Courses

Required each semester a student is in course work. Forum for the presentation of research and professional activities by guest speakers, faculty, and students.

The pro-seminar addresses nature of communication, information, and media processes and their role in individual, social, and institutional behavior. Particular emphasis will be on the conceptual linkages between communication, information, and media processes, as well as theory and meta-theory. Panels will alternate between interdisciplinary and area-specific topics featuring CILS program faculty as speakers. Pro-seminar will include topics in professional development, academic integrity, responsible and ethical conduct of research, intellectual property. Students will pass the Human Subjects Certification Program as part of the course.

Concepts, methods and practices of social science research in relation to communication, information science and library studies.

Qualitative approaches for examining communication and information processes, including information definition, acquisition, evaluation and use.

Facets of research, problem areas, research techniques and experiments. Each student develops a research project relating to a chosen topic.

About the statistics competency prerequisite
The program expects students entering the program to have achieved master’s level competency in statistics. This is a prerequisite for enrollment in Quantitative Research Methods (16:194:604), a program core methods course option for all students. Competency in statistics will be assessed by the instructor for 604 in the semester prior to enrollment. Students who have not successfully completed graduate level coursework in statistics, or feel unsure about their statistical competency, are strongly encouraged to enroll in a master’s level statistics course as soon as possible. Credits earned in elementary master’s level statistics do not count toward the program’s course work credit requirements. Possible courses at Rutgers include (but are not restricted to) 17:610:511 - Research Methods (in the Master of Information program) and 16:960:532: Statistical Methods in Education (in the Graduate School of Education).

Assessment for statistics competency
Faculty assessing preparation for 16:194:604 will generally ask students to provide the following evidence of competency, among possible others:

Levels of Measurement

Provide brief definitions and examples of nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio levels of measurement. Possible elaborations include increasing statistical sensitivity, tests of association for nominal and interval/ratio data, and issues in making continuous measures discrete.

Measures of Central Tendency (mean, median, mode)

Provide brief definitions of each, know with what types of data each would be used, what it means when they are all similar, what it signifies when they differ, and why these measures are important descriptors.

Measures of Variance

Define standard deviation, evaluate any frequency distribution in terms of its standard deviations, compare the standard deviation to standard error, and determine the range and variance of a sample.

Variables

Identify independent/predictor, confounding, moderator/intervening, and dependent/criterion variables. Understand appropriate use of the different terms.

Sampling

Understand the difference between probability and nonprobability sampling, samples versus populations, parametric versus nonparametric distributions, types of sampling, assumptions of normal distributions, other types of distributions (e.g., poisson, t, chi-square, etc.)

Error

Understand Type I and Type II errors, sampling and measurement error.

Tests of Association

Understand cross-tabulations and chi-square analyses, t -tests, analyses of variance, and different kinds of correlations.

Significance

Be familiar with p values, degrees of freedom, sample size, relationship of p values to alpha, choosing significance levels, and the relationships among statistical power, significance levels, generality/generalizability, and sample size. Be able to look up critical values on t, chi-square, or normal distribution tables.

Z-scores

Define standard normal curve, standard scores, know formula and appropriate uses

This course introduces students to a variety of interpretive research methods employed to study the media and communication. Looking at the historical development and epistemological foundations of such methods, we will discuss what constitutes interpretive methodologies and how they differ from other forms of qualitative research.  We will explore a range of commonly employed methods such as ethnography, historical methods, the analysis of visual texts, semiotics, ideological criticism, and legal interpretive methods. We will pay particular attention to ethical issues and pragmatic techniques as we read essays by leading scholars who employ interpretive methods in their research.  Students will not only become familiar with interpretive research traditions and see how they are applied to real life media phenomena, but will also learn how to distinguish well done from sloppy research.

Taken by arrangement with faculty member, usually toward the end of coursework, this requirement is met by a student registering for this course with a member of the program faculty who has agreed to supervise the student’s participation in a research project of interest. Students are expected to contact faculty directly with practicum projects/ideas. The expected outcome of the Research Practicum is a paper (single or co-authored) submitted to a recognized conference or refereed journal. The results of the Research Practicum will be presented by the student at a Ph.D. Poster Session Colloquium typically held at the end of each semester.  More specific requirements about the outcomes expected of students are in the Ph.D. Handbook.

Major problems, trends and developments in information science and librarianship. Critical survey of current and classic research findings.

Precursors to, and characteristics of, human information seeking behavior, individual and social, both within and outside of institutional information systems. Relations between such behavior and information systems design and the relevant technologies.

Examines the basic problems of information retrieval (IR) from theoretical and experimental points of view. Develops a basis for the specification of design principles for IR systems.

Measures, models and methods for macro-evaluation of impact of information systems within their environment and for micro-evaluation of performance of system components. Examines the design, conduct, and results associated with experiments.

Contemporary theories and major lines of classic and current research concerning interpersonal communication.

Survey of major principles and research organizational communication information processing. Analysis of the functions, transmission, and retention of information in the development and maintenance of organizations.

Provides an overview of the major areas of health communication including health communication campaigns, physician-patient communication, and communication among health professionals and individuals affected by health issues.

This doctoral seminar is a core requirement for the Communication area of the CILS PhD. This course provides a basic overview of social science research methods. The emphasis of the course is on appropriate method selection and the strengths and weakness of different approaches. The course covers a range of quantitative and qualitative methods.

This doctoral seminar is a core requirement for the Communication area of the CILS PhD. The course exposes students to many of the core theoretical foundations that underlie the field of communication and explores the principals underlying theory construction and theoretical model building within the discipline.

This course aims to provide deeper insight into the contested phenomenon of globalization and its implications for organizations and processes of organizing. Students taking this course will gain awareness of the complexities of organizing across national and other boundaries and the role of communication in this process, as well as assessing the implications of globalization for today’s organizations, including both corporations and non-profits, governmental and private.

Theory, concepts, methods, and analysis for understanding and applying social networks to organizational contexts.

This class examines key challenges, opportunities, and policies at the intersection of communication technology use and the workplace.

Provides a theoretical orientation to the examination of social media. Topics discussed include issues of self-presentation, identity, privacy, youth and social media, information exchange, political participation, social networks, social capital, virtual worlds, collective action and work.

Leadership is a topic of substantial current interest in corporate, political, academic, health and community settings. This seminar will examine organizational leadership concepts and practices across a variety of these contexts from both a scholarly and professional perspective. The course will include readings on and discussion of the scholarly and professional literature on leadership, individual and group projects, and experiential learning activities such as case studies and simulations.

Current mass communication theories and approaches analyzed from a research perspective. Topics include: critical theory; audience ethnography, uses and gratifications; socialization processes and effects; and agenda setting.

A study of the processes through which scholarly, scientific, and technical ideas are communicated: mentoring; professional, national, and international networks; scholarly and scientific publishing; and other aspects of specialized information transfer.

Examines newly emerging mediated communication technologies (e.g., mobile phones and internet) affect social relationships and organizations; also, how social forces affect adoption and usage patterns of mediated technologies.

Students engage in a theoretical examination of experiential media (e.g., augmented reality, virtual reality). Readings provide a perspective on the development of experiential media, including implications for the transformation of media content forms and platforms in an experiential context. Students consider methodological and critical approaches to studying experiential media.

Upon successful completion of the course, students will:

•    Understand and engage with media theory and empirical research relevant to understanding the emerging domain of experiential media.
•    Analyze the implications of experiential media for journalism, media organizations, and society, by drawing on theory, published research, case studies, and real-world examples.
•    Contribute to knowledge of experiential media through your own original research.
•    Develop research presentation skills.