Glossary
UW Bothell Course Descriptions
UW Seattle Course Descriptions
Detailed course offerings (Time Schedule) are available for
TCOM 101 Critical Media Literacy (5) SSc
Surveys historical, economic, and cultural contexts for contemporary media to foster critical literacy from local and global perspectives. Evaluates media messages to understand power structures and tools of persuasion in film, television, journalism, interactive and social media, sports media, and youth media. Course overlaps with: BIS 235.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 101
TCOM 201 Media and Society (5) SSc
Explores theoretical perspectives and core issues in the relationship between the media and society, including the production and reception of both news and entertainment. Evaluates the historical, cultural, political and economic contexts of media industries, representations, and audiences.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 201
TCOM 220 Social Media (5) SSc
Explores the evolving world of social media and assesses their social, cultural, and political meanings and implications. Develops skills to critically reflect on social media experiences and develop effective media strategies as communication professionals.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 220
TCOM 221 Artificial Intelligence: Media, Culture, and Power (5) A&H
Explores how artificial intelligence fits into the overall study of modern media, including disruptions to the current media landscape. Through a critical perspective, the course examines key ways that machine learning, and our uses of it, may ultimately challenge - or uphold - structures of social power and privilege. Students will consider the implications of AI, including its perils and promises, for us, our society, and the world around us.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 221
TCOM 230 Media Globalization and Citizenship (5) SSc
Introduces key concepts in international communication and global media studies such as cultural imperialism, electronic colonialism, and media globalization. Through case studies from around the world, students evaluate their positions as global citizens and explore opportunities for activism.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 230
TCOM 247 Television Studies (5) SSc
Introduces the study of television as a social, cultural, and political force. Examines the production, distribution, and reception of television texts of different genres, including news and entertainment; evaluates how television reflects and influences different societies and groups; explores television in different historical periods and through various technologies. Course overlaps with: CMS 274.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 247
TCOM 250 Media for Social Justice (5) SSc/A&H
Examines how media and information and communication technologies are used as tools to challenge inequality and advance social justice goals. It introduces frameworks, concepts, local and global case studies to understand how social, cultural, political, economic, and personal factors may hinder or advance social change. Students learn to produce a storytelling project demonstrating their knowledge of concepts and ideas explored in the course.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 250
TCOM 254 Communication History (5) SSc
Addresses the complexities of media and communication historically, particularly the technologies and their impact on society. Includes development of different forms of communication and the intertwining of the history of mass communication with the history of other social institutions.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 254
TCOM 257 Ethical Issues in Mass Communication (5) A&H/SSc
Focuses on different types of media producers - in journalism, popular culture, and digital media - as a link between the mass media and society. Through a study of ethical theories, evaluates the ethical dilemmas of contemporary media producers and their audiences from a critical media studies framework.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 257
TCOM 258 Children and Media (5) SSc
Examines the historical, sociological, and psychological context of children consuming myriad forms of media. Brings together scholarship from child psychology, television criticism, and reception studies.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 258
TCOM 275 Writing, Reporting, and Editing for the Mass Media (5) A&H
Introduction to writing, reporting, and editing for print and broadcast media. Focuses on developing a concise writing style, passion for thorough, accurate reporting, and a sensitivity to various audiences' needs and interests. Explores standard news practices in news organizations and methods to effectively combine visual elements with the written word. Effective gathering of information and interviewing skills, note-taking and observation.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 275
TCOM 310 Contemporary Environmental Issues and the Media (5) SSc
Explores the complex relationship between contemporary environmental issues and the news media. Examines how environmental issues are framed and represented in various, corporate-owned news organizations as well as public relations and advertising.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 310
TCOM 312 Ecology, Inequality, and Popular Culture (5) SSc, DIV
Surveys the debates within cultural/critical studies to explore how portrayals of ecology in popular culture directly relate to representations of gender, sexuality, nationality, ethnicity, and class. Applies numerous critical perspectives to understand key power structures in film, television, magazines, and novels from the U.S. and international sources.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 312
TCOM 320 Principles of Web Design (5) A&H
Examines the theories and techniques of visual and design rhetoric to web design. Discusses how purpose, audience, and context affect the development of web pages and other electronic documents. Explores principles of web-based design, creation, layout, editing, publishing, and maintenance through web design practices.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 320
TCOM 330 Mobile Communication and Social Practice (5) SSc
Explores social practices surrounding mobile communication technologies and identifies their social, cultural, and political consequences across the globe. Develops a critical understanding of the historical development of mobile technologies and related key concepts. creates design prototype of mobile apps to understand and augment everyday mobile user experience.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 330
TCOM 340 Global TV: Format, Genre, and Reception (5) SSc
Focuses on current issues and topics in global television studies. Explores several case studies of television format from around the world in order to understand the development and evolution of television genre such as soap opera and reality TV in a transnational context. Course overlaps with: BIS 235.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 340
TCOM 343 Global Music Video (5) A&H
Examines music video as an art form, cultural institution, and global media industry. Considers the history, aesthetics, and politics of music videos made around the world.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 343
TCOM 347 Television Criticism and Application (5) A&H
Explores narrative structures and production techniques utilized in television in an integrated manner. Analyzes and discusses critical approaches to television texts and techniques, including use of camera angles, lighting design, sound effects, and editing. Explores the application of basic production to techniques in a hands-on manner. Course overlaps with: CMS 273.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 347
TCOM 348 Non-fiction Writing for Television (5) A&H
Explores non-fiction styles of writing for television, including news writing and documentary writing, with a focus on the development of stores from a proposal to a script. Addresses issues and conflicts that arise with the linking of visual images and spoken words in non-fiction television genres.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 348
TCOM 349 News Writing (5) A&H
Covers principles of news writing and reporting, including lead writing, Associated Press style conventions, news judgment, and ethical and legal issues.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 349
TCOM 350 Editing and Design for Print Media (5) A&H
Covers elements of print media editing and design including: selection and editing of news copy; headline writing; typography; selection, sizing and cropping of photos; functions of layout; principles of publication design and their practical applications. Students also complete several page design projects as teams.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 350
TCOM 351 Video Production (5, max. 10) A&H
Examination of principles of visual and audio communication, including telling stores using image, movement, spoken words, and other sounds in an integrated manner. Discusses critical approaches to television production and utilizes them in a hands-on manner to develop production skills. Prerequisite: T COM 347.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 351
TCOM 380 Political Economy of the Media (5) SSc
Examines the historical evolution and economic structure in which media industries are embedded and develops theoretical and analytical tools for the evaluation of media industries. Surveys patterns of ownership and control, government policies, and other issues in media industries, including newspapers, magazines, television, motion pictures, and recorded music.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 380
TCOM 387 Writing for Public Relations (5) A&H
Explores aspects of public relations writing, including news releases for print and broadcast media, advertising copy, speeches, newsletters, and crisis communication. Emphasizes writing for clarity and interest, simplifying complex issues, and conducting effective media relations. Prerequisite: either TCOM 275 or TCOM 349.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 387
TCOM 420 Advanced Web Design (5) A&H
Explores advanced concepts, practices, and techniques in large-scale, user-centered web design. Emphasizes interaction design, web usability, and accessibility; design communication and design lifecycle; content management; ongoing site management; and cross-cultural issues. Prerequisite: a minimum grade of 2.0 in TCOM 320.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 420
TCOM 430 Global Networks, Local Identities (5) SSc
Explores historical and contemporary debates on globalization, cultural imperialism, national identity, and global consumerism. Examines structure and content of such transnational networks as Star TV and CNN, and evaluates the impact of these networks on local identities.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 430
TCOM 440 Advertising and Consumer Culture (5) SSc
Explores the past, present, and future of advertising as a form of communication by examining television commercials, political campaigns, billboards, movie trailers, and magazine ads. Also explores the industry that creates these materials, the consumption practices they encourage, and their impact on contemporary culture.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 440
TCOM 444 Gender, Ethnicity, Class, and the Media (5) A&H/SSc, DIV
Explores the media landscape as a powerful site for the construction and circulation of intersecting ideologies of privilege and difference. Studies the socio-historical origins of these ideologies, using methods of media analysis to examine their presence in numerous forms of media, including popular culture, journalism, and digital media.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 444
TCOM 453 Critical Approaches to Mass Communication (5) SSc
Examines how power is constructed, concentrated, and maintained through and around mass communication. Carefully evaluates the structures (patriarchy, neoliberalism, etc) that have historically served to preserve the status quo ideology in our society. Research-focused and includes application of critical theoretical frameworks.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 453
TCOM 454 Communications Law (5) SSc
Examines issues surrounding freedom of expression in the United States and citizens' and the media's legal rights in gathering and disseminating news and information. Explores the freedoms afforded by the First Amendment and shows how those protections are still evolving in the twenty-first century.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 454
TCOM 460 Communication for Development and Social Change (5) A&H/SSc
Introduces theories and concepts associated with the origin and evolution of development communication. Examines case studies of grassroots development from Asia, Latin America and Africa to study models and practices for community participation and social change through the use of information and communication technologies.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 460
TCOM 461 Media and Identity in Asia (5) SSc
Explores dynamics of television production and consumption of non-western countries within their postcolonial and neocolonial contexts. Examines case studies from such countries as India, Indonesia, Singapore, China, and Malaysia. Addresses programming hybridity, audience resistance and adaptation, and the impact of transnational media networks n local cultural identities.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 461
TCOM 464 Field Research in Communication (5) SSc
Introduces students to contemporary issues that focus on the local community. Students learn and apply field research methods (ethnography, interviews, focus groups, and field research design) while working with community organizations in a service learning context.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 464
TCOM 465 Contemporary Free Speech Issues (5) SSc
Explores contemporary free speech issues in light of their social, political and economic implications in the United States. Examines United States Supreme Court cases and First Amendment theory related to those contentious free speech topics.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 465
TCOM 470 Documentary Production and Critique (5) A&H
Examines theoretical and ethical issues involved in the production of non-fiction genres while shooting and editing short-form, community-based documentaries. Prerequisite: T COM 351.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 470
TCOM 471 Advanced Video Production (5) A&H
Examines the elements of effective video storytelling, including story structure, character development, dialogue, and visual design while shooting and editing fictional short videos. Prerequisite: TCOM 351.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 471
TCOM 480 Critical Media Industry Studies (5, max. 10) SSc
Explores selected media industries or issues from a critical perspective. Focuses on the development of the theoretical and analytical tools to conduct critical research on media industries products and/or issues. Focus will vary, but can include the video games industry, television industry, or labor in creative industries. Recommended: TCOM 353 or TCOM 380.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 480
TCOM 481 Communication Regulation and Policy (5) SSc
Examines communication and media policies beginning with broadcast industries and film to the rise of the Internet and various platforms as well as social media. Surveys the current state of regulation as a means to address a broad range of social and structural issues.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 481
TCOM 482 Investigative Reporting (5) SSc
Investigative reporting is demanding, intellectually, emotionally, and physically. Prepares students to undertake quality in-depth journalism. Includes interviewing, researching, and writing lengthy investigative news articles. Prerequisite: either TCOM 275 or TCOM 349.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 482
TCOM 484 Opinion Writing for Mass Media (5) SSc
Explores the fundamentals of writing opinion for print, web, and broadcast media. Integrates the basic foundations of news gathering and writing with the skills needed to produce publishable opinion pieces. Prerequisite: either TCOM 275 or TCOM 349
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 484
TCOM 486 Feature Writing for Print Media (5) A&H
Explores the news feature writing, with emphasis on developing story ideas, gathering materials, and writing in clear, compelling fashion. Intended for students who wish to contribute articles to The Ledger, community newspapers, or specialty publications. Also covers writing for the freelance market. Prerequisite: either TCOM 275 or TCOM 349.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 486
TCOM 490 Communication Capstone Internship (5-10)
Communication or media related internship in the public or private sector, supervised by a Communication faculty member. Prerequisite: approval of internship proposal. Credit/no-credit only.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 490
TCOM 495 Communication Capstone Thesis (5)
Plan and carry out a significant scholarly communication or media studies independent research project under the direction of a Communication faculty member. Prerequisite: approval of thesis proposal.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 495
TCOM 498 Study Abroad in Communication (5-15, max. 15) SSc
Explores communication topics in international locales to enhance understanding of global-local dynamics. Taught on-site and includes interactions/collaborations with local organizations, scholars, and professionals; visits to exhibits and cultural venues, and participation in community experiences, where appropriate.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 498
TCOM 499 Special Topics in Communication (5, max. 10) A&H
Offered occasionally by permanent or visiting faculty members. Topics vary.
View course details in MyPlan: TCOM 499
