Graduate Advising > Communication Studies MA
Communication Studies, M.A. - Advising
Staff Advisor
Faculty Advisor
Meeting with a faculty advisor is one of the most important elements of graduate college. Your advisor can help you in selecting the proper courses, developing your plan of study, and, more generally, in understanding the complexities of graduate-level education. For MACS students the program director is your initial faculty advisor and will serve as your advisor throughout the entire program. However during the course of your studies you may identify another faculty member who is a good match for your particular interests and emphasis. In this instance we encourage you to approach that faculty member to serve as your advisor, making sure you formally record this change on your plan of study (POS). You are required to meet with your faculty advisor to discuss your POS, most notably in preparation for submitting your first formal POS (refer to the Handbook for details).
Having the director serve as your initial or permanent advisor ensures you have access to advising from the moment you join the program through to your graduation. We also understand that identifying an advisor can take time and making contact with him or her can be anxiety-producing. As a MACS students, you have the choice of completing your program with the director as your advisor or taking some time to identify an alternative advisor.
A summary of this is provided below:
- The MACS director serves as advisor.
- If you identify another faculty member who you would like to serve as your advisor, make arrangements to meet with them to discuss your interests and their availability for mentoring duties. Changes in advisor must be officially recorded via an up-date of your plan of study (POS).
- You should meet with your faculty advisor to discuss your POS in detail.
Important Policies and Procedures
Core Readings
The MACS program has a set of core readings that cover a range of perspectives faculty consider pertinent to the study, theory, and practice of communication, advocacy and/or social technologies. Students are recommended to read these early in the program. These also comprise the required readings for the exam, which requires the student to integrate materials from at least three of these readings into their exam answers.
Dahlgren, P. (2012). Social media and counter-democracy: The contingences of participation. In E. Tambouris, A. Macintosh, and Øystein Sæbø (Eds.). Electronic Participation (pp. 1-12). New York: Springer.
Hartnett, S. J. (2010). Communication, social justice, and joyful commitment. Western Journal of Communication, 74(1), 68–93.
Olson, K. M. (2008). The practical importance of inherency analysis for public advocates: Rhetorical leadership in framing a supportive social climate for education reforms. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 36 (2), 219-241.
Scholz, S. J. (1998). Peacemaking in domestic violence: From an ethics of care to an ethics of advocacy. Journal of Social Philosophy, 29 (2), 46-48.
Tufecki, Z. (2013). “Not this one”: Social movements, the attention economy, and microcelebrity networked activism. American Behavioral Scientist, 57(7): 848-870.
van Dijk, T. A. (1999). Editorial: Discourse and racism. Discourse & Society, 10(2), 147–148.
Winner, L. (1986). Do artifacts have politics? In The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology (19-39). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Zompetti, J. P. (2006). The role of advocacy in civil society. Argumentation, 20, 167–183.
Plan of Study
Core Courses (9 Credit Hours)
CMN 502 Theory and Practice in Communication and Persuasion OR CMN 522: Argumentation and Advocacy
CMN 505 Methods in Applied Communication Research
CMN 506 Humanistic Inquiry and Field Research in Communication
Electives (21 Credit Hours)
Culminating Experience
Written Comprehensive Exam (Required)
Thesis or Applied Project (Optional)
Registration
Individualized Instruction
Internships
Applied Project or Thesis Registration
To be eligible to enroll in CMN 593 Applied Project or CMN 599 Thesis, the student must:
- Download and complete (with the required signature of the faculty chair) the MACS Application to Register form
Download an Applied Project Application to Register
Download a Thesis Application to Register
- Email NCGradadvising@asu.edu AND copy (i.e. cc) the MACS program director
- Upon completion of above steps, receive a course permission override from the graduate staff advisor to enroll in the course.
Ed & Judy Lynn Scholarship
For more information please download the flyer and the application.
Student Travel
Career Paths
Novel coronavirus information
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