: SCHONORS, UHONORS, UHONORSTR.
Course Attributes: HO
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 2101. Communicating Civic Engagement through Sports. 3 Credit Hours.
The sports arena has long been a place where socio-political issues are debated in the marketplace of ideas. This course will offer a historical account of the link between sports and civic engagement. In addition, focus will be given to present-day sports figures, teams, and organizations and the ways they have chosen to engage (or remain outside of) socio-political debates taking place at the local, regional, national, and international levels.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 2111. Argumentation and Advocacy. 3 Credit Hours.
Students learn the basic principles of making arguments. Includes format for analyzing arguments, organizing ideas, providing evidence for claims, and preparing briefs. Students prepare speeches and debates on current public policy issues. NOTE: Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed STRC 2221.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 2112. Social Influence Inquiry. 3 Credit Hours.
The study of communication and social influence crosses epistemological boundaries, from the humanities to the social sciences. This course provides a foundation of different ways to define and seek out knowledge that, through communication, influences our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Most importantly, it will educate students on how to ask a good question and to think critically about the knowledge they are generating about various communication processes.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 2201. The Meaningful Enjoyment of Civic Life. 3 Credit Hours.
People derive a variety of pleasure from various forms of civic engagement and communication plays a key role in these processes. This course will survey the landscape of social scientific and humanistic approaches to the hedonic and eudaimonic (meaningful enjoyment) motivations associated with communicating about civic activities. Focus will be given to a wide range of entertainment messages types (e.g., satire, irony, sarcasm) provided in different settings (e.g. drama, comedy) that all deal with various types of civic engagement and their effects. The course adopts a global perspective and will focus on a variety of communication processes taking place in Europe, Oceania, and the Middle East to allow for proper comparisons to be made with the United States.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 2296. Resistance, Protests, and Social Movements. 3 Credit Hours.
This class focuses on the communicative dimensions of social movement activity with a focus on the persuasive strategies employed by participants to achieve change and justice. At the heart of change in society are social protest movements; it is here that ideas are shaped, voiced, and possibly believed, followed, and refuted. This course aims to explore the many facets that surround protest and resistance - both from the participants and their opposition. More specifically, we will define the social movement, explain its development, and look at the specific strategies that movements generally employ. By the end of the course, you should be familiar with several specific social movements and have a better understanding of the communicative construction of social protest. NOTE: Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed STRC 2296 or STRC 2996.
Course Attributes: SF, WI
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 2401. Intercultural and Cross Cultural Conflict. 3 Credit Hours.
This course provides a communication perspective on the nature of intercultural conflict theory, research and practice. In the increasingly global society, communication and social influence requires cultural sensitivity and an awareness of how cultural difference triggers conflict and requires sophisticated conflict intervention. This course reviews theories of culture and conflict and proposes models of conflict intervention that have proven successful in addressing that conflict.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 2403. Civil Disobedience. 3 Credit Hours.
This course introduces students to theories and practices of civil disobedience as a form of political persuasion. The course examines the tactics, strategies, moral debates, philosophical foundations, and persuasive appeals of disruption, intervention, and noncompliance.
Course Attributes: SI
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 2602. Rhetoric of Hate and Violence. 3 Credit Hours.
This course examines the way rhetors communicate hate and violence through speech, physical acts, media depictions, and art. Students will examine the ways that hate and violence work to persuade, coerce, or force behavioral and cognitive change among individuals, groups, governments, and nations.
Course Attributes: SI
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 2696. Risk Communication. 3 Credit Hours.
In this course, students will gain a deep understanding of the current research and practice of communicating health, scientific, and environmental risk. We will discuss public understanding of issues that pose risks, such as climate change, global infectious diseases, and engineering the human genome. Different perspectives on risk communication across a variety of disciplines will be explored to provide students an understanding of how people make sense of and use information about risk. Techniques for communicating risk across multiple channels (e.g. mass media, interpersonal, mobile and social) will be covered.
Course Attributes: SI, WI
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 3085. Study Away Internship. 1 to 3 Credit Hour.
Students will work at a professional location earning valuable experience that relates to future professional opportunities. Students will keep a diary of their experiences and build a portfolio project that will aid their professional development.
Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.
CSI 3100. Special Topics in Communication and Social Influence. 3 Credit Hours.
Subject matter not covered by regular departmental course offering. Topics announced in advance.
Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.
CSI 3182. Independent Study. 3 Credit Hours.
Students will undertake an independent study of an area of Communication and Social Influence not otherwise offered. The study and results of that study will be completed under the supervision of a faculty member. Arranged each semester.
Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.
CSI 3185. Internship. 1 to 3 Credit Hour.
Students will work at a professional location earning valuable experience that relates to future professional opportunities. Students will keep a diary of their experiences and build a portfolio project that will aid their professional development.
Class Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Classes: Junior 60 to 89 Credits, Senior 90 to 119 Credits, Senior/Fifth Year 120+ Credits.
Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.
CSI 3186. Study Away Internship. 3 Credit Hours.
Students will work at a professional location earning valuable experience that relates to future professional opportunities. Students will keep a diary of their experiences and build a portfolio project that will aid their professional development.
Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.
CSI 3187. Practicum. 1 to 3 Credit Hour.
Students will earn valuable experience that relates to future professional opportunities. Students will keep a diary of their experiences and build a portfolio project that will aid their professional development.
Class Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Classes: Junior 60 to 89 Credits, Senior 90 to 119 Credits, Senior/Fifth Year 120+ Credits.
Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.
CSI 3189. Field Experience. 3 Credit Hours.
Field Experience will acquaint students with actual professional practices in their disciplines. Serves as the first opportunity for the student to gain experience in the communication career path.
Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.
CSI 3191. Directed Research. 1 to 3 Credit Hour.
Students will engage in the practice of knowledge generation with a full-time faculty member.
Class Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Classes: Junior 60 to 89 Credits, Senior 90 to 119 Credits, Senior/Fifth Year 120+ Credits.
Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.
CSI 3201. Rhetoric and Civic Culture. 3 Credit Hours.
This course focuses on the nature, strategies, and implications of human discourse within a variety of political and cultural settings. It studies the communicative practices by which public culture is created, sustained, modified, and challenged. Topics include persuasion in electoral campaigns, the political nature of social advocacy, the implications and consequences of media everyday-use, and the relationship between cultural practices and public/ideological communication. NOTE: Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed STRC 3323.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 3296. Speechwriting. 3 Credit Hours.
Students prepare speeches for their own presentation and ghost write speeches for others. Emphasis on audience analysis, speech construction, style, persuasion and manuscript preparation. Includes study of practices of prominent speechwriters and their speeches, as well as great speeches in American history.
Course Attributes: WI
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 3401. Social Activism and Community Organizing. 3 Credit Hours.
This is a "how-to" course for becoming a social activist and community organizer with a focus on creating and running grassroots campaigns for social justice. Students will learn how to assess social/political problems, how to organize communities into a political force, how to develop mobilization tactics, how to build coalitions with like-minded people, how to lobby elected officials, how to design street actions, and how to implement communication strategies. Over the course of the semester, students will develop their "activist toolbox" for creating real-world change on issues that are most pertinent to their personal passions. Given the location of Temple University, the course places particular emphasis on urban contexts and concerns.
Course Attributes: SI, SS
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 3402. Conflict and Influence: Identity, Emotion and Power. 3 Credit Hours.
This course is designed to introduce students to theories and concepts pertaining to conflict management with an emphasis on the role of identity, power and emotion in conflict and social influence. All conflict is driven by identity, emotion and power; the focus of this course is how these drivers create and reflect conflict and how interpersonal and social conflict management must attend to these drivers to secure constructive resolution.
Course Attributes: SI
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 3601. Misperceptions and Misinformation. 3 Credit Hours.
Many people strongly hold beliefs about science, health, and/or politics that are often unsupported or completely false. This course will explore the psychological and social factors that make people vulnerable to deceptive communication, misinformation, and conspiracy theories and why it is often very hard to correct misinformed beliefs. This course will cover theories of cognitive biases, conformity, identity protection, motivated reasoning, cultural cognition and many more. NOTE: Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed STRC 3336 or STRC 2222.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 3602. Communicating Science in Today's World. 3 Credit Hours.
This course will provide an overview of the communication theory, research, and practice of science communication. Students will be introduced to the philosophical and historical implications of the scientific method. In doing so, this course addresses the popularization of science, the politicization of science, and the use and misuse of scientific evidence. The class will be structured into three main areas. The first section of the class will focus on the evolution/revolution that informs scientific knowledge, inquiry, and methods. The second section will cover the communicative processes and functions of scientific knowledge such as norms and values, information presentation, audience cognition and reception biases. The third section will apply communication processes and functions to current case studies on labor, hazard and risk, COVID-19, genetically modified organism (GMO), human gene editing, and gender and sexuality.
Course Attributes: SI
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 3701. Intercultural Communication. 3 Credit Hours.
This course considers how culture influences communication processes by examining theories of intercultural communication and looking at many of the different processes that make up cultural differences. NOTE: Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed STRC 3801.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 3702. Communication, Culture and Identity. 3 Credit Hours.
This course explores how identities, individual and collective, are constructed, maintained, and transformed. From rhetorical and sociological perspectives, this class highlights the fundamental role of intersectionality (i.e., the connections between gender, sexual orientation, class, race, ethnicity, and bodily difference when shaping who is who and what is what) in the construction of personal and social identities. In this class, students will learn not only theoretical issues such as similarity and difference, selfhood and mind, self-image and public-image, but also will be able to analyze the influences and consequences of a mediated discourse of identity. NOTE: Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed STRC 3236.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 3703. Intercultural Communication in the Workplace. 3 Credit Hours.
This course brings together research and practice from three areas of study: intercultural communication, organizational communication, and negotiation. Research in these areas has grown extensively over the past decade across disciplines that include communication, management, political science, and psychology. In this course, we will look at how culture influences communication within organizations and in the contexts of negotiating and managing conflicts.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 3801. Social Science Research Methods of Social Influence. 3 Credit Hours.
This course addresses research of social influence from a social science perspective. This course provides students with a working knowledge of how to ask a research question and how to choose a method to address a research question, provides an overview of a broad range of qualitative and quantitative methods, engages students in the challenges of conducting research in the digital era, and offers a cursory glance at data analysis. The course covers key ethical issues involved in the study of individuals and publics. NOTE: Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed STRC 3663.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 3896. Rhetorical Criticism. 3 Credit Hours.
This course surveys contemporaneous approaches to rhetorical criticism. In this class, students will study different critical methods: neo-classical, dramatistic, narrative, metaphoric, social movement, genre, ideographic, gender, and post-modern. Using contemporary critical practice, students will learn how to analyze linguistic cultural artifacts (e.g., speeches, poems, magazine ads, TV shows, films, and videos) and critique their influences and consequences on everyday living. NOTE: Students cannot receive credit for this course if they have successfully completed STRC 3396.
Course Attributes: WI
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 4111. Senior Seminar. 3 Credit Hours.
Senior seminar is an upper-level capstone experience in which students will be asked to integrate their knowledge and skills from the range of courses they completed during their major's coursework. The focus is on synthesis, cohesion, and integration of knowledge for all CSI majors. The capstone will include upper-level argumentation skills training, a heavy emphasis on formal writing, and the completion of a social influence campaign.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 4201. Communication, Attitudes, and Opinion. 3 Credit Hours.
This course investigates the public use of reason and communication as it relates to attitude and opinion formation and collective will to influence social, political, and economic outcomes. Topics include investigations of the traditional and digital public sphere, the role of mass, social, and emergent media in attitude and opinion formation, communicative acts that influence attitude and opinion formation, and how collective will affects civic engagement. From a normative perspective, the course will cover the history, theories, methods, and practice of attitude and opinion formation using a communication and social influence lens.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 4212. Communication and Media in New York City: Communities. 3 Credit Hours.
The basis of this course focuses on the development and appreciation of the communicative function of New York City. Students will learn about printed, electronic, and mediated communication through ongoing experiential assignments. Students will also consider personal narratives and non-discursive communication. Students will be expected to investigate several rhetorical themes and trends within New York City related to communication, including both humanistic and mediated traditions. This course should be taken with
CSI 4213 and will occur on site in Manhattan. Students should consult with the KCMC Study Away office for additional information.
Co-requisites: CSI 4213.
Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.
CSI 4213. Communication and Media in New York City: Institutions. 3 Credit Hours.
This class will be an extension of the information students learned in
CSI 4212, Communication and Media in New York City: Communities. While the former class focused on the creation of communicative identity within public and mediated spaces, this course will be an investigation into a series of public and media institutions. Each of these organizations has had and will continue to have a communicative impact on the culture and ethos of New York City. This course will allow students an opportunity to bolster their knowledge of research in New York City. This course should be taken with
CSI 4212 and will occur on site in Manhattan. Students should consult with the KCMC Study Away office for additional information.
Co-requisites: CSI 4212.
Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.
CSI 4289. Communication and Media New York City Applied Experience: Field Experience/Corporate Works/Projects. 1 to 4 Credit Hour.
In order to investigate communication within the public life of New York City, students will be expected to undertake a series of individualized projects throughout the semester. These experiences will allow students to more deeply explore a singular facet of media or communication within New York City. The experience component of the course is based upon a learning contract and must draw from communicative principles noted through
CSI 4212 and
CSI 4213. Students will have to provide a brief explanation of their project in conjunction with the program director.
Co-requisites: CSI 4212, CSI 4213.
Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.
CSI 4402. Multiparty Conflict Proceses: Dialogue, Facilitation and Multiparty Mediation. 3 Credit Hours.
Intergroup and intragroup conflicts require more complex conflict management processes. This course examines primary multiparty conflict processes of dialogue, facilitation, and multiparty mediation with a focus on analysis of these processes in environmental and public policy disputes.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 4571. International Studies in Media and Communication. 1 to 6 Credit Hour.
This course is an immersive study of media and communication institutions, practices, norms, societal, governmental, and legal structures in a culture outside of the U.S. that is conducted during a Klein GO! program. Klein faculty lead students, while living abroad, in media consumption, in comparative analysis and evaluation of media and non-mediated communication, in interaction with local media and communication leaders in the program location. The specific aspects of media and communication to be covered will vary from city to city, and semester to semester, depending on the events of the day. Available only to student participating in a Klein GO! Program.
Repeatability: This course may be repeated for additional credit.
CSI 4601. Narrative Persuasion. 3 Credit Hours.
Storytelling has historically been used to convey culturally, politically, and socially relevant information. Narratively structured messages offer persuasion and social influence communicators a unique way to deliver information to diverse audiences. From Hollywood films to online advocacy videos, narratives are used as vehicles for developing persuasive messages through mass, entertainment, social, and emergent media. This course offers students an opportunity to study how narratively structured messages are developed, as well as when and why they are persuasive. Topics will cover various theories and uses of narrative persuasion and media engagement, ranging from entertainment education to political docudramas. The theories and concepts will be used to analyze examples of health, science, and social campaigns that have used this strategy in comparison with more traditional persuasive campaigns.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
CSI 4628. Empowerment of the LGBTQ+ Community through the NYC Pride March: Exploration of a Social Movement. 3 Credit Hours.
Students will learn about the importance of Pride as a social movement, the history, mediated depiction, and impact of Pride within NYC and across the world, and discuss the function of Pride as a social movement. Coinciding with this year's event, students will be eligible to take part in the Pride March, being trained and helping to administer and oversee operations of the March, as well as take part in additional Pride events. Guest speakers from Heritage of Pride, the organization that runs NYC Pride, as well as other Pride associates will be arranged.
Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
