Communication Studies (BA)

The Communication Studies (BA) equips students with the essential skills to harness the power of communication for developing and maintaining interpersonal relationships, facilitating effective communication in corporations and businesses, and advocating for societal issues. Throughout their degree program, students will participate in hands-on courses focused on real-world challenges, gaining skills that are directly applicable to their personal and professional lives.

Please see the UNLV Greenspun College of Urban Affairs, Department of Communications Studies web page at for information about department programs, faculty and facilities.  Degree worksheets and 4/5 year plan for the major are available on the UNLV Degrees Directory.

Learning Outcomes

All courses offered in the Department will focus on helping students attain the following learning outcomes, knowledge, skills and competencies. After attaining a B.A. in Communication Studies at UNLV, students will be able to:

• Describe the Communication discipline and its central questions.
• Engage in Communication inquiry, research, analysis, and evaluation.
• Utilize ethical Communication skills and principles to define, evaluate, and influence public discourse and real-world problems.
• Apply research-based arguments and advocacy skills to influence public discourse.
• Prepare and deliver messages that are appropriate to the audience, purpose, and context.
• Use communication to embrace difference and diversity and to function effectively in diverse groups.

Career Possibilities

Communication Studies originated with the study of rhetoric in classical education. Based on a traditional liberal arts approach to preparing future citizens and leaders, the educational emphasis is not pre-professional. Instead, students are prepared to follow a wide range of career paths. Careers include, but are not limited to:

Advertising

Positions include advertising or marketing specialist, copy writer, account executive, sales manager, media planner, media buyer, creative director, media sales representative, and public opinion researcher.

Communication Education

Specific employment opportunities include language arts coordinator, forensic/debate coach, high school speech teacher, college or university instructor.

Health Communication

Undergraduate degree recipients nationally are employed as health educators, school health care administrators, medical grants writers, hospital directors of communication, clinic public relations directors, health communication and research analysts, communication managers for federal health care agencies, health personnel educators, medical center publications editors, hospice managers, health care counselors, marketing directors, and health facilities fundraisers.

Marketing

Positions include business and marketing specialist, public relations and advertising manager, sales and marketing manager, media manager, and public opinion researcher.

Organizational Communication

Graduates may work in human resources, training and development, internal communication, meeting management, organizational development, corporate consulting, labor-management negotiation, technical writing, community affairs, or government and public affairs.

Political Communication

Positions include press secretary, speech writer, campaign, consultant, elected official, political reporter, diplomat, lobbyist, lawyer, legislative assistant, or communication director.

Public Relations

Graduates have worked in public relations offices of nonprofit organizations, corporations and businesses, and communication agencies. They have served in media planning and analysis, corporate communication, publicity offices, marketing departments, fundraising, membership departments, sales, community relations, internal communication, and public opinion research.

Risk and Crisis Communication

Positions include corporate trainer, corporate spokesperson, public relations officer, communication consultant, or spokesperson for federal government agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or Food and Drug Administration.

*The careers identified here derive from the experience of the department’s graduates and from the national publication, “Pathways to Communication Careers in the Twenty-First Century,” Washington, DC: National Communication Association, 2011.