Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies, Social Media Track

Overview

Social media management requires a unique set of skills that take students far beyond traditional communication and media production proficiency. However, our social media track does more than just prepare graduates to competently use leading social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Beyond learning the general functionality of social media, students learn to employ ethical standards for communicating with social media while applying their own moral standards. Students on this track explore the dangers of social media, and the importance of setting social media policies for the workplace.

With the appropriate support courses and possible minor options, the social media track prepares students for communicating and marketing with social media, including effective use of interactive designs. Students can learn to examine the social press and how to share client and personal expertise and experiences with the online world, how to use social tools for collaborative work, and how to distinguish the characteristics and methods, advantages and pitfalls, of virtual communities, social photos and videos, collective intelligence, crowd-sourcing, social production, and wiki collaboration.

Students majoring in communication studies must successfully complete all core courses and one of the specified tracks for a total of 39 semester hours in CMST. Students must complete 18 credits of 3000- and 4000-level courses in the CMST major. Students must also complete all requirements for a Bachelor of Arts degree, including the completion of an approved academic minor.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Regardless of track, students graduating with a B.A. degree in communication studies will:

1. Students graduating with a B.A. degree in Communication Studies will interpret, evaluate, and apply communication scholarship. 
2. Students graduating with a B.A. degree in Communication Studies will perform verbal and nonverbal behaviors that illustrate self-efficacy. 
3. Students graduating with a B.A. degree in Communication Studies will demonstrate communication expertise in their career development. 
4. Students graduating with a B.A. degree in Communication Studies will identify communication theories, perspectives, principles, and concepts.

Students completing their degree in communication studies are uniquely qualified to enter the job market and compete effectively throughout their careers for advancement and promotion.

Through course offerings and applied learning experiences, the communication studies program combines a rich liberal arts emphasis with a much needed specialized professional and career focus for undergraduate students.