Following up on my newsletter from this time last year, I want to take this opportunity to talk about the School’s Communication Analysis and Engagement (CAE) track. Each year, almost 200 students pursue a CAE degree. As we say in our online description, “This specialization prepares students to become critical thinkers and effective problem solvers for careers in both the public and private sectors, such as in business management, government relations, or as communication specialists in a health or political organization. The specialization also provides excellent preparation for graduate school or law school.”
Students choose from a wide range of courses spanning numerous topics. They can study media effects, for example, learning about how violence is portrayed in media and how these portrayals can shape society, or about why people use entertainment media and how it can shape attitudes and beliefs. Dr. Brad Bushman, a leading expert on human aggression, regularly teaches about violence in the media. His students are amazed to learn from someone who is so often mentioned in textbooks and the news. Some students are inspired to join his research projects, earning them acknowledgements in published research, and a few go on to pursue careers in research themselves.
Other students choose to focus on informing and educating the public about important science-based topics, including health and the environment. For example, they study health communication in interpersonal contexts, such as patient-doctor communication, or in mediated contexts, evaluating real-world media campaigns and designing media-driven health interventions. As an undergraduate, Brooke Crockett-Nemeth worked with Dr. Shelly Hovick to learn about health and risk communication, including how to create effective health campaigns. She completed her communication degree in 2020 and will finish her master’s degree in public health this May. She currently serves as a marketing and communications specialist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, where she provides support to health researchers and helps promote activities and services offered by the Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
Another undergraduate student, Olivia Harden, explains what she took from her experience in Risk Communication this way: “Working with others and hearing their opinions and feelings after consuming different risk messages has been very intriguing. This experience has helped me gain… an interest in the risk message field. I have learned much about the amount of research that has gone into risk messages, fear appeals, and different theories and models...”
Some students focus more on communication competencies for leadership, with courses covering topics that include decision making, organizational communication and persuasion, or on communication for advocacy, politics and citizenship, studying media law, political communication or public opinion. For example, several years ago Connie Luck completed an undergraduate thesis under the supervision of Dr. William “Chip” Eveland. She used what she learned at Ohio State to build a successful career working in state government and on the campaign trail before launching a public affairs consulting firm, which has since been acquired by MAD Global Strategy. And students taking Dr. Laura Partain’s International Perspectives in Communication regularly remark on how the class helps them understand current events—insights that they then share with their friends and family.
Please keep in touch. We want to hear where your education has taken you!
Kelly Garrett
Director, School of Communication
