COMS/STCO 658 Strategic Communication Campaigns for the Digital Age

An exploration of the use of integrated marketing communication for strategic movement of organizations, products and services toward growth.

The purpose of this course is to provide students with a theoretical and practical understanding of the contemporary world of Advertising and Public Relations and its role in business, government, not-for-profit, and community organizations. 

Textbook readings

No details available.

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student will complete one Discussion: Introduction Video in this course. During the first week, the student will record a short video introducing himself/herself to the class. The student should post this in the initial thread. The length of the video is up to the student. Then, the student will post a written response of 200 words to 2 other classmates’ video introductions.

The student will answer these questions in his/her video post:

• Where he/she lives (state or country only)
• Family, hobbies/interests, and anything else the student want to share about himself/herself
• Which specific degree the student is pursuing
• The student will explain what he/she finds interesting about communication in the marketplace
• What promotional experiences has the student had?
• What the student would like to learn from this course

Discussion (4)

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student will complete four standard discussions within this course. The content of this course is extensive and will require the student to look at a variety of concepts in a variety of ways. The student will have to think analytically, articulate carefully, and work quickly. Each Discussion will follow the same set of instructions.

For each initial discussion thread, the student will be presented with three sets of questions. The student will choose one set of questions in which to do a “deep dive” answer. For the replies, the student should respond to his/her peers who responded to each of the other two questions. The student should not be replying to peers who answered the same question as him/her. For example, if the student answers question 1 in his/her thread, his/her 2 replies should be responses to peers who answered question 2 and question 3.

Initial thread – Since this is a grad level course, quotes are not accepted in these initial threads. Instead, the student is required to paraphrase/summarize and cite all of his/her work. As for references, the student must include at least 3 citations in current APA (the textbook may be included in this count). Lastly, the student must include a word count in parenthesis before he/she lists his/her references in order to get full credit for this assignment.

Replies – The student must direct the theme of one reply towards a professional reflection and the other reply towards a Christian application. In other words, the student must provide professional insight to one reply and a Christian worldview perspective to his/her second reply. The student must also include a word count in parenthesis before he/she lists his/her references in order to get full credit for this assignment (the students can only quote biblical references; all additional insight must be paraphrased/summarized and cited according to APA standards).

Research Paper: Integrated Media Communication Message Analysis Assignment

The student will discuss the outstanding creative work done by the Wieden + Kennedy agency. The student will use an example of an award-winning advertisement by W+K to highlight and discuss creative excellence. The student must provide a minimum of 10 resources, not including the student’s textbook or biblical references. The paper should be between 7 to 10 pages, not including the title page, abstract, or reference page. Lastly, the student is expected to abide by and follow APA formatting for this assignment. A specific outline for this paper is provided within the assignment instructions in Canvas.

Research Project: “An Introduction to Integrated Media Communication Campaign Development” E-book Assignment

Each student must create an e-book that visually highlights and describes several key concepts from our text. The e-book must be directed towards a specific niche market (e.g. real estate, footwear, sports, etc.). The number of pages for each e-book will most likely fluctuate between 18-25 pages depending on how carefully the student presents and articulates his/her information. The student is required to cite a minimum of 15 different sources in his/her e-book.

Quiz: Final

The Quiz: Final will be a cumulative exam on Learn material in the course. It will be open-book/open-notes, contain 50 multiple-choice questions, and will have a time limit of 3 hours.