Communication

Message from the Director

Dear Prospective Student,

Communication is at the heart of everything we do as individuals and as a society. It shapes our relationships, influences decision-making, drives innovation, and fosters connection across cultures and industries. By studying communication, we not only gain a deeper understanding of how messages impact people and systems but also acquire the tools to create meaningful change in the world.

At Fairfield University, our MA in Communication stands out because of our unwavering commitment to excellence. Our program is designed with a personal touch, featuring small class sizes that allow for individualized attention and collaboration. Our faculty are not only experts in their fields but also dedicated mentors who are deeply invested in your success. Their focus on integrating research with practical application ensures that your education here is both rigorous and relevant. Grounded in theory and research, our curriculum provides a strong foundation to critically analyze communication while preparing you to address real-world challenges effectively.

What truly sets Fairfield apart from other universities offering MA degrees in communication is our holistic and innovative approach. We are constantly evolving our curriculum to address the pressing needs of today’s world. For example, we’re excited to introduce a focus on health communication, a rapidly growing field with significant career opportunities in areas such as public health, healthcare marketing, and patient advocacy. With the increasing demand for professionals who can bridge the gap between complex medical information and diverse audiences, this specialization is both timely and impactful.

At Fairfield, we strive to prepare you not just for a career, but for a lifetime of influence and leadership in the communication field. Whether you are looking to advance your career, pivot into a new industry, or deepen your expertise, our program is here to help you achieve your goals.

We look forward to welcoming you to our community of learners and innovators. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Christina SanInocencio, PhD, CPH, CNP
Director of the MA in Communication Program
Assistant Professor of the Practice, Department of Communication

Master of Arts in Communication

COMM 5321  Communication Processes in Organizations: Negotiation  3 Credits  
This course reviews and explores, through simulation and experiential learning, negotiation as a communication process in and among organizations. It focuses on core concepts and approaches to negotiation, and exercises the negotiative process in a contemporary context. In this course, which is open to majors and minors in communication and other disciplines related to the study of humans and their organizations in the work world, participants carry out individual and team work, and contribute on time and proportionately to team preparations and class simulations. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 4321.
COMM 5322  Leadership Communication  3 Credits  
This course examines the processes and complexities of being a leader in today's dynamic organizational environment. The course explores the leadership styles, traits, and communication skills required of effective leaders. In addition, theories of leadership and the impact of culture and ethics, both historically and currently, will be studied. This course uses a combination of lecture, discussion, individual and group learning opportunities, including interviews of professional and community leaders, as well as a written and oral research projects to aid in students' assimilation of the material. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 3322.
COMM 5323  Gender and Organizing  3 Credits  
Gender is central to how we organize our lives. The way we communicate about gender can enhance or undermine all of our relationships. The purpose of this seminar is to augment, or even change, our understanding of the relationship between gender, communication, and organizations. Specifically, the goal for this course is to use a combination of scholarly essays and journal articles as well as popular news media to examine critically topics such as femininity, masculinity, and sexuality within the following contexts: education, sports, politics/government, leadership, the military, and other professions and organizations. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 3323.
COMM 5324  Crisis Communication  3 Credits  
This course discusses key concepts, principles, and best practices of crisis communication. Intersections with other areas of the communication field will also be addressed, including public relations and organizational and risk communication. Students will understand the role strategic communication, power, stakeholders, and organizational culture play during a crisis. This course analyzes case studies of previous crises and will ask students to provide their own plans and critical assessments of recent crises. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 3324.
COMM 5325  Organizational Communication and Advertising  3 Credits  
This course will highlight how organizations market, promote, and advertise their brands. The importance of advertising for organizations, consumers, and the U.S. economy will also be a central focus of this class. Furthermore, the critical roles of research, audience analysis, persuasion, and effective communication in altering consumers' perceptions will be explored from both theoretical and applied perspectives. The value of deconstructing ads from a consumer, brand manager, and advertiser's viewpoint will be stressed and explored. In addition, the historical and contemporary ethical implications of advertising, especially in health care and for children, will be closely examined. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 3325.
COMM 5328  Palliative Care Communication in the United States and Italy  3 Credits  
This is an interdisciplinary, intercultural course that applies a bifocal (communication and healthcare) lens to the study of palliative care. The course is intended to explore this relatively new area of health care delivery (quality of life vs. cure) and the critical role communication plays in accomplishing the interdependent goals of providers, patients, and families in the United States and Italy. Since palliative care should be for all chronically- and/or terminally-ill patients across the life cycle, students will critically examine, from both health care and communication perspectives, the differences in palliative care delivery in the United States and Italy. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 4328. Previously COMM 5326.
COMM 5330  Misinformation in Digital Media  3 Credits  
This course critically examines the causes for, and the consequences of, the proliferation of false and misleading information in online spaces. While the ubiquity of false information online is often talked about as if it is random or inevitable, this class will detail the specific mechanisms by which false information is produced, spread, and consumed. More importantly, it will contextualize the practice within larger social, culture, and geopolitical environments and connect it to the larger history of misinformation and media technologies. Finally, the course will prepare students to combat false and misleading information encountered in their own media diets. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 4330.
COMM 5334  Comparative Media Systems  3 Credits  
This course provides a comparative overview of the economic and regulatory structure of media industries worldwide. By exploring the ways in which different institutional frameworks, structural factors, and audiences' agency affect mass communication within and across regional borders, this course offers a comprehensive picture of common and interdependent processes underlying the individual development of media industries in each region. Students learn about emerging market and research trends concerning international media. Issues related to free flow of messages, social responsibility, universal access, intellectual commons, participatory communication, developmental communication, and cultural diversity in the global exchange of media messages through discussion of current, real-life cases, as well as through design and execution of an original research project. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 3334.
COMM 5335  Globalization, Media, and Culture  3 Credits  
Globalization, a complex and transformative process that influences our lives at every level, has produced the increased flow of goods, capital, people, knowledge, images, crime, pollutants, drugs, fashion, viruses, and beliefs across territorial and ideological boundaries of all kinds. This course focuses on the role of communication media (radio, television, film, computers) in the processes of globalization and examines the impact of globalization on cultural representations, cultural identity, and international relations. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 3335.
COMM 5336  Social Media  3 Credits  
At the turn of the millennium, social media was still an unknown term; today, it is inescapably altering the landscape of our world and our lives in complex ways. This course examines social media by historicizing what is timeless about it and charting its new frontiers for humankind. Through a mix of scholarly, journalistic, and professional industry readings on social media, we will explore how culture, community, and identity are being reshaped alongside politics, business, and (what was once called) the mass communication industry. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 4336.
COMM 5337  Visual Communication  3 Credits  
This course provides a broad introduction to the structure, conventions, and effects of visual communication with a theoretical emphasis on media ecology. The first half is devoted to understanding formal properties including examining the basics of vision, techniques for visual persuasion, and the language of cinematography and editing. The second half surveys more controversial issues like digital manipulation and violence and sex in media. Course material and assignments will be drawn from media domains including advertising, photo/video journalism, and video games. Students will read both theoretical contributions to and empirical investigations of the field. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 3337.
COMM 5340  Conflict Communication  3 Credits  
Conflict is a natural part of human life that has a variety of potential consequences. Although conflict can be disruptive and destructive, it can also be constructive and lead to improved adjustment and better decisions. The course is designed to offer you opportunities to enhance and improve your techniques and skills in managing conflict and moving them in a productive direction. The course examines the dynamics of human conflict across a variety of settings from personal relationships to the workplace, with special attention to the communication processes that escalate, manage, and mediate conflict. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 3340.
COMM 5341  End of Life Communication  3 Credits  
This course focuses on the only reality for every human being: death. However, in spite of its certainty, American culture tends to minimize or ignore discussions of death and provides little insight into effective communication strategies for healthcare providers, family members, friends, and lovers. The complexities of this unique communication will be assessed vis-à-vis an applied approach that includes a service-learning opportunity at a 51-bed hospice. In addition, the course will include self-reflection, autoethnography, an exploration of scholarly research in palliative communication, and scholarly interaction between students in the classroom and the hospice setting. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 4341.
COMM 5343  Ethics and Medical Marketing Communication  3 Credits  
This course will explore the dialectical tensions between the need for safe and effective products/services and the expectations for corporations to generate profits and dividends for their stakeholders. This course will use an applied ethics lens to examine the organizational, marketing, advertising, and corporate communication to clients, consumers, vendors, and investors.The content and ethical implications of marketing communication (from a variety of organizational perspectives: healthcare, economics, cultural, etc.) on expected and unintended outcomes will also be discussed and analyzed. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 4343.
COMM 5344  Interracial Communication  3 Credits  
This course explores current trends in literature on the topics of race relations, communication styles and patterns, communication theory, and the social construction of race along with its influence on how individuals from different races communicate. Throughout the course, up-to-date issues that surface locally and nationally in the media that illustrate the relevance of improved interracial communication will be addressed through class discussion and linked to course assignments. Using case studies to explore interracial exchanges in close relationships, at the workplace, and reflected in social media, students will link theory with practical applications in an effort to better understand interracial communication. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 3344.
COMM 5345  Relational Communication  3 Credits  
Close relationships can bring us a great deal of joy, happiness, and love, but unfortunately they can also be sources of frustration, pain, and conflict. This course is designed to help us understand the critical role of communication in developing, maintaining, and terminating close relationships with romantic partners, friends, and family members. The course examines the most current research and theory on a variety of topics that are central to understanding and maintaining close relationships, with a focus on attraction, attachment, conflict, power, emotion, transgression, reconciliation, and termination. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 3345.
COMM 5347  Communication in Healthcare Organizations  3 Credits  
This course explores the organizational communication of modern U.S. healthcare organizations, including: managed care, insurers, healthcare systems, and Medicare/Medicaid. The primary purposes of this course are to provide an understanding of how communication within, and from healthcare corporations impacts the organization, its employees, the health of its customers and U.S. healthcare delivery. This course will evaluate and explore the multidimensional processes involved in healthcare organizations and how communication is critical to their success or failure and to the health and well-being of their customers. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 3347.
COMM 5348  Health Risk Communication  3 Credits  
This course examines the communication theories and research that underlie the study of risky behaviors and the development of effective responses to perceived risks. This course provides an understanding of how communication impacts our assessment of risk, critical thinking and policy making about risk prevention and response, and the creation of preventive programs and campaigns. Students will evaluate and explore the multidimensional processes involved in researching and responding to sustained risks or emergency situations, utilize communication theory to develop appropriate campaigns, and assess their success or failure. Topics may focus on health and environmental risks, security, or disaster response. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 3348.
COMM 5351  Dark Side of Communication  3 Credits  
This course will examine aversive and problematic interactions in the interpersonal, organizational, and instructional settings. Sample topics include hurtful messages, stalking, aggression, jealousy, fatal attraction, and conflict. Students will take a research-based approach to understanding these undesirable, yet very common, communicative messages. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 3351.
COMM 5352  Global Mediated Activism  3 Credits  
This class critically examines processes by which publics use and are used by media in the quest for social change around the globe. Social movements have frequently objected to their representation by mainstream media industries and sought to either affect coverage or produce their own media platforms and narratives. The possibilities for mediated activism have increased in an era of user-generated content, while also introducing increasing competition for the time, attention and enthusiasm of publics. Through theories of social movements, communication technologies and publics this course will address processes of assembling publics in an increasingly mediated society. Undergraduate equivalent: COMM 4352.
COMM 5400  Communication Philosophies, Theories, and Research Traditions  3 Credits  
This class is designed to provide an introduction for the graduate student to the diverse and voluminous research in the area of human communication. As such, it covers an extremely wide range of intellectual, scientific, and historical material. It is a survey course, but we will deal with selected areas in depth. This course will not only introduce the areas of human communication theory and research, but it will also introduce the process of theorizing and thinking about communication. Therefore, the nature of theory, research, and intellectual inquiry is an important part of this course.
COMM 5401  Communication Research Design and Methodologies  3 Credits  
A detailed review of research methods and procedures relevant to measuring the phenomena and characteristics of human communication behavior in a variety of contexts and relationships. Quantitative, qualitative, and critical approaches are reviewed and practiced in course projects. Applications of research methods to describing and evaluating communication are studied.
COMM 5402  Ethics and Communication  3 Credits  
Coursework includes a comprehensive overview of the development of ethics from ancient to contemporary thought and practices. Emphasis is placed on the ethical agenda, problems, and responsibilities of contemporary organizations in diverse cultures. Case studies and student research focus on contemporary issues in the ethical communicative performance. The relationship between Jesuit philosophy and applied communication work in organizations is also explored.
COMM 5410  Perspectives and Theories in Organizational Communication  3 Credits  
This course is intended to highlight organizations and how they are created, maintained and changed through social interaction. Communicating by organizational members is essentially organizing. The course examines organizational communication from both functional and constructivist perspectives.
COMM 5430  Written Communication  3 Credits  
Explores how written communication by its very nature is drastically different from verbal and other nonverbal forms of communication. Considers the effect a printable form of communication has on the message, the sender and receiver, and the potential legal issues associated with written communication. This course focuses on the impact of written messages for intrapersonal, interpersonal, small group, organizational, intercultural, and mass media communication. Examines the historical transformation in content, style, and perception from letters, memos, and notes to the evolving electronic formats for written communication including: e-mails, blogs, chat rooms, e-networking/e-cultures, wikis, etc.
COMM 5431  Media Law and Institutions  3 Credits  
The course concentrates on the legal and economic environment of U.S. mass media. Topics include examination of major doctrines of media law, organization and operation of individual media industries, the economic structure of U.S. media markets, the role of media watchdogs and advocacy organizations, as well as media users' forms of collective action. The course's content is approached through an institutional analysis perspective, intended to facilitate students' understanding of institutions as dynamic points of confluence for organizations, norms, and individual agents. As part of the course's requirements, students conduct a research project exploring recent developments in media regulation and/or decision-making processes within one of the major media institutions covered during the semester.
COMM 5432  Communication Training and Development  3 Credits  
Communication training and development focuses on "the process of developing skills in order to perform a specific job or task more effectively. Stated simply, to train is to develop skills" (Beebe, Mottet, and Roach, 2013 p. 5). Therefore, this course adopts a research-based approach to understanding training and development, with the ultimate goal of equipping students with skills necessary to become successful corporate trainers. Some students might pursue careers in training, whereas others will not. Regardless of your career choice, though, there will be times in your professional lives where you work "to develop skills" in others.
COMM 5488  Health Risk Communication  3 Credits  
This is a one-week, predominantly face-to-face course that includes online interactions. This course examines the theories and research that underlie the study of health risk communication and behaviors. The primary purpose of this course is to provide an understanding of how communication impacts our assessment of health risk behaviors, critical thinking, the creation of preventive programs, and outcomes. This course will evaluate and explore the multidimensional processes involved in researching the communication of risky behaviors and how organizations can utilize health communication theory to develop appropriate campaigns and assess their success or failure.
COMM 5501  Interpersonal Communication  3 Credits  
This course is a critical examination of the major theories of interpersonal communication and an exploration of interpersonal communication research in relational and organizational contexts. Student projects will use social science research methods to examine factors influencing interpersonal communication such as language, perception, nonverbal behavior, power, status, and gender roles.
COMM 5502  Small Group and Team Communication  3 Credits  
This course is a study of the communication dimensions and dynamics of small groups, teams, and networks of organizational actors. Coursework and projects focus on interpersonal processes and structures for tasking and relating effectively in organizational settings. The special characteristics of virtual team and technology-enhanced decision-making work are investigated.
COMM 5530  Media Theory and Criticism  3 Credits  
This course introduces students to the study of media in the United States. It focuses on the major theoretical trajectories that have shaped the field, empirical research that has emerged as canonical, and contemporary critical approaches that inform not just how we study media as scholars, but also how we understand media as consumers.
COMM 5531  Work/Life Intersections  3 Credits  
This course examines those situations where work and life intersect and how humans use communication to create, negotiate, and manage work/life intersections.
COMM 5532  Nonprofit Media  3 Credits  
This course focuses on public relations, advertising and marketing strategies for nonprofit and public service organizations. The course begins with a broad overview of media industries and the changing landscape of media technologies and then considers how nonprofit and other public service organizations can best leverage resources to effectively communicate with intended audiences. Both theoretical and practical, this course provides graduate students with historical understandings of how media industries are organized and how not for profit organizations interface with profit-driven media businesses. Special attention is paid to how social media platforms and other digital technologies impact communication strategies.
COMM 5539  Advertising and Consumer Communication  3 Credits  
This course takes a critical look at the intersection of consumer culture, advertising, marketing and communication. This course also considers the history of advertising, marketing and public relations in the United States as a starting point for better understanding of contemporary practices in these fields. Central in this examination is a consideration of how race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality often map (and are mapped onto) specific consumption patterns. Further, this course examines how advertising and related communication practices happen within a specific political-economic environment and how technology is quickly changing how theory translates into practice in these fields. While advertising, marketing and public relations are undoubtedly a part of our consumer culture, this course is not exclusively about how to "do" these activities, but rather how these communication practices impact our culture. Finally this course will ask students to critically reflect on consumption in terms of global, environmental and labor concerns.
COMM 5540  Intercultural Communication  3 Credits  
This course examines the relationship between communication behavior and cultural factors such as nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, class, sexuality, and religion. We will focus on cross-cultural sense-making, relationships, problem-solving, and organizing with particular application to business, education, and health care encounters. The course reviews the social science research of variations in normative communication behavior, as well as the theoretical approaches to understanding the relationship between worldview/cultural values and preferred communication practices. Examples will be used from a variety of nations, as well as those within the diverse cultural landscape of contemporary United States.
COMM 5547  Healthcare Organizational Communication  3 Credits  
This course examines the processes and complexities of modern healthcare organizations (hospitals, nursing homes, insurers, associations, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, non-profits, marketing, advertising, and PR firms, provider education institutions, etc.). The primary purpose of this course is to provide an understanding of how communication within, to, and from healthcare organizations impacts the company, its employees, stakeholders, customers, federal and local governments, and U.S. healthcare delivery. This course will evaluate and explore the multidimensional processes utilized by healthcare organizations and how communication is critical to their successes or failures and to the health and well being of their customers.
COMM 5548  Health Communication  3 Credits  
Communicating to people about health has become one of the most active areas of communication research and practice. This course focuses on the theory and practice of communication in health settings. Topics covered include doctor-patient communication, health campaigns, effects of media on health, intercultural issues in health communication, and risk communication in relation to health practices.
COMM 5980  Communication Practicum  3 Credits  
The communication practicum is a semester-long internship or other type of placement carried out by graduate students in communication in local, national, or international contexts. These placements are determined in conjunction with, and carried out under the supervision of, a faculty member. Practicums allow students to gain professional experience; where possible these activities should relate directly to thesis projects and other long-term academic interests. Students must commit to a minimum of 120 hours at an approved work site (internships cannot be done at a student's place of employment) and are also responsible for completing additional academic requirements.
COMM 6900  Special Topics in Communication Research  3 Credits  
This course is taught when a particular faculty member has a compelling proposal for a topic that has been approved by the department. Preference will be given to topics related to contemporary issues or to a current faculty research project.
COMM 6961  Project Proposal  3 Credits  
This course operates as an independent study experience under the supervision of a faculty advisor and the secondary supervision of one additional faculty reader. Each proposal and project should have a total of two readers, the faculty advisor and one additional reader from the Communication Department who has taught the student. At the student's request, a faculty member from another department who has taught the student in a graduate course could serve as a third reader. In unusual circumstances (e.g., a conflict between the faculty advisor and the second reader) a third reader would be assigned by the Graduate Program Director. The project will be presented to the faculty and should have some kind of public presentation or impact.
COMM 6962  Independent Project  3 Credits  
This course operates as an independent study experience under the supervision of a faculty advisor and the secondary supervision of one additional faculty reader. Each proposal and project should have a total of two readers, the faculty advisor and one additional reader from the Communication Department who has taught the student. At the student's request, a faculty member from another department who has taught the student in a graduate course could serve as a third reader. In unusual circumstances (e.g., a conflict between the faculty advisor and the second reader) a third reader would be assigned by the Graduate Program Director. The project will be presented to the faculty and should have some kind of public presentation or impact.
COMM 6963  Continuing Project  3 Credits  
COMM 6971  Thesis Proposal  3 Credits  
This course operates as an independent study experience under the supervision of a faculty advisor and the secondary supervision of one additional faculty reader. Each proposal and thesis should have a total of two readers, the faculty advisor and one additional reader from the Communication Department who has taught the student. At the student's request, a faculty member from another department who has taught the student in a graduate course could serve as a third reader. In unusual circumstances (e.g., a conflict between the faculty advisor and the second reader) a third reader would be assigned by the Graduate Program Director. The thesis will be orally presented to the faculty.
COMM 6972  Thesis Research  3 Credits  
This course operates as an independent study experience under the supervision of a faculty advisor and the secondary supervision of one additional faculty reader. Each proposal and thesis should have a total of two readers, the faculty advisor and one additional reader from the Communication Department who has taught the student. At the student's request, a faculty member from another department who has taught the student in a graduate course could serve as a third reader. In unusual circumstances (e.g., a conflict between the faculty advisor and the second reader) a third reader would be assigned by the Graduate Program Director. The thesis will be orally presented to the faculty.
COMM 6973  Continuing Thesis Research  3 Credits  
COMM 6990  Independent Study  3 Credits  
This course allows students to thoroughly investigate communication concepts, theories, or issues presented in a previously completed graduate communication course. Independent study does not substitute for any other required course(s) in the graduate program and students' investigations must be scholarly in intent. An independent study may be taken only once. Enrollment by approval of the Graduate Director only, with the sponsorship of a communication faculty member.

Professors in the program are full-time Communication Department faculty in the Meditz College of Arts and Sciences.

Professor

Horan
Pagano
Zhang, Q.

Associate Professor

Brennan
Iddins
Rugg
Zhao

Assistant Professor

Ryan
SanInocencio, Director
Yook

Faculty Emeriti

Wills

Research Interests

Communication Faculty Research Interests include:

  • Alternative Mass Media
  • Communication Research Design and Methodologies
  • Comparative Media Systems
  • Conflict Communication
  • Crisis Communication
  • Deception
  • Gender-Related Issues in Communication
  • Global Media Systems
  • Group Decision-Making
  • Health Communication
  • Health Education
  • Healthcare Advertising
  • Healthcare Organizational Communication
  • Healthcare Provider Education
  • Instructional Communication
  • Intercultural Communication
  • International Communication
  • Interpersonal/Relational Communication
  • Mass Media and Popular Culture
  • Media Criticism
  • Media Effects
  • Media Institutions
  • Negotiation and Management
  • New Media Technologies
  • Organizational Communication
  • Organizational Rhetoric
  • Public Relations
  • Risk Communication
  • Social Uses/Effects of the Media
  • Training and Consulting
  • Work/Life Intersections
  • Workplace Relationships
  • Written Communication