Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications

Pre-requisite(s): COMM 110
This course surveys the history and characteristics of mass communication as a field and set of intertwining industries and professions. Learners explore the role of mass media in modern society by considering the impact of technology, culture, government, and economics. Trends are considered in historical context.

Pre-requisite(s): COMM 110
This course provides learners with basic knowledge about the theories, concepts, and best practices in communication within the public relations field.

Pre-requisite(s): ENGL 101 and ITEC 103
Introduction to Digital Media, three credit hours course allows students to learn and understand the basics of Digital Media. The course content discusses various technologies that will aid students to learn the language of visual imagery. The applications that will be focused on industry standard applications for many graphic design positions. In this course, students will build a blog as a means of communicating and presenting their work as producing print and digital layouts to a wide audience.

Pre-requisite(s): COMM 111, COMM 112 or COMM 113
This course introduces learners to the basic norms, values, standards and practices for writing for the mass media.

Prerequisite course(s): COMM 111, COMM 112 or COMM 113
This course is designed to give students experience in recognizing and producing high-quality feature articles. Course materials and lectures will cover the basics of writing the newspaper and magazine feature story. Students will be exposed to, and write in, a diverse variety of approaches and techniques.

Prerequisite course(s): COMM 111, COMM 112 or COMM 113
This course explores the communication strategies and techniques within a specific cultural milieu and how those strategies and techniques differ among various cultural milieu, and learners practice in a variety of communication modes how best to accommodate their rhetorical strategies in communicating to both intracultural and intercultural audiences.

Prerequisite course(s): COMM 111, COMM 112 or COMM 113
Learners in this course apply communication strategies to and investigate real-world case study challenges with a global worldview of various issues of global media cultures. Students learn how to develop a Weltanschauung from which to best communicate in modern technologies with world audience.

Prerequisite course(s): COMM 111, COMM 112 or COMM 113
Learners engage the philosophical underpinnings of ethics and the core principles of journalism and mass communication to develop an understanding and appreciation of the field’s normative ethical values. Students will learn how to apply an ethical decision-making framework to a variety of challenges.

Prerequisite course(s): COMM 212 or COMM 222 or COMM 223
Learners identify the major concepts, issues, and theories of media communication, and learners identify and use communication theories in a variety of best practices to demonstrate effective use of the theories learned in the course.

Prerequisite(s): COMM 212 or COMM 222 or COMM 223
This course provides an introduction to research methods and the philosophical underpinnings of research inquiry in the field of communication. It includes the topic adherence, overviews of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method research methodologies, a range of alternative research methods, including observation, archival research, questionnaire surveys, case studies, and experimentation, research design, data collection, and data analysis, the ethical implications of research with human and non-human subjects, and appropriate connections between research questions and methodologies.

Corequisite(s): COMM 321 and COMM 391
Prerequisite course(s): COMM 311 or COMM 321 or COM 323 or COMM 391
This course is designed to prepare students to be informed and critical consumers of polls and media coverage of them, to introduce students to basic theories and findings regarding the influence of mass media on public opinion, to provide students with firsthand experience in conducting and writing about public opinion research.

Prerequisite course(s): COMM 111, COMM 112 or COMM 113
This course examines the cultural impact of new digital technologies, such as the Internet and new telephone and audiovisual media. Students survey the origins of digital communication and the Internet; and they are introduced to contemporary scholarship on digital technologies, the Internet, and the institutions that control these technologies.

Prerequisite course(s): COMM 111, COMM 112 or COMM 113
This course combines storytelling arts with social, mobile, and digital media technologies. In this course, students apply digital storytelling theory and techniques to write, produce and publish digital stories. They integrate images, text, video and audio to create digital stories, and acquire competency in the use of digital media applications.

Prerequisite course(s): COMM 212 or COMM 215
This course will engage learners in the values, norms and professional practices newsgathering and writing. Emphasis is on traditional reporting methods, including interviewing and observation, and on the ethical, reliable presentation of news in print/digital formats.

Prerequisite course(s): COMM 212 or COMM 214 or COMM 215 or COMM 224
This course introduces multimedia production skills to students. Learners integrate text, audio, photos and video to produce online media packages that are attractive, accessible, easy to navigate, and appropriate for the platform and the audience.

Prerequisite course(s): COMM 321 or COMM 323 or COMM 391 or COMM 334
This course allows students to explore magazine-style writing, editing, and presentation in the digital environment. Students collectively produce an online, magazine-style, publication.

Prerequisite course(s): COMM 321 or COMM 323 or COMM 391 or COMM 334

In this course, learners apply skills in newsgathering, writing, and multimedia to produce an individual and a group project of publication quality that demonstrates their proficiency in multimedia storytelling.

Pre-requisite(s): COMM 212
Learners improve their media-related writing skills with a focus on standard, professional presentation of information and messages in the public relations setting.

Prerequisite course(s): COMM 212 or COMM 214 or COMM 215 or COMM 224
This course introduces multimedia production skills to students. Learners integrate text, audio, photos and video to produce online media packages that are attractive, accessible, easy to navigate, and appropriate for the platform and the audience.

Pre-requisite(s): COMM 112 and COMM 343
This course gives learners the context, knowledge, and skills to examine and critically analyze realworld public relations problems and cases. Students will study and apply communication and public relations theories to case studies and problems. Learners examine the four steps included in the design of public relations programs that include research, planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Prerequisite(s): COMM 112
This course provides students with an overall perspective of public relations theories as they are applied in various public relations activities and discover the underlying socio-cultural impact on public relations.

Pre-requisite(s): COMM 311 or COMM 321 or COMM 334
Learners explore social media as a unique platform for interaction with multiple audiences and learn how to plan strategies to engage with key stakeholders and disseminate persuasive, effective messages.

Pre-requisite(s): COMM 321 or COMM 337 or COMM 391 or COMM 344
The course provides learners with practical instruction and experience in a variety of media modes of communication. Students focus on producing clear, persuasive messages in attractive formats.

This course allows learners to explore the Internet for data; to assess data found online; to produce "value-added" research from online databases; and, to understand the principles behind turning original data into a useable online resource

The course covers basic desktop digital video and audio applications, video streaming, and basic design for web and mobile products with a focus on aesthetics, functionality, and access.

Prerequisite(s): COMM 212 or COMM 222 or COMM 223
This course explores contemporary issues in communication theory, research, and practice and deal with specific media and PR issues or trends. Topics, ideas, and issues not taught in the standard courses are investigated. (Writing Intensive Course)

Beginner Level Arabic Language and Culture 1 is the first in a four-course beginner and intermediate Arabic language sequence specifically tailored to the needs of non-native Arabic language students in the English and Mass Communication Programs (though any non-native learner of Arabic may enroll). This course introduces the student to the Arabic alphabet and the basics of reading and writing in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Instruction in the language is enriched by reference to cultural themes and visits to sites of cultural importance.

Beginner Level Arabic II is a direct continuation of Beginner Level Arabic I. This course is designed to enhance the reading, speaking and listening skills. With this course, students can increase their vocabulary and improve their grammar in Arabic.

The course provides an introduction to academic sources of the language. This program is specially designed to teach Arabic to university level Arabic students.

Students engage in simple Arabic conversation on a range of everyday subjects so students properly introduce themselves, and engage in simple conversation on a range of everyday topics. Building upon the basic foundation provided in Level 1, topics include the definite article. Proper pronunciation and listening skills continue to be emphasized. In addition, readings and exposure to Arabic culture, students demonstrate further competence with structure and the pattern of words and sentences.

Upper Intermediate Level Arabic Language and Culture I is the first course in a four course sequence for the native Arabic speaker. All courses in the sequence are taught in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). The course is designed to provide native Arabic-speakers with higher level linguistic skills in writing, reading, speaking, and listening. Emphasis is placed on grammar review, vocabulary acquisition, and composition. This course (and the subsequent sequence of courses) is tailored particularly to students interested in Arabic-English translation in the English Language and Mass Communication Programs.

Upper Intermediate Level Arabic Language and Culture II is a direct continuation of ARAB 311. It is designed to provide Arabic-speaking Translation and Mass Communications majors with the linguistic skills (writing, reading, speaking, listening) that serve as a solid foundation to the journalistic expression in Arabic. Emphasis is placed on grammar review, vocabulary acquisition, and composition.

This is a direct continuation of Arabic 312. The course substantially expands students' existing vocabulary and capability of expression, both orally and in writing. Literary texts of increasing sophistication are used in the course.

Advanced Level Arabic Language and Culture for Native Arabic Speakers II is a direct continuation of ARAB 411 and represents the fourth course in the Arabic Language and Culture for native speakers sequence. This course provides a survey of themes and genres of Arabic literature from the mid- 19th century to the present. While focus will be on content, students will continue their acquisition of MSA through written and oral assignments designed for their advanced level of competency.

Supplementing the four course sequence in Arabic Language and Culture for native speakers, ARAB 420 will be taught in MSA. The course critically examines issues, values, and institutions of the contemporary Arab world primarily through analysis and discussion of current events. While focus will be on content, students will continue their acquisition of Modern Standard Arabic through written and oral assignments designed for their level of competency.

Pre-requisite(s): Completion of 90 credits and CGPA greater than 2.0
Approved, monitored work experience providing the opportunity to apply concepts and theories learned in the classroom to actual practice in the workplace, in order to develop skills and to gain experience and knowledge for future employment. Students must apply for an internship a semester before the summer of the internship and comply with all requirements outlined in the Internship Manual.