Communication and Media Sciences

A Communication and Media Sciences minor is available only to students majoring in other Colleges.

This minor is designed to provide tools and communication skills to students who will be working outside the communication field, but will need an understanding of basic communication principles and skills.

To be admitted to the minor in Communication and Media Sciences, students must have a cumulative minimum GPA of at least 2.5 and must have completed at least one semester in a major program. Students must complete both major and minor requirements within the maximum number of semesters without having to enroll in an overload course schedule.

The minor consists of a maximum of three 200-level courses and a miniumum of three 300-level courses (18 credits taken). A minor coul also be comprised of six 300-level courses, assuming that prerequisistes were waived and/or equivalent courses at the lower level were taken in other academic units to fulfill those requirements.

COM 2XX up to 3 courses 0-9 credits, COM 3XX or 4XX 3-6 courses 9-18 credits.

Total for the Minor 18 credits.

Courses

COM 200 Communication, Media and Society (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: An introduction to media literacy and a broad survey of the relationship between media industries and society. Exploration of general trends in media industry development, analysis of media texts, and charting of the politics of production and distribution of media. Particular attention is given to placing the Emirati experience in the larger global context.
College Core Course (Required)
Prerequisites: None

COM 210 Media Storytelling I (4 credit hours)
Catalog Description: Introduction to practical reporting and writing. Introduces the concepts of objective and subjective journalism; discusses storytelling and presentation forms and methods for print, broadcast, online, and social media.
Menu VI Course
College Core Course (Required)
Prerequisites: None

COM 230 Public Speaking and Persuasion (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: An exploration of the relationship between public speaking and persuasion. Theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence about what makes messages persuasive will be covered. Students will develop an understanding of the fundamentals of public speaking and learn how to speak confidently and effectively as well as deliver a persuasive message in a variety of public speaking situations.
Menu III Course
College Core Course (Required)
Prerequisites: None

COM 231 Media and Cultural Criticism (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: An introduction to contemporary approaches for interpreting media texts and constructing meaning using historical and critical analysis. Students will learn to apply critical methods to popular culture, evaluate the aesthetic quality of print and broadcast messages and assess the techniques used by mass media to influence audiences.
College Core Course (Required)
Prerequisites: None

COM 237 Interpersonal and Intercultural Communication (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: The influence of culture on interpersonal and cultural communication processes. Focus on the impact of values, beliefs, perspectives and verbal and non-verbal codes on intercultural interactions. Development of interpersonal communication skills that improve competence in communication across cultures.
Specialization Core Course for Tourism and Cultural Communications (Required)
Prerequisites: None

COM 240 Communication and Media Ethics (2 credit hours)
Catalog Description: A critical examination, discussion and analysis of ethical and moral considerations in contemporary professional communication. Discusses various viewpoints of media freedom versus responsibility providing students perspectives and resources from different media systems.
College Core Course (Required)
Prerequisites: None

COM 261 Communication and Media History (2 credit hours)
Catalog Description: A review of key milestones in the development of human communication and media, including print, electronic media, film and Internet. An historical overview of the Emirates and GCC media. Discussion of the impact of globalization on media as well as contemporary trends toward convergence of the media.
College Core Course (Required)
Prerequisites: None

COM 280 Applied Digital Communication (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: An examination of strategies and technologies used for digital communication. Students will use current tools of technology to produce media content, and achieve technical and conceptual competence in digital media.
Menu IV Course
College Core Course (Required)
Prerequisites: None

COM 311 Zayed Media Lab I (1 credit hour)
Catalog Description: Introductory professional practicum focusing on the use of social media and Web 2.0 in the current media workplace. Students will work on projects in their media concentration.
College Core Course (Required)
Prerequisites: COM280

COM 312 Zayed Media Lab II (1 credit hour)
Catalog Description: Advanced professional practicum. Students will apply the technical and new conceptual knowledge learned in COM280 and COM311 to produce an interactive media production focusing on their concentration.
Prerequisite: COM 311 Zayed Media Lab I
College Core Course

COM 315 Media Storytelling II (3 credit hours)
Catalog description: Advanced course in writing for print, broadcast, and web media. Focus on professional media writing in specialized contexts, such as feature writing, writing for film, television, radio, and public affairs writing.
Prerequisite: COM 210 Media Storytelling I.
Specialization Core Course (Required)

COM 320 Photojournalism (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: Focuses on capturing and telling stories through photographs which can be used for print and Web publications. Digital camera techniques for shooting and editing photos. Significant work will also be done in commercial, portrait, and documentary photography. Students will complete this course with a body of work worthy of submission to national photography competitions.
Specialization Core Course for Converged Media (Required)
Prerequisites: None

COM 321 Video and Audio Production I (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: Introduces students to moving images and sound, with focus on producing and editing audio and visuals for film, television, radio and web broadcast using digital technologies. Techniques of filming, recording, editing and lighting will be explored. Focus on the fundamentals of telling stories with video and audio for the respective outlets.
Prerequisite: COM 315 Media Storytelling II

COM 323 The Business of Film and Television (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: Students will develop a knowledge of the history of television and film and how we arrived at the business models that are used today in documentary film, Hollywood, Bollywood and Middle East film productions, television news, and dramatic television production.
Prerequisites: No.

COM 324 Film and Television Criticism (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: Through a look back at the last 100 years of film and television, students will learn to critically evaluate films in terms of writing, directing, production values, editing, and cinematography.
Prerequisites: No.

COM 351 Principles of Public Relations (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: Survey of the theory, history and practice of public relations. Examines public relations functions within organizations, its impact on various publics and its role in society. Students will learn about the evolution of the field, the range of roles and responsibilities that public relations practitioners assume in a variety of settings, professional ethics, and significant issues and trends that have shaped the practice.
Specialization Core Course for Strategic Integrated Communications (Required)
Prerequisites: None

COM 352 Principles of Advertising (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: Survey of principles and practices of advertising in a market-driven economy. An exploration of the history, social and political perspectives, advertising institutions, current campaigns, industry trends, and an overview of advertising theory, planning, and practice.
Specialization Core Course for Strategic Integrated Communications (Required)
Prerequisites: None

COM 353 Writing for Integrated Strategic Communications (3 credit hours)
Catalog description: An examination of the strategic communications writing process, and of preparing goal-oriented messages. Students will write strategic messages for selected publics and media. Includes intensive practice in writing for a strategic media mix; including news releases, newsletters, media kits, creative advertising copy, public service announcements, website writing, crisis communications and other written and audio-visual tools.
Prerequisite: COM 351 or COM 352
Specialization Core Course for Strategic Integrated Communications (Required)

COM 356 Media Planning and Management (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: Introduction to media planning, buying, and management concepts. Includes characteristics of all forms of media, media terminology and calculations. Emphasis on solving communication problems from the perspective of strategic decision-making. Students will identify problems, develop alternative media solutions, and evaluate proposed solutions.
Prerequisite: BUS 310

COM 357 Creative Advertising (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: Students will focus on developing the creative dimensions for an Integrated Strategic Communicationcampaign related to a contemporary social issue, a commercial product or service and engage imaginatively with agency briefs, examine how ideas are creatively expressed using words and images and develop creative concepts, prepare a creative pitch and explore the story-telling and copy-writing dimensions of advertising. The course will have a significant applied component.
Pre-requisite: COM 352.

COM 358 Entrepreneurship in the Media (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: The ability of individuals to create, manage and launch their own media organizations is an increasing reality. The course explores the opportunities and challenges in creating, managing, promoting and sustaining a media related enterprises in the United Arab Emirates and beyond.
Prerequisite: No.

COM 360 Communication and Media Research and Analysis (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: An introduction to research methods commonly used in contemporary media and communication disciplines. Students will learn to formulate research questions, determine the appropriate method, plan and design research, and collect, analyze, interpret and present data. They will be introduced to both quantitative and qualitative modes of research and analysis, and attain research skills relevant to the communications professions in which they will work.
Prerequisite: No.
College Core Course (Required)

COM 371 Tourism Principles (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: Introduction to the major tourism theories, concepts and practices. Focus on the concept of the tourism system as a communication system and how the key sectors and stakeholders (government, private, community, transport, accommodation and attractions) interact to produce a complete tourism product. Considers the factors that influence tourism demand and the impacts of tourism on destinations and people.
Prerequisite: No.
Specialization Core Course (Required)

COM 372 Communicating Tourism, Destinations and Heritage (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: An integrated approach to the application of public relations, advertising and marketing strategies for the effective promotion of destinations, cultural heritage and other tourism attractions, facilities, products and services. Emphasis on the use of multichannel, multimedia communication to build destination image, raise awareness, attract and inform. Uses case studies of global and local best practices.
Prerequisite: No.
Specialization Core Course (Required)

COM 380 Web Design and Publishing (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: Design, implementation, and management of communication on the Web through a variety of platforms. Students will learn introductory tools and develop skills in interactive software.
Prerequisite: No.
Specialization Core Course (Required)

COM 382 Multimedia Production (3 credit hours)
Catalog description: Advanced skills in merging video, audio, animation, photography, and print into interactive multimedia experiences. Covers aesthetic direction, process, development, time management, and various graphic creation. Techniques in multimedia authoring, with applications for cds, dvds, and the internet - within film, broadcast, and journalistic contexts.
Prerequisites: COM 315 Media Storytelling II, COM 380 Web Design and Publishing and 321 Video and Audio Production
Specialization Core Course (Required)

COM 383 Virtual Communities and Social Media (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: Establish theoretical and experiential foundations for understanding the relationship between mediated communication and human community. Class discussion will focus on a variety of virtual world environments. Significant lab work within interactive media.

COM 421 Video and Audio Production II (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: Students will produce a short narrative or documentary film from preproduction to postproduction. The study of three-act screenplay structure, budget preparation, shooting schedules, story boards, cinematography, sound, directing actors, and editing. Students will complete the class with a short film they may submit to film festivals in the UAE and abroad and which will be a key part of their portfolio.
Prerequisites: COM 315 Media Storytelling II, COM 321 Video and Audio Production.

COM 441 Communication and Media Law (2 credit hours)
Catalog Description: Legal comparative concepts and principles including prior restraint, libel, privacy, contempt and access as they relate to print, broadcast, advertising and other areas. Focus on legal concepts as they apply to the U.A.E.
College Core Course (Required)
Prerequisites: None

COM 451 Integrated Strategic Communications (3 credit hours)
Catalog description: An integration of advertising, public relations and marketing with the planning and execution of communication campaigns for organizations. Students will learn to research and analyze situations, organizations and publics; develop strategies; select and implement creative tactics and evaluate plans.
Prerequisites: COM 351 Principles of Public Relations, COM 352 Principles of Advertising, and COM 353 Writing for Integrated Strategic Communications.
Specialization Core Course (Required)

COM457 Senior Project in Visual Communications (3 credit hours)
This course allows students to combine the various skills they have learned into a final visual communication project. This body of work could be a short documentary or narrative film, a radio documentary, a screenplay or a research project on the film/broadcast industry. The goal is to have a strong portfolio piece that can be showcased beyond a university setting and serve as an introduction to potential employers.
Prerequisites: COM 321, 421.

COM 475 Planning and Promotion for Events and Festivals (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: Develops a fundamental understanding of the various types of events and festivals. Examines the events planning process, organization, implementation and evaluation, including the creation of comprehensive event proposals, feasibility studies, the development of integrated communication strategies to meet the identified objectives, and managing the event or festival as a project.
Prerequisite: No.
Specialization Core Course (Required)

COM 481 Reporting, Writing & Producing Converged Media (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: Theory and practice of reporting, editing and producing material for publication or broad¬cast in a converged environment. Students produce multimedia reports for traditional and converged media operations.
Prerequisites: COM 315 Media Storytelling II, COM 380 Web Design and Publishing and 321 Video and Audio Production
Specialization Core Course (Required)

COM 490 Internship (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: Supervised professional work experience in a media organization or in the media department of an appropriate organization in a field that is similar to a student’s concentration. Externships require the approval of the College.
Prerequisite: senior status

COM 495 Independent Study (1-3 credit hours)
Independent study enables students to study material, pursue projects and/or conduct research in Communication and Media Sciences not available through regularly scheduled courses.
Requires permission of College Associate/Assistant dean.

COM497 Special Topics in Communications and Media Sciences (3 credit hours)
Catalog Description: Provides opportunities for the study of selected topics, issues and current affairs in communication and media.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor