Designed for communication/media educators and graduate students, Teaching Communication and Media Studies is a practical and conceptual guide to teaching university courses in communication and media studies. Relying on her extensive experience instructing graduate students on the ins and outs of teaching, Jan Fernback discusses theoretical and applied topics central to contemporary mediated communication instruction, offering instructors at all levels strategies they can use to create a successful classroom experience. Fernback also considers the logic, design and delivery of courses in communication and media studies, while encouraging readers to reflect on their own strategic pedagogical decisions. Supplemented with interviews of successful communication instructors and sample exercises, this book is a must-have resource for all those teaching communication and media studies courses, regardless of level of experience.

Emphasising the connection of globalisation to local culture, this collection considers the diversity of modes of reception, reception contexts, uses of media content, and the performative and creative relationships that audiences develop.

All the tips, ideas and advice given to, and requested by, MA students in Media and Communications, are brought together in an easy-to-use accessible guide to help students study most effectively. Based upon many years of teaching study skills and hundreds of lecture slides and handouts this introduction covers a range of general and generic skills that the author relates specifically towards media and communications studies. As well as the mechanics of writing and presentations, the book also shows how students can work on and engage with the critical and contemplative elements of their degrees whilst retaining motivation and refining timekeeping skills. Of course the nuts and bolts of reading, writing, listening, seminars and the dreaded dissertation and essays are covered too. In addition advice on referencing, citation and academic style is offered for those with concerns over English grammar and expression. Aimed primarily at postgraduate students, there is significant crossover with undergraduate work, so this book will also prove of use to upper level undergraduate readers whether using English as a first or second language.

The field of communication was founded, in part, because of a need to make people better communicators. That meant teaching them how to communicate more effectively, whether it be in public settings or in private. Most of that teaching has happened within the classroom and many professionals have spent their lives instructing others on various aspects of communication. Inside this second edition, the editors have assembled a fully comprehensive and contemporary discussion of topics and issues concerning the teaching of communication. The chapters contained herein--contributed by key voices throughout the communication discipline--address conceptual as well as practical issues related to communication instruction. The contents of this new edition reflect the dramatic changes that have occurred in communication education since the publication of the first edition in 1990. This book focuses initially on the goals of communication education, then delves into the preparation of specific communication courses. It includes assistance for instructors in organizing instructional content and discusses the use of instructional strategies and tools, as well as offering ideas on evaluating the processes and products of instruction. The volume also covers unique teaching assignments that may be encountered, from the basic course to continuing education, and addresses 2-year college teaching, directing forensic programs, distance education, and consulting. It concludes with important professional issues faced by both new and experienced communication instructors, including ethics and political issues within classrooms and departments. This volume is a necessity for anyone starting out a career as a communication instructor. Veteran educators--who know that learning to teach is a continual growth experience--will find useful and invaluable information within the book's pages. Whatever background and level of experience, all communication educators will find this new edition to be an essential resource for their work.

While the importance of service-learning and engaged campuses has gained broad recognition in recent years, the infrastructure for enabling such deep academic and civic engagement has yet to emerge. The authors of this book embrace the call for such institutional renewal and provide the critical guidance needed for leaders in higher education who are serious about building genuinely engaged campuses. Engaging Departments fills an important niche in the literature on institutional engagement and advances the National Campus Compact agenda to create engaged departments. Representing a range of disciplines and institutional types—including two-year and four-year, public and private, comprehensive and research—this work features case studies of 11 departments and their journeys to engagement. The book presents readers with transferable steps and strategies, key factors that helped move civic engagement from the individual faculty level to the collective departmental level, an analysis of successes and barriers, and visions for the future. Also outlined are engagement efforts at the institutional and state levels. Written for department chairs, faculty, and faculty developers, this book offers approaches to support and sustain the building of engaged departments and invites readers to contemplate and refresh their visions for the relevancy of their disciplines in the 21st century.

This book reflects recent scholarly and theoretical developments in media studies, or Medienwissenschaft. It focuses on linkages between North America and German‐speaking Europe, and brings together and contextualizes contributions from a range of leading scholars. In addition to introducing English‐language readers to some of the most prominent contemporary German media theorists and philosophers, including Claus Pias, Sybille Krämer and Rainer Leschke, the book shows how foundational North American contributions are themselves inspired and informed by continental sources. This book takes Harold Innis or Marshall McLuhan (and other members of the “Toronto School”) as central points of reference, and traces prospective and retrospective lines of influence in a cultural geography that is increasingly global in its scope. In so doing, the book also represents a new episode in the international reception and reinterpretation of the work of Innis and McLuhan, the two founders of the theory and study of media.

Designed as a handbook, this text provides media, speech (public speaking, interpersonal, small group, and organizational communication), and theatre educators with both the theoretical and practical ammunition to fight the assessment battles on their campuses. The philosophical implications of accountability are balanced with concrete, specific, and usable assessment strategies. Stressing student, faculty, course, program, department, and institutional assessment, this book's aim is to provide, in one place, information that will help diverse and complex communication programs face the growing challenges in assessment. The book is divided into three sections: background and foundational information for assessment; broad assessment strategies that apply to a variety of media, "speech," and theatre courses and programs; and context-specific assessment strategies. While covering a host of topics, it: * provides an overview of assessment and suggests how it might impact communication education, * discusses the elements of program assessment and how linkage of mission statements with outcomes can lead to strong, innovative programs, * compares and contrasts regional association requirements and presents a specific how-to strategy for writing outcome statements, * discusses teaching evaluation and argues that we need to identify the "what" of teaching before we try to measure the "how," * looks at creative ways for formative and summative course evaluation that starts with the creation of an explicit syllabus, * discusses the use of capstone courses as a way of evaluating not only their major but also how students have integrated their "total" educational experience, * suggests the variety of ways that interpersonal communication can be assessed and calls for future research that stresses the "knowledge" component of learning, * reports on a strategy for developing small group communication assessment measures, and * provides media, speech, and theatre faculty and administrators with the background, understanding and tools to build stonger programs and develop better courses and educational experiences for their students.