Here is my advice, as someone who struggled with this class. This class is HARD, the reviews from the past are based on the exams that were take home and open note. Due to chat-GPT, that is no longer an option. The biggest issue is that students think this class will be easy, but it is not. Professor Jones is a good professor, however I think his cool demeanor causes students underestimate the difficulty, which is not his fault but something to be aware of. You WILL have to memorize, take extensive notes, READ the assigned readings and annotate them for review. I did well in the class because I tanked the midterm the first time I took this class, but this second time I started studying from the jump. The first exam was difficult and time was limited, most did not finish on time. Professor Jones does offer office hours, I recommend attending them as much as possible and asking as many questions as you have since the material is rather difficult. He is a good professor, the material is just tricky and the exams are very hard. The difficulty may also be attributed to the fact that this is not a traditional humanities/communication type class, it is extremely technical at points borrowing from economics, anthropology, traditional scientific methods, machine behavior (AI), computing theories, and more. If you study from the beginning and do not procrastinate you will do well. I made flashcards and transcribed every single lecture, as well as re-read the readings before the exam (and drove the professor crazy with questions to ensure comprehension, and he answered them all). If there are concepts you do not understand, ask for examples and clarification, the professor wants everyone to understand the material. The scope of study is very interesting (once you understand it) and the lectures are funny/engaging. Good luck, hope this helps!

First off, he goes by Professor GABE! By far my favorite class thus far but it was also the most difficult. I would definitely recommend for comm majors to take this with Professor Gabe; Professor is engaging, helpful and has a lot of extra office hours to help students understand the material. Gabe is also very welcoming and easy to talk to; he doesn’t make students feel discouraged or anything at all, he wants us all to succeed!!! YES THIS CLASS IS DIFFICULT AND IF YOU DONT TAKE NOTES YOU WILL HAVE A HARD TIME WITH THE EXAMS. I FAILED HIS FIRST EXAM, got an A on the redemption and a B on the final and ended with a B which I’m okay with because this class was very draining but nonetheless I loved it and would take it again with GABE. Communication Science is a tough class but if you try to engage, a lot of the stuff is very informative and interesting especially when he gets to the topic of AI and machine learning, those sections were my favorite! This class honestly opened up an area of interest I didn’t know I had, so if you’re a low key science geek like myself and are a comm major, I definitely recommend taking this class with Professor Gabe. I’m already registered for his summer class cause he’s the best .

Professor Jones is an amazing instructor. He explains complicated topics very thoroughly and does his absolute best to make the content as easy to grasp as possible. He holds frequent office hours, and I encourage you to go to them if you are struggling! They are basically like a socratic seminar with lots of students.

GABE JONES IS BY FAR THE WORST PROFESSOR I’VE HAD AT UCLA. He is worse than SUMAN and that is saying a lot!

I took this class because it is a requirement for my comm major, and was excited because Professor Gabe had good bruinwalk reviews. However, upon the first day of class, all Gabe did was talk politics. When he was supposed to be teaching us about communication science theories we would be tested on, Gabe bashed former President Trump and expressed his extreme hate for any right-leaning individuals. This was entirely unnecessary for a class not about politics at all.

He tried too hard to be relatable with our audience to the point it got extremely confusing for all of us. Seriously, there were a couple of lectures when all he did was show us videos of whales hunting or his dogs barking.

BREAKDOWN:
10% discussion posts (easy, although you have to make 3 posts a week)
45% midterm (IMPOSSIBLE. closed note, in class, timed exam. class average was a C-)
45% final (ALSO SUPER HARD. closed note, in class, timed exam)

All week before the midterm, Gabe told us the questions on the midterm would be highly applicable to real life. Instead, he asked us about a FREAKING ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE and asked us questions about an Ancient Greek King. Everyone was completely thrown off. 16% of the class got an F on the midterm, and the class average was a C-. I scored an A on the Comm 10 midterm, but scored a B on Gabe’s Comm 100 midterm. This class tanked my GPA at UCLA.

I understand this class is a requirement for Comm majors, but if you have the opportunity, avoid Gabe Jones at ALL COSTS!

Engaging Professor. Incredibly Difficult Tests.

I have mixed opinions about this class and Professor Jones, but overall, if you're a COMM major and you have to take 100, take this class with this Professor. The material is engaging and the lectures are interesting, but the structure of this class is BRUTAL. In previous years, Jones allowed students to submit papers once a week about the readings. However, this quarter, the grading was 45% midterm, 45% final, 10% participation based on discussion posts. I think he expected the same length and quality that he would get in previous years' weekly papers, who had access to the readings, as he did on our 75 minute bluebook exam. Let's just say that did not happen, 20% of the class got actual F's on the midterm before the curve. With the curve, I landed a C. Luckily, Jones offered a "midterm redemption" exam, which was to be turned in AFTER the final. While I was grateful for this, it meant 90% of my grade relied on the last week of school, which was inordinately stressful. Further, he changed the format of the final to a take-home, open note test. I earned an A on this exam, but my answers together totaled 15 pages single spaced, which is indicative of the quality and depth he expects you to go into. I probably spent close to 15 hours on the final and 10 hours on the midterm redemption. That being said, I gleaned the most knowledge out of a class than I ever have before. This is the first time in my UCLA career that I feel like the material is applicable to other classes as well as real-life circumstances. If you have the time and the grit, Jones is a great professor. If you're taking 3 other classes, wait until you have the time to take this class.

PROS
- Relevant and interesting content
- SUPER engaging lectures
- Tons of opportunity for office hours
- Very knowledgable professor

CONS
- Grading structure is very difficult
- A lot is expected of you
- MUST go to class and do ALL of the readings
- MUST study very hard/ Go to OH