Program Description
The Jefferson Communication & Media Strategies program prepares students for today’s media marketplace through a broad-based education that emphasizes storytelling, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving and multimedia skills development, backed by strategy, analytics, and ethical practice.
The program is flexible enough to be tailored to each student’s unique communication career goals and provides the key skills necessary to thrive in new areas of communication as the marketplace continues to change and grow. Students learn content creation alongside the strategic thinking that makes content matter, and pair their learning with a required minor in another of Jefferson’s professional programs to enhance their expertise.
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Learning Goals/Outcomes
- Planning and Process: apply a process of self-reflection and self-evaluation in order to plan their course of study and professional path in Communication [integration]
- Visual Literacy: read, interpret, and analyze visual information in multiple forms of 153 media [visual]
- Idea Invention: engage in generative and iterative processes to develop and communicate original ideas to achieve specific communication goals [rhetoric, practice, visual, integration]
- Rhetoric and Writing: identify and apply written techniques of argument and persuasion appropriate to specific tasks, audiences, and platforms [rhetoric, practice]
- Visual/Verbal Presentation: synthesize & understanding of visual and verbal communication techniques and technologies to create effective presentations for specific audiences [rhetoric, practice, visual, integration]
- Narrative Creation: identify and apply written and visual narrative strategies to the invention and communication of persuasive stories for specific audiences [rhetoric, practice, visual, integration]
- History/Theory: explore the relationship between meaning and context through analysis of historical and contemporary communicative expressions [rhetoric, practice, visual integration
Curriculum: 4 year, 121-124 credits
| First Year | Credits | |
|---|---|---|
| FYS 100 | Pathways Seminar | 1 |
| WRIT 101 | Writing Sem I: Written Comm. | 3 |
| MATH XXX | Mathematics | 3-4 |
| AVIS 101 | American Visions | 3 |
| Scientific Understanding | 3-4 | |
| Scientific Understanding/Math/STAT | 3-4 | |
| COMS 101 | Intro to Media Industries | 3 |
| COMS 102 | Introduct to Public Speaking | 3 |
| COMS 200 | Visual Media Strategies | 3 |
| COMS 202 | Research Strategies for Media (Minor Course Selection) | 3 |
| PHOTO COURSE | 3 | |
| Intro to Photo: Black & White | ||
| Intro to Photography: Digital | ||
| Studio Photography | ||
| Credits | 31-34 | |
| Second Year | ||
| WRIT 201 | Writing Seminar II:Multi Comm | 3 |
| GDIV 2XX | 3 | |
| ETHC 2XX | 3 | |
| COMS 203 | Digital Communication &Culture | 3 |
| COMS 204 | Video Content Creation | 3 |
| COMS 206 | PR/Strategic Communication | 3 |
| COMS 307 | Media Writing Strategies | 3 |
| MKTG 102 | Principles of Marketing | 3 |
| DIGITAL DESIGN Course | 3 | |
| Intro to Photography: Digital | ||
| Fundamentls of Web Programming | ||
| GRPH 110 | Digital Imagn for Graphic Desg | 3 |
| Minor Course (1 of 4) | 3 | |
| Credits | 33 | |
| Third Year | ||
| ADIV 2XX | 3 | |
| GCIT 2XX | 3 | |
| CGIS 300 | Contemporary Global Issues | 3 |
| COMS 300 | Podcasting & Audio Production | 3 |
| COMS 306 | Social Media Strategies | 3 |
| LAW 304 | Law, Media & Society | 3 |
| Minor Course (2 of 4) | 3 | |
| CRITICAL COMM STUDIES COURSE | ||
| Conspiracy Theories: Analysis | ||
| The Internet and the Law | ||
| Technical Writing | ||
| World Cinemas | ||
| Selected Topics in Psychology | ||
| General Elective | 9 | |
| Credits | 30 | |
| Fourth Year | ||
| PHIL 499 | Philosophies of the Good Life | 3 |
| ISEM 3XX | 3 | |
| COMS 316 | Multimedia Journalism | 3 |
| COMS 404 | Professional Comm Capstone | 3 |
| General Electives | 15 | |
| COMS 4XX PROF CAP CAPSTONE PART 2 | ||
| CRITICAL COMM STUDIES COURSE | ||
| Conspiracy Theories: Analysis | ||
| The Internet and the Law | ||
| Technical Writing | ||
| World Cinemas | ||
| Selected Topics in Psychology | ||
| Minor Course (4 of 4) | 3 | |
| Credits | 30 | |
| Total Credits | 124-127 | |