Communication Studies at TCNJ

Department of Communication Studies

“A national leader in student–faculty engagement”

Testimonials

“No other undergraduates from any other institution in the Unites States have accomplished anything remotely close to what students from The College of New Jersey have achieved.”

Dan O’Hair, Ph.D., Dean, School of Communications and Information Studies, University of Kentucky; former national president, National Communications Association

“It is wonderfully rare to see undergraduates present scholarly work at professional conferences. I cannot think of any other communication studies department in our field (other than The College of New Jersey) that has motivated undergraduates in this way. I have never seen any other department in the communication studies field demonstrate this level of commitment.”

Rajiv. N. Rimal, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Director, Health Communication Program, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

“I have always been inspired by the work TCNJ communication students produce. I have witnessed conference presentations in which TCNJ communication studies undergraduates can be trained to engage in peer-reviewed scholarship on critical public health issues that reaches the highest professional standards.”

Rajiv N. Rimal, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Senior Research Officer, AIDS Prevention Projects in Malawi, Uganda, and Ethiopia, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

“(The consistent acceptance of TCNJ communication studies department student scholarly papers at national conferences) is truly astounding! Bear in mind that TCNJ students are not competing with other undergraduates. They are competing with professors and graduate students, indeed some of the best scholars in the discipline.”

Don Cegala, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Department of Communication and Family Medicine, Ohio State University.

“I look forward to meeting each new “crop” of undergraduates the TCNJ communication studies department brings to National Communication Association annual meetings. They are truly the best among the brightest. I sometimes find myself spending far more time talking with TCNJ students than with noted colleagues!”

Don Cegala, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Department of Communication and Family Medicine, Ohio State University.

What We Do

The communication studies field examines messages – their creation, transmission, and reception – as well as relations among all three components. Communication Studies at TCNJ is a liberal arts major emphasizing theory and practice in a variety of settings for human and mediated communication. Topics include courses focusing on the impact of media on society (introduction to mass media, mass media effects. health communication campaigns, American political communication, strategic public relations) as well as the impact of society on media (communication research methods, international communication), communication theory (theories of persuasion, philosophy of communication), film and television production, documentary, cable and broadcasting in America, film and society, women in film, editing and directing, radio production, interpersonal skills, organizational behavior, intergender and intercultural/racial communication, leadership, group problem solving, argumentation and debate, public discussion of vital issues and mass media and the First Amendment. Some courses emphasize specific skills; others provide critical and conceptual frames for assessing a wide variety of messages.

Degrees Awarded:

Bachelor of Arts in Communications Studies

Students may select from three possible concentrations:

• Public/Mass Communication

• Radio/Television/Film

• Interpersonal/Organizational Communication

• Interdisciplinary Concentration: Health Communication, a liberal learning concentration sponsored by the communication studies department.

Minor Offered in Communication Studies

Nationally Recognized Program: A Vibrant Student Culture

National record for winning student papers: Most annual Stephen A. Smith awards for best co-authored communication studies student paper in the nation (five of ten in the 2000-2009 period from the National Communication Association).
National record for number of national presidents of national communication honor society: More TCNJ students elected annual president of Lambda Pi Eta, the national communication honor society, than from any other institution (Nine of fifteen presidents, six vice presidents, and two secretaries in the 1996-2009 period).
National “chapter of the year” award to the TCNJ chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, the national communication student honor society, for extraordinary achievement.
Films that engage public issues presented at the Rehoboth Film Festival, Newburyport Film Festival, Garden State Film Festival, Trenton Film Festival and Princeton Environmental Film Festival, on themes including environmental activities, recruited and returning soldiers, and Hispanic guest workers.
Community outreach both inside TCNJ and outside, to the broader community, through radio station WTSR, Public Health Communication Club, Lions’ TV, All College Theatre (ACT) and through class projects that support environmental efforts, underprivileged young mothers, and third world entrepreneurs.

Supportive Mentoring

Professors:

• Encourage student participation in all phases of film production with professors, including writing, directing and producing.
• Co-author articles and papers with students (over 100 papers presented at national or international professional conferences).
• Motivate students to participate in interdisciplinary opportunities such as the health communication concentration or the public health minor.
• Advise students on a wide range of co-curricular and classroom activities, including outreach commitments to groups in the community, state, nation, and across the world.
• Actively promote student work in internships and advise students about job and graduate school opportunities.

Successful Empowerment: Occupations and Graduate Schools

Radio/TV/Film graduates currently work at CBS, NBC, ABC, John Wells Productions (E.R.), MTV, NJN, IFC Films, Cinemax, CareerTV (Time Warner Cable), and many other smaller independent film and video production companies.

Public/Mass and Interpersonal/Organizational graduates have found employment at some of the nation’s leading corporations and organizations, e.g. Johnson & Johnson, Burson-Marsteller, and Pew Charitable Trusts, as well as in public affairs and public health, in particular at the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Alumni acceptance at the nation’s leading graduate schools, for example:

Health Communication: University of Pennsylvania (the Annenberg School), Penn State, Ohio State, Kentucky, George Mason, Rutgers, Emerson

Public Health: Johns Hopkins, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

Strategic/Risk Communication and Public Relations: Maryland, Syracuse (Newhouse School), George Mason, Emerson

Public Affairs/Public Administration: Syracuse (the Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs), George Washington, Georgia, Denver, University of California/San Diego

Interpersonal /Organizational Communication: Penn State, Howard, Rutgers, Delaware

Film and Television Production: University of Southern California (USC), American Film Institute, Boston U

Advertising: Texas, Boston U.,

Law: Columbia, New York University, University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, American University

Social Work: Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania

Non-Profit Administration: Syracuse (Maxwell School), Carnegie-Mellon

Facilities and Sponsorship

Our facilities include a fully equipped television studio, radio station, and a full complement of audio, video, and film field equipment and editing suites (Final Cut Pro and Avid).

Original sponsor of the David Sarnoff Twentieth Century Telecommunication Museum.

Internationally Recognized Faculty

Byrne, Terry (MFA, Carnegie Mellon): Associate Professor teaching film/television production, theory, criticism, lighting/cinematography and production design. Research interests in Irish and Eastern European cinema. Production designer and producer on many theatre, television and film projects in New York, London and Dublin. Books include Production Design for Television –in English (1993) and Korean, and Power in the Eye (1997).

D’Angelo, Paul (Ph.D., Temple): Associate Professor teaching a variety of courses in the areas of mass media theory and communication research. Author, Doing News Framing Analysis: Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives; articles in leading journals Journal of Communication, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Mass Communication and Society, and International Journal of Press & Politics.

Hu, Yifeng (Ph.D., Penn State): Assistant Professor teaching Introduction to Communication Studies, New Media and Health Communication, and Communication Research Methods. New media specialist and author of articles in journals Communication Research, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, Electronic Journal of Communication, Atlantic Journal of Communication, Open Communication Journal and Communication & Management Research.

Johnson, Lorna A. (MFA, Wisconsin – Milwaukee): Associate Professor teaching various courses, including Documentary, Television Production and African Americans in Film. Documentaries My Wolverine (1998), Freedom Road (2004) and Just Another War (2008) shown at film festivals including New Orleans Film Festival, the Women in the Director’s Chair, the (California) Mill Valley Film Festival, 2008 Athens (Ohio) Film Festival, the 2009 Montreal Internal Human Rights Film Festival, as well as the Whitney Humanities Center at Yale University (2006).

Pollock, John C. (Ph.D., Stanford): Professor with research experience in India, Colombia and Argentina teaching research methods, health communication, and international communication. Author: Tilted Mirrors: Media Alignment with Political and Social Change (2007). Teaching and research awards from Public Relations Society of America (Silver Anvil, the “Oscar” of public relations), National Communication Association (NCA), Social Science Research Council, National Cancer Institute, United Nations Foundation, Fulbright Foundation.

Ryan, Susan (Ph.D., New York University): Associate Professor teaching/conducting research in documentary production, community media, Latin American film and video, and theories and criticism of film and television. More than a decade in film and television production producing programs that have aired on PBS, NBC, Turner Classic Movies, the Disney Channel, and the Lifetime cable channel.

Sims, Anntarie (Ph.D., Texas): Associate Professor teaching Interpersonal Communication, Basic and Advanced Public Speaking, Small Group Communication, Organizational Leadership, Introduction to Speech Communication, Organizational, Inter-Gender communication, and Intercultural Communication. Award-winning service on several community boards: Woman of Achievement – YWCA of Trenton – 1993; Faculty Recognition Award – State of NJ – 1989; including the Trenton Urban League and the Mercer County Head Start Child Development Program. Officer, Black Caucus of National Communication Association.

Woodward, Gary (Ph.D., Pittsburgh): Professor with teaching and research interests in political communication, rhetorical theory and theories of persuasion. A prolific author/co-author of more than six books, including 6th edition of a major text on persuasion used in scores of universities around the country, and: The Perfect Response: Studies on the Rhetorical Personality (2010), Persuasion and influence in American Life (2009), The Idea of Identification (2003) and Center Stage: Media and the Performance of American Politics (2007). Called by former president of the NCA “a leading analyst of the dramaturgical dimensions of politics” and an “acute” writer, Woodward won an award from the National Endowment for the Humanities.