Rhetoric and Media Studies
Chair: Kundai Chirindo
Administrative Coordinator: Sara Asberry
From its humanistic roots in ancient Greece to current investigations of the impact of digital technology, rhetoric and media studies is both one of the oldest and one of the newest disciplines. Our department addresses contemporary concerns about how we use messages (both verbal and visual) to construct meaning and coordinate action in various domains, including the processes of persuasion in politics and civic life, the effects of media on beliefs and behavior, the power of film and image to frame reality, and the development of identities and relationships in everyday life. While these processes touch us daily and are part of every human interaction, no other discipline takes messages and their consequences as its unique focus.
The Department of Rhetoric and Media Studies offers a challenging and integrated study of theory and practice. Our discipline is rooted in the classical liberal-arts tradition of rhetorical theory and has evolved to include social science theories of the causes and effects of messages as well as critical theories of the relationship between media, culture, and society. Our curriculum focuses on the content, transmission, and consequences of oral, print, visual, interpersonal, and electronic messages. Understanding how messages construct meaning, identity, relationships, and communities is central to the life of a liberally educated person and to the development of critical and creative thinking, speaking, listening, and writing.
Resources for Nonmajors
Nonmajors can obtain an overview of theories and research in the field through RHMS 100 Introduction to Rhetoric and Media Studies. Courses in interpersonal media, argumentation, public discourse, and professional discourse are open to all students and provide opportunities to apply theory to everyday life. Our flexible minor requirements enable students to create a concentration of courses to complement any major. Nearly all of our advanced courses are open to nonmajors as long as they have completed the prerequisites. (Internship credit requires department approval.)
Activities
Lambda Pi Eta. Qualifying students are inducted each fall into this honor society. The chapter recognizes scholastic achievement, promotes interest in the major, supports professional development, and builds community in the department.
Public advocacy. Competitive forensics and noncompetitive public forum activities. Students may compete in parliamentary debate, extemporaneous speaking, oratory, expository, after-dinner speaking, and oral interpretation in intercollegiate tournaments. Participation in forensics includes research and weekly practices. Students may qualify for Pi Kappa Delta, a national speech and debate honorary. The forensics squad has earned national recognition. Credit is available for qualified students through the practicum program.
KLC Radio. One of the largest campus activities, with a station staff of 40 to 60 students each semester. Staff members participate in all aspects of broadcasting, station management, and operations, including programming, production, news, and promotions. The station broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at college.lclark.edu/student_life/klc_radio. KLC is a cocurricular activity; credit is available to qualified students through the practicum program.
Facilities
Radio. Located in the Fowler Student Center, KLC Radio includes two fully equipped stereo studios, a newsroom, and offices. The station webcasts on and off-campus.
Video. Lewis & Clark’s video production facility includes digital editing capabilities, computer graphics, portable cameras and recording equipment, and a multiple-camera production studio. Additional video recording systems are available on campus.
The Major Program
The major in rhetoric and media studies combines core requirements with the flexibility of electives. Required courses involve an introductory overview to the field, a course on the design of media or interpersonal messages, core courses on the theories and methods of rhetoric and media studies, and satisfactory completion of a capstone course. Elective courses enable students to explore theory and practice in a wide range of topic areas, including race, gender, health, film, campaigns, and popular culture. These courses prepare students for graduate study or for entrance to a rhetoric or media studies-related career.
Students should declare the major in the sophomore year to provide maximum flexibility in planning for core requirements and electives. Students are also encouraged to consult with their department advisors about coursework from other departments that might be integrated into their study of rhetoric and media studies.
Major Requirements
A minimum of 40 semester credits, distributed as follows:
- RHMS 100 Introduction to Rhetoric and Media Studies
- RHMS 200 Media Design and Criticism
- RHMS 203 Rhetorical Theory
- One of the following:
Argument and Debate Argument and Empirical Research Argument and Social Justice - One of the following:
Rhetorical Criticism Discourse Analysis -
RHMS 302 Media Theory
- One of the following 400-level capstone courses:
Race, Rhetoric, and Resistance Science, Technology, and Society American Cinema Studies: Advanced Analysis and Criticism Feminist Discourse Analysis Violence, Resistance, and the Global Terror Society Television and American Culture
Twelve additional rhetoric and media studies credits to complete the 40-credit requirement. Eight of these semester credits must be at the 300 or 400 level. Students may apply up to four semester credits to the major from RHMS 244, RHMS 245, RHMS 299, or RHMS 499.
Minor Requirements
A minimum of 24 semester credits, distributed as follows:
- RHMS 100 Introduction to Rhetoric and Media Studies
- One of the following combinations selected in consultation with the minor advisor to complement rhetoric and media studies coursework and the student’s major:
| Media Design and Criticism | ||
and an additional media studies course at the 300 or 400 level | ||
or
| Rhetorical Theory | ||
and an additional rhetoric course at the 300 or 400 level | ||
- One of the following 300-level courses:
Rhetorical Criticism Media Theory Discourse Analysis - 8 semester credits of rhetoric and media studies electives, 4 credits of which must be at the 300 or 400 level.
Practicum and independent study coursework do not count toward the minor.
Practicum and Internship Program
A variety of practica and internships are available to qualified students. Practica and internships provide an opportunity to explore the relationship between theoretical concepts and skills learned in the classroom and the work done in various organizations on and off-campus. Credit is offered on a credit/no credit basis through RHMS 244 Practicum/Internship. Students desiring credit should be able to (1) demonstrate the connection between their RHMS coursework and their proposed internship/practicum, (2) secure agreement to supervise from a RHMS faculty member with relevant expertise, and (3) work with their faculty supervisor to develop an individualized learning agreement, including additional readings and written assignments.
Honors
Rhetoric and media studies majors with a grade point average of 3.500 or higher overall and in the major are eligible to complete an honors project over the course of their senior year. Students work with a RHMS faculty mentor to propose a piece of original scholarship that goes through significant revision to achieve a standard of excellence and is presented to a scholarly audience outside of the RHMS department.
Faculty
Kundai V. Chirindo. Associate professor of rhetoric and media studies, chair of the Department of Rhetoric and Media Studies, director of general education. Rhetoric, culture, and hermeneutics; Africa in the public imaginary; rhetoric and postcolonial theory. PhD 2012 University of Kansas. MA 2008, BA 2004 Bethel University.
Joseph Gantt. Assistant professor with term of rhetoric and media studies, director of Speech and Debate. Political rhetoric, argumentation theory, forensics, public speaking and address, rhetorical theory and criticism. MA 2005, BA 2003 Texas Tech University.
Daena J. Goldsmith. Associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, professor of rhetoric and media studies. Social media, health communication, gender. PhD 1990, MA 1988 University of Washington. BS 1986 Lewis & Clark College.
Melanie E.S. Kohnen. Assistant professor of rhetoric and media studies. Digital media, global television. PhD 2010, MA 2002 Brown University. MA, BA 2001 Heinrich-Heine-Universität.
G. Mitchell Reyes. Professor of rhetoric and media studies. Rhetoric, public memory, public discourse, rhetoric of science. PhD 2004, MA 2000 Pennsylvania State University. BS 1997 Willamette University.
Bryan R. Sebok. Associate professor of rhetoric and media studies. Communication technology and society, film and video aesthetic theory and methods, media organizations. PhD 2007 University of Texas at Austin. MA 2002 Emory University. BA 1999 North Carolina State University.
Courses
RHMS 100 Introduction to Rhetoric and Media Studies
Content: Introduction to the conceptual and philosophical foundations of the discipline, from classical rhetorical theory through contemporary perspectives, including critical theories of human interaction. How humans construct and negotiate meaning in different contexts, including interpersonal relationships, public address, small groups and organizations, mass media. Moral, ethical, and policy issues.
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 200 Media Design and Criticism
Content: Theory, aesthetics, and practice in the production of messages for film and television. Organizing principles and aesthetic theories concerning connections between form and content, text and audience. Topics include narrative style and structure, visual composition, continuity and montage, and basic production practices in image creation, audio, and editing.
Prerequisites: RHMS 100.
Corequisites: Attend required film screening sessions.
Usually offered: Annually, fall semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 203 Rhetorical Theory
Content: History and theory of rhetoric, including major developments in rhetorical theory from antiquity up to the present. Rhetoric's relationship with philosophy, knowledge, and culture. Examination of persuasive messages in various forms, including politics, advertising, film, video.
Prerequisites: RHMS 100.
Usually offered: Annually, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 210 Public Discourse
Content: Development of basic public speaking skills, listener-critic abilities, and appreciation for the role of public discourse in society. Library research, organization and outlining, language style, presentation skills, rhetorical/communication criticism.
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Annually, fall semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 211 Professional Discourse
Content: Theory and practice of rhetoric within organizational settings. Development of rhetorical skills for professional settings, including public speaking, networking, interviewing, small group interaction, crisis management techniques, negotiation.
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, fall semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 221 Argument and Debate
Content: Introduction to argumentation in public arenas. History, background, and strategies for parliamentary debate. Critical thinking, library research, logic and reasoning, listening and note taking, argument creation and refutation. Practice of debate skills.
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Annually, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 235 Rhetoric, Colonialism & the Western Imaginary
Content: Introduction to how rhetorical formations circulated in the United States and Europe (often known as "the West") generate the imagined geographies of, and ideas about, those living in the area often referred to as the Middle East, as well as North Africa. Looking to symbols, rituals, habits, language, spaces/places, bodies, and temporal articulations of life in other parts of the world, we will ask how global understandings of the Middle East and North Africa have been shaped by this Western imaginary. And, what are the consequences? Exploration of how these rhetorical practices impact cultural meaning, understandings of race and gender, global and domestic policy, media articulations, protest and revolution, and social change across borders.
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, fall semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 241 Data and Democracy
Content: Exploration of the entanglements of democracy and data, including how emerging uses of "big data" - for mass surveillance, gerrymandering, algorithmic decision making, and to disseminate (mis- or dis-)information - pose fundamental challenges to democratic values like freedom, equality, and accountability. The course will explore these emergent challenges as well as their potential solutions.
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Alternate Years.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 244 Practicum/Internship
Content: Field learning experience combining theoretical concepts and skills learned in the classroom with practical work in on- and off-campus organizations. Additional readings and written assignments required. Credit-no credit. May be repeated for credit. Maximum of 4 semester credits, total, in practicum and/or independent study may be counted toward the major.
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing and consent required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 1-4.
RHMS 245 Speech & Debate
Content: Lewis Clark's speech and debate team offers interested students the opportunity to put into practice their skills in argumentation, research, presentation, interpretation of text, and criticism of text through participation in competitive individual events, Lincoln-Douglas debate, and British Parliamentary debate.
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 1-2.
RHMS 260 Argument and Empirical Research
Content: Methods of communication research grounded in data collection for the purposes of prediction and explanation (quantitative methods) or description and interpretation (qualitative methods). Course spans philosophy of inquiry; relationship of theory to data in developing questions and hypotheses; logic of sampling, measurement, and statistical inference; uses of interviews, fieldwork, and textual analysis; criteria for evaluating quantitative and qualitative work; research ethics.
Prerequisites: RHMS 100.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 270 Interpersonal Media
Content: Introduction to theories of interpersonal communication processes (e.g., social support, uncertainty management, privacy management, conflict, deception). Influence of new media on these processes, impact of communication media on identities, relationships, and communities.
Prerequisites: None.
Usually offered: Annually, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 275 Interpersonal Rhetoric
Content: Introduction to theories of communication competence; how we use messages strategically to accomplish tasks, enact identities, and construct relationships in personal life. How we use content, style, and organization of messages to adapt to particular conversation partners and communication situations. Cross-cultural variation in interpersonal interaction.
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Every fourth year, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 299 Independent Study
Content: Independent reading and/or research in an area other than the normal course offerings of the department. Maximum of 4 semester credits, total, in independent study and/or practicum may be counted toward the major. Credit-no credit. May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing and consent required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 1-4.
RHMS 301 Rhetorical Criticism
Content: Major critical methods for analyzing and understanding communicative action. Major historical developments in rhetorical criticism during the 20th century. Role of criticism in understanding persuasive messages in various forms, including political discourse, advertising, music, film, television.
Prerequisites: RHMS 203.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 302 Media Theory
Content: Survey of the major theoretical approaches to film, media, and popular culture from the past 150 years. Theories include critical (Marxist, feminist, critical race), formal (montage, realism, aesthetics), new media, and media effects. The course seeks a broad understanding of what media are and how they work in a democracy. Seniors will be given registration preference during the first round of registration.
Prerequisites: RHMS 200.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 303 Discourse Analysis
Content: Theories and methods of discourse analysis, including critical theories of power and ideology as well as pragmatic theories of function, structure, and meaning. Meaning and function in conversational and cultural context; sequence and structure of interaction; interactive negotiation of social relationships and identity; discursive systems of power, ideology, and control.
Prerequisites: RHMS 100, 203.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 313 Politics of Public Memory
Content: Investigation of public memory as the public negotiation of the past for political purposes in the present. How different cultures have remembered and rhetorically constructed traumatic historical events such as the Holocaust and institutionalized slavery. Role of communication and persuasion in public acts of remembrance.
Prerequisites: RHMS 100.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, fall semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 315 Comparative Rhetoric
Content: Comparative approaches to rhetorical theory and criticism. History, theory, and contributions of non-Euro-American rhetorics. Exploration of rhetoric's role in culture, knowledge, philology, and colonialism. Study of current scholarship on non-Euro-American rhetorics, including methodology.
Prerequisites: RHMS 203.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 320 Health Narratives
Content: Theories of narrative as they apply to communication about health and illness; role of narratives in creating health- or illness-related identity, securing social support, creating communities. Competing narratives in interactions with health care providers. Impact of narratives in public and private medical decision making.
Prerequisites: RHMS 100.
Restrictions: Junior standing required.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 321 Argument and Social Justice
Content: Investigation of argumentation and social justice. Exploration and application of scholarship through the community-based Thank You for Arguing, a mentoring program run with local inner-city public schools. Theoretical and methodological frameworks for understanding the role of argumentation in fostering social justice explored through readings, class discussion, and writing assignments.
Prerequisites: RHMS 100 or RHMS 221.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 325 The Documentary Form
Content: Critical analysis of the documentary with emphasis on institutional practices that shape and sustain the genre, argument in documentaries, expectations of audiences. Organization of materials for documentaries, editing and montage, principles of visual composition as they relate to moving images, functions of sound, ethical considerations. Planning and production of short documentaries.
Prerequisites: RHMS 200.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 332 Rhetoric of Gender in Relationships
Content: How gendered identities and relationships are rhetorically constructed through everyday interaction. Role of rhetoric in social scientific study of gender and interaction. Survey of theories and empirical research on gender similarities and differences in communication with attention both to the explanations given as well as the rhetorical strategies scholars use to persuade.
Prerequisites: RHMS 100 or GEND 200.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, fall semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 340 Media Across Cultures
Content: Theoretical perspectives on the political and social role of mass communication in developed and developing nations. Mass communication organizations, content, regulatory models, audiences in diverse cultures. Implications of public versus private ownership of mass media. Evaluation of claims of U.S. cultural imperialism.
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 352 Gender in Public Rhetoric and Media
Content: Rhetoric of gender equity movements and feminist theories of rhetoric. Rhetorical strategies used to redefine gender and gendered relations. How gender is represented in news and entertainment media. Activist strategies to change access to and representation in media.
Prerequisites: RHMS 100 or GEND 200.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 360 Digital Media and Society
Content: Cultural, industrial, political, and economic implications of digital technology and innovation on cultural expression, media storytelling, democracy, globalization, and news gathering and dissemination. New media theory and investigation of meaning, knowledge, and power related to digital technologies. Investigation of the nature of production of consumption and active audiences.
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Junior standing required.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 363 Campaign Rhetoric
Content: Rhetoric of political campaigns, historical and modern, with emphasis on campaigns in progress or recently completed. Analysis of speeches, debates, interviews and advertisements. Critical analysis of media effects of campaigns.
Prerequisites: RHMS 100.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, fall semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 375 Queer Film and Television
Content: Exploration of how LGBTQ identities and communities have become visible in American film/TV. Addressing both history and the present, topics include classical Hollywood cinema, AIDS, activism, race/intersectionality, contemporary TV, family, and fandom. Projects include papers and video essays. This course counts toward the gender studies minor (instructor permission required).
Prerequisites: RHMS 200, RHMS 302, or GEND 200.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 390 Special Topics in RHMS
Content: Reading and critical analysis organized around themes or problems in RHMS. Focus varies depending on areas of instructor teaching, research, and/or creative work. Assignments are organized around a substantial final project. May be taken twice with change of topic.
Prerequisites: RHMS 100.
Restrictions: Sophomore standing required.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 406 Race, Rhetoric, and Resistance
Content: Role of rhetoric in social conflicts regarding issues of race. Theories and strategies of resistance and the implications for political action. Examination of major race and resistance texts.
Prerequisites: RHMS 100. RHMS 301 recommended.
Restrictions: Senior standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 408 Science, Technology, and Society
Content: Exploration of the role of argument and persuasion in the dissemination of science and technology; major controversies related to science and technology from premodern times to the present. Students will gain a firm understanding of various rhetorical strategies within scientific and technological discourses and how those strategies impact public policy. They will be asked to consider how argument, persuasion, and symbolic action influence how science and technology evolve and influence society.
Prerequisites: RHMS 100. RHMS 301 recommended.
Restrictions: Senior standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 425 American Cinema Studies: Advanced Analysis and Criticism
Content: Application of major theories from media, film, and cultural studies (e.g., psychoanalysis, genre study, formalism, auteur study, national cinemas) to a given set of media texts. Close analysis of media texts in context, taking into consideration technological, aesthetic, and industrial shifts.
Prerequisites: RHMS 100, RHMS 200.
Corequisites: Attend required film screening sessions.
Restrictions: Senior standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 431 Feminist Discourse Analysis
Content: Examination of how theories and tools of critical discourse analysis can be used to pursue feminist research questions; how gendered power is socially constructed in talk in everyday interaction (e.g., among friends and family and in institutional settings such as work, school, clinic) and media texts (e.g., news interviews or coverage, entertainment media, blogs and other social media); an interdisciplinary seminar that prepares students to produce an original scholarly research project.
Prerequisites: RHMS 100. RHMS 332 or 352 or GEND coursework strongly recommended.
Restrictions: Senior standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 468 Violence, Resistance, and the Global Terror Society
Content: Examines the role of rhetoric in the social conjuncture understood as the terror wars. Its purpose is to explore how rhetoric, including its varied theoretical approaches and practices, has played a role in the transnational violence of the post-9/11 landscape and in the global and domestic resistance movements born from this conjuncture. The course focuses will include national security discourse, war, surveillance, racialization and violence, media access and narratives, technological development of violence, social media organization and revolution, colonialism and postcolonialism, and contestations around land and resources (particularly across the Middle East and North Africa), all with an attention to critical/cultural as well as discursive and technological tensions. It will also include exploration of the global effects of the Trump presidency and its ensuing insurrection.
Prerequisites: RHMS 100. RHMS 301 strongly recommended.
Restrictions: Senior standing required.
Usually offered: Alternate Years, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 475 Television and American Culture
Content: An exploration of American TV as both a cultural product and industry. A decade-by-decade overview of television's development from radio origins to digital convergence leads to a discussion of aesthetic and industrial aspects of TV style, narrative, genre, and representation of diversity. Includes a separate weekly screening.
Prerequisites: RHMS 200.
Restrictions: Senior standing required.
Usually offered: Annually, spring semester.
Semester credits: 4.
RHMS 499 Independent Study
Content: Advanced-level independent reading and/or research in an area other than the normal course offerings of the department. Maximum of 4 credits total in independent study and/or practicum may be counted toward the major. May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites: None.
Restrictions: Junior standing and consent required.
Usually offered: Annually, fall and spring semester.
Semester credits: 1-4.