This unit introduces students to the field of Communication Studies by examining a series of topical debates that exemplify key intellectual and methodological themes that animate communications research. By demonstrating how such debates, however contemporary, are rooted in historical arguments about the nature of communication and the purpose of communications scholarship, the unit demonstrates how modern Communication Studies has emerged out of a particular, and contingent, set of practices and concerns. This raises debates about the ways in which the process of communication changes our understandings of ourselves, our society and what it means to be human. These debates, while... -- Course Website