Don't take this class. It seems like a good idea at first because it's no work and just a midterm, paper, and final. They grade everything hard and nothing is really explained. I could've avoided a C and taken a different class.

first things first, shoutout TA joy heller. her discussions were discussions, no slides unlike other sections, which sucked. but she didn’t grade as harshly as the others
secondly, the class was probably the hardest class i’ve ever taken. read the readings (like, dissect them) and literally write down EVERYTHING he says. and start your 20 open notes EARLY. i made the awful mistake of writing mine the night before and i stayed up until 4 and didn’t even finish them for the midterm. i worked really hard up until the essay worth 40% of your grade and then i just kinda slacked off. but i still managed with an A- because i still read mostly everything and my notes were p good. don’t read that damn jones book LMFAO he literally tells u what to focus on in the final/midterm guide soo just do that
for the essays on the test connect ur answer to the scenario he gives!

IF YOU DO NOT NEED THIS CLASS DO NOT TAKE IT. This completely wrecked my GPA. I usually am a straight A (couple Bs) students and I tried so hard in this class but received such a bad grade. Unfortunately, this class is so subjective as the essay is graded by the TAs and even if your essay is well-written, it does not matter. You still receive a horrible grade, unless you go to OH I heard. But I do not have the time of day to kiss up. All in all, if you majoring in COMM, you have to take this class - make sure you take some easy GEs to balance out your GPA. Seriously, do yourself a favor and just complete all of the readings asap.

The workload of this class and the amount of reading you have to do is insane. This is by far the hardest class I've ever taken at UCLA. Do NOT take this class if you're not trying to be a Comm major, there's literally no point. Professor Suman is super strict about his rules including no electronics in class, you have to handwrite all your notes. Since the first 4 weeks were online for Winter 22, the first time we ever met in person was to take the midterm which was super stressful. The midterm and final are hard because you have to be super specific and you never really know what they're looking for. I really wanted to be a Comm major but now I'm not sure if I'll even get in because of my grade in this class.

The only reason people don't like this class is because 1. they're taking it as a GE or 2. they don't want to put in the work to study the material. The tests are very easy if you thoroughly study and do all the readings. The people saying that they're impossible are the ones who did not put this effort in. There is no reason you should take this class unless you're a communications major, I would not recommend it as an easy GE. I find the class material extremely interesting and it confirmed that I want to be a communications major. Suman does talk very slowly but is still very engaging and organizes his lectures very well. He provides a lecture guide, which lays out a nice format for your notes. If you take this class in person, be aware that you cannot use a laptop for notes during lecture, he only allows you to handwrite notes in class and does not want technology in his classroom. Essentially, this class is awesome if you're interested in communications, but definitely a lot of work!

I took this class asynchronous and I didn't learn much from his way of teaching. Professor Suman uploaded podcasts and a lecture guide to teach the material which is difficult for visual learners such as myself. Additionally, the grading for this class is ridiculous. Your entire grade is based on a midterm, essay, and a final. The midterm and final included multiple short answer responses and essays in a short amount of time that practically nobody was able to finish the entire exam. I do not recommend this class for anyone looking to fulfill a GE requirement.

After reading the reviews, I was scared of this class. But, this was one of the most organized courses I have had. He made his own material to go along with the lectures which had more detail, and the lectures were grouped by subject and very organized. There were also readings of articles or chapters to go along with each subject. Studying for the midterm and final were easy as he highlighted the parts of his notes that we needed to know. And, his lectures emphasized the areas. For the midterm, there was a study guide and the short answer section came straight from the study guide - very straight forward, no trick questions. And, we had a good idea of what the two essays were on. For the final, there were also short answer questions and 3 essays. We had a good idea of what at least 2 of the essays were going to be on. Then, there was the paper. He curves the paper grades and midterm grades, so if you listen to the lectures, read the readings, you can do really well.

I never interacted with Suman himself since he just released podcast-style lectures, but the TA Justin Breck was an absolute nightmare. He lives off marking you down for the tiniest things. Took it because I thought it would be interesting, but in the end it killed my GPA.

DO NOT take this class unless you plan on majoring in communications. If you're looking for a social analysis GE or one of the nursing GE options look elsewhere because this class is way too hard. I was lucky enough to take it while it was still online which made the notes aspect easier, but if you take it in-person your notes will be hand-written and you will struggle tremendously. There is an insane volume of lectures, lecture-style readings, and multiple book readings to consume prior to the midterm and the final. The only grades are the midterm (which is extremely hard and has a very very short time limit), the paper (which is graded very subjectively and with no explanation), and the final (just as hard as the midterm but with more writing). Discussion section is optional but you need to go to give yourself a fighting chance at doing well. Professor Suman and his army of TAs do their best to gaslight you and act as if the class is intuitive/not ridiculously hard, but it is so avoid avoid avoid!!

do not take this class unless you are 100% certain you want to be a comm major. this class was so painful. your whole grade is based on the midterm (45 points), the paper (40 points) and the final (50 points). i took this class online asynchronous so all the lectures were prerecorded which was nice but it was SO easy to get behind because the lectures were so boring. the lectures are only audio and there are no slides (only vague lecture guides) so it is really hard to pay attention. i also had my midterm and final online and they were open note which is the only reason i passed the class. the material wasn't hard like at all it was just for the exams they basically give you no time. for the midterm we got 1 hr and 50 minutes to do 29 short answers and 2 essay questions (i started the second essay with 5 minutes left). the final was a bit better because you got 3 hours but there were 26 short answers and 3 essay questions. for the exams just make sure that you can command F your notes cause that saves so much time. also get slides from the ta discussions so you don't have to read the two books (but if you do want to read them you can download them for free on zlibrary). the paper is easy cause all your evidence comes from personal anecdotes and I wrote the whole thing in 3 hours. you also have to participate in 4 sona studies which sucks cause for most of the quarter there just aren't any studies available but usually by the end of the quarter there are 4 available. if you don't do the sona studies you get an incomplete but they don't add any to your grade if you do them all which is really annoying. overall the professor and the ta i had were really bad at communicating and weren't helpful at all which was incredibly ironic for a communications class :/