Professional Media and Media Management Courses | 2025-2026 Graduate Catalog | SIU

Development of American news institutions with an emphasis on cultural, technological, and economic backgrounds of newspapers, magazines, radio, television, websites, and social media. Current press structures and policies will be placed in historical perspective.

Credit Hours: 3

Provides a historical perspective of media and sales philosophies and tactics grounded in business ethics. Students learn and apply relationship selling techniques enabling them to become media sales professionals. Prerequisite: JRNL 302 and JRNL 304 with a grade of C or better.

Credit Hours: 3

Provides an understanding of the factors that influence media strategy. Emphasis will be placed on advanced concepts such as building reach patterns, new trends and tools and calculating effective frequency levels, in order to develop an effective media plan. Introduces media planning for the web and other new media options. Prerequisite: JRNL 304 with a grade of C or better.

Credit Hours: 3

Conceptual synthesis and practical application of business, research, media and creative principles used in the formation of persuasive messages. Includes the development of a complete campaign for a specific advertiser. Includes all relevant target audience contact points (e.g., advertising, sales promotion, marketing public relations, event marketing, packaging) and both written and oral presentation of the campaign. Prerequisite: JRNL 304 and JRNL 405 with grades of C or better.

Credit Hours: 3

Analysis of social issues involving advertising; economic relationships, government and self-regulation, cultural effects, influence on media content and structure, role in democratic processes, international comparisons and the stereotyping of women, minorities and other audience segments.

Credit Hours: 3

New developments in advertising and integrated marketing communications. Topics change each term. Repeatable up to three times as long as the topic changes. Students should check specific topic and any special requirements and prerequisites before enrolling.

Credit Hours: 3

Continued development of reporting skills with emphasis on the reporting of public policy issues and on use of statistics, the analysis of computerized data bases, and advanced techniques for the investigation of complex stories. Prerequisite: JRNL 311 or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

This course expands on the fundamentals of photojournalism learned in JRNL 313. Students will explore adding elements of audio, video or flash and other lighting techniques to their images. Students will learn about changes, challenges and the ethical obligations of working photojournalists. Prerequisite: JRNL 313 or consent of instructor. Lab fee: $42.

Credit Hours: 3

Production of photographic stories and essays for newspapers, magazines and news media presentations. Students discuss, research, photograph, design and write several stories and essays, while studying the work of influential photojournalists. Prerequisite: JRNL 313 or consent of instructor. Lab fee: $42.

Credit Hours: 3

The roles and responsibilities of the editor, editorial writer, and opinion columnist with emphasis upon editorial writing and critical thinking. Editorial problems, methods, policies, style and the fundamentals of persuasion and attitude change form the basis for study. Prerequisite: JRNL 311.

Credit Hours: 3

Identification, research and application of creative writing techniques in producing feature articles for various media. Students analyze reader appeal as well as feature story structure and methods of marketing features to various audiences and publications. Prerequisite: JRNL 310. Lab fee: $42.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as PHIL 434) Explores the moral environment of the mass media and the ethical problems that confront media practitioners. Models of ethical decision-making and moral philosophy are introduced to encourage students to think critically about the mass media and their roles in modern society.

Credit Hours: 3

Continues development of message design skills. Emphasizes creative solutions to the display of complex content in a wide variety of media. Prerequisite: JRNL 335 or consent of instructor. Lab fee: $46.

Credit Hours: 3

This course continues the exploration of using computer based technologies for presentation of information to the wide audience using the interactive capabilities of the internet and other new media. Focus is on organization of information, and the production of multimedia files in a networked environment. Includes discussion of topics including intellectual property, libel, and other matters of concern to an interactive publisher. Prerequisite: JRNL 396 with a grade of C or better. Course fee: $42.

Credit Hours: 3

Sports reporting requires two essential ingredients: the ability to write compelling prose and a good grip on news gathering and reporting techniques. This course emphasizes both and utilizes students' interest in sports to advance their reporting skills and while preparing them for sports reporting positions in the media industry. Prerequisite: JRNL 310.

Credit Hours: 3

Selected seminars investigating media problems or other subjects of topical importance to advanced journalism and advertising majors. Seminars will be offered as the need and the interest of students demand. Restricted to College of Arts and Media students with senior standing.

Credit Hours: 1-6

Provides an introduction to major issues involving media in contemporary societies. Multi-disciplinary in nature, the course introduces major theoretical perspectives used in reviewing media productions and activities and the relationships among media organizations and practitioners and other institutions of society.

Credit Hours: 3

Focuses on free expression in journalism and entertainment across the media. Topics may include news gathering techniques, intellectual property, the Internet, and governmental regulation. The course pays special attention to the tension between what is legal and what is ethical.

Credit Hours: 3

Analysis of a variety of media industries, including industry structures, and the industry processes of media development, production, and distribution. Attention to management of media companies across sectors as the industry adjusts to economic and technological change.

Credit Hours: 3

Analysis and evaluation of conceptual frameworks underlying empirical research strategies, positivist, textual and qualitative, commonly used in media and internet research. Issues in multi-method research strategies are reviewed. Ethical implications are debated.

Credit Hours: 3

Overview of ethics philosophies and accountability tools for the mass media. Areas to be studied include journalism reviews, ethics codes, ombudsmen, media critics, news councils, and public/civic journalism. Covering issues in journalism, photojournalism, public relations, advertising, new media, and "infotainment.

Credit Hours: 3

Investigate how the Internet works, explore relationships among design, technology, and user experience while developing web sites, information architectures, interface behaviors, and navigation systems. Topics include: HTML & XHTML authoring, Cascading Style Sheets, Javascript, open source software, and incorporating sound, video, and images into web pages. Issues of privacy, legal and ethical responsibilities for consumers and producers of web content.

Credit Hours: 3

Emphasis on in-depth photo journalistic reporting. Students research, write and photograph picture stories. Examines ethics, history and social role of photojournalism domestically and internationally. Digital imaging and an introduction to full-motion video and other multimedia storytelling tools. Students who have completed JRNL 413 are not eligible to enroll.

Credit Hours: 3

An advanced theoretical engagement with the field of mass communication research, media studies, and media arts. The course covers principal theoretical approaches, including the empiricist, positivist paradigm in mass communication research; critical media studies; film and television studies; and cultural studies.

Credit Hours: 3

Students develop skills in producing, editing, and captioning high-quality feature and action photographs from live sporting events. Students will learn how sports photography has developed over the last century. Students who have completed JRNL 415 are not eligible to enroll.

Credit Hours: 3

History, theory, and practice of digital media as an online art form. Examination that results in students producing art work in linear and non-linear hypermedia narrative, network conceptualism, and generative software. Issues include identity, location, collaboration, surveillance, hacktivism, tactical media, immersion, game design, media synthesis. Lab fee: $75.

Credit Hours: 3

Students write and produce short fiction or non-fiction stories using digital media. Emphasis on storytelling development and story structures, and advancing one's technical skills across multiple media platforms. Projects will be incorporated into multiple delivery platforms such as the web, download and/or social media. Students will experience editorial production of artifacts gathered as they shape a variety of media into stories for delivery on web via class magazine and social media. The productions will target various platforms, from web to mobile devices. All students will build on a range of production skills extending beyond reporting, writing, photography, graphics, audio capture and video shooting. Course fee: $50.

Credit Hours: 3

This studio-based course offers students the opportunity to explore sound as a medium of artistic practice and intellectual inquiry. Assignments for the course emphasize how and why sound art is created in a variety of modalities including: installation, performance and improvisation. The course is also a forum for the exploration of contemporary and historic approaches to sound art through phonography, radio art, DIY electronics and other platforms. During the semester, listening and critique sessions will be used to evaluate student creative responses. Additionally, written responses to assigned readings will also be used to help facilitate discussions and critiques. Equipment Usage & Lab fee: $75.

Credit Hours: 3

This is a special production topics in studio production and practices course for MFA's in Media Arts that focuses on specialized production techniques, topics, techniques, and formal approaches to media making. The course offers the opportunity to gain new techniques and build skills through the use of potentially unfamiliar production equipment and approaches. The class encourages students to explore the edges of their disciplines by providing a focused framework for formal investigation and experimentation. Equipment Usage & Lab fee: $75. Credit Hours: 3.

Credit Hours: 3

The course will use a topical starting point for critical study of the histories and philosophies associated with various investigative journalism procedures and practices. Lab fee: $75. Credit Hours 3.

Credit Hours: 3

This course introduces students to critical and interpretive research methods and techniques for the study of media arts and culture. It focuses on interdisciplinary approaches and covers a range of humanities-based methods and theoretical perspectives.

Credit Hours: 3

Advanced exploration of quantitative research methods to write a professional article suitable for publication or a chapter in an academic thesis. Covers methods such as sampling, surveys, experiments, content analysis, and statistics. Focuses on research design, formulating research questions, reviewing and applying appropriate literature in the field, hypothesis formulation, data acquisition, and discussion and analysis of results.

Credit Hours: 3

An introduction to the intellectual underpinnings, epistemology, and methodologies of qualitative research. The course focuses on critical and interpretive approaches to researching media industry structures, artifacts, audiences, and producers.

Credit Hours: 3

Foundations course to introduce MA and MS students to the conceptual practices of research. Students will learn how to evaluate primary and secondary sources, and use this research to write papers and reports. The course demonstrates the steps of a research project: writing a proposal, reviewing the literature, designing the research instruments, collecting data, and analyzing results. The course introduces qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Credit Hours: 3

Critical Discourse Analysis is a theory-based methodology which takes as its unit of analysis the entire 'utterance' (e.g. news bulletin, newspaper article, Facebook posting, a hashtag). Its methods are closer to literary and rhetorical criticism than the quantitative word count of content analysis. This methodology allows the research to unveil ideological motivations in language use and in images, and can be applied to most forms of media texts including social media and video games.

Credit Hours: 3

The Documentary film has a rich history in America. This course will cover the history of the American Documentary form. Emphasis on connections between critical theory and media production Students will embrace the conceptual and hands-on process of researching, writing and producing independent documentary video, focusing on critical arts practice.

Credit Hours: 3

A forum for the pursuit of creative projects in the media arts. May be repeated as topic changes. Restricted to CMCMA MFA or PMMM major or consent of instructor or director of Graduate Studies in Mass Communication and Media Arts. Laboratory fee: $50.

Credit Hours: 1-3

This course is an intensive hands-on production class. Students will produce two half-hour studio shows with edited features that will broadcast on WSIU-TV. Advanced field production techniques will be used when creating edited features. Students who have completed JRNL 445 are not eligible to enroll.

Credit Hours: 3-6

Production students will work with experts from a variety of specializations across campus to produce short form documentaries for broadcast on WSIU. A comprehensive overview of producing successful programs for the industry taking the topic from scripting to filming to editing. Advanced video or audio production skills are required.

Credit Hours: 3

This course provides an in-depth study and discussion of selected topics in media studies. Topics vary and will be announced in advance. This course may be repeated when the topic differs.

Credit Hours: 3

A survey of media history, from oral storytelling and cave paintings to social media and video games. Situates media in their historical contexts, with special attention to articulations among media technologies, aesthetic forms, cultural practices, and social formations. Analyzes media practices through foundational and contemporary theories from media studies and its interdisciplinary interlocutors.

Credit Hours: 3

Social change" is a multi-dimensional concept and yet also a bedrock of democracy. Much more than an act or action, social change is a process of negotiation between those who have and those who do not. This course is a theoretical and practical exploration of both mainstream and alternative media's role in political and social movements and their push for social change. Numerous scholars have theorized the social change potential of mediated communication and mass production, and these theories of social change have important implications for critical arts practice and the study of media and the media industries. The objective of the course is to join theories of social change with the interests of the students, allowing them flexibility and freedom to develop their current projects in the area of social change.

Credit Hours: 3

Debates about globalization from historical, theoretical, and critical perspectives. The major uses of communication technologies in international economic, political and cultural processes. Topics include regional and global trends, trade regimes, global policy bodies and policy issues; global media influence.

Credit Hours: 3

Problem solving through strategic advertising communications and integrated marketing techniques, including product research, branding, public relations, sales and promotion, social media, and direct media campaigns. The focus is on business strategy and planning. Students will concentrate on targeted, creative digital media strategies to execute an integrated marketing campaign for a local or national client.

Credit Hours: 3

An investigation of how organizations market in Marshall McLuhan's 'Global Village'. Students will consider how political, social, economic, cultural, and technological factors influence advertising around the world. Explorations of how big data and artificial intelligence create advertising opportunities on multiple digital and social media platforms. Students will learn theories, business models, data analytics, branding, and explore case studies of major global brands.

Credit Hours: 3

Explores social media from various perspectives. Topics will cover history and development of social media, social advertising/marketing, citizen journalism, social media and health communication, and other issues related to social media such as privacy, gaming, interface design, identity, etc. Students will gain hands-on experience with social media.

Credit Hours: 3

This course will expose students to the rapidly expanding and complex world of sports business, with an emphasis on sports communication and promotion. Also the transformation of sports media in relation to economic, regulatory, and technological transformations. Students who have completed JRNL 488 are not eligible to enroll.

Credit Hours: 3

This advanced course in investigative and enterprise reporting delves into the techniques and strategies essential for impactful journalism. Students will refine their skills in obtaining and analyzing public records and data, conducting interviews with reluctant sources, managing complex information, and drafting and self-editing to produce a polished first draft. Students who have completed JRNL 477 are not eligible to enroll.

Credit Hours: 3

Supervised Independent Studio provides a critical foundation for students by establishing a formal structure for critiques of the student?s work that takes place over the course of a semester. Credit Hours: 6.

Credit Hours: 6

Pre-production work for the M.S. media project. Directed by a committee of three, the chair of which must be a member of the graduate faculty in the School of Journalism and Advertising. Students must present and defend the proposal for their media project to the committee in a public forum. Restricted to students in the Professional Media M.S. degree program in SOJA. Lab fee: $50. Credit Hours: 3.

Credit Hours: 3

Preparation work for the M.S. research report. Directed by a committee of three, the chair of which must be a member of the graduate faculty in the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts. Students must present and defend the proposal for the research report to the committee in a public forum. Restricted to students in the Professional Media M.S. degree program in CMCMA.

Credit Hours: 3

A theoretical, critical approach to the study of social media. Students identify critical media studies theories and concepts and apply them to the study of social media. Both diachronic and synchronic perspectives intersect within the course. Students learn the historical context in which social media platforms have evolved. Historical knowledge informs the analysis of contemporary case studies regarding social media policies, social media discourse and politics, social media ownership, and other pertinent topics.

Credit Hours: 3

An introduction to graduate studies via encounters with the research and creative disciplines related to Mass Communication and Media Arts. Weekly meetings wherein individual faculty members introduce students to their research and creative work. The course will also serve as a forum in which students discuss their own research and creative work in an interdisciplinary setting. Guest lectures and presentations by visiting scholars and creative artists as become available. Setting for both the faculty and graduate student research and creativity colloquiums. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) grading only.

Credit Hours: 3

Media project directed by a committee of three, the chair of which must be a member of the graduate faculty in the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts. The media project is a student's original creation which breaks new ground in mass communication and media arts. The media project must be submitted to the Graduate School. Students must present and defend their final media project to the committee in a public forum. Prerequisite: JRNL 586A with a grade of B- or better. Restricted to students in the Professional Media M.S. degree program in CMCMA. Lab fee: $50.

Credit Hours: 3

Research report directed by a committee of three, the chair of which must be a member of the graduate faculty in the College of Mass Communication and Media Arts. A research report synthesizes the existing literature on a specific topic in mass communication to enable the student to create new knowledge about the subject. The research report must be submitted to the Graduate School. Students must present and defend their final report to the committee in a public forum. Prerequisite: JRNL 586B with a grade of B- or better. Restricted to students in the Professional Media M.S. degree program in CMCMA.

Credit Hours: 3

Supervised readings on subject matter not covered in regularly scheduled courses. Graduate students limited to three credits per semester. Consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 1-3

Practicum Study, observation and participation in activities related to the fields of Mass Communication and the Media Arts such as internships in related professional organizations. Students who have completed JRNL 494 are not eligible to enroll.

Credit Hours: 3

Supervised research or independent creative work, the area of study to be determined by the student in consultation with instructor. Consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 1-3

Credit Hours: 1-6

Credit Hours: 1-32

For those graduate students who have not finished their degree programs and who are in the process of working on their dissertation, thesis or research paper. The student must have completed a minimum of 24 hours of dissertation research, or the minimum thesis, or research hours before being eligible to register for this course. Concurrent enrollment in any other course is not permitted. Graded S/U or DEF only.

Credit Hours: 1

Must be a Postdoctoral Fellow. Concurrent enrollment in any other course is not permitted.

Credit Hours: 1