Courses

• COM CM 753: Portfolio Development I
  Course is for graduate students who intend to work in the creative area of the advertising industry. Focus is on the principles needed to understand, conceptualize, detail and refine the ads comprising a competitive art direction or copywriting portfolio. Emphasis is on print campaigns and single ads with some campaigning extensions into interactive or other advertising/ market channels. 4 cr., 2nd sem.
• COM CM 754: Portfolio Development II
  A continuation of Portfolio Development I, this course covers the final stages of portfolio development. Studetns refine concepts, revise and improve the details of the art direction and copywriting and broaden the range of samples to cover a wide variety of products, services and target audiences. Executional strategies, tactics and values for the preparation of comped work, as well as final presentation of portfolios will also be covered. 4 cr, 1st sem.
• COM CM 772: PRLab
  PRLab at Boston University is the nation's oldest student run public relations agency. PRLab allows students to gain valuable industry experience in an agency style setting, working in the corporate, nonprofit and government sectors. Students engage in media relations, event planning, branding, copy editing, content creation and social media management. Over the course of the semester, students create professional portfolios.
• COM CM 773: PR E-Board
  This course represents the management function of the student run PRLab. The PRLab Executive board consists of a President, Vice President and several Account Supervisors, who work together to facilitate the overall success of the student- client interactions and PRLab as a whole. The E-Board is also responsible for PRLab's branding and new business acquisition.
• COM CM 809: Graduate Internship
  Students are placed in public relations, advertising, or communication departments of business, educational, philanthropic, or governmental institutions. Fifteen hours per week of supervised work. Students with a comprehensive report evaluating internship experience at end of semester. 2 or 4 cr., either sem.
• COM CM 824: Technical Writing for Communication Research
  Teaches students to develop clear and concise research proposals and write detailed research reports incorporating appropriate methodological sequences, techniques, and strategies. Teaches students to interpret the results of quantitative analyses in layperson's terms and relate their implications to a client, as well as to analyze the standards and pricing structure of competing agencies and available subcontractors in a given market.
• COM CM 831: International Communication
  Factors of international communication; cultural, economic, political, and social influences. Role of communication media in effecting social change in a wide variety of countries.
• COM CM 901: Directed Studies
  Supervised reading, fieldwork, or research for student's specific needs.
• COM CM 909: Thesis or Project Research
  
• COM CO 101: The World of Communication
  Introduces students to many fundamental principles of communication. Students also learn about the intertwined nature of communication professions as they explore the major fields of study in communication. Guest lectures from various industries inform students of potential future career paths.
• COM CO 102: Special Seminars
  COM 102 offers multiple sections each semester in a variety of student services, career services and technological topics. These ?added-value? seminars do not count toward graduation requirements, but do offer valuable insight and tools to be successful in your college career and beyond.
• COM CO 201: Introduction to Communication Writing
  The College of Communication's core undergraduate writing course. Students refresh their grammatical and stylistic skills and apply those skills to professional writing assignments. Prepares students to write with clarity, conciseness, precision, and accuracy for the communication fields.
• COM CO 401: Radio Station Practicum
  This is a seminar for students interested in managing the student-run radio station, WTBU. It is open to students who serve on the executive board of WTBU. Students will manage all facets of the radio station including music programing, sportscasting, news reporting, promotions, underwriting, website management, and technical equipment. Students will learn how to accomplish specific goals in improving the professionalism of the station and increasing the audience of WTBU. varilbe credit/ either sem.
• COM CO 570: The Comment Workshop
  Students write and edit The Comment, the graduate student magazine of the College of Communication. Editors will consider and story-centered piece (creative non-fiction, feature, film script, short fiction) that reflects the current issue's theme. Students will develop their research and writing skills (with special attention paid to voice, pacing, and sub-text) and will have ample opportunity to revise. The magazine, which is professionally designed, will be published in the spring. The course is open to students from all three departments, but enrollment is limited to 10. Please submit samples at the Writing Director's office, Room 220A.
• COM CO 704: Teaching Techniques
  Required for and open only to COM CO 101 graduate teaching assistants. Designed to acquaint teaching assistants with strategies for effective teaching and equip them with techniques for conducting the basic undergraduate communication course. Students increase their proficiency in leading discussion sections, appraising student progress, and handling problem situations.
• COM FT 303: History of Television
  In this course we will examine the ways in which industrial factors and communication policies have shaped the medium that sits in 99% of U.S. homes. We will begin by examining television's roots in radio. The remainder of the course will be broken down into three stages of television history advanced by Rogers, Epstein and Reeves (2002). The first category is TVI- the period of three-network dominance. The next stage, TVII, is characterized by the rise of cable television and the decentering of the three networks. We will conclude the course by considering the current stage of television- TV III- in which the era of "on demand" has further destabilized traditional notions of content, audiences, producers, scheduling and technologies. In addition to tracing this development historically and thematically, we will confront it critically, analyzing the connections between power and money in the medium of television.
• COM FT 304: Film Industry
  A survey of current business trends in the motion picture industry. Focuses on script development; studio structure; agents, attorneys, and contracts; independent filmmaking; and distribution.
• COM FT 306: History of Cinema
  This course is designed to introduce students to the multi-faceted terrain of film history encompassing industry, aesthetics, filmmakers, society, culture and politics. Through lecture, discussion and screenings, students will encounter defining moments in the U.S. and international cinema. Most of the course will take a chronological approach, introducing students to film in its infancy and moving through its maturation in various nations. The final weeks of the course will offer the students case studies in cinema- an approach that offers them a glimpse of what they can look forward to in upper level film studies courses. 4 cr. 1st sem
• COM FT 307: Media Evolution
  
• COM FT 310: Storytelling for Film & Television
  Required of all undergraduate students in Film & Television. An introduction to the art and craft of storytelling through the moving image. Particular emphasis will be given to writing short scripts. Topics covered include character development and narrative structure as it applies to shorts, features and episodic television.

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