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Master of Arts in Business Communications

Upon completion of the Master of Arts in Business Communications program students will obtain functional knowledge and achieve technical and professional skill development in the area of Communications.

Program Outcomes: Students demonstrate theoretical and applied knowledge of industry concepts, industry challenges, and research associated with media, culture, public relations, and news reporting, by doing the following:

Understand the fundamental concepts, terms, and procedures of the public communications industry and related areas of specialization. Apply theory and research associated with media, culture, advertising, public relations, and integrated marketing. Assess the major challenges associated with contemporary public communications issues such as crisis management, cause marketing, branding, and public affairs communication.

Technical and Professional Skill Development: Students demonstrate facility and professionalism with skills associated with business communications by doing the following:

Employ professional oral and written communication skills through technology-mediated modalities. Conceptualize, develop, and distribute multimedia applications to public communications and the specializations. Work collaboratively to effectively accomplish goals related to public communications or multimedia integration. Utilize technology related to public communications or multimedia integration. Apply real-world scenarios to achieve pragmatic and professional results for projects in advertising and public relations.

Courses Required of All Communication Arts Students:

• COM 510 Vocabulary of the Media Critic

  This course is designed to provide the student with the critical vocabulary used by media critics in discussing and evaluating non-technological aspects of various media. Material will be drawn from philosophy, psychology, semantics, aesthetics and literary criticism (3 credits).
  

• COM 520 Media Research

  This course is designed to familiarize the students with the basic research techniques (quantitative, qualitative, background research for creative projects, content analysis, opinion and audience research) used in the areas of public information, television, film and instructional communications. It introduces the students to the professional literature of their fields of specialization and to the skills necessary to read and interpret it (3 credits).
  

• COM 530 Media and Culture

  An exploration of the role of media in the popular culture and in society in terms of the interaction of media and culture. The media's role in reflecting society and, in turn, the shaping of media practice by society will be explored. Reading will include an examination of major works on public opinion and public policy (3 credits).
  

• DGI 501 Multimedia Production Tools

  This course introduces the student to image, text, animation, digital audio and video in multimedia products like DC-ROMs and web sites. The focus is the use of the computer as a media development system. Students focus on message design using text and graphics, and explore the computer's potential in telecommunications and new forms of media content. The development of the Internet as a resource for education, communications, advertising, and public relations is also explored. All students create a personal web page (3 credits).
  

• ADV 560 Advertising Copy Writing

  This course examines the business, craft and creative process of writing advertising copy. Students are assigned weekly creative and text assignments. Critiques and individual reviews of draft copy help impart a thorough grounding in advertising creativity. Students work on the integration of the verbal and graphic components in imaginative concepts, supported by coherent, entertaining and persuasive text, all resting on a carefully devised foundation of sound strategy (3 credits).
  

• ADV 570 Media Planning and Buying

  This course provides an understanding of the central position of media planning and buying in campaign development, as well as analysis of the organization and the purpose of the media plan. Discussion focuses on the rates and sources of information, evaluation of the representative media, problems of coverage costs, duplication and scheduling and the media sales process (3 credits).
  

• ADV 590 Strategic Advertising Campaigns

  This advanced course studies advertising from the consumer perspective, using a case-study approach. The focus is on the different ways that advertisers and consumers view advertising and how advertising campaigns are planned and executed to account for these differences (3 credits).
  Prerequisite: PRE 520.

• COM 563 Seminar: Integrated Marketing

  These seminar courses are designed to cover areas of current professional interest or to fill specific student needs. The topic of this seminar is Integrated Marketing (3 credits).
  

• PRE 510 Principles and Practices of Advertising

  The functions, organization and economics of advertising agencies will be studied. Then, using market research data, students will develop advertising plans and budgets, as well as plans for monitoring results (3 credits).
  

• PRE 520 Seminar: Public Relations I

  This course uses a case study format to evaluate and discuss public relations as a management function; its role in employee, community, investor, customer and government relations as well as laws and regulations affecting the profession are covered (3 credits).
  

• PRE 530 Writing for Public Relations

  This class is aimed at helping the student recognize the difference between effective and ineffective writing. Students are helped to improve the writing skills they need for careers in public relations. Focus in on persuasive writing and its components, which are needed to sell writing to clients, management and other gate keepers. Students are given the guidelines and practical experience for writing for both external and internal publics, everything from letters and news releases to newsletters and presentations (3 credits).
  Prerequisite: PRE 520.

• PRE 560 Advanced Public Relations

  This course uses a real-life situation derived from a business, non-profit organization or government agency. Students develop a complete public relations program, demonstrating their ability to formulate workable strategies and tactics for reaching appropriate publics. (3 Credits)
  Prerequisite: PRE 530.

  OR

• ADV 580 Advanced Topics Seminar: Advertising/Public Policy

  This seminar deals with current issues in advertising and public relations. Specific issues and course context vary in response to developments in the field. Among the topics covered in the course are: global advertising, direct response advertising, integrated marketing communications, sales promotion, business to business advertising, or events marketing (3 credits).