300

COM 300 The Documentary Tradition

Survey course on the visual documentary tradition.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 232 or consent of instructor.

COM 301 Introduction to Organizational Communication

This course introduces students to theory, research and applied practice in the study of organizational communication. Students will explore the role human communication plays in structuring, maintaining and changing organizations, and they will explore specific issues within the study of organizational communication including socialization, decision-making, conflict, stress and burnout, cultural diversity and external communication.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 224.

COM 302 Digital Media and Design for Communication

Students will develop critical perspectives on media consumption and creation while learning intermediate skills in design and digital production for visual communication. The course focuses on conceptual thinking and problem-solving in the development and production of digital media projects.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 222 and ART 110 or FMX 210, or consent of instructor.

COM 315 Web Design

This studio course introduces students to Web design techniques, technologies and theories, including HTML, CSS and Web design software. Almost all work is performed at a computer. Laboratory fee required.
Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

ART 110 or FMX 210, or consent of instructor.

COM 323 Digital Communication and Society

This course explores the social, political, economic, and cultural effects of emerging communication technologies.  Areas covered include the design and affordances of new technologies, how they are used by consumers and organizations, and how they are addressed by laws, policies, industries, and powerful social and cultural institutions. 

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 224 or FMX 211

COM 325 Writing for Broadcast News

This course covers the elements of broadcast news writing and production, including the structure of radio and television news and feature stories, research and interviewing techniques, "package" production and ethical considerations.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 225 or JOU 101

COM 327 Communication and Law

Communication and Law is the study of concepts, policies, laws and court decisions that affect communication in our society. Through text, scholarly and popular articles, sound and video recordings, court decisions, lectures and class participation, we explore critical legal principles of civilized democratic society and the range of laws that protect or restrain communication within it. In addition to examining such principles and laws for their own merit (or lack of it), the course provides a practical basis upon which students who seek to become communications professionals can identify legal issues that will influence their professional conduct.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 224 or JOU 101

COM 330 The Spartan Agency

A supervised practicum experience in a fully integrated marketing communications agency working with clients to deliver strategic media/communication solutions to meet organizational goals. Available to students across disciplines, majors, and colleges. Positions include agency president, account executive, creative director, public relations director, digital strategists, graphic  designers, media writers, media producers, and project managers. No more than 4 credit hours per semester are permitted. May be repeated for credit. Students may participate in The Spartan Agency for credit or non-credit.

Credit Hours: 1-4

Prerequisites

Prerequisites: Students are selected through application. See www.spartanagency.org for more information.

COM 332 Television Criticism

This is a survey of traditions of television criticism. The class covers key areas of television research and criticism, including narrative, aesthetic, production-oriented, economic, audience-centered, and ideological approaches to TV. The class will address questions related to TV as a technology, the broadcast and post-network eras of TV, the globalization of media programming, as well as a wide range of TV genres and their conventions.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 224.

COM 333 Studio TV II

Live stream multi-camera video productions straight to social media. Students will produce a bi-monthly entertainment and information talk show that combines pre-recorded segments with live hosts, guest interviews, and in-studio demonstrations. Students are responsible for pitching stories, booking talent, writing scripts, and operating equipment. This course is modeled on Daytime, a nationally syndicated program produced in Tampa. Laboratory fee required.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 303 or consent of instructor.

COM 334 Information and the New World Order

Examines the cultural, political, economic and ethical issues surrounding a complex, international communication movement known as the New World Information Order. Explores all aspects of the topic, with an emphasis on threats to the national sovereignty of developing countries, the bias of international news agencies and cultural imperialism. May be used to fulfill Third World requirements.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 224, junior or senior standing, or consent of instructor.

COM 335 Survey of Independent Video and Film

Students study and view tapes and films produced as part of the non-commercial independent movement.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 232 or permission of the instructor.

COM 344 Special Topics

Credit Hours: 1-4

COM 346 Writing for Interactive Media

This course explores practice and theory of writing for interactive media, including hypertext and hypermedia, narrative games, critical games, and location-based media.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

One of the following: COM 225, COM 226, WRI 200, WRI 220, or FMX 240

COM 348 Writing the Situation Comedy

This course is an introduction to the mechanics of writing for television. From idea through final draft, students learn the process of developing scripts for television. The structural demands of commercial television and cable are explored. The student obtains a grounding in the historical development of marketable TV genres. The selling and buying of a script are analyzed, as well as strategies for creating a teleplay by oneself or with a staff of writers.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 226, FMX 240, or consent of instructor.

COM 349 Game Writing

Students in this course will explore the narrative aspects of game writing. The goal of this course is to familiarize students with the creative, technical, and media aspects of writing for games. In this course, students will create an original game idea and produce various written assets for it, as well as a game demo.
Credit Hours: 4
spring semester

COM 350 Strategic Social Media

Students will learn how to use social media for strategic purposes, develop effective content, and measure success through analytics.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 225 and ART 110 or FMX 210

COM 354 Internship in Communication

This variable credit internship course is designed for Communication, Media, and Culture (COM) majors and advertising and public relations (AD/PR) majors. Key assignments include learning objectives, orientation seminar, informational interview, reports, and evaluations. Cannot be used to meet the 300-or-above-level requirement in either the COM or AD/PR major. Credits (1-4) vary according to the number of hours worked at the internship host site.

Credit Hours: 1-4

Prerequisites

Junior or senior standing, minimum GPA of 3.0 in major and consent of instructor.

COM 360 Film Directors

A search for the defining characteristics of a director's works, including issues of thematic motifs and visual style.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 260 or COM 261 or consent of instructor.

COM 361 Film Genres

This course will be an investigation into the thematic, theoretical, technical and structural concepts that contribute to our understanding of film genre. Students, through weekly informal writing as well as significant research-based formal papers, will sharpen their analytical, critical and research skills. Specifically, they will employ the methodology of critical inquiry and utilize appropriate vocabulary and processes to engage, through analysis, research, writing and discussion, in the dialogues of our discipline.
Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 260 or COM 261 or consent of instructor

COM 365 Critical Analysis of Media Events

The course is designed to introduce intermediate research methodologies to a student's critical analysis of large-scale media events. It involves the practical analysis of a media event, including circumstances, details, historical perspective and reactions by journalists, officials and the public. Archival coverage, documentaries, feature films, print articles and Internet sites relating to a singular or series of events will encompass a majority of the analysis. Particular attention will be given to events with international implications. Students will review the previous exposure of related topics in an effort to compare the attention given to a subject in a comparison of "before and after."

Credit Hours: 4

COM 370 Women, Film and Popular Culture

Focuses on the politics of representing women, particularly in film, television, advertising, popular literature and the popular press. The critical background includes texts on political economy, semiotics, feminist theory and cultural studies. The student completes a major research project during the course.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 232 or consent of the instructor.

COM 374 Communication Research Methods

This course introduces students of communication to the core concepts and common practices of both quantitative and qualitative communication research. Students will be exposed to a variety of theoretical perspectives on the nature, practice, use and meaning of research in the field of communication. Particular emphasis will be placed on research concepts and methods appropriate to the practice of advertising and public relations.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 224 and junior or senior standing; or permission of instructor.

COM 375 Critical Media Practice

This course familiarizes students with key theories, techniques, and media forms that will enable them to produce creative, well-researched and thought-provoking projects that embody critical media practice.  Each student will select and examine an issue of social importance, and research media platforms and rhetorical approaches suitable for that issue. Combining scholarship with media skills, the student will create a final media project. Laboratory fee required.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 242

COM 383 Advertising Creative Direction

This lab course involves strategic concept development, copywriting, and media production, as well as ethical considerations related to these practices.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 283, plus either ART 110 or FMX 210

COM 384 Writing for Public Relations

This course involves training in theory, form and style for writing public relations materials for all stages and types of public relations campaigns. This course is designed to provide students with a broad range of public relations writing skills utilized in the industry.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 225 and COM 284

COM 385 Crisis Communication

This course develops the understanding and application of common theoretical approaches to crisis communication, including the development of crisis communication objectives, strategies and tactics during all stages of a crisis. Students then practice these approaches through the development of crisis communication messaging and campaign materials.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 225 and either COM 283 or COM 284

COM 388 Multicultural and Prosocial Strategic Communication

“For-profit” brands and companies have crossed-over to the traditionally “non-profit” territory, using their platforms in advertising and public relations (ADPR) to discuss social issues so as to promote social good and to achieve commercial success. This emerging market of prosocial consumers lead to changes in the practice of doing social good in ADPR. This demands our future ADPR practitioners to have the diversity/multicultural literacy that guides them to make appropriate and conscious decisions when applying multicultural and prosocial strategies. In this course, we will cover prosocial strategic decision-making, multicultural targeting/messages/markets, consumer diversity psychology, critical social issues, and related practices in ADPR.

Credit Hours: 4

Prerequisites

COM 224

COM 390 Ethnicity in Film and Literature

This course is an exploration of the concept of "ethnicity" and how it may be expressed through literature and film.
Credit Hours: 4

COM 392 Independent Study in Communication

Research or creative project under the auspices of a communication instructor.  Students may take a maximum of 8 credit hours of independent study to fulfill the requirements of the major.
Credit Hours: 1-4

Prerequisites

Junior or senior standing, COM 224, COM 225 or COM 226, and COM 232 and minimum GPA of 3.0, or consent of instructor