Learning goals

The program in Communication and Media Studies is an integral part of Goucher's 21st century vision for liberal arts education. Students are grounded in media and cultural history and are provided with the means to master communication in contemporary media. They are challenged to develop a critical perspective and make ethical judgments about contemporary and future media issues. Academic and theoretical classes are supplemented with skills-oriented coursework, applied internships, and research activities.

The program seeks to foster students’ ability to express and communicate ideas, arguments, historical findings, and creative insights. Students develop their writing skills in both analytical and creative contexts, often expressing themselves using emerging media technologies. They learn to apply theoretical concepts to creative work and experiential insights about production to their intellectual research. Students are encouraged to pursue specific interests in digital media, television and film studies, video and audio production, print, radio and television journalism, photography, public relations, and popular culture studies. Students also further their career readiness by completing internships in a variety of arenas, including social media, television, radio, public relations, film, and news writing and production.

Students will leave the Communication and Media Studies program as lifelong learners, ethical and critical problem solvers, innovative and effective creators and communicators across media forms, and independent intelligent people who view life in historical context, with inclusive multicultural perspective, and with a critical understanding of power in society.

Learning outcomes for major & minor

At the completion of a major or minor in Communication and Media Studies at Goucher, students will demonstrate an ability to:

1. Recognize and apply foundational historical context from the field of communication and media studies to an examination of the contemporary world.
2. Interpret and evaluate contemporary global culture through a critical framework, to apply theoretical concepts and ethical principles of equity and social justice from within the field of communication and media studies to issues of power, privilege, and oppression.
3. Implement intellectually developed critical thinking skills, creative and imaginative use of communicative forms and technologies, and preparedness for the careers of today and the future.
4. Produce work that contributes knowledge and expresses creativity with competent and effective communication skills in media across written, oral, visual, and interactive forms.

Alignment with institutional learning goals & outcomes

Our learning goals include the fostering of critical thinking skills, the ability to historically contextualize material, ethical engagement with the field, and the application of insights about social power, difference, and identity in media and communication. We also seek to develop students’ skills to express themselves in writing, video production, and other means in powerful and creative ways. Our field is by necessity interdisciplinary, traversing history, politics, sociology, and art, within a global perspective. The most important things students can learn in their education is to ask probing questions; to discover what resources are available to aid in answering these questions; to really consider and understand other people, other ideas, and new ways of thinking, observing, and being: to explore the world to the best of their abilities.

This aligns with Goucher’s institutional learning goals to use concepts and theories from multiple perspectives and to address contemporary problems with an understanding of identity, communities, and the world. In particular alignment with the institutional learning outcomes, our students’ qualitative assessment and evaluation of contemporary culture aligns with the Analyze outcome, producing work in various media forms and in collaboration with diverse peers aligns with the Connect outcome, critical theoretical framework’s central engagement with understanding marginalized perspectives and unequal structures of power and privilege in our society aligns with the Respect outcome, developing sense of identity and community in creative expression and cultural interpretation aligns with the Reflect outcome, and communicating informative, persuasive, and creative expression across media forms aligns with the Contribute outcome.

Updated: February 2018

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