All courses offered in the program have a comprehensive goal of integrating the Christian faith and biblical truth and principles with the subject matter and complete learning experience. This will be accomplished in many different ways.
COM 600-Communication Ethics and Worldview (3 credits)
This course involves the study of various Christian historical, theoretical and ethical perspectives and their application to the communication field, professions and media. Furthermore, this class attempts to understand the role of media and communication in the development of one’s own worldview and the worldviews existent within our culture. This class will challenge the student to enter a discussion examining the role communication and the media play in shaping or reinforcing many of the religious and ethical beliefs existent within our culture. Students have the opportunity to further develop a biblical basis for the practice, ethics and study of communication. This course is required for all students in the College of Communication and the Arts seeking a master’s degree.
COM 601-Research and Writing in Communication (3 credits)
This course will introduce students to the field of communication studies with a special emphasis on communication research methodologies and the procedures for implementing them. The course will also introduce the student to library research, to fundamental computer utilization in word processing/writing, to the required APA and MLA style writing forms, to research statistics using SPSS, and to master's degree requirements in the School (the thesis, portfolio, and comprehensive examination options). Students will learn how, and do quantitative and qualitative (or textual critical) research in their respective majors (communication studies, journalism, cinema, television or theatre). The School of Communication and the Arts requires this course for all students. It should be taken within the first two semesters of study in the graduate student's degree program.
^BACK TO TOP
COM 603-The Creative Person (3 credits)
The course is an integrated, in-depth study of the theoretical and practical aspects of human creativity and the creative process viewed through the lens of the Christian faith. The course will help students understand creativity and scholarship in this area of study better, but also will enable them to develop their own creative gifts on a personal level and as they apply to various professions, roles and activities within the communication, arts and other fields.
COM 607-New Media (3 credits)
The course will examine the nature of new and emerging media and related technologies (e.g. interactive television, Internet advancements, virtual reality and many others). The goal is to strengthen each student’s understanding of, and ability to predict, how these media are changing the characteristics of, and thinking and behavior in, popular cultures, news and entertainment industries, the Church, organizational life, and the business, education, government, political, health and medicine, law, criminal justice, military and other fields. At the same time, the course will explore how economic, political, social, religious and other aspects of contemporary cultures shape the form and content of these new media and how the Christian community, in particular, may respond to them. Students will have an opportunity to develop and propose a new product, service or ministry that utilizes or applies new or emerging media or technologies and is a response to changing needs within a particular culture, field or profession.
COM 608-Media, Culture and Public Life (3 credits)
This course will consider how media forms (such as radio, television, and computer-mediated communication) and mediated artifacts (such as public speeches, broadcast news, television programs, films, advertising, and artifacts of popular culture) influence public discourse, public argument, and conceptions of community and national life together. Students should emerge from the course with a familiarity with broadly rhetorical approaches to studying media, culture, and communication more generally. Students also learn to integrate their Christian faith and research methods—historical, analytical, and critical—in understanding more fully the richness and symbolic power of popular media. Students should also be able to think more critically, more humanely, and more Christianly about how mediated communication functions in public, organizational, and interpersonal contexts.
^BACK TO TOP
COM 611-Media and Social Influence (3 credits)
Designed to develop an understanding of important theories of social influence pertinent to media and culture, this course features content including study of the diffusion of innovations, social marketing, entertainment-education, agenda-setting, and other communication and development processes. Social change will be studied within the context of Scripture at the individual, organizational, community, national and international levels. This course will benefit anyone who seeks to know how mass media influences people’s attitudes, values, beliefs, and practices. Students may have the opportunity to get involved in applied research projects that address some of the most significant issues and needs in contemporary society.
COM 614-Global Media and Cultural Change (3 credits)
Students in this course will examine the kinds of challenges and opportunities encountered in communicating in the current “Global Village.” Students are encouraged to creatively develop an understanding of ways of communicating across geographical, national ("national" was added), religious and cultural boundaries. Students formulate ideas of what effect the culture of global media has on our understanding of our faith and the faith of others. Such critical issues as the nature of globalization, the role of media in development, global media consumption, cultural imperialism, the flow of ideas and products in a global culture and the influence of a changing global media industry will be addressed.
COM 628-The Articulate Person I (1 credit)
This course will offer the student the opportunity to learn communication articulateness through reading, study,
discussion and performance. The content will focus on learning about and practicing the presentation of ideas,
images and emotions in ways that are most likely to be listened to and accepted by other persons. In other words, articulateness is more than spoken words only. The oral interpretation of the Word of God will provide the content of this first unit of the articulate person. More than any other content, the ability and intentionality to produce well God’s Word for the edification of the listener should be paramount to Christian graduate students in the profession of their faith through the acceptable media of the present to a culture largely un-evangelized today. The course rationale and organization assumes that the student already has knowledge and experience in public oral communication at the basic level.
^BACK TO TOP
COM 629-The Articulate Person II (1 credit)
The history of speaking either to an audience face-to-face or digitally recording one’s person/behavior and words has well defined those forums in which the best of speech-making is to be practiced: the informative speech, presenting information to an audience; the persuasive speech, persuading hearers to some preconceived agendum; and special occasion speech, the ceremonial event when in life people gather together. This course will provide the opportunity to practice speech articulateness and the use, when applicable, of visual components to creating meaning for an audience. Emphasis will be on public speaking and visual culture as vehicles for the discovery and artful presentation of truth, for the promotion of responsible personal development and for the encouragement of constructive social action. The student should have successfully completed the previous unit of The Articulate Person.
COM 630-The Articulate Person III (1 credit)
Articulateness extends not only to the spoken word but the printed word and images also, and not only to one medium at a time, but to multi-media all at once. This course will take the skills students learned in the first two units and in the Media, Faith and Culture program generally and extend them to reach people where most may often be found today--on the Internet. Utilizing all media forms--text, images, audio streaming, video streaming, blogs, etc.--this course will enable students to take elements of media, faith, and contemporary culture and apply them to an actual Web site that reflects the highest forms of articulateness for this generation. This course will help the student discover the organization and population of a Web site that takes the person accessing the site to a full media experience involving a variety of communication settings. This includes academic papers (white papers), synchronous and asynchronous chat rooms, video documentaries, editorial/opinion pages, audio and video sites featuring the oral interpretation of the Word of God, etc. Students should have successfully completed the previous two units of the articulate person.
COM 631-Organizational Communication in the Digital Age (3 credits)
New and emerging communication technologies, their uses and related issues are drastically changing the nature of communication, organizational life generally and cultures in which organizations reside. This course provides students with a communication-based perspective of organizations and organizational leadership, with a special emphasis on the characteristics of and current and future trends and issues associated with organizations in this digital age. A blend of theory and practice, it draws from existing, pertinent theoretical constructs, models, research and generalizations that are relevant to organizational communication and leadership in our increasingly highly mediated environment. It provides opportunities for students to sharpen their critical thinking, further develop their communication skills and learn practical concepts and principles that can be applied creatively to their current or future special areas of interest, organizational settings or professional roles.
^BACK TO TOP
COM 632-Media and the Church (3 credits)
The course examines the role of both traditional and newer forms of media in local church and other Christian organizational and group settings primarily from a leadership or decision-making perspective. The course will explore trends and issues related to the use of media in contemporary cultures and current and possible future applications of communication technologies to fulfill local church and para-church missions and goals. The course is required for those students whose special area of interest within the Media, Faith and Culture program involves filling or enhancing knowledge and skills related to a media director or a similar role in the local church. However, it also is highly recommended for anyone that is currently occupying a leadership role in a Christian organization or aspires to do so in the future.
Culminating Experiences (3 credits)
Students have the option of pursuing one of three culminating learning experiences.
- COM 599 Thesis (3 credits)
A traditional master's thesis, particularly recommended for students interested in graduate study beyond the master's degree.
- COM 598 Portfolio (3 credits)
A research based opportunity to demonstrate professional competence and creativity in a
special interest area that reflects study in or meets a practical need related to media, faith and culture.
- COM 595/COM 597-Internship (2 credits) and Exam (1 credit)
The internship is an opportunity to apply what has been learned through coursework to a professional work situation. The comprehensive exam contains written and optional oral components and typically is taken after the student has met other coursework requirements.
^BACK TO TOP
