Communication Studies

“Communication studies” was one of my undergraduate majors in university, and the one I actually liked of the two. While I'm not a student anymore, nor am I making any attempt to become a graduate student, I still keep up with reading what I can about the subject which so enraptured me.

In most places around North America, the label of communication studies is usually treated with some degree of derision, being considered too far outside of the academic or scientific disciplines, while also being sneered at for acting too much like a college trade. In other places, it is a “catch all” for multiple fields of somewhat-related study which get all pooled together: when visual arts schools don't want to manage a film program, when business schools don't want to manage a marketing program, or when literature schools don't want to manage a journalism program. (At the time I was a student, even some “unscientific” aspects of computer science were beginning to bleed into things due to the ponderous effect of the Internet and its mass adoption.)

Despite this coalition of interests which constantly threatens to unravel at any moment, the field nonetheless gained a sizable corpus of data which attempted to synthesize these disparate trades into something that wouldn't have a home anywhere else: the study and effect of mass media systems on the fabric of society. That is what ultimately captured my interest, and kept me coming back for more.

Arts

Sciences


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