Human Communication explores the various ways human beings interact and exchange ideas, feelings, and beliefs to build relationships and gain cooperation with others. Students analyze the process of creating, sending and interpreting verbal and nonverbal messages that run the gamut from one-to-one relationships, to group and organizational relationships, to relationships between the individual and the media.

Students may explore the humanistic, behavioral, and interactional dimensions of human communication, and then go on to study specific influences on communication such as gender, culture, conflict, ethics, cognition and the process of aging. Or, students may focus on public communication, which includes the study of public speaking, the critical analysis of public messages, and the understanding of principles of persuasion and argumentation.

So that students may learn the practical outcomes of their understanding of human communication, we encourage internships, independent studies and other "capstone" experiences.

For more information contact:
Professor Christine Hirsch, Area Coordinator
12 Lanigan Hall
Telephone: 315.312.3528
Email: chirsch@oswego.edu