The communication major provides a solid educational background for almost any career in which human interactions are involved.
What Can I Do With a Communication Degree?
Professionals with academic credentials in the study of communication are among the most readily hired of all liberal arts graduates, because employers in today's global economy and multicultural marketplace are keenly aware of the importance of communication skills.
Alumni of our program have found careers in a broad range of fields, including broadcast and print journalism, social media and social network services, administration, sales, management, politics and government, education, social work, and public relations. A number of graduates also have found the communication major to be excellent preparation for law school or other graduate programs.
The UC Davis communication curriculum places strong emphasis on the application of theory and research to the practical real-world problems and everyday life dilemmas that confront people in their interactions. Members of the UC Davis Communication Department faculty rely upon the quantitative methods of the social and behavioral sciences to study individuals, social groups and societies from the perspective of the messages they exchange.
Course topics include digital technology, social media, meaning, relationships, nonverbal behavior, persuasion, mass media effects and research methods. Other courses examine communication phenomena in interpersonal relationships, work teams, organizations, healthcare, politics, online communities, the mass media and other contexts.
The Department of Communication offers traditional classroom courses about the ongoing communication revolution, and additionally presents several courses as hybrid or fully online courses — for example:
CMN 10Y: Introduction to Communication (lower division)
CMN 170V: The Digital Revolution and Social Change (upper division)
The UC Davis Academic Technology Services unit explains the distinctions between hybrid and online teaching.
Note: "CMN" is the UC Davis General Catalog three-letter code for Department of Communication classes.
A collection of alumni career spotlights can be found here.
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