Media, Rhetoric, & Culture

The Media, Rhetoric and Culture (MRC) program provides students the critical tools and practical skills necessary to engage in the analysis of communication. Focusing on the social, political and cultural influences of communication, students create, interpret, analyze and evaluate various forms of communication messages. MRC students engage in the critical enquiry of the "how," "why," and "to what impact" questions in regard to communication. The program has the following learning outcomes:

1. Students will appreciate and articulate the value of communication to promote community engagement and social justice.
2. Students will comprehend and analyze how identity and power affect communication globally and locally.
3. Students will demonstrate the ability to advocate appropriately and effectively in professional and public contexts.
4. Students will engage in systematic and innovative inquiry into the production, reception, and circulation of public and mass mediated communication.
5. Students will comprehend and articulate the historical, theoretical, and critical perspectives as they apply to a variety of public and mass mediated messages.
6. Students will interpret, evaluate and critique the symbolic and shared processes of meaning making.

The Media, Rhetoric and Culture major is comprised of 33 credit hours and the minor of 18 credit hours, as mandated by the college. Three courses in the program will also fulfill college requirements: Public Speaking, Media Literacy, and an approved course in Communication and Culture (a menu of courses that focuses on issues of diversity from a communication perspective). Several of the MRC courses meet the Communication and Culture requirement in the College of Communication.

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