Learning Outcomes - Communication

Seattle University undergraduate Communication students should be able to:

• Understand and appreciate the role of human communication in creating, maintaining, and modifying communities.
  
• Be able to critically analyze an act of communication, applying appropriate conceptual tools in order to develop an explanation and evaluation of the event/situation. 
• Be able to conduct an appropriate situational and audience analysis as a precursor to message design, identifying salient constraints, exigencies, and audience features.      
• Be able to design messages and/or communicative patterns that are strategically and effectively adapted to both the situation and communicator goals.    
  
• Be able to effectively engage in face-to-face communication with both individuals and larger audiences (including diverse audiences and people from different cultural/ideological backgrounds), utilizing appropriate principles of interpersonal communication and public speaking.     
  
• Be willing to use their communication skills and knowledge to serve as agents for positive social change and have had at least one major experience in doing so.  We place particular emphasis on developing students’ willingness to advocate for issues of social justice.  

Journalism

In addtion to the above outcomes,Seattle University undergraduate Journalism students should be able to:

• Understand the role of the news media in society.
• Understand what constitutes sound news judgment and be able to apply that knowledge in preparing, evaluating, and selecting news stories.
• Understand the impact of communication technology on news content and delivery.
• Be able to research and write accurate and effective news stories following genre-specific guidelines for content, form, and tone.
• Be able to develop effective news stories in at least two media: print and at least one electronic medium.
• Be able to use appropriate research tools to conduct in-depth investigations of public figures and/or issues.
• Have developed the ethic of a journalist, committed to practicing journalism to “hold the powerful accountable and give voice to the voiceless.”

For complete list of Learning Outcomes for Seattle University Undergraduate Students, click here.