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Courses

The Bachelor of Arts in Strategic Communications program requires you to complete a minimum of 120 credits. You must successfully complete:

  • 38 credits required for the major
    • 14 core requirements credits for the major
    • 21 Strategic Communications credits
    • 3 additional credits
  • 24 credits required for the Bachelor of Arts degree (3 included in requirements for the major, General Education or electives)
  • 45 General Education credits (12 included in requirements for the major)
  • 26 elective credits

If you are a transfer student, the number of credits you must take will vary according to the courses that transfer into the program. Once you are admitted to the program, your assigned academic adviser can help you select courses to fulfill the remaining requirements.

The required courses cover a wide range of topics, including:

  • writing and reporting
  • international media law and ethics         
  • research and analytics
  • economics and statistics
  • social media and gaming

Course List - Bachelor of Arts in Strategic Communications 

A student enrolled in this major must receive a grade of C or better in all courses required for the major.

Core requirements for the major (14 credits)
Title Abbreviation Description Credits
Basic News Writing Skills COMM 160 Grammar, punctuation, spelling, and word usage skills required of journalists. 1 credit
Introductory Microeconomic Analysis and Policy ECON 102 Methods of economic analysis and their use; price determination; theory of the firm; distribution. 3 credits
Introductory Psychology PSYCH 100 Introduction to general psychology; principles of human behavior and their applications. 3 credits
Elementary Statistics STAT 200 Descriptive statistics, frequency distributions, probability, binomial and normal distributions, statistical inference, linear regression, and correlation. 4 credits
Any COMM course except COMM 100 or COMM 120 TBD TBD 3 credits
Strategic Communications required credits (21 credits)
Title Abbreviation Description Credits
Writing for the Media COMM 230W This course is an introduction to writing for various kinds of mass communication media. Students will practice writing public relations news releases, public information announcements, print, television and radio advertisements, as well as news stories and editorials. Students will be given weekly writing assignments, some of which will be re-writes of earlier submissions. In-class exercises will include various writing exercises designed to get students more comfortable with writing for media.

Prerequisite: ENGL 015 and ENGL 202		 3 credits
Principles of Strategic Communications COMM 428A Various media and communications methods that comprise modern integrated marketing campaigns. 3 credits
Strategic Communications Law COMM 428B Analysis of laws and regulations affecting online advertising and strategic communications.

Prerequisite: COMM 428A and permission of the program		 3 credits
Strategic Communications in a Global Environment COMM 428C Framework for applying public relations and advertising tools across media platforms and across cultures.

Prerequisite: COMM 428A, COMM 428D and permission of the program		 3 credits
Research and Analytics COMM 428D Online research methods for strategic communication, including web analytics, online surveys, online interviews, and content analysis.

Prerequisite: COMM 428A, STAT 200 and permission of the program		 3 credits
Social Media Strategies COMM 428E Social media – including social networks, visual content, podcasts, blogs and other collaborative content creation platforms – are changing the field of public relations. To effectively deploy social media to reach brand objectives, public relations professionals need to understand the critical roles of strategy as well as content creation. This course narrows the focus from the broad field of social media to cover the specific tools and best practices needed to conquer current and future use of social media in public relations.  

Prerequisite: COMM 428A, COMM 428D and permission of the program		 3 credits
Choose 3 additional credits
Title Abbreviation Description Credits
Law of Mass Communications COMM 403 Nature and theories of law; the Supreme Court and press freedom; legal problems of the mass media. 3 credits
Political Economy of Communications COMM 405 Structure and functions of American and other mass communications systems and their relationship to political and economic systems. 3 credits
News Media Ethics COMM 409 Ethical problems in the practice of journalism; principal public criticisms of news media; case study approach. 3 credits
Sports, Media and Society COMM 412 Sport and media relationship in American culture. 3 credits
World Media Systems COMM 419 Comparative study of modern media systems of mass communications in selected foreign countries. 3 credits
Internship COMM 495 Supervised practicum with newspapers, broadcasting stations, public relations, and advertising agencies. 3 credits
Bachelor of Arts Degree Requirements (24 credits)
Description Credits
Foreign Language
(If foreign language proficiency is demonstrated by examination, these 0–12 credits may be completed from the electives)		 12 credits
Humanities, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Arts, Natural Sciences, Quantification 9 credits
Other Cultures 3 credits

3 of the 24 credits needed to satisfy the Bachelor of Arts Degree requirements may be from the requirements for the major, General Education, or electives.

General Education (45 credits**)
Description Credits
Arts – GA 6 credits
Humanities – GH 6 credits
Health and Wellness – GHW 3 credits
Natural Sciences – GN 9 credits
Social and Behavioral Sciences – GS 6 credits
Writing and Speaking – GWS* 9 credits
Quantification – GQ* 6 credits
Integrative Studies (6 credits)***

*A student enrolled in this course must receive a grade of C or better.

**12 credits are included in the requirements for the major.

***This requirement only applies to students starting in summer 2018 or later. Learn more about the Integrative Studies options and consult your academic adviser when choosing courses to fulfill these requirements. 

Electives (26 credits)

Students should choose 26 addition credits to satisfy the electives requirement.

Course Availability

If you're ready to see when your courses will be offered, visit our public LionPATH course search (opens in new window) to start planning ahead.