Courses

This course serves as an introduction to the exciting field of communication, journalism, and public relations and the value of a degree in the Communication Arts Department. Students will be exposed to the concepts related to the Communication Arts disciplines. The course has been designed to introduce communication, public relations, and journalism students to the skills needed for success in their chosen program and to provide an overview of their discipline as well as others in the department. Program requirements will be discussed for each major as well potential professions post-graduation.

This course is designed to introduce the process of public communication and to help develop and refine the skills of oral communication.

Functions, responsibilities, and influence of various mass media and emerging forms of niche media in society. Students review the theories, structures, functions, practices, economics, critical analyses, and historical aspects of mass media and its social responsibility in society.

This course prepares the student to work in the new media marketplace where online and digital platforms are as important as traditional print media by incorporating audio and video components to storytelling. Instructional goals are to enhance awareness of mobile journalism elements and skills; to introduce an understanding of ethics, standards and legalities of producing and publishing mobile journalism stories; and to provide knowledge and skills necessary to develop audio and video components of multimedia journalism.

This course examines the dynamics in communication within small groups. Students will learn effective critical thinking and problem solving skills for use when working in small groups.

This course is designed to introduce theories in the academic field of communication studies. The focus of the course will be on recognizing human communication theories in everyday life, and being able to critically examine situations in multiple cultural contexts based on those theories. Connections will be made between these theories and the prominent theories of related fields.

In this course students will analyze and evaluate the historical, economic, social, cultural, and political forces of globalization in the context of media. A strong focus will be on modern and contemporary world cultures and on current issues in the globalization of media forms and information technologies. Historical contexts and pressures at work within the contested terrain of globalism will be examined. Students will understand the development of global communication and media networks as these have evolved, expanded, and make up globalization. In addition, students will closely examine the role of digital media and global activism.

Examination of the nature and process of communication in modern organizations, including theories, change strategies, internal personnel relations, and conflict management, as they relate to organizational cultures.

Explores basic methodologies of communication research, including experiments, surveys, focus groups, field observations, content analysis, and rhetorical and critical analyses. These methodologies and the theoretical and ethical assumptions underpinning them are examined as ways of posing questions and getting answers about human communication. Each student will write papers based on a research project including problem definition, literature review, data gathering and analysis and reporting.

Exploration of emerging trends in digital media, providing an opportunity for students to understand, deploy, and reflect upon digital communication trends. A theoretical survey of past, current, and predicted future trends and research on the impact of these communication technologies.

This course will provide students with an introduction to electronic and traditional broadcasting principles. Students will analyze, synthesize, and evaluate online and traditional broadcasting principles in the form of podcasts.

Online communication platforms are constantly changing. Due to this dynamic environment, communicators must understand the strategies behind online media. This course gives students an immersive experience in analyzing, creating, and developing communication plans to effectively reach a digital audience. In addition, students will analyze and produce content for current and emerging social media platforms. By the end of the course, students will have learned how to curate and develop a social media presence for both themselves as individuals and for corporate entities or small businesses.

This course will examine case studies and best practices in issues and crisis management in the field of public relations. Reputation management, effective management of issues and crisis will be taught based on practical application of various proven strategies and tactics including APR (Accreditation In Public Relations) standards for issues and crisis management.

A study of the marketing functions, channels of distribution, selling, advertising, distribution, and marketing management for both retail and industrial businesses.

This course teaches the core principles of digital marketing and the digital marketing process. Students will learn to utilize digital strategies, social tools and tactics to gain insights into the audience, competitors and industry on a variety of social media platforms. Industry examples will be analyzed and utilized in class. At the end of the course, students will have gained practical experience in creating, launching, and maintaining digital marketing campaigns. Class project and assignments will build students' applied portfolios.

Students will learn how to use social media and content marketing to communicate an organization's message and engage with customers. Additionally, students will learn how to manage an organization's social media presence.

This course teaches the core components of an effective digital marketing strategy. Students will learn how to use the Buyer's Journey model to influence purchase decisions over digital platforms using digital content and tools. This course also explains how to choose the right content for your customers - and how to develop a creative strategy to deliver on key business goals. The class project is applied and adds to students' portfolios.

This course will introduce you to the major monuments of art and architecture across the globe beginning with medieval societies and ending with the modern world. As a survey, we will be covering a wide range of objects, concepts, terms, chronology, and geography.

The course will examine the pivotal role that the curators play in museums, and the ways in which the expanding art-world functions today. It will introduce students to aspects of museum work, with an emphasis on the role of the fine arts curator and curatorial theory and how this can integrate with becoming a professional arts administrator.

This course offers an introduction to methods and approaches for the study of film. Students will learn film terminology and its effective application in film analysis. Students also will develop, maintain, and improve strategies for close-reading individual shots and sequences, interpreting cinematic narrative and technique, and for negotiating various critical and theoretical paradigms of film study.

This course centers on the close reading of both religious and secular filmic texts in order to better understand the ideology that is wrapped within these artifacts of culture. Students will describe and analyze how these cinematic texts communicate both Christian and anti-Christian philosophical and theological arguments, which have the power to shape the horizons of the mind and impact culture.

This course addresses the adaptation of literature to film. It examines diverse concepts and theories that have been applied to cinematic adaptations of literary texts as part of a larger constellation of issues, including the development of cinematic language, approaches to genre studies, and an appreciation for cinematic visions in literary texts. In addition to film screenings, course readings will include prose fiction and film criticism.

A study of the causes and effects of critical design movements. This course explores the political and social environments that shaped the creation and evolution of graphic design. This course will give students insight into different movements, such as the Medieval Era, Graphic Renaissance, Industrial Revolution, Art Nouveau, Modernism, Postmodernism, and the Digital Revolution. Students will also evaluate how the history of graphic design influences current design philosophies and strategies.

An introduction to philosophical aesthetics, which has been marginalized and often ignored in philosophical discourse during the past four hundred years. During the last few decades the questions posted by aesthetics have moved back into the center of the philosophical discussion, including the use of the concept by "post-modern" thinkers. The course seeks to bring the student into the longer conversation concerning beauty, "retrieve" important elements that have been lost, and provide a basis for further study.

This course follows movements and themes in the history of photography from its inception at the turn of the 19th century to today. In this class, students will identify key works and discuss their significance in a historical context. On a more theoretical level, photography will be observed as cultural production that shapes personal and political ideology. Photographic examples will be presented from photojournalism, documentary, fine art, advertising, fashion and academia to more vernacular uses in everyday life. Through readings, discussions and assignments students will build the visual literacy needed to experience, understand and analyze images.