Learning Goals & Mission

Mission

The Saint Peter’s University Communication Program was created in Spring 1992 as an interdisciplinary minor within the English Department with an emphasis on speaking, writing and media theory. In fall 1998, the program began to offer a major in Communication with a core curriculum including media history and theory, writing, speaking and ethics. In the spring of 2005, the Communication Program was granted separation from the English Department and it was established as the new Communication Department. In the fall of 2007, the Communication Department began to offer a Minor program in Journalism. In the spring of 2014, the Communication Department was renamed to Communication and Media Culture.

The mission of the Communication and Media Culture Department is to serve the University through courses specifically targeted to writing and speaking and to prepare Communication majors to become responsible and informed practitioners in their fields.

Learning Goals for Undergraduate Programs in Communication and Media Culture

The Communication and Media Culture Department has one major goal which is stated in the University bulletin. It is “Preparing students for careers in media and other fields that demand strong speaking, writing, and ethical decision making.” This statement is directly informed by the University mission and goals 1, 3 and 4.  However, overall objectives of the program are to enable students to:

• Write clearly in different genres including hard news writing, academic writing, and feature writing
• Speak articulately in a variety of stances, importantly persuasively and informatively
• Organize and conduct research for reports and essays
• Speak extemporaneously as individual presenters and members of a panel, as interviewers and interviewees.
• Describe the distinctions among and best uses of specific media — newspapers, television, radio, film, and books.
• Describe media theories
• Identify major events in the history of mass mediums
• Formulate a personal code of ethics for the workplace
• Prepare majors for careers in media