Courses

This course gives students hands-on instruction in how to use digital media tools to produce interactive and media rich online stories. Students will learn key concepts and design principles in Web technologies & programming (e.g., XHTML, CSS, JavaScript), Video editing and Animation. Students will develop a website that presents a multi-part investigative story, using slideshows, videos and animations. Students will learn how to capture engaging photo & video footage to create an effective multimedia experience in post-production.

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Plan and develop investigative multimedia story that is well researched.
• Capture photo & video footage that is visually engaging.
• Create storyboard of video story to be produced.
• Create and upload XHTML Web pages that are standards compliant and contain relative and absolute links, tables, images and embedded video.
• Design external Cascading Style Sheets that control the layout and visual appearance of a set of Web pages.
• Understand the Basics of JavaScript to create interactive slideshow with concise captions.
• Edit video footage to produce well structured video in post-production.
• Create animation that presents information in a well timed and interactive way. 

Students develop a professional e-portfolio that showcases: a resume; academic work, professional development courses, certifications and/or military service; social media and other digital assets; relevant audio/video material; professional, community, and school activities; and writing samples.

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Describe what an e-portfolio is and how it may be used by prospective employers or relevant organizations/institutions.
• Identify the opportunities/dangers of online self-presentation/branding and networking in a digital world.
• Compile an inventory of skills, accomplishments, prior learning experiences, and salient examples that will help in the discovery of career potential and the development of a career strategy, which will guide e-portfolio design and content.
• Strategize to determine personal short- and long-term communication career goals.
• Create and/or update materials (e.g., a resume, LinkedIn profile, writing and/or video samples, elevator speech, etc.) relevant to career positioning and for possible inclusion in the e-portfolio.
• Successfully plan, draft, revise, and create a quality e-portfolio on an appropriately selected platform that effectively and dynamically showcases pertinent experiences, skills, education, and talent as a communications professional.

Students use emerging digital technology to develop and test innovations in journalism and media.  Emerging technologies are applied to journalism and media to create and test new storytelling formats, production techniques, media management strategies, and social media approaches.  Students consider how these innovations can engage citizens across time and space, provide much-needed context and customization to content, interactive entertainment, and new business models to support and sustain journalism and the media in a fragmented, and mobile, digital future.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Reinvent storytelling in journalism and media content emphasizing the best traditional values of journalism, including fairness, impartiality, accuracy, multiple known sources, attribution, fact checking, attention to detail, news judgment and ethics, while cultivating the possibilities of media and their processes, including interactivity, multi-modal media expression and presentation, use control, navigation and customization, and contextualization of facts.
• Develop innovative journalism and media applications and projects in prototype format.
• Critically assess these innovations in terms of their potential consequences (benefits and liabilities) should they be widely adopted or utilized.

This course examines the role of communication in society. Taught with a special topics focus in each semester, the course will examine the important impacts that communication processes, relationships, and messages have in society. Topics of focus include corporate social responsibility; community networks; community health campaigns; political communication; communication in civil society organizations among others.  (Offered every fall semester)

Upon successful completion of this course, students will:

• Understand the basic concepts and vocabulary related to CSR.
• Comprehensively understand ethical and social issues/decisions in CSR (beyond marketing).
• Enhanced ability to integrate CSR perspective into organizational communication.
• Enhanced ability to evaluate an organization’s CSR initiatives.
• Have a better understanding of career opportunities related to CSR and social innovation.

This course will serve as a broad introduction to theories, perspectives, and empirical evidence related to organizational communication in a wide range of organizations (e.g., non-profit, for-profit, governmental, communal) and in a variety of contexts (e.g., industry, educational, social services, advocacy). Students will learn about historical, current and future issues; changes and challenges facing organizations; and the communication-relevant aspects of these issues. They will gain practice in applying theoretical perspectives and concepts to actual organizational situations and settings.  

Communication plays a central role in organizations. It can enable organizational members to persuade, motivate, lead, mislead, collaborate, or resist, and it may enhance or undermine relationships. Communication is also central to processes of organizing, such as teamwork, decision-making, knowledge sharing, organizational culture, socialization of employees, the implementation of new technology, member loyalty and turnover, as well as to external stakeholders and interorganizational relationships. The purpose of this course is to augment your understanding of the relationship between communication and organizations (e.g., corporations, non-profit agencies, sports teams, political parties, universities, or volunteer groups). (Offered every spring semester)

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand fundamental organizational perspectives, theories, and concepts.
• Use organizational communication theories and concepts to analyze behavior in organizations, through both case studies and real examples.
• Translate theory into practice and apply organizational theories and concepts to your social and professional life.
• Analyze and synthesize information and ideas form multiple sources to generate new insights.

Drawing on existing theory and research, this course examines issues of usage, adoption, and performance of new and established communication technologies in the workplace and other contexts. The course also considers opportunities and challenges that mediated communication presents for both users of these tools and society more generally. The course will expose students to a range of new technologies used by people to coordinate, collaborate, and communication with one another.  (Offered every spring semester)

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Identify new communication technologies (and key features/dimensions) relevant to the workplace and other contexts.
• Name and summarize major theories relevant to the study of new communication technologies.
• Recognize and discuss key scholars and research findings regarding the topics and technologies discussed in class.
• Apply theory and research from the communication technology literature in writing assignments, class discussion, as well as in your own work experience.
• Train others about an issue related to new media based on existing theory and research from class.

The MCM Graduate Experience course is a non-credit course that helps new MCM students get acclimated to the MCM Program and Graduate education. It will offer insights in what is expected in the program, writing at the graduate level, introduction to APA and an overview of research. It also helps in understanding what is expected of MCM students in the classroom, both on-campus and online.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand what is expected of MCM students in terms of critical thinking, critical writing and synthesis.
• Understand of what is expected of MCM students in terms of classroom demeanor and participation.
• Understand the basic expectations around academic integrity, the use of APA and how to access related resources.
• Understand the MCM Program structure, organization, opportunities and related resources.

This course is will introduce students to a set of social science research methods that are used in the communication discipline and in workplace and organizational contexts. At the end of this course, students should have a basic understanding of several general research methods used by communication scholars and have gained an appreciation for the ethical considerations in conducting human subjects research. Students will gain knowledge and practice of collection methods such as questionnaires, experiments, structured interviews, focus groups, structured observations, and content analysis.  (Offered every fall semester)

Upon successful completion of this course, students will:

• Understand and use a basic vocabulary of concepts relating to social science methodology.
• Be able to identify the basic considerations in designing and conducting questionnaire studies, experiments, structured interviews, content coding.
• Be familiar with the requirements for treatment of human subjects in social science research and be apply to apply principles for ethical research to specific study designs.
• Be able to identify quality and problematic research exemplars.
• Be able to describe a research study that uses social science methods of questionnaires, experiments, interviews, and /or content coding.

Since public relations became a paid profession in the United States in the early 1900s, the industry has undergone an incredible transformation, especially in the past 15 years with the arrival of social media channels. Public Relations History and the Modern World covers the transformation of the public relations discipline from earned media to the PESO (Paid Media, Earned Media, Shared Media and Owned Media) model and will feature a detailed history review, real-time and real-world applications of the PESO Model, and the opportunity to immerse students in experiential learning by meeting and engaging with leading public relations practitioners and applying what they learn to a real-life client situation.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand the history and evolution of public relations
• Understand and apply the PESO Model to contemporary client situations.
• Bridge the foundational work of public relations pioneers to today’s integrated PESO Model approach.
• Identify public relations issues in today’s marketplace that are the priority for practitioners in an agency or corporate setting.
• Develop writing and presentation skills relevant to public relations roles through group and individual assignments and class discussions.
• Deliver appropriate and impactful public relations programming that addresses current market challenges.

SERVICE, ADVOCACY, AND IMPACT helps students build practical skills in using communication for the greater good. In this course, we will explore the ways that communicators can use their abilities in the context of nonprofit organizations, direct community service provision, or corporate social good. This course will combine instruction, group work and reflection, and a hands-on project with a community organization in order to pair learning with practice. By the end of this course, students will have first-hand, working knowledge of the opportunities and challenges in using communication for public service.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Observe and practice ways that communications can be leveraged for positive social impact.
• Develop intimate understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing communicators who intend to focus on CSR, nonprofit, or community-based service in their careers.
• Synthesize concepts of project management through the development and execution of a successful project plan.
• Apply digital communication/social media to purpose-driven work.
• Implement key principles for creating and delivering powerful presentations.
• Commit to making a positive impact in the world.

This course examines the nature and impact of the media of mass communication in society. Particular attention is paid to emerging media technology, including the Internet and other digital technologies. Students learn four primary ways new technology influences media and society, including 1) how media professionals and members of the public increasingly create content using new media technologies, 2) the nature of mediated content, 3) the relationships between and among media and relevant publics, and 4) the structure, culture and management of media organizations and systems. Students learn five areas of media technology, including 1) acquisition tools, 2) storage technologies, 3) processing devices, 4) distribution technologies and 5) display, access or presentation tools.

This course examines how media theory can be used to explain the communicative power of citizens, journalists and politicians in the era of mainstream media, and today as American politics has been “rebooted” with the digital revolution.  

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Contrast and compare how major theories in the field of media studies are being recast for the digital age.
• Analyze how journalists, politicians, and media consultants are changing their practice in light of today’s multiple media platforms.
• Evaluate the style and social value of online political media in light of these changes.

This course explores the strategic use of communication by individuals and groups to facilitate persuasion and change. Topics covered vary by instructor but may include theories of behavior and social change, strategic communication, interpersonal influence and diffusion, media advocacy and social marketing, argumentation, discourse and conflict.

This course is about communication for change. People, much like the groups, organizations and societies of which they are members, change continuously. Some of this change is unplanned and spontaneous, but much of it is deliberate and planned. While change can be pushed by different social actors (from social entrepreneurs, through social movements and to governments), communication remains the primary tool for facilitating change at different levels-individual, group and societal. Therefore, this course is designed to explore the strategic use of communication by individuals and groups to facilitate change processes. Topics covered include theories of behavior and social change and strategic communication approaches such as persuasive communication, interpersonal influence and diffusion, media advocacy and social marketing.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand fundamental persuasion concepts and theories.
• Apply persuasion theories and tools in a real world setting.
• Acquire basic skills and tools for evaluating persuasion efforts and for practicing persuasion ethically.
• Ability to apply theories and concepts in the explanation of human behavior and social processes.

The capstone seminar requires students to integrate theory and practice through the preparation and presentation of an intensive project. Students will design their own original work that includes integrating, synthesizing, and analyzing fundamental communication theories, concepts, and research methods; show proficiency in gathering and using evidence to study and understand communication processes and consequences; demonstrate advanced written and oral presentation skills; apply communication theories and concepts to professional and civic life.

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Design their own original work that includes integrating, synthesizing, and analyzing fundamental communication theories, concepts, and research methods.
• Show proficiency in gathering and using evidence to study and understand communication processes and consequences.
• Demonstrate the ability to successfully prioritize, organize, and carry out project related tasks.
• Demonstrate advanced written and oral presentation skills.
• Critically assess and constructively support peer-created academic work.

Open only to students appointed as MCM Fellows. Course is required of MCM fellows in the first term of their fellowship placement.  Includes formal assessment of the student by the fellowship supervisor.

Open only to students appointed as MCM Fellows. Course is required of MCM fellows in the second term of their fellowship placement.  Includes formal assessment of the student by the fellowship supervisor.

Open only to students appointed as MCM Fellows. Course is required of MCM fellows in the third term of their fellowship placement.  Includes formal assessment of the student by the fellowship supervisor.

Open only to students appointed as MCM Teaching Interns. Each selected student assists a faculty member with delivery and student evaluation of an undergraduate course.

Open only to students appointed as MCM Teaching Interns. Each selected student assists a faculty member with delivery and student evaluation of an undergraduate course.

Recommended for students without significant experience in complex organizations.  Requires 150 hours of supervised professional practice in an approved organizational setting, with supervisor assessment and student report required.

Recommended for students without significant experience in complex organizations. Requires 150 hours of supervised professional practice in an approved organizational setting, with supervisor assessment and student report required.

Recommended for students without significant experience in complex organizations. Requires 300 hours of supervised professional practice in an approved organizational setting, with supervisor assessment and student report required.

Open only to students appointed as MCM Fellows.  Course is required of MCM fellows in the fourth term of their fellowship placement.  Includes formal assessment of the student by the fellowship supervisor.

Open only to students appointed as MCM fellows. Elective course for MCM Fellows for summer placement.  Includes formal assessment of the student by the fellowship supervisor. 

Focused readings or research conducted independently by student.  Arranged with and approved by faculty sponsor and program director.

This course aims to provide deeper insight into the contested phenomenon of globalization, its implications for today’s organizations, and the role of communication in processes of global organizing.

Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

• Understand and critique organizational and social theory on globalization.
• Have increased awareness of the complexities of organizing across various boundaries and the role of communication in this process.
• Analyze the implications of globalization for today's organizations, including both corporations and non-profits, governmental and private.
• Apply the theory and research discussed to challenges faced (or caused) by real global organizations and teams.