Course | Description |
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COM 110 Introduction to Mass Media | Introduction to Mass Media will present student with a fundamental understanding of mass communication theory. The course will examine various forms of mass media in terms of their evolution, contemporary status, and future potentials. The course will also study the effects of mass media on both a personal and global level. The lecture portion of the class will be supplemented by video screenings, field trips, in-class research, and group work. |
COM 170 Multimedia Explorations | The course allows students to be exposed to a wide sampling of digital media formats in a short time, including photography, video, audio and basic web design. It also allows students to use the latest in digital media tools and learn basic techniques and applications for these tools. A required course for all Digital Media and Communication (DMAC) students, COM170 is also recommended for any student who wants to increase their professional viability in the new digital marketplace. This course fulfills the Arts General Education requirement. |
COM 180 Advanced Multimedia Explorations | Intended as a complement to COM170, the course builds on previously acquired knowledge while furthering students’ understanding of effective media integration (e.g. web, film/video, audio and photography). The course looks to teach advanced skills while showing students how to synthesize various media platforms into convergent media projects. A required course for all Digital Media and Communication (DMAC) students, COM180 is also recommended for any student who wants to further their professional viability in the new digital marketplace. |
COM 190 Visual Communication | This course introduces interpretative techniques involving observation and discussion of signs, symbols, ciphers, metaphors, convergence, and noted methods of film analysis. Participants explore the manner in which images have been used, sometimes with disregard to ethics and rights of others. Students learn to discern the complex interplay between the creation of images, the 'business 'of images, and the cultural and economic world. Classroom discussions induce deeper inquiry into subjects such as consumerism, stereotypes, media news, propaganda, and conflicting core principles, prompting students to consider their own use of imagery. |
COM 205 Email Marketing | This course is offered via Hilbert's partnership with Rize, an education company seeking to prepare students for careers in the fastest-growing fields. The partnership allows students to earn Hilbert credit toward in-demand degree programs. Courses are designed by top academics and industry leaders, vetted by Hilbert and taught by faculty at other colleges and universities. |
COM 207 Viral & Organic Growth | This course is offered via Hilbert's partnership with Rize, an education company seeking to prepare students for careers in the fastest-growing fields. The partnership allows students to earn Hilbert credit toward in-demand degree programs. Courses are designed by top academics and industry leaders, vetted by Hilbert and taught by faculty at other colleges and universities.
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COM 210 Media Analysis | Students learn three distinct methods of criticizing the media, 1) the use of scientific instruments to track media usage in the form of ratings, 2) the use of social science to form a critical understanding of the effects of media and 3) the use of artistic theory to understand the intended message of media. Students will explore these three disparate methods of understanding media effects, and will use their own media viewing and buying habits to better understand how the media effects culture. |
COM 211 Communication Theory | This is a broad theory course that covers the scientific method, application of theory to general social issues and to research on those issues, the logical positivist outlook, and issues such as Paradigm Shift and the Rashomon Effect as they apply to human interaction. On a narrower focus, the class covers many of the most important theories of communications, and attempts to cover basic theories from other fields such as structuralism, functionalism, feminism, and neo-Marxism / critical theory. |
COM 230 Organizational Communication | The focus of this course will be on aesthetic perception and comprehension as it applies to vision and sound production. The understanding of aesthetics relies on the convergence of a variety of relative disciplines and concepts. Semiotics as the study of signs and symbols is of preferential importance especially in regards to the coding of images and sounds. The congruence of linguistics, formalism, perceptual psychology, hermeneutics, structuralism and art is of equal significance. The combination of these pursuits is vital in apprehending the semantics of visual images such as photographs, films and television. The methods in which these mediums communicate involves a rhetorical prominence that certainly has personal, sociological and cultural implications. It is with enthusiasm, vigor and thoughtfulness that we will explore and pursue the aforementioned issues. |
COM 240 The Art of Persuasion: Introduction to Rhetorical Strategies | This course builds on the elements of argument introduced in EN 101. The art of persuasive communication based on the study and application of rhetorical theory is introduced. The history of rhetoric from ancient Greece to tomorrow will be explored with a strong look at rhetoric in mass media and contemporary culture. The course provides a strong foundation for COM 243 Journalism I, COM 344 Public Relations Writing, COM 348 Advertising Copywriting, COM 360 Press Relations, and COM 460 Persuasive Campaigns. This course is designed to enhance the student’s ability to apply rhetorical principles to various forms of writing and speaking. This course is designed to help students improve their writing skills and would be beneficial to students in all majors. |
COM 242 Script Writing | Script writing covers the writing and pre-production stage of television and film production. Students will learn how to make basic storyboards, how to write script treatments, and how to develop full-length scripts from basic ideas. |
COM 243 Journalism I | In this class students will develop their writing skills through various journalistic assignments. Students will begin by learning the basic elements and style of news stories, editorials, interviews, and columns. In addition, students will learn the importance of objectivity, accuracy, and awareness of audience. Because the line between news and entertainment is becoming less defined, the course will also discuss the role of ethics in journalism. This course fulfills the Arts General Education requirement. |
COM 261 Concepts of Integrated Marketing | Introductory public relations, advertising, and integrated marketing course that covers the history and practice of persuasive media. |
COM 270 Digital Photography I | This course looks at the art and practical applications of still photography using digital tools. Students will use digital cameras and image manipulation tools such as Adobe Photoshop to create both artistic and practical images. This course fulfills the Arts General Education requirement. |
COM 273 Graphic Design | Graphic Design deals with the interaction of text and image, the fundamental components of graphic communication. The course will be project-focused and cover principles of digital design, desktop publishing, composition, computerized layout, typography and imaging applied to advertising, public relations, and publication design for print and web. Visual literacy will be increased through exposure to contemporary design issues. This course fulfills the Arts General Education requirement. |
COM 281 Web Design I | The professional methods of interactive design for the Internet. Includes use of design tools, Internet technologies, artistic and communication concepts, hand coding, and database integration. |
COM 303 SEO & SEM | This course is offered via Hilbert's partnership with Rize, an education company seeking to prepare students for careers in the fastest-growing fields. The partnership allows students to earn Hilbert credit toward in-demand degree programs. Courses are designed by top academics and industry leaders, vetted by Hilbert and taught by faculty at other colleges and universities. |
COM 305 Visual Communication | The goals of this course are to develop habits of analysis of production and consumption of visual information; explore of the role of images in the communication process; look at their application to journalism, the moving image, public relations, advertising and digital media. This course is a prerequisite to the graphic design and photography courses offered by the department, and are helpful to anyone interested in a career in the visual arts or communication. |
COM 310 Mass Communication Theory | This is a broad theory course that covers the scientific method, application of theory to general social issues and to research on those issues, the logical positivist outlook, and issues such as Paradigm Shift and the Rashomon Effect as they apply to human interaction. On a narrower focus, the class covers many of the most important theories of communications, and attempts to cover basic theories from other fields such as structuralism, functionalism, feminism, and neo-marxism / critical theory. |
COM 320 Communications Law and Ethics | A course in the legal and ethical aspects of human communications in western society. Includes an in depth look at the history of communications laws, current case law, constitutional law, and a discussion of international law covering communications, speech, and the press. |
COM 323 Gender and Communications | A critical analysis of the relationship between gender and how people communicate, both in terms of style, and in terms of message. |
COM 325 Special Topics in Communications | The course will focus on the effect of the moving image in contemporary America vis-à-vis criminology. Film and television studies will provide a framework to view the manifestations of crime and punishment in the media. Activities in class will include the viewing of film and television clips, discussion about the ideas behind these representations and writing response papers . |
COM 330 Organizational Communication | An introduction to the study of the nature of communication within organizations. This course provides a practical introduction to the principles of organizational communication, including basis theories, methods, and applications of organizational communication. This course will increase your awareness and understanding of communication-related phenomena in the context of formal organizations. |
COM 331 Social Media Marketing | This course is offered via Hilbert's partnership with Rize, an education company seeking to prepare students for careers in the fastest-growing fields. The partnership allows students to earn Hilbert credit toward in-demand degree programs. Courses are designed by top academics and industry leaders, vetted by Hilbert and taught by faculty at other colleges and universities. |
COM 332 Labor Relations | Labor Relations covers the history of labor organizations, how corporations and employees communicate with each other, and helps develop an understanding of the relationship between labor and communications. |
COM 333 Corporate Communications | This course looks at the systems which facilitate communication within a corporate structure, and how professional communicators fit into the basic corporate structure. The course covers both internal and external communications roles using all forms of media. |
COM 344 Public Relations Writing | In this course, students will develop their writing skills through various assignments dealing with public relations and advertising. Students will complete a variety of assignments, beginning with press releases, newsletters, and advertising copy and continuing to more complex assignments that will involve multiple tasks, such as special events planning and an advertising campaign. |
COM 345 Sports Reporting | This course covers the methods of reporting on and writing for sports coverage. COM 243 |
COM 348 Advertising Copywriting | This course will provide students with the opportunity to learn about advertising through a study of advertising strategies and practices. Students will begin by examining various advertising strategies, including consumer-oriented and product-oriented strategies. |
COM 351 Speaking for the Professions | The course will be structured in such a way as to focus on the speaking situations in which most professionals must perform. Appropriate topics, by academic major, will be developed within simulated situations. Key strategies will be introduced and then integrated into student presentations given during the semester. |
COM 360 Press Relations | Students alternately take on the roll of a member of the media, and a person whose job is to deal with the media, and plays these roles in relations to their own major (ECI students deal with ECI situations, business students deal with businesses, and so forth). |
COM 362 Integrated Marketing Research | A basic human studies course designed to teach how to apply modern scientific instruments to the prediction of market patterns and forces. Students will develop and deploy research instruments and test interventions in research groups to learn both theory driven research, and non-theoretical market research. |
COM 365 Digital Filmmaking | Digital filmmaking is an intermediate level course dealing with theory, techniques, and aesthetics of cinematography and lighting, via demonstrations, exams, practicums, and shooting exercises utilizing a variety of industry oriented digital equipment and accessories. Students in this class also learn basic pre-production, scriptwriting and research methods while producing the material for a short length narrative or documentary digital film. |
COM 370 Digital Photography | A general digital photography course which deals with the photographic history and theory, basic and intermediate photographic techniques and digital manipulations of images. Students will view and criticize the works of notable photographers for visual style and underlying message. This course will attempt to help the student develop artistic style and a firm grounding of visual theory. |
COM 371 Contemporary Cinema | The course is a study of current trends in international and independent filmmaking. The screenings will exemplify a range of genres and styles revealing the diversity of recent releases. The course will also deal with elements of cinematic comprehension through discussion of narrative structure, technique, theme and form. The course is split between screening sand lectures. The lectures will be devoted to a number of concepts that will be explicated further via the screenings. |
COM 374 Lighting for Video and Theatre | This course covers the basics of safe handling of performance light, including the technology of lighting, and the artistic dimensions of lighting. Light subjects will include advanced three point lighting, theatrical lighting for video, theatrical lighting for stage, electrical theory, light and color theory, safety, and grip work. |
COM 375 Digital Film Editing | Digital film editing is an intermediate-level course covering theory, techniques and aesthetics of film/digital video non-linear editing. A variety of industry oriented digital applications, with emphasis on Final Cut Pro, will be utilized in the editing exercises. |
COM 378 Radio Production | A course in advanced audio methods. This course covers the use of sound in advanced video productions and in audio productions including the collection and use of foley, sound effects, audio track editing, and other topics. |
COM 380 Communications Technology | Communication technology is an engineering course that covers how information is transmitted and stored. Topics include digital and analog information systems, information transmission and storage schema, digital compression techniques, encoding and decoding theory, and discussions of noise, redundancy, error recovery, and the technologies that support modern communications. |
COM 385 2D/3D Graphics | This class will be a hands-on, project-focused course showing how to make a project from design to final render. Students will be using 2d and 3d modeling/graphic applications, and will explore fundamental principles of three-dimensional computer animation including: pre-visualization, modeling techniques, movement, motion principles, lighting styles in screen space, and concept development. The storytelling process and the development of observational skills will be emphasized. This course will cover all related techniques needed to created 3D scenes including lighting, texturing and rendering. |
COM 403 Digital Marketing Analytics | This course is offered via Hilbert's partnership with Rize, an education company seeking to prepare students for careers in the fastest-growing fields. The partnership allows students to earn Hilbert credit toward in-demand degree programs. Courses are designed by top academics and industry leaders, vetted by Hilbert and taught by faculty at other colleges and universities. |
COM 442 Multimedia Journalism | The purpose of this course is to provide intermediate and advanced training on multimedia journalism, especially regarding the creation of new storytelling techniques developed on digital platforms. Besides this hands-on training, the course will also examine the Digital Revolution and the creation of a global Information Society, with a special focus on the effects these phenomena are having on the media in general, and on journalism in particular. The class has two components: a seminar session, based on lectures, readings, case studies and discussions about the ongoing transformations in the media and journalism environments; and a computer lab session dedicated to hands-on experience with the development of multimedia journalism projects for digital platforms. The first component helps students understand the rapidly changing media environment where journalism is practiced currently, and the creation of a new media ecosystem. The second component intends to give the students tools to work with multimedia narratives more attuned with this new “mediascape.” Students will learn how to develop multimedia projects, working with different formats, such as text, hypertext, photos, video, animation, databases, etc. The digital technology training will be placed within journalistic contexts, such as responsible reporting, clear writing, critical thinking, ethical principles, etc. |
COM 443 Journalism Practicum | The main purpose of this course is for students to write, design and publish the school’s online newspaper. Students participate in all aspects of journalism through the hands-on experience of interviewing, writing, designing and creating media. The practicum requires intensive reporting, writing, workplace collaboration and reflection on ethics, the role of public writing and the liberal arts education in the real-world experiences of the journalist. As writers they will generate relevant questions about readings and issues that can be researched, and refine their skills in using precise language, action verbs and sensory details. The skills of this course (research, critical thinking, process writing in a variety of genres, photography, layout design, etc.) empower students to continue reporting for, writing and creating the school’s online newspaper. The practicum will serve as an experience builder and also as catalyst for further learning in ways that other classroom experiences do not. This practicum will provide the context for what students have previously learned in their disciplines and through liberal arts electives. To be successful, the journalist must know the foundations of many different disciplines: history, science, art, languages are just the beginning. The practicum is designed to illuminate the value of liberal arts courses in a real and meaningful way. |
COM 455 Advanced 2D/3D Animation | This course is designed to give students an advanced look into the world of 2D and 3D animation. Over the course of the semester students will explore various software packages ranging from Adobe's After Effects, to Maxon's Cinema 4D, expanding their repertoire as designers. Upon completion of the class students will have the ability to produce professional grade animation effects and packages, as well as the ability to manipulate and effect pre-recorded footage via the principles discussed in class. |
COM 460 Persuasive Campaigns | Students will integrate their understandings of communications theory, communications research, public relations and advertising methodology, and media analysis into a single campaign, allowing students to ?tie-in all of their various knowledge and skills into one whole. |
COM 475 Studio Production | Studio production is an advanced course in which the elements of video studio production are covered. Training is given in the function and operation of all studio facilities. The direction and production of basic types of programs are taught and practiced. Students learn to handle all of the basic staff positions on the video studio production team. |
COM 478 The Documentary: Filming the World as it is | Students in this course take a basic understanding of video production and marry it to the research techniques of ethnography or documentary studies. This assumes that a student will be able to produce basic, quality video images and sound using modern equipment, but stresses academically and ethically valid methods of research instead of mastery of the art of video. |
COM 490 Senior Thesis | This course is designed for the Communication major with senior status and a grade point average of at least 3.5 who intends to continue on to a graduate program in Communication, Integrated Marketing, Human Resources, or Business, etc. The completion of a senior thesis is intended to show a student’s ability to carry on independent and sustained scholarship within the discipline and will also result in a superior writing sample for a graduate application. In this age of competitive applications to graduate school, a proven ability in independent and sophisticated scholarship before admittance gives an applicant a great advantage. The thesis is to be undertaken only with the approval of both a faculty advisor who will oversee the project, and the chair of the department. The specifics of the project will be designed by the student under the guidance of the faculty advisor. Though the project must be centered in one concentration of Communication, the scope may include other areas as well. In projects that cross disciplines, the student may need to ask additional faculty to help advise in those areas. In such cases, the student will be advised by a committee of faculty members with a Communication Studies Department faculty member serving as Chair. |
COM 491 Internship | As one capstone option a student may choose to take the Communication internship. This course provides the Communication major with an experiential situation in a professional setting related to the student’s area of concentration: Integrated Marketing, Interpersonal and Organizational Communication, Media Arts, and Media Writing. A variety of experiences is available and will be guided by the professional agency in consort with the internship director. All students interested in an internship must obtain the approval of the Department Chair during the semester prior to the internship. Students must complete a paper on their experience and hold their work position for no fewer than 40 hours per credit awarded. This course may be taken twice for 1-3 credits each time, each time it is taken should be with a different organization. |
COM 492 Internship | As one capstone option a student may choose to take the Communication internship. This course provides the Communication major with an experiential situation in a professional setting related to the student’s area of concentration: Integrated Marketing, Interpersonal and Organizational Communication, Media Arts, and Media Writing. A variety of experiences is available and will be guided by the professional agency in consort with the internship director. All students interested in an internship must obtain the approval of the Department Chair during the semester prior to the internship. Students must complete a paper on their experience and hold their work position for no fewer than 40 hours per credit awarded. This course may be taken twice for 1-3 credits each time, each time it is taken should be with a different organization. |
COM 493 Professional Seminar | This course is designed for senior – level students. It is designed to prepare students to succeed in the highly competitive worlds of Media Arts, Public Relations, and Marketing by giving them real-world hands-on experience in the field. It is no longer possible to expect to work in an area in isolation—all aspects of the industry are now enmeshed. The new key to success is one’s ability to manage and work within the convergence of multimedia. Reporters must work in web based media and video as well as writing copy; camera people must write, film, produce, and edit work; PR is now in charge of press releases, web presence, marketing, and media production. Simply put, the more you can move between media elements, the more you understand, the more employable you will be and the more promotable you will be. In this seminar students will work in real-life settings to create multimedia projects for clients. The Professional Seminar is designed to enable students of to prepare a professional portfolio showing broad skills. |
COM 494 Professional Seminar | This course is designed for senior – level students. It is designed to prepare students to succeed in the highly competitive worlds of Media Arts, Public Relations, and Marketing by giving them real-world hands-on experience in the field. It is no longer possible to expect to work in an area in isolation—all aspects of the industry are now enmeshed. The new key to success is one’s ability to manage and work within the convergence of multimedia. Reporters must work in web based media and video as well as writing copy; camera people must write, film, produce, and edit work; PR is now in charge of press releases, web presence, marketing, and media production. Simply put, the more you can move between media elements, the more you understand, the more employable you will be and the more promotable you will be. In this seminar students will work in real-life settings to create multimedia projects for clients. The Professional Seminar is designed to enable students of to prepare a professional portfolio showing broad skills. |
COM 495 Independent Study: Portfolio Design | In this course, students will work on developing a portfolio consisting of a variety of writing assignments in the areas of public relations and advertising. This course is intended as a capstone course, building on the other courses offered in the Professional Communications concentration. The various assignments included in the portfolio will provide students with quality samples of their writing that they can show to prospective employers. Included in the portfolio will be press releases, newsletters, brochures, and print and television ads. This course may be taken twice for 1-3 credits each time. |