Steve Brauntuch: Not all Comm majors are equal

All right, let's get this out on the table. You may have noticed in my little bio that there is a dark cloud hovering over my studies at the University. I have put up with ridicule from roommates, co-workers, fellow columnists and even friends at other schools, and now it's time to set the record straight: I'm a Comm major. I applied last spring and was accepted to be one of the select few undergraduates who are permitted to take advantage of the carpeted floors and 1980s technology of the Annenberg School for Communication. Yes, that's right. It's the only major at Penn that requires an application -- and when I did it, there was actually an essay involved. Many of you out there look at us and scoff. You say that we're getting a degree in television or that we're tested on the number of Tom Hanks movies we can name off the top of our heads. You claim that while you're reading about Locke and Hemingway, we're reading about Big Bird and Seinfeld. You know what? You're right. There are many who give the Comm major a bad name, whining about their five-page paper on TRL and how they might have to... go to the library! Some seek out the classes that show clips from Animaniacs on the first day; others see "Must attend Justice Talking tapings" on the syllabus and think "Jackpot!" Let's be fair: why bother with the 30-page term paper when you can hand in five two-page papers and call it a semester? And many of the professors do little to help the cause. Assigning projects like magazine ad collages and TV doctor show analyses doesn't help establish credibility. There are some very notable exceptions (the two Comm classes I'm taking right now come to mind), but for the most part, Annenberg faculty are certainly eager to allow undergraduates perform the grunt work for their research. Of course, that is, if you can find them teaching undergraduate classes (it's amazing how many can take a leave of absence at the same time). Keep in mind, though, that this is not just an ordinary Communications degree we're receiving here. This is from the Annenberg School for Communication, the most prestigious communications school and public policy center in the nation. This is often what we're told when the school receives tens of millions of dollars in charitable donations that go straight toward graduate student education. There's nothing like going into a Comm class and watching the professor struggle to get the 1985 VCR to play a video that he used for his 1992 book on hegemony. For $120 million, you would think they could at least replace the tracking knobs. Yet, for all those who mock and head off to History classes, there are an equal number who are secretly jealous. We know you're out there, hiding behind those Urban Studies textbooks. We've seen you put down your copies of The Canterbury Tales to take a quick peek at our Mass Media and Society textbook. Perhaps you're curious to find out why Ronald Reagan was so revered for his oratory skills. Or maybe, deep down, you'd like to know how an advertising campaign gets put together from start to finish. You can come clean -- it's very hard to get into Annenberg classes if you're not a major. When people ask me why I became a Comm major (this happens daily in my dorm room, by the way), I give the stock response. It's not quite an English major, and it's not quite a Political Science major. It allows me to learn about all the things I'm interested in and gives me the flexibility to take all the classes I want outside the major. First, I can get into all of the classes that you and I both want to take. Then, I can skip over all of your introductory requirements, take the upper level classes in your major and get credit for them in my major. Crafty, no? The curriculums overlap. The material is a little sophomoric at times. The level of discussion can be infuriating. But some of us aren't taking these classes to pad our GPAs and go into public relations. Some of us actually want to learn why presidents use epideictic speech and why there is no objectivity in journalism. We're the ones researching presidential discourse and analyzing news media coverage of the potential war in Iraq. We may not be the majority, but we're actually getting something out of a school that is reluctant to give us anything back. So go back to reading about computer science or extinct civilizations and leave me alone. I know it's hard to believe, but I've got work to do, and this time, it's not even a collage. Steve Brauntuch is a junior Communications major from Tenafly, N.J. and editorial page editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian.

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