Courses
The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.
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COM CO 145: COM Career Readiness
This career readiness course will provide students with career development skills needed to enter a career in communication after graduation. Topics covered in this class include career resources, career exploration, LinkedIn, networking, resume writing, cover letter, interview preparation, and salary negotiation. This class fulfills CO575 credit. -
COM CO 201: Introduction to Communication Writing
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120) - 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. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Research and Information Literacy. (Students on the Hub cannot take WR100 as a pre-requisite.) -
COM CO 305: Photography Fundamentals
This course welcomes all students from the College of Communication as well as those throughout Boston University. In this course, students will learn traditional shooting and editing skills using a DSLR. Students can also use a smart phone and cloud-based editing to cover photo assignments. CO305 Photography Fundamentals covers: camera operation, image processing, image tagging, caption writing, and publishing. Assignments will be processed in black and white during the first half of the semester, color is introduced later in the course. We will cover the basics of file management and creating a photo portfolio. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Creativity/Innovation. -
COM CO 500: Directed Study
DIRECTED STUDY -
COM CO 520: Communication Co-op
This course is a paid, full-time, 6-month undergraduate work opportunity, typically offered through the Boston Globe or another publication. Students are not allowed to be registered in academic courses while participating in the Co-op. Students are considered full-time and can live in University housing, but are not eligible for financial aid while participating. Due to visa requirements, it is not available to international students. Counts for CO575 undergraduate requirement. -
COM CO 531: Advanced Media Writing in the Age of AI
Prerequisite: CM 331 or CM 707; JO 200; FT 310; or consent of the instructor. - This capstone to the COM Writing Program addresses the rapidly changing questions surrounding generative AI tools and technologies and their proper role in ethically and reliably creating written content. Writing is inherently thinking – how do we (and should we) automate thinking? Can gen AI, quality, and authenticity coexist? How do we balance the desire for and benefits of accelerated content creation with a need to ensure media documents retain an essential human dimension for human audiences? Through a series of PR, advertising, and journalism assignments and exercises, this course will present, explore, and develop ways to harness AI’s unprecedented power for media writing while demonstrating how writers can and must retain the privilege and responsibilities of authorship. -
COM CO 532: Copyediting Fundamentals
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (WR 120 or equivalent). - Part grammar lab and part editing workshop, Copyediting Fundamentals offers a deep dive into shaping effective prose style for different areas of writing. The course provides an in-depth look at changes in usage over time and equips students with the real-world skills they need to use various style guides or create their own. Students can successfully petition for this course to count as an elective for most COM majors and for the CAS English major. This course fulfills 1 Hub credit for Research & Information Literacy and Teamwork. Students have landed editorial internships and jobs related to the material in this course. Effective Fall 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Research and Information Literacy, Teamwork/Collaboration. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Research and Information Literacy, Teamwork/Collaboration. -
COM CO 540: COM Core Special Topics
Topics vary each semester. -
COM CO 575: Communication Professional Experience
COM PROF EXP -
COM CO 576: Communication Professional Experience
COM PROF EXP -
COM CO 610: Science Storytelling
This course gives program participants experience in preparing information to engage and connect with multiple audiences, including both journalistic and promotional/persuasive communication. -
COM CO 611: Engaging and Persuading Audiences
This course examines how humans perceive information and, in turn, how best to actively engage those audiences. A heavy focus will be placed on interpersonal and mass communication theories, evidence, and applications, including examples of effective campaigns from the areas of health, risk, and science communication. -
COM CO 613: Transformative Data Storytelling
We are surrounded by raw data from both primary and secondary sources. This course will focus on using this data to best share information with various audiences. A secondary component of this course will focus on making scientific information consumable by non-scientific audiences. -
COM CO 614: Advocating Science
Advocacy today is much more than just disseminating information. It involves the ability to collaborate with and persuade journalists, various publics, and policymakers to make informed, fact-based decisions and changes to behavior. Case studies and discussions in communication management and advocacy leadership will be a significant part of the course. Participants will gain practical experience in media training and engagement, public presentation (in-person, virtual, and mediated), and reciprocal communication. -
COM EM 700: Introduction to Emerging Media Studies
Drawing on scientific research and relevant news & industry examples this course will examine topics related to new media and communication technologies. The first portion of the course will explore key dimensions related to new communication technology. The latter portion will include deep dives into particular media technologies (ranging from smart phones and laptops to newer, emerging media formats such as social games, mobile virtual reality, and wearable sensors), each characterized to varying extents by these dimensions. Throughout the course we will explore relevant theoretical concepts and processes related to new media and communication technologies. Along the way we will identify patterns of media usage and, in turn, review the psychological effects and social consequences of that usage. Additionally, we will consider the larger context in which these technologies -- and the means for empirically studying their use and effects -- have developed. -
COM EM 747: Trending Insights: Social Data Analysis and Visualization
This course familiarizes students with social -scientific methods for large scale data analysis and visualization, including the application of relevant user and concept networks, time and spatial models, sentiment mapping, and comparison of matrices. In addition, the use of germane software in emerging and digital media research is developed. Most importantly, however, this course has a dual structure where students learn to not only carry our advanced analyses of large datasets, they also engage with how to visually represent with a wide-ranging skillset to scrape data, mine data, and present data in fields of specific areas of inquiry. -
COM EM 755: Measuring Media Effects
EM 755 provides training in the logic, design, and implementation of experimental research methods for measuring media effects on individual users. The course includes a practicum component, in which students employ biometric research tools in the Communication Research Center (CRC) to conduct original research on the use and effects of emerging media technologies. To this end, the course will consist of a combination of regular class meetings and laboratory activity. By the end of this workshop course, students will have a sound understanding of the underlying rationale and purpose of experimental research and hands-on experience completing data collection and analysis related to media processing and effects. -
COM EM 757: User-Producers 2.0: Developing Interactivity
The shift in medial production toward dynamic user-production is harnessed in this class. Students will evaluate and critique prevailing practices in co- creative media output as well as become proficient in developing online media with cutting edge and open source software tools. Technical aspects of this class include HTML, CSS, and Wordpress, as well as audience interfaces and analytics. -
COM EM 761: Special Topics
Specific issues in emerging media are brought into focus allowing for a thorough investigation. This course's content offers faculty and students an opportunity to explore the particular question. When the course is offered, the particular topic of focus will depend on the interests of faculty members, and will not be standardized. -
COM EM 777: Masters Collaboratory Project
This year long course introduces students to the theories, method and conventions of applied research in communication and the social sciences. It aims to do this through reading, practical applications and in-class discussions. Students will have the opportunity to work with local organization (the "project sponsor") in the Boston area to design and implement a research project. Throughout the process, students will work closely with their peers, the sponsor and the course instructors to develop the project and to evaluate work in progress.
