If you are a freshman looking to take this as a GE, my advice is DON'T. I stressed out about this class more than my classes for my major. Granted, I did get an A... but it was really stressful, time consuming, boring, and not easy.

Doing the required research participation is not difficult or time consuming - so that was a plus. You have to complete 4 hours of research participation to get 4 units of credit. Even though the stated time for each was either 1 hour or 1/2 hour, they usually took 45 min. max.

The 5-7 page paper due the 9th week is also not difficult, as it requires absolutely no outside research. However, because they don't give you back your paper until next quarter, I don't know how it was graded - but, I didn't get the grade on the paper that I thought I would.

As for lecture, the concepts are not difficult because the subject matter isn't conceptual - everything is simply pure rote memorization. If you want to pass the class and do well on the midterm and final (not cumulative), then you better memorize EVERYTHING he presents in lecture, the extra lectures on the CCLE, and the stuff from the books he assigns. Basically, he has a ton of lists that you have to memorize, explain, and give examples for on the midterm and final.

The midterm is 26 short answer (which have to be thorough, so they're not really that "short") questions, and 3 essay questions. 1 essay is from the Tannen book, and the others are from the lecture (if I remember correctly).
The final is 30 short answer, and 3 essays (1 from "Losing the News"), and the other 2 from lecture.
Again, the only way to do well is to memorize everything. And for short answer, he often tests on random concepts that he maybe mentioned once in class.

Professor Suman is a nice guy, but honestly, the stuff I learned from his lectures was definitely not worth the time, effort, and stress. Most of it is common sense put in lots of lists, and stuff you probably will never need to know in the future, unless you're a comm. major.

Background: I was a freshman taking this course for GE credit.
Upperclassmen’s reactions? “DROP IT ASAP. IT’S A WEEDER CLASS”

I still took it.

Lecture: so this class was divided into two halves. The first half focused on interpersonal communication (aka dyadic communication) with a specialization in gender dynamics. The second half focused on mass media and society.

Grading: one midterm(26 short answers+ 3 essays in approximately 2 hours), one paper (paper topics are given at the beginning of the quarter), and one final (30 short answers +3 essays in 3 hours). The paper wasn’t hard, it basically wanted you to evaluate your surroundings and think critically. However, the gradings on all of these were harsh and subjective.

Advice? GET A GOOD TA. and discuss everything thoroughly, especially the possible essay topics on the tests, and make sure you run your thesis for your paper by your TA or the professor if you want to survive this class. GO TO LECTURE. I cannot stress this enough. Most of the short answers and essay topics on the test come from lecture. REVIEW THE CONCEPTS HE WRITES ON THE BOARD. Pretty much everything he puts on the board = really really important key concepts. DO THE READINGS. Don’t slack off till the last minute (because I sorta did on the second midterm and it was hell catching up.) and DO THE EXPERIMENTS EARLY. you will have to serve as a lab rat for the comm department, and I advise you to get your four hours over with as soon as possible especially since you don’t want to be scrambling to the comm department for testing on finals week.

Overall vibe: I took this class because the subject interested me. Professor Suman is no doubt a distinguished lecturer. He is an amiable, approachable professor who is always willing to offer help. I also took Comm 89, which was a quite interesting seminar (you get divided into groups and go out into the world to do communication field work in topics that interest you.) However, to be honest, this class was a lot of regurgitation and memorization of long long lists. Be prepared for lengthy hours devoted to this subject alone. By some miracle, I managed to get an A in this class, but I’ve heard of many people not keeping afloat. I devoted an enormous amount of time on this subject (but it was worth it, especially since it helped me figure out I’d like to become a comm major in the future). So good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

There's a reason why Comm majors take this class after they get into the major.
It's fucking hard!
Don't take this class as a GE. There's plenty of other easier GE's out there to take.
The discussion section isn't mandatory, but I do recommend attending it to review for the midterm and the final.
Like others have said, Suman expects you to memorize definitions word for word and the exams are blue book.
At least the reading is interesting, but I would say there is a lot of reading. I never finished all of it. I finished the Tanner book, but Taking Sides and Losing the News ... yeah didn't happen.
Difficult course, I got a C.
Like others have said as well, and A is unlikely, and getting a B requires a lot of effort.
Besides the difficulty, Suman is a great lecturer and the course material is incredibly interesting.

I had Professor Suman when I took the class, and he was a great professor. He joked a lot during the lectures, which were never boring. I also appreciated the help my T.A., Matt Luckett, gave me when I needed help on my paper. It was a fun class, and I learned a lot.

The professor expects the students to memorize everything he says in lecture and all the materials in the readings (the readings are discussed only in discussion, so you can't skip out on those, and it's really dependent on your TA if he/she gives you the best information to prepare for the tests). The information itself isn't difficult at all; it's almost deceivingly simple. However, the professor does expect you to remember every little thing for the test. The TAs are tough graders and rarely give full credit even if you cover everything the question asks. There is a curve that the professor shows after the midterm. There is also a paper based on a question that he asks-- it's very broad and you can really talk about anything. It's also difficult to get full points on the paper. Overall, it's a manageable class, but it's a lot of work to keep up with the readings and then memorize all the lectures for the exams. The midterm is 40/130 points, the paper is 30/130, and the final is 60/130.

This is definitely a weeder class for the Comm major. I'm a Comm major so I had to take this class and it was quite a lot of work. The information and class itself is pretty interesting and Suman is a great guy, but I don't recommend taking this class if you're looking for an easy GE.
Getting a B requires some effort and getting an A is very difficult.

Comm Studies 10 seemed like a weeder course for the major. Otherwise it was a freshman killer course. Though it is still easy to get a b.

Pros:
subject material is interesting.
nice curve to the grades.

cons:
He is not very concerned about each individual: He has taught this class for like 10 years, but the subject material hardly changed.
essential you come to class and not miss any lecture because the lecture notes make up a good deal of the exam.

agree with the evaluation below. very easy to get a B in, difficult to get an A in. the material's pretty interesting and simple to understand, but the fact that he doesn't have power points or podcasts makes things much harder, especially because what will get you that A is your attention to detail. one midterm, one essay and a final. midterm and final include i thiiiink around 20 short answer and 3 essays. i got a B, and honestly, I wouldn't suggest this class if you're not willing to work and are not a comm major.

His class is supposed to be a freshman killer class. It is overall easy to get a B, but not easy to get an A. Cramming doesn't do any good for you, but its not like there is any critical thinking done in this class. It is pretty much memorize a lot and regurgitate a lot of it. The topics are very interesting though. Should you take this class? My answer is: sure.

When I had Suman for Comm 10 I absolutely loved him. The material was so interesting and I looked forward to go to class even though it was a long class period. He's the teacher that inspired me to be a communications major. He was my favorite teacher at UCLA until I had him for comm 152- the effects of the mass media. That class was so dreadfully boring. I rarely looked forward to going to class, and I had trouble focusing in class. I feel that if someone else taught that class, it would be so much more enjoyable. The tests for that class were open notes, so you think it would be easy, but the grading was so much harsher. I don't know if I would take another class with Suman. I thought he did an amazing job at teaching comm 10 but he can be a bit dry and goes on with a million examples of the same thing. It gets a tad boring after a while.