MSCM - Mass Communication

An introductory overview of Mass Communication programs and the college experience. This course is repeatable for credit and does not count towards the total hours required for graduation.

This course will focus on the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate the process of creating and interpreting media in a variety of forms.

Prerequisite: ENGL 1102 with a C or better. This course will prepare students to craft a professional copy across media platforms by improving technical elements of student writing.

Prerequisite: Mass Communication major. Participation in pre-approved on-campus media environment. This course is repeatable for credit.

Prerequisite: Mass Communication major. Participation in pre-approved on-campus media environment. This course is repeatable for credit.

Prerequisite: Mass Communication major. Participation in pre-approved on-campus media environment. This course is repeatable for credit.

Prerequisite: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better. A survey of media law and ethical frameworks related to the practice of journalism, public relations, broadcast and digital media, as well as issues of privacy and cybersecurity. A historical examination of the concepts of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Prerequisite: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better. An examination of the major developments in the history of American journalism.

Prerequisites: MSCM 2201 and MSCM 2205 and MATH 1401 with grades of C or better. Corequisite: MSCM 3318 or MSCM 3352 or MSCM 3365. This course is designed for students to develop the skills necessary to recognize, design, and use research in mass communication. To facilitate this process, students will explore the examination and application of concepts and contemporary mass comm research and methods that investigate human and/or computer-mediated communication processes.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 and MSCM 3318 with grade of C or better. This course provides an overview of various audio production techniques and tools for application in various communication products and platforms. Students will explore the proper use of audio equipment and learn how to distribute to various platforms and audiences.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 and MSCM 3318 with grade of C or better. This course presents an overview of the podcasting industry, including how to write and produce a podcast, the major companies involved in podcasting, studio set up and editing, how to promote a program, and jobs available in the industry.

Prerequisites: MSCM 2201, MSCM 2205, and MATH 1401, all with grades of C or better. Corequisite: MSCM 3306. Students will examine and write scripts for a variety of digital medial platforms, including radio, audio media, news, television, film, social media, web series, and other visual and audio media.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better or permission of instructor. An examination of the management techniques in the media industry, including a review of trends in the organization of media industries and management roles in the industry.

Prerequisite: MSCM 3306 and MSCM 3365 with grade of C or better. The practice and study of newspaper editing, headline writing, page makeup and design, and theory and editing copy for use on radio and television.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better or permission of the instructor. The study of research and writing journalistic feature articles for publication in newspapers, magazines, and other media.

A historical review of documentaries and documentarians, their styles, techniques, and final outcomes to include photo, print, audio, and video.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better or permission of instructor. This course teaches essential techniques designed to make students competent interviewers and interviewees.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 and MSCM 3365 or MSCM 3352 with grade of C or better. The course focuses on effective design techniques, producing graphics, and photo editing for informative and persuasive forms of communication across media platforms. Skills include the use of images, color, and layout using industry-standard design software.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 and MSCM 3318 with grade of C or better. As an entry level-video production course, this is an overview of various audio, visual, and web production techniques and tools for application in various communication products. Explore the proper use of audio and visual equipment. Learn the ability to distribute on various platforms.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 and MSCM 3318 with grade of C or better. As an advanced level-video production course, students will learn to apply production skills, including radio, TV, and digital audio/video for distribution on various platforms.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 and MSCM 3318 with a grade of C or higher. This course prepares students for production in television sitcoms, studio programs, variety shows, and events that are produced live or live-to-tape using the multi-cam production techniques. Students will gain experience in writing, producing, and editing a multi-camera production to inform, persuade, and/or entertain an audience.

Prerequisite: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better. This course will focus on the various departments of operation at a radio station while applying the practices to a local non-commercial radio station. Ethical, legal, and financial responsibilities of a station will also be topics of discussion.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 and MSCM 3352 with a grade of C or better. Students will develop a variety of persuasive messages across platforms while exploring the theoretical foundation, historical context, and practical production of messages for public relations and advertising, collectively called Integrated Marketing Communication.

Prerequisite: MSCM 2201, MSCM 2205, MATH 1401, all with grade of C or better. Corequisite: MSCM 3306. Explores the importance of writing in public relations, advertising, and media relations. Types of writing include news releases, public service announcements, speeches, fact sheets, commercials, internal publications, multimedia briefs, and annual reports.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 and MSCM 3352 with a grade of C or better. Course educates students in managerial and strategic concepts with a focus on public relations. Emphasizes the holistic structure of public relations as well as larger aspects of how to direct and manage public relations. Topics explored will include management principles, creative vision, leadership, planning, and evaluation.

Prerequisite: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better. This course is designed to provide students with the ability to apply their acquired skills in mass communication to a real-world client. Students will also have the ability to explore the ideals of contributing to the local community. Each student will select an off-campus client to work with over the course of the semester.

Prerequisite: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better. Students taking this course will learn how universities use media and media practitioners to further various strategic objectives. Students will gain "behind-the-scenes" knowledge and learn career-related opportunities in the field of higher education.

Prerequisites: MSCM 2201, 2205, 3306 all with grade of C or better. This course focuses on the preproduction and planning stages of video and television production. Students will learn the legal, ethical and critical processes of preproduction to include development of concepts; creating, analyzing and breaking down scripts; budgeting and scheduling; and industry legal standards for various video and television production platforms.

Prerequisite: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better. Emergent communication technology is a complex topic involving various tools, principles and implications. The course explores these aspects through the social, cultural and business influence of emergent communication technology. Additionally, the course serves as a crash course to learn social media tools such as social networking, podcasting, video sharing, blogging and microblogging, social bookmarking, wikis and other collaborative creation.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 and MSCM 3352 with a grade of C or better. Students will learn how to use strategic communication to persuade and inform audiences in various media outlets. Selected topics in communication campaigns; emphasis on application of theory in campaign contexts.

Prerequisite: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better. This course will be an introduction to crisis communication theory and application. We will cover crisis communication theory, crisis management approaches, classic cases and the influence of various important factors (i.e. culture, political, financial) on crisis communication.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 and MSCM 3352 with a grade of C or better. This course examines and gives students an in depth and critical review of current research and issues in the advertising industry. The legal, historical, and ethical implications of current issues in the industry and on society will be examined.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 and MSCM 3352 with a grade of C or better. This course provides an introduction to strategic media planning and buying for advertising campaigns, the process used to place messages in media to effectively and efficiently reach the target audience.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306, MSCM 2205, and MATH 1401 with grades of C or better. Corequisite: MCSM 3306. Students will examine and practice journalistic writing and reporting across platforms.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 and MSCM 3365 with grade of C or better. Students will learn how to produce news from the watchdog posture of an ethical investigative journalist. Students will study important historical examples of investigative reporting across platforms.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better or permission of instructor. Students will produce original narrative content for student media; complete a documentary analysis; historical analysis and presentation; write weekly critiques of narrative journalism; produce an online site for their original work. Rubrics will be provided for each assignment.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 and MSCM 3365 with grade of C or better. This course will prepare students to become multimedia broadcast journalists. It will cover all the essential areas of video news reporting including story planning and development, writing for various digital platforms, field reporting and production techniques, videography, editing, and interviewing.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better. This course offers an overview of the stranger than fiction story of how broadcasting evolved from homemade crystal radio sets to podcasts and vodcasts, based on the idea that understanding where we are requires knowledge of how we got here.

Prerequisite: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better. This course is aimed at equipping students with tools to understand, analyze, and evaluate media, including news, movies, television shows, video games, Twitter, Facebook, and other forms of social media.

Prerequisite: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better. Students will analyze the structure, theories and history related to propaganda and persuasion. A variety of case studies will be reviewed and discussions of current practices will help students identify relationships between content development and audience impact. Topics include stereotypes, psychological warfare, media influence, biases, and cliché narrative structure.

Prerequisite: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better or permission of instructor. Students will learn the rules and applications of broadcast laws enforced by the FCC, as well as the rules pertaining to digital media.

Prerequisite: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better. Students will immerse themselves in documentary works and use their exposure to the process as inspiration for original productions.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better or permission of instructor. Students will learn the distinction between objective process reporting and advocacy journalism while identifying the blurry distinction in today's media landscape. Students will learn how to write editorials, op-eds, and viewpoint-centered content.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better or permission of instructor. This course will analyze a variety of radio, television, cable and Internet programming. Program management roles, historical events, legal perspectives, aesthetics and current trends/topics will also be discussed.

Prerequisite: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better. This course is an introduction to media systems around the world and is designed to teach students how differing economic, political, social, and cultural systems produce different media structures.

Prerequisite: Senior status and a minimum of four MSCM courses. This course will expose students to the career search process and opportunities in Mass Communication, portfolio and resume development, and interviewing techniques.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3335 and RHET 3355. Final seminar in which students identify documentary topic and style (a photo exhibit, written documentary, audio documentary or oral history for radio or web distribution, or video project for broadcast or web distribution), gather research, produce content (photos, written works, audio, video) and present a completed project. The final two weeks will be designated for distribution exhibits, airplay, screenings, etc.). A timeline will be provided to assist students in the planning, producing, and distributing stages of their work.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 with grade of C or better or permission of instructor. Practical course in the production of a local news program. This course is repeatable for credit. Additional special course fee required; see semester course schedule for amount.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 and MSCM 3352, both with a grade of C or better, and 3 additional MSCM skills courses. Course is designed to apply strategic communication principles to a real-world client outside of the campus setting. Students will complete a campaign from conception through implementation and evaluation.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 and MSCM 3318, both with grades of C or better, and 3 additional MSCM skills courses. Course covers the application of digital media concepts and theories. Students will produce a final project that incorporates all stages of video production to include research, scripting, shooting, editing, and distribution of the production.

Prerequisites: MSCM 3306 and MSCM 3365, both with grades of C or better. Students will produce a final project that requires extensive research, reaches a diverse audience, and incorporates new media technologies.

Prerequisite: Department chairperson's approval. Tutorial investigation of a topic of special interest. This course is repeatable for credit.

Topics of special interest not listed in the catalog. This course is repeatable for credit.

Prerequisite: Permission of instructor. Practical field experience in a supervised media setting. This course is repeatable for credit.

See the International Studies section of the catalog for details. This course is repeatable for credit.