Graduate courses in Communication

(Same as COMM 106.) (Graduate students register for 206.) Conceptual and practical concerns underlying commonly used quantitative approaches, including experimental, survey, content analysis, and field research in communication. Pre- or corequisite: STATS 60 or consent of instructor.

4 units, Win (Staff)

COMM 207. The First Amendment in the Digital Age

(Same as COMM 107.) (Graduate students register for 207.) Interdisciplinary. Legal, institutional, sociological, and technological framework for free expression in democracy. History, values, and principles of the First Amendment. The challenge of new technology to old doctrine. Impact of the Internet on issues of free speech, such as political criticism, fair use, defamation, low value speech, professional privilege, and public forum in an era of private networks. How do new social networking technologies produce the expertise and accountability promoted by the First Amendment?

4 units, not given this year

COMM 208. Media Processes and Effects

(Same as COMM 108.) (Graduate students register for 208.) The process of communication theory construction including a survey of social science paradigms and major theories of communication. Recommended: 1 or PSYCH 1.

4 units, Aut (Bailenson, J)

COMM 211. Media Technologies, People, and Society

(Same as COMM 1A.) (Graduate students register for 211.) Open to non-majors. Introduction to the concepts and contexts of communication. A topics-structured orientation emphasizing the field and the scholarly endeavors represented in the department.

4 units, not given this year

COMM 216. Journalism Law

(Same as COMM 116.) (Undergraduates register for 116.) Laws and regulation impacting journalists. Topics include libel, privacy, news gathering, protection sources, fair trial and free press, theories of the First Amendment, and broadcast regulation. Prerequisite: Journalism M.A. student or advanced Communication major.

4 units, Aut (Wheaton, J)

COMM 217. Digital Journalism

(Same as COMM 117.) Seminar and practicum. The implications of new media for journalists. Professional and social issues related to the web as a case of new media deployment, as a story, as a research and reporting tool, and as a publishing channel. Prerequisite: Journalism M.A. student or consent of instructor.

4 units, Win (Rheingold, H)

COMM 220. Digital Media in Society

(Same as COMM 120.) (Graduate students register for 220.) Contemporary debates concerning the social and cultural impact of digital media. Topics include the historical origins of digital media, cultural contexts of their development and use, and influence of digital media on conceptions of self, community, and state.

4 units, Spr (Turner, F)

COMM 224. Political Communication and Political Behavior

(Same as COMM 124.) Research seminar. The political behavior of ordinary citizens and its roots in political communication, including public opinion, political participation, voting behavior, and political psychology. Deliberation and its effects.

4 units, Aut (Luskin, R)

COMM 225. Perspectives on American Journalism

(Same as COMM 125.) (Graduate students register for 225.) Issues, ideas, and concepts in the development of American journalism, emphasizing the role of the press in society, the meaning and nature of news, and professional norms that influence conduct in and outside the newsroom. Prerequisite: 1 or junior standing.

4 units, Aut (Glasser, T)

COMM 226. Advanced Topics in Human Virtual Representation

(Same as COMM 126, COMM 326.) (Undergraduates register for 126; master's students for 226; doctoral students for 326.) Topics include the theoretical construct of person identity, the evolution of that construct given the advent of virtual environments, and methodological approaches to understanding virtual human representation. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

1-5 units, Win (Bailenson, J)

COMM 231. Media Ethics and Responsibility

(Same as COMM 131.) The development of professionalism among American journalists, emphasizing the emergence of objectivity as a professional and the epistemological norm. An applied ethics course where questions of power, freedom, and truth autonomy are treated normatively so as to foster critical thinking about the origins and implications of commonly accepted standards of responsible journalism.

4 units, Win (Glasser, T)

COMM 236. Democracy and the Communication of Consent

(Same as COMM 136, POLISCI 134.) Focus is on competing theories of democracy and the forms of communication they presuppose, combining normative and empirical issues, and historical and contemporary sources. Topics include representation, public opinion, mass media, small group processes, direct democracy, the role of information, and the prospects for deliberative democracy.

4 units, not given this year

COMM 238. Democratic Theory: Normative and Empirical Issues

(Same as COMM 338.) Conflicting visions in terms of normative conflicts and empirical evidence. How citizens communicate with each other and their representatives, and how their representatives deliberate. Topics include theories of deliberation, how democracy is transformed when brought to the mass public, how informed a public is needed, and potential pathologies of small group communication in settings including juries, town meetings, and contemporary public consultations. Readings include Madison, Burke, Mill, Lippmann, Dewey, Schumpeter, Dahl, Sunstein, and Mansbridge.

1-5 units, not given this year

COMM 239. Questionnaire Design for Surveys and Laboratory Experiments: Social and Cognitive Perspectives

The social and psychological processes involved in asking and answering questions via questionnaires for the social sciences; optimizing questionnaire design; open versus closed questions; rating versus ranking; rating scale length and point labeling; acquiescence response bias; don't-know response options; response choice order effects; question order effects; social desirability response bias; attitude and behavior recall; and introspective accounts of the causes of thoughts and actions.

4 units, not given this year

COMM 240. Digital Media Entrepreneurship

(Same as COMM 140.) Primarily for graduate journalism and computer science students. Silicon Valley's new media culture, digital storytelling skills and techniques, web-based skills, and entrepreneurial ventures. Guest speakers.

4 units, Spr (Grimes, A)

COMM 247. Modern History and Future of Journalism

(Same as COMM 147.) The birth and evolution of local and national television news. The modern history of newspapers. Can they survive in the era of online journalism?

4 units, Spr (Brinkley, J)

COMM 250. Political Information

(Same as COMM 150.) Political information held by ordinary citizens: how it can best be measured, how it is acquired, who has how much of it, and how and to what extent it flavors the public's attitudes and behaviors. Policy and electoral preferences, attitude extremity,persuadability.

4 units, Win (Luskin, R)

COMM 257. Networked Governance: Democracy and New Technology

(Same as COMM 357.) Interdisciplinary seminar. The impact of technology on government institutions. How to use communications, law, and technology to engage experts and the broader public in decision making. Student teams develop implementation ready pilot projects for the next presidential administration.

1-5 units, Aut (Noveck, B)

COMM 258. Free Expression and Intellectual Property in the Digital Age

(Same as COMM 158.) How intellectual property law fosters and hinders free speech. When does an author or inventor have a right to re-use someone else's creative expression? Are appropriation of other people's art, music sampling, and reverse engineering a theft of property or the basis of innovation? How technologies such as as wikis, virtual worlds, youtube, and search engines challenge the balance between constitutional protection of intellectual property and the First Amendment. Fundamentals of trade secret, patent, copyright, and trademark law and policy. No prior legal knowledge required.

4 units, not given this year

COMM 260. The Press and the Political Process

(Same as COMM 160, POLISCI 323R.) The role of mass media and other channels of communication in political and electoral processes.

4 units, Win (Iyengar, S)

COMM 262. Analysis of Political Campaigns

(Same as COMM 162, POLISCI 323S.) Seminar. The evolution of American political campaigns, and the replacement of the political party by the mass media as intermediary between candidates and voters. Academic literature on media strategies, the relationship between candidates and the press, the effects of campaigns on voter behavior, and inconsistencies between media campaigns and democratic norms. Do media-based campaigns enable voters to live up to their civic responsibility? Has the need for well-financed campaigns increased the influence of elites over nominations? Have citizens become disengaged?

4 units, Aut (Iyengar, S)

COMM 266. Virtual People

(Same as COMM 166.) The concept of virtual people or digital human representations; methods of constructing and using virtual people; methodological approaches to interactions with and among virtual people; and current applications. Viewpoints including popular culture, literature, film, engineering, behavioral science, computer science, and communication.

4 units, Spr (Bailenson, J)

COMM 268. Experimental Research in Advanced User Interfaces

(Same as COMM 168, COMM 368, ME 468.) (Undergraduates register for 168; master's students for 268; doctoral students for 368.) Project-based course involves small groups designing and implementing an experiment concerning voice and agent user interfaces. Each group is involved in a different, publishable research project. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

1-5 units, Win (Nass, C), Spr (Nass, C)

COMM 269. Computers and Interfaces

(Same as COMM 169.) (Graduate students register for 269.) Interdisciplinary. User responses to interfaces and design implications of those responses. Theories from different disciplines illustrate responses to textual, voice-based, pictorial, metaphoric, conversational, adaptive, agent-based, intelligent, and anthropomorphic interfaces. Group design project applying theory to the design of products or services for developing countries.

4 units, Win (Nass, C)

COMM 270. Communication and Children I

(Same as COMM 170.) (Graduate students register for 270.) Developmental approach to how children come to use and process mass media, what information they obtain, and how their behavior is influenced by the media. Prerequisite: 1, PSYCH 1, or SOC 1.

4 units, Win (Roberts, D)

COMM 272. Media Psychology

(Same as COMM 172.) (Graduate students register for 272.) The literature related to psychological processing and the effects of media. Topics: unconscious processing; picture perception; attention and memory; emotion; the physiology of processing media; person perception; pornography; consumer behavior; advanced film and television systems; and differences among reading, watching, and listening.

4 units, Aut (Reeves, B)

COMM 273. Public Issues Reporting I

Reporting and writing on government and public policies and issues; their implications for the people and the press. Required for journalism M.A. students.

4 units, Aut (Grimes, A)

COMM 274. Public Issues Reporting II

Student teams study one major public policy issue that has broad societal impact. Students report and write individually, and as a team produce a body of journalism that advances the understanding of a new issue each year, published on a web site and offered for publication to newspapers and other media outlets. Prerequisites: 273, Journalism M.A. student.

4 units, Win (Brinkley, J)

COMM 277D. Specialized Writing and Reporting: Magazine Journalism

(Same as COMM 177D.) (Graduate students register for 277D.) How to report, write, edit, and read magazine articles, emphasizing long-form narrative. Tools and templates of story telling such as scenes, characters, dialogue, and narrative arc. How the best magazine stories defy or subvert conventional wisdom and bring fresh light to the human experience through reporting, writing, and moral passion. Prerequisite: 104 or consent of instructor.

4 units, Aut (Frankel, G)

COMM 277F. Specialized Writing and Reporting: Literary Journalism

(Same as COMM 177F.) (Undergraduates register for 177F.) Using the tools of literature to tell the true stories of journalism. Characterization, narrative plotting, scene-setting, point of view, tone and style, and the techniques of reporting for literary journalism, interviewing, and story structure. Prerequisite: 104 or consent of instructor.

4 units, not given this year

COMM 277G. Specialized Writing and Reporting: Follow the Money, Reporting on Business and Finance

(Same as COMM 177G.) How to write news and feature stories about companies and personalities in the business world. Prerequisite: 104 or consent of instructor.

4 units, Win (Grimes, A)

COMM 277K. Specialized Writing and Reporting: Human Rights Journalism

(Same as COMM 177K.) The evolution of human rights law and enforcement, and the role of journalists in uncovering, pursuing, and publicizing political violence, detention, and torture. Case studies from S. Africa, Latin America, Israel and Palestine, N. Ireland, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Sudan and Darfur. Human rights issues in the U.S. in the aftermath of 9/11. Students conduct research and write journalistic reports on foreign and domestic issues. Prerequisite: 104 or consent of instructor.

4 units, Spr (Staff)

COMM 277R. Specialized Writing and Reporting: Covering Silicon Valley

(Same as COMM 177R.) (Undergraduates register for 177R.) Techniques to write and report about Silicon Valley technologies. Visits from professional writers. Prerequisite: 104 or consent of instructor.

4 units, Win (Markoff, J; Zachary, G)

COMM 277S. Specialized Writing and Reporting: Sports Journalism

(Same as COMM 177S.) Workshop. The history of sports writing from the 20s to present. Reporting, interviewing, deadline writing, and how to conceptualize and develop stories. Students write features and news stories for publication in a new sports section in The Cardinal Inquirer, an online publication of the graduate program in journalism. Prerequisite: 104 or consent of instructor.

4 units, Win (Pomerantz, G)

COMM 277Y. Specialized Writing and Reporting: Foreign Correspondence in the Middle East

(Same as COMM 177Y.) What's involved in working as a journalist in one of the most important and dangerous parts of the world.

4 units, Aut (Brinkley, J)

COMM 282. Virtual Communities and Social Media

(Same as COMM 182.) Taught by the originator of the terms virtual community and smart mobs. How the concept of community has changed from agricultural to industrial to networked societies. Much class discussion takes place in social cyberspaces.

4 units, Aut (Rheingold, H)

COMM 289. Journalism Master's Project

4 units, Win (Staff), Spr (Staff)

COMM 290. Media Studies M.A. Project

Individual research for coterminal Media Studies students.

1 unit, Aut (Staff), Win (Staff), Spr (Staff), Sum (Staff)

COMM 291. Graduate Journalism Seminar

Required of students in the graduate program in Journalism. Forum for current issues in the practice and performance of the press. Journalists in or visiting the Bay Area are often guest speakers. May be repeated for credit.

1 unit, Aut (Grimes, A), Win (Frankel, G), Spr (Brinkley, J)

COMM 299. Individual Work

1-4 units, Aut (Staff), Win (Staff), Spr (Staff), Sum (Staff)

COMM 301. Communication Curriculum Development and Pedagogy

Required of all second-year Ph.D. students.

1 unit, Aut (Gauthier, L)

COMM 308. Graduate Seminar in Political Psychology

(Same as POLISCI 324.) For students interested in research in political science, psychology, or communication. Methodological techniques for studying political attitudes and behaviors. May be repeated for credit.

1-3 units, Aut (Krosnick, J), Win (Krosnick, J), Spr (Krosnick, J)

COMM 310. Methods of Analysis Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS) Workshop

(Same as POLISCI 402.) Colloquium series. Creation and application of new methodological techniques for social science research. Presentations on methodologies of use for social scientists across departments at Stanford by guest speakers from Stanford and elsewhere. See http://mapss.stanford.edu. May be repeated for credit.

1 unit, Aut (Jackman, S), Win (Jackman, S), Spr (Jackman, S)

COMM 311. Theory of Communication

Required of Communication doctoral students.

1-5 units, Win (Reeves, B)

COMM 312. Models of Democracy

(Same as CLASSHIS 137, CLASSHIS 237, COMM 212, POLISCI 237, POLISCI 337.) Ancient and modern varieties of democracy; debates about their normative and practical strengths and the pathologies to which each is subject. Focus is on participation, deliberation, representation, and elite competition, as values and political processes. Formal institutions, political rhetoric, technological change, and philosophical critique. Models tested by reference to long-term historical natural experiments such as Athens and Rome, recent large-scale political experiments such as the British Columbia Citizens' Assembly, and controlled experiments.

3-5 units, Spr (Fishkin, J; Ober, J; Luskin, R)

COMM 314. Doctoral Research Methods II B

Part of the doctoral research methods sequence. Focus is on the logic of qualitative research methods and modes of inquiry relevant to the study of communication and meaning. Prerequisite: Communication Ph.D. student, or consent of instructor.

1-3 units, Win (Glasser, T)

COMM 317. Doctoral Research Methods I

Approaches to social science research and their theoretical presuppositions. Readings from the philosophy of the social sciences. Research design, the role of experiments, and quantitative and qualitative research. Cases from communication and related social sciences. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

1-5 units, Spr (Fishkin, J)

COMM 318. Doctoral Research Methods II

Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

1-5 units, Win (Krosnick, J)

COMM 319. Doctoral Research Methods III

Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

1-5 units, not given this year

COMM 320G. Advanced Topics in New Media and American Culture

Primarily for Ph.D. students. Prerequisite: 220 (formerly 219) or consent of instructor.

1-5 units, not given this year

COMM 325G. Comparative Studies of News and Journalism

Focus is on topics such as the roles and responsibilities of journalists, news as a genre of popular literature, the nexus between press and state, and journalism's commitment to political participation.

1-5 units, not given this year

COMM 326. Advanced Topics in Human Virtual Representation

(Same as COMM 126, COMM 226.) (Undergraduates register for 126; master's students for 226; doctoral students for 326.) Topics include the theoretical construct of person identity, the evolution of that construct given the advent of virtual environments, and methodological approaches to understanding virtual human representation. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

1-5 units, Win (Bailenson, J)

COMM 331G. Communication and Media Ethics

Limited to Ph.D. students. Advanced topics in press ethics and responsibility. Prerequisite: 231 or consent of instructor.

1-3 units, Spr (Glasser, T)

COMM 336G. Democracy, Justice, and Deliberation

(Same as COMM 236G.) Decision processes that make a normative claim to resolve questions of public choice, at any of these levels of choice: first principles, constitutions, public policies, or particular outcomes. Topics include democratic theory, the theory of justice and issues of deliberation in small groups, public consultations, conventions, juries, and thought experiments popular in contemporary political theory. Readings include Madison, de Tocqueville, Mill, Marx, Rawls, Nozick, Ackerman, and Schudson. Preference to graduate students. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

1-5 units, not given this year

COMM 338. Democratic Theory: Normative and Empirical Issues

(Same as COMM 238.) Conflicting visions in terms of normative conflicts and empirical evidence. How citizens communicate with each other and their representatives, and how their representatives deliberate. Topics include theories of deliberation, how democracy is transformed when brought to the mass public, how informed a public is needed, and potential pathologies of small group communication in settings including juries, town meetings, and contemporary public consultations. Readings include Madison, Burke, Mill, Lippmann, Dewey, Schumpeter, Dahl, Sunstein, and Mansbridge.

1-5 units, not given this year

COMM 344. Democracy, Press, and Public Opinion

(Same as COMM 244.) The democratic tradition provides conflicting visions of what a democracy is or might be, offering different views of the role of the press and citizens in engaging public issues. Focus is on democratic theory with empirical work on public opinion and the role of the media. Topics include campaigns, the effects of new technology, competing strategies of public consultation, public journalism, and possibilities for citizen deliberation. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

1-4 units, not given this year

COMM 357. Networked Governance: Democracy and New Technology

(Same as COMM 257.) Interdisciplinary seminar. The impact of technology on government institutions. How to use communications, law, and technology to engage experts and the broader public in decision making. Student teams develop implementation ready pilot projects for the next presidential administration.

1-5 units, Aut (Noveck, B)

COMM 360G. Political Communication

Limited to Ph.D. students. Advanced topics. Prerequisite: 260 or consent of instructor.

1-5 units, Spr (Iyengar, S)

COMM 361. Field Experimentation in Political Communication Research

The design of large-scale field experiments. Recent developments in analysis of experimental data including matching, propensity scores, and other techniques that address the problem of selection bias. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

4 units, not given this year

COMM 368. Experimental Research in Advanced User Interfaces

(Same as COMM 168, COMM 268, ME 468.) (Undergraduates register for 168; master's students for 268; doctoral students for 368.) Project-based course involves small groups designing and implementing an experiment concerning voice and agent user interfaces. Each group is involved in a different, publishable research project. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

1-5 units, Win (Nass, C), Spr (Nass, C)

COMM 370G. Communication and Children

Limited to Ph.D. students. Prerequisite: 270 or consent of instructor.

1-5 units, Win (Roberts, D)

COMM 372G. Seminar in Psychological Processing

Limited to Ph.D. students. Advanced topics. Prerequisite: 272 or consent of instructor.

1-5 units, not given this year

COMM 374G. Freedom and Control of Communication

The meaning of freedom of public communication in democratic communities, focusing on the tensions between freedom and control, rights and opportunities, individual liberty and political equality.

1-5 units, not given this year

COMM 379. History of the Study of Communication

The origins of communication/media theory and research emphasizing the rise of communication as a separate field of study. The influence of schools of thought concerning the scope and purpose of the study of communication. Readings include foundational essays and studies. Prerequisite: Ph.D. student or consent of instructor.

1-5 units, not given this year

COMM 380. Curriculum Practical Training

Practical experience in the communication industries. Prerequisites: graduate standing in Communication, consent of instructor. Meets requirements for Curricular Practical Training for students on F-1 visas. 380 May be repeated four times for credit.

1-5 units, Aut (Staff), Win (Staff), Spr (Staff), Sum (Staff)

COMM 386. Media Cultures of the Cold War

(Same as ARTHIST 475.) The intersection of politics, aesthetics, and new media technologies in the U.S. between the end of WW II and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Topics include the aesthetics of thinking the unthinkable in the wake of the atom bomb; abstract expressionism andmodern man discourse; game theory, cybernetics, and new models of art making; the rise of television, intermedia, and the counterculture; and the continuing influence of the early cold war on contemporary media aesthetics. Readings from primary and secondary sources in art history, communication, and critical theory.

3-5 units, Spr (Turner, F; Lee, P)

COMM 397. Complementary Project

Individual research for Ph.D. candidates.

1-6 units, Aut (Staff), Win (Staff), Spr (Staff), Sum (Staff)

COMM 398. Major Research Project

Individual research for Ph.D. candidates.

1-6 units, Aut (Staff), Win (Staff), Spr (Staff), Sum (Staff)

COMM 399. Advanced Individual Work

1-9 units, Aut (Staff), Win (Staff), Spr (Staff), Sum (Staff)

Registrar's Office

Stanford Bulletin, Archive 2008-09

Stanford Bulletin, Archive 2008-09

Alphabetical Index

Bulletin Archive

Graduate courses in Communication