Schedule of Classes

Provides an overview of the nature, functions, and responsibilities of the communication industries in a global environment with an orientation toward the Department of Communications current disciplines.

Theories and skills of oral communication. Emphasis on basic principles of thought, content, organization, style, delivery, and the interaction of communication and culture.

The social, political, economic, historical, and ethical significance of the intersection of sports, media, and society.

Basic writing: selecting, organizing, and structuring information for print and broadcast journalism.

Study and practice in the operation of basic audio production equipment. Production techniques and production criticism.

Research and performance laboratory for students who participate in intercollegiate and community speech activities. Repeatable to a maximum of 6 credit hours.

Practice in news gathering, beat reporting, interviewing, and writing basic news stories.

Nature, practices, ethics, and problems of public relations.

Introduction to the foundations, nature, and practice of advertising; commercial aspects of communications. Ethical, legal and social responsibility aspects of advertising.

Practice in visual storytelling using video, audio, still photography, and other means of conveying information to create a journalistic report in a documentary style for multiple publishing platforms.

Com 265 is a course than analyzes the ethical issues that are prevalent in sports today.

Introduction to organizational communication including perspectives on organizing, the nature of communication within organizations, organizational culture, enhancing communication competence, innovation, technology, and organizational change, and contemporary issues.

Theories and variables of human communication in the interpersonal, group, organizational, intercultural, mediated, and global systems.

Television production techniques, theories, and fundamental skills as applied to studio production and COM 335. May be taken concurrently with Com 335 only with consent of instructor.

This survey course provides a broad overview of the field of health communication research, theory, and practice. With a focus on both organizational structures within the healthcare landscape and the role of mass media in defining health and wellness, this course offers various contexts to analyze health communication. Throughout the course students will evaluate existing health communication initiatives with a culminating experience of designing their own strategic campaign. Both physical and mental health will be discussed during the semester.

Formulation and techniques of creative strategy. Copywriting for print and electronic media.

Development of media plans and schedules to deliver advertising messages to target markets in media audiences. Advertising media vehicles evaluated in terms of creative requirements, audience characteristics, and cost efficiency.

Application of advertising principles and techniques in the design and preparation of ads for newspapers, posters, magazines, sales brochures, and direct marketing.

Promotional writing for publicity and public relations; practice preparing product, personnel, and organizational news releases. Special needs of various media.

Laws covering all the media; libel, privacy, copyright, and intellectual property; federal and state laws; unique broadcast and Internet regulations; nexus between the legal and the ethical in the practice of journalism.

Use of portable field video production techniques (ENG/EFP) and post-production editing facilities for a variety of assignments in news, feature, and television commercial production. Aesthetics, visualization, and societal impact of the medium. May be taken concurrently with COM 314 only with consent of instructor.

Designed to help students effectively use cutting-edge interactive technologies employed in online journalism and to understand their applications.

Examines theoretical perspectives on sport in a global environment. Critical analysis of sports communication in relation to cultural identities, nationalism, international relations, economics, and politics.

Desktop publishing. Lecture, discussion, and preparation of public relations portfolio using various software.

Course introduces concepts such as high-reliability, organizational accidents and organizational culture as they intersect with issues of safety, risk management, latent and active failures in firefighting, medicine, energy and airline industry.

Topics of special interest which may vary each time course is offered. May be repeated under different topics.

Examines theory and research in small group communication in the context of the organization.

Research procedures commonly used in communications research, including qualitative and quantitative methods. Emphasis on sampling data collection and analysis. Not open to students with credit in COM 440.

Creative writing workshop in screenwriting taught by English faculty member in collaboration with professionals in the entertainment industry. Cross-listed with ENG 409. Repeatable to a maximum of 6 hours.

For students entering broadcasting. Preparation and development of television programs; emphasis on creative formats and uses of the camera, sound, music, lighting, and graphics. Development of production and critical skills. This course may be taken concurrently with COM 435 only with consent of instructor.

Introduces students to the use of qualitative methods of data collection aimed at understanding the relationship between organizational culture and communication. Methods include interviewing, field observations, and analysis of organizational websites and documents.

Analysis and discussion of communication issues, ethics, and perspectives.

Intensive practice in multiplatform coverage of urban affairs; introduction to methods of investigative reporting. Focus on the social and political context of the news.

Advanced work in portable video communication systems and electronic editing. Exploration of various media applications and individual style of exposition. Video communication and societal effects. This course may be taken concurrently with COM 414 only with consent of instructor.

Fundamental principles and practices of digital, non-linear video editing and related postproduction processes and procedures.

Students will explore current issues in advertising with special emphasis on present advertising industry development, advertising laws, advertising literature, special interest research, ethical issues, and problem-solving techniques.

Basic principles involved in communicating activities of professional and non-professional sports organizations and institutions to their target audiences. Examination of sports-related corporate social responsibility and community relations initiatives in local, national, and international settings.

The capstone course in the PR sequence. Theory and strategy are stressed through studies of classic PR case programs and development of PR campaigns for actual businesses and organizations. A final campaign requires research, writing, production, application and analysis skills.

Topics of special interest which may vary each time course is offered. May be repeated under different topics.

Advanced study and/or work in performance, production, historical, critical, and theoretical aspects of communication. May be repeated under different topics, for a total of three semester hours.