About this course

This is the online section of the course Contemporary Mass Communication, COM CM 704. CM 704 is a broad survey of the current state of the mass communication industries, a required course for graduate students in the department of Mass Communication at the College of Communication at Boston University. This online section, being taught for the second time this spring 2001 semester, is for students enrolled in our master's degree program, but unable to get to campus for the regular fall meetings of the class.

The curriculum for the online section includes:

- Readings from standard texts and current articles in this field, most in print, some online, same as for the classroom sections.

- Weekly lecture or guest speaker of 1.5 to 2 hours, that presents key concepts illustrated with live examples from the contemporary media. The lecture is available as a streaming video archive.

- Interactive lessons on each course topic, with text, illustrations, audio and video clips, interspersed with questions to which students respond, an an opportunity to make comments or ask questions along the way. Lesson responses and questions go to the teacher, who responds online.

- Weekly written assignments, six of which are two-page analytical papers, the other seven being quantitative content analyses of current media products. Content analyses are recorded and computed with online forms that compile into class databases.

- Weekly online discussion group with the teacher of 1.5 hours, in which students express their conclusions and findings from the week's readings, lecture, and assignment.

The course is taught by Prof. James G. Lengel, a six-year veteran of the College of Communication who ha been teaching CM 704 for three years.

System requirements

Because we are delivering the lectures with streaming video, and conducting a live synchronous chat on Wednesday evenings, and providing interactive lessons online, students in this course need a robust internet connection and an up-to-date computer. This means an Ethernet, DSL, or cable modem connection to the internet. A 56K modem connection will not work. It also means a computer capable of displaying audio and video.

Students use streaming video, Shockwave, and other technologies in this course, so their internet browser needs to be equipped to display these. I've set up some test files for streaming video and for Shockwave that you can try to see if your computer is properly equipped and configured.

I have set up a continuous video stream from our server at
http://www.bu.edu/jlengel/webcast.htm
To see and hear this, you will need the latest QuickTime plug-in for your browser. The link provides instructions on how to download this (it's free) if you don't already have it.

I have set up a sample interactive lesson at
http://www.bu.edu/jlengel/cmc/newslect.html
This lesson requires you to have the latest Shockwave plug-in, and to configure it to play the file right in the browser window. If you need the Shockwave plug-in, you can download it for free at http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/