Professors: Donald, R.R.; Maynard, R.H.; Murphy, P.D. (Chair)
Associate Professors: Hicks, G.R. (Director of Graduate Studies)
Assistant Professors: Hale, D.; Ibroscheva, E.; Landers, J.L.; Tai, Z.; Voss, K.

Mass communications media are growing and changing at unprecedented rates. A recent issue of The New Yorker stated that the media are the fastest-growing industries in the United States. In the past two decades, new media forms have emerged, including pay-per-view television, direct satellite transmission, high definition television, the World Wide Web and more. The pace of change is rapid, so rapid in fact that USA Today has stated, "... all media companies are in the process of evolving into as-yet-undetermined new entities."

The Curriculum

The curriculum in the Department of Mass Communications seeks to educate students for this changing world. While some specialized skills are essential to enable students to meet current standards, the goal of the Mass Communications curriculum is to produce graduates who are independent professional communicators capable of growing and changing with the times.
To meet the challenges of the mass communications industries of the 21st century and to provide students with a comprehensive mass communications background, this department's curriculum consists of four components: the introductory core, a professional option, the advanced core and Mass Communications electives. The introductory core of four courses consists of an introduction to mass communication plus three basic skills courses. MC 201 (Mass Media in Society) encourages an appreciation for the significant ideas, events and individuals that influenced the development of mass media systems and continue to guide their evolution.

In the three introductory skills courses, MC 202 (Writing for the Media), MC 203 (Audio Production for the Media) and MC 204 (Visual Production for the Media), students learn essential analytical and artistic skills in writing and in audio and visual media production. These fundamental media skills are broadly applicable and not bound to specific technologies that may be threatened by obsolescence. Students are required to choose and to complete a professional option consisting of four courses. The options are: Print and Electronic Journalism, Television/Radio, Corporate and Institutional Media, and Media Advertising. The keystone courses in each professional option are essential to developing proficiency in a specific media concentration. A choice of three additional courses from the remaining six to eight courses in an option permits a faculty adviser to help a student focus his/her program in the direction best suited to that student's career aspirations.

The advanced core encourages students to develop an understanding of the social, political, legal, economic, artistic and technological environment in which media products are produced, delivered and consumed. Further, the advanced core encourages students to think carefully and critically about the nature and significance of the media in our society. Included in the advanced core are MC 401(Media Law and Policy), MC 403 (Media Critical Theory), and MC 481,(Internship/Senior Portfolio). A professional internship off campus provides real-life work experience and valuable contacts for the student; the senior portfolio assignment helps students prepare for graduation and for advantageous positioning in the employment marketplace.

The curriculum also provides for two free major elective courses. This provision enables students not only to explore their own cross-media educational interests, but also, with aid of faculty advisers, to further position themselves for their particular career goals. To provide graduates with additional competencies in other disciplines, a minor in a subject outside the major is also required.

An Ideal Location

The St. Louis metropolitan area is the 21st largest media market in the United States. SIUE's Mass Communications Department program takes advantage of the resources of the region by regularly scheduling media professionals for guest appearances in classes, by employing working professionals as part-time faculty, and by sponsoring events such as Mass Communications Week, in which a number of programs on topics as varied as the job search, television and film lighting, independent video producing in St. Louis, and a dialogue with a St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist are conducted by working professionals and the faculty.

Career Opportunities

Mass Communications Department graduates take many career paths. Today dozens of careers are available for print journalism students. Besides working as reporters, editors, sports writers or photojournalists on newspapers, our graduates may land their first jobs with news wire services, organizational and professional newsletters, national, regional and local magazines, trade periodicals and World Wide Web publications. Also, many corporations value the skills our department teaches in writing, editing, layout and design. Recent electronic journalism graduates report success in radio, television and news-related occupations. Rooted in the traditional study of print journalism, our electronic journalism professional option prepares graduates for a growing number of news writing, reporting, newsroom management, documentary production and World Wide Web news sites.

Media advertising is all around us. To name a few, ads can always be found on radio, television, newspapers, magazines and other print media, as well as on billboards, the sides of buses and taxis, on T-shirts, baseball caps and lunch boxes, in the movies, on the World Wide Web and even on the bags you use to carry home your purchases. Mass Communications Department graduates work for ad agencies, for marketing departments of major corporations, for sales departments of media organizations and in many other ancillary jobs in marketing. In ad agencies, graduates are successful both on the creative side and as account executives, media specialists and buyers.

Recent Television/Radio graduates report that there are many more jobs "out there" than they imagined when they first enrolled at SIUE. Besides finding employment at television and radio stations, our graduates are writing and producing videos for public relations clients, working in industrial and corporate communications, serving the video needs of hospitals, schools, colleges, and law offices, plus designing and producing interactive video and audio for World Wide Web sites. And yes, many graduates still find jobs in radio and broadcast or cable television in news, production, sales, traffic, promotions, operations, and other departments. The new kind of broadcasting graduate this department produces is a valuable commodity throughout the mass communications job market.

Corporations and institutions have learned they can't do without communication, and they come to SIUE to find the specialists they need to communicate with their stockholders, their employees, the public - in fact, all their "publics," as P.R. practitioners call their audiences. Working in marketing, public relations, and corporate media (video, digital, multimedia, web, print, etc.), SIUE's professional communicators deliver the message and the meaning for business, industry, institutions and organizations. Interactive multimedia, World Wide Web site design and construction, computerized manipulation of visual images, digital photojournalism, digital publishing, non-linear video editing, digital animation and many other 21st-century mass communication skills.

Integrated into all these professional options is the study and practice of the leading-edge skills, techniques, theories and aesthetics our graduates will need to succeed in a digital future for webmasters, interactive multimedia producers and many new digital media jobs as yet unnamed. SIUE students will learn the tried-and-true mass communication basics as well as the most advanced digital media techniques needed to excel in this brave new world.

Admission, Retention, and Graduation Requirements

Excepting incoming freshmen, students wishing to apply for a major in Mass Communications are required to have at least a 2.2 overall grade point average. Mass Communications majors must maintain a 2.2 overall grade point average. Students in the Mass Communications major and minor must earn a C or better grade in both MC 201 and 202 to declare a major or minor in the department. Only courses in which the student receives a C grade or better will be accepted for credit toward completion of the Mass Communications major or minor.

Students may attempt (complete a course and receive a grade) any Department of Mass Communications course only twice. If a student fails to achieve a C grade or better in a course after a second attempt, he/she must petition the Mass Communications Department faculty for the opportunity to attempt the course again.

All Mass Communications majors must choose Philosophy 481, Media Ethics, as part of their Fine Arts and Humanities General Education requirement; all Mass Communications majors who choose General Education Skills Courses Option A must choose Speech Communication 105, Public Speaking.

All Mass Communications majors must complete a minimum of 80 semester hours in courses outside the Department of Mass Communications. Of these, no fewer than 65 semester hours must be completed in courses in the basic liberal arts and sciences. Liberal arts and sciences courses at SIUE include any course taught in the College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Economics, and the Department of Psychology.

Degree Requirements:

Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts
Mass Communications

Mass Communications Minor

The Mass Communications minor requires MC 201 and 202 and additional courses selected in consultation with a departmental minor adviser for a total of 21 hours.