Elective Courses | PR Certificate Program
Elective courses from various disciplines will allow students to specialize in a specific industry or academic field. Likely areas include: advertising, journalism, business/technical writing, communication, and technology.Students will choose one course from the following:
ADV 450 - Content Creation
Explores theories of creativity; situates creativity and creative practices within the social structure of organizations that develop creative content; examines the relationship between creative strategy, creative concepts and creative executions; exposes students to the practice of creating content for traditional and non-traditional media vehicles. Prerequisite: ADV300. (3 undergraduate credits; no graduate credit.)
ADV 476 - Global Advertising
Explores theories of culture and communication and applies them to advertising issues in the context of globalization. Through case studies and an applied research paper, students will develop strategies for advertising and communicating messages to local and global audiences. Prerequisite: ADV 300 or equivalent. (3 undergraduate credit hours)
JOUR 460 – Crisis Communications*
Students study the role of a public relations or public affairs officer to learn how they deal with the media when handling a crisis for a client, whether it’s a multinational corporation or a professional athlete. Students get a look at the inner workings of a major PR firm devoted to telling the truth while also managing the media message. (3 undergraduate hours)
AGCM 320 – Educational Campaign Planning
Coordinated approach to planning and carrying out information campaigns using a variety of communications media; students contact and work with an agency interested in running a communications campaign to plan an information strategy related to the campaign topic. Prerequisite: AGCM 210 or JOUR 200. (4 undergraduate credit hours)
AGCM/ADV 315– Emerging Media
Students learn the social and economic effects of new and emerging communication tools on the agriculture sectors of society (theories & models), and the best practices and basic skills required to implement these new media (practice). Agriculture includes a variety of sectors such as food, natural resources, animals, biofuels, and human health/nutrition. Course is taught through the frameworks of public relations, agricultural communications, and information diffusion. Restricted to ag comm, adv, jour, and communications majors. (3 undergraduate credit hours)
BTW 250 – Principles of Business Communication
Teaches students to apply the principles of successful professional communication to workplace writing tasks. Students will also practice editing and supervising the writing of others. Assignments replicate typical business cases and situations, including a report that requires students to compile and interpret research. Credit is not given for both BTW 250 and either BTW 261 or BTW 263. This course satisfies the General Education Criteria for an Advanced Composition course. Prerequisite: Completion of Composition I general education requirement (or equivalent, for off-campus students). (3 undergraduate credit hours)
BTW 261 – Principles of Tech Communication
Teaches students to apply the principles of successful professional writing to a range of realistic cases in technical communication. Emphasizes flexible problem-solving skills and a clear style for communicating technical information to a range of readers. Assignments will include correspondence, instructions, proposals, and a technical report or similar project. Credit is not given for both BTW 261 and BTW 250 or BTW 263. This course satisfies the General Education Criteria for an Advanced Composition course. Prerequisite: Completion of Composition I general education requirement (or equivalent, for off-campus students). (3 undergraduate credit hours)
BTW 271 – Persuasive Writing
Students will study principles of persuasion as applied to writing and designing written communications for business and the professions. Included are ads, direct-mail campaigns, argumentative essays, proposals, and other types of writing designed to move readers to action. This course satisfies the General Education Criteria for an Advanced Composition course. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing and completion of Composition I general education requirement (or equivalent, for off-campus students). (3 undergraduate credit hours)
CMN 211 – Business Communication
Focus on relevant theory and research on communication strategies and skills vital to diverse business contexts. Topics will include communication in civic engagement and in multinational corporations, cross-cultural communication, ethics, telecommuting, virtual work teams, and effective writing. Study, preparation, and presentation of the chief types of business speeches and other forms of communication; special attention to conferences, sales talks, interviews, and job applications are included. Prerequisite: CMN 101. (3 undergraduate credit hours)
CMN 321 – Strategies of Persuasion
Studies of powerful instances of public persuasion; students examine key means of public influence. Prerequisite: CMN 101. (3 undergraduate credit hours)
CMN 421 – Persuasion Theory & Research
Survey of major theories of persuasion, research on factors influencing persuasive effectiveness, and application to problems of persuasive discourse. (3 undergraduate hours)
CMN 212 – Introduction to Organizational Communication
Introduces concepts and schools of thought in organizational communication. Topics include: interpersonal communication and organizing, internal and external communication systems, communication and organizational effectiveness in the workplace. (3 undergraduate credit hours)
CMN 220 – Communicating Public Policy
The analysis, evaluation, and design of policy orientated communication. Examines how arguments, audience, and the public shape public policy. Students learn to formulate and present effective oral and written messages about policy questions in business, politics, and citizenship. Meets Advanced Composition Requirement. (3 undergraduate credit hours)
CMN 320 – Communication Controversy Public Policy
Examines how public policy shapes American life, by providing an advanced exploration of the controversies, discourses and effects of public policy. Provides in-depth analysis of the definitions and histories of public policy and the tensions between public and private spheres that shape it. Explores the American landscape, energy courses and environment, food systems, and political process, with a focus on industry and government turn-style lobbying rules and reform. Develops a fundamental understanding of public versus private spheres; analyzes and critiques how public policy shapes American historical and cultural landscapes; increases skillfulness in oral and written analysis of controversies, institutions, political and economic power brokers, and social norms. (3 undergraduate credit hours)
CMN 377 – Public Relations & Propaganda
Traces the social, economic, and political underpinnings of public relations and propaganda in modern times. Starting with the rise of modern propaganda in post Civil War era, examines the rise of corporate propaganda as a strategy to prevent regulatory measures and public criticism and explores how the same persuasive strategies were quickly adapted by other social and political actors. Explores the major social, political, and economic causes for the emergence of propaganda as a dominant communication strategy and traces how events during WWI and WWII helped solidify the role of government and commercial propaganda in society. The frequently blurry distinctions between government propaganda and commercial PR will be explored and the second part of the course will focus on contemporary strategies, issues and concerns. The relationship between propaganda, PR and the mass media will be a constant site of inquiry. (3 undergraduate credit hours)