Degree Requirements

4 credits

CM 703 Begins a graduate level, two-semester immersion in American English communication writing. Portfolio finale serves as a bridge assignment to CM 707 Writing for Media Professionals in the spring semester. Introduces basic communication writing formats, including news releases, social media, features, profiles. Emphasizes interviewing, target marketing and publication options. Stresses tenets of plagiarism across media. Strong focus on creating quality copy in American English, which necessitates extensive work in grammar exercises and brainstorming workshops, quizzes, presentations, class participation, collaborative projects. Students fine-tune their writing and speaking skills as they analyze and rewrite their own copy.

4 credits

Serves to provide an in-depth understanding and proficiency in communication writing and transmedia storytelling skills across a wide variety of off and online formats, including news releases, social media, features (off and online), Q & A interviews, websites, broadcast PSA's, slide shows, videos. Stresses plagiarism prevention, collaborative workshops, reading aloud, media strategies, editing, and interview techniques. Extensive writing and rewriting. Develops comprehensive writing skills for media professionals. Both semesters. Prerequisite CM 703, unless waived via writing placement test or consent of the instructor.

4 credits

Examines origins, nature, and consequences of mediated communication and related processes and contexts. Reviews traditional theories of mass communication, derivative and developing theories on various communication media, including social and mobile. Furthermore, the course considers the application and utilization of theories for media professionals.

4 credits

CM722 Communication Research Methods is an introduction to the social scientific method of inquiry and the fundamental concepts and processes of social scientific methods that are used in media science, advertising, and public relations. Assorted research methods are covered, including both quantitative and qualitative. Also included are literature review, research design, research execution, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, and reporting of findings.

4 credits

Graduate Prerequisites: (COMCM722) - Provides skill training for data analysis with SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). Students will obtain hands-on experience by carrying out actual analyses using real data acquired via different research methods. Techniques covered include correlation, regression, t-test, ANOVA, and factor analysis. Students also learn how to translate the results of their analyses into data-driven narratives that provide actionable solutions to problem cases.

4 credits

Graduate Prerequisites: (COM CM 722 and CM 723) - Discusses various issues related to sampling, such as design, sample size, methods of selection, sampling error, and sampling sources for applied research projects. Also teaches about the various types of questionnaires and measurement procedures commonly used in communication research, including those used for assessing such factors as attitudes, beliefs, media use, and consumer behavior. 2nd sem.

4 credits

Addresses basic marketing and promotion principles used to increase awareness of and change in attitudes and buyer behavior about products, services, and organizations. Students learn to evaluate appropriate promotional mixes, examine the role of communication, and develop marketing communication strategies through the use of case studies and classroom discussion. 1st sem.

4 credits

Graduate Prerequisites: (COMCM722 & COMCM723 & COMCM724) - 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 a 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. 1st sem.

4 credits

Graduate Prerequisites: CM501 or CM510 or consent of instructor - This course introduces students to principles of interactivity through a hands- on experience designing and building an interactive project (website/app). Students will learn to apply design thinking for interactivity while building a device-agnostic package using modern web technologies: HTML, CSS, JavaScript and related libraries, plug-ins, frameworks and tools as necessary. Students will experience the full design and development process (concept ideation, prototyping, user testing and iteration) in building a functional project. Topics on media technology, animation, accessibility, interface design, information architecture, interaction design, networking, performance, prototyping, responsive design and usability will be covered.

4 credits

International Communication is a niche field that encompasses wide-ranging and interconnected subjects in communication and international relations. This course is intended to introduce relevant concepts and real-world practices in the broadly defined field, which is an important dimension of higher education for students aiming to specialize in a host of communication and socio-political areas. As the world has become immensely internationalized and intricately related, a good grasp of the world's communication systems, their underlying concepts, and the potential impact of practices may prove pivotal to one's edge in building successful careers in any field that involves any facet of communication, including news, campaign, public relations, or public diplomacy. Empowered with the knowledge and understanding beyond national borders, professionals in communication and public affairs are better prepared to fulfill their professional responsibilities, advocate the ideals they embrace, and the interests they represent. To all students, the knowledge of how global communication works indisputably can enhance their appreciation, enrichment, and engagement with different parts of the world.

4 credits

Undergraduate Prerequisites: Sophomore standing. - Critical evaluation of political campaign strategies and tactics within the sociopolitical environment. The roles of campaign managers, media consultants, pollsters, press secretaries, and field operatives are studied. Analysis of the impact of press coverage, political advertising, and candidate debates on the electorate. 4 cr. Either sem.

4 credits

Undergraduate Prerequisites: Sophomore standing. - Health Campaigns involves the principles and practices of designing media campaigns to promote health behavior change, whether related to smoking and alcohol consumption, illicit drug use, physical activity and diet, condom use, public safety, and environmental issues. It centers on how health organizations and initiatives can achieve their goals for population-based health behavior change by strategically creating, distributing, and evaluating media campaigns and media messages. At the nexus of communication and public health, this course uses theory and persuasive elements as a basis for designing and implementing health media campaigns and media messages via different media, including traditional media, new media, and social media. With this foundation, students are tasked to evaluate extant health media campaigns and campaign messages and design their own original health media campaigns and campaign messages.

4 credits

This course covers the essentials of effective presentation, from preparation (audience analysis, content development) to critical thinking when presenting. It is designed to place students in business and social settings that require a mastery of presentation skills in order to be successful. A combination of lecture, discussion, and hands-on practice and simulation, this course helps students exercise leadership through oral communication.

Var credits

Graduate Prerequisites: one semesters of graduate study. Students enrolled in CM 809 can earn credits for completing internships they secure at advertising, public relations and integrated marketing communication agencies; communication or public affairs departments of companies, nonprofit organizations, and government entities; corporate sales or nonprofit fundraising departments; and communication-related functions at media companies. Two-credit students must work a minimum of 100 hours during the semester in which they are enrolled in CM 809. Four-credit students must work a minimum of 200 hours during the semester in which they are enrolled in CM 809 and their internship role must be with a non-Boston University entity. Graduate students are limited to four total CM 809 credits via the departmental internship coordinator or the London Study Abroad program. No more than four credits of CM 809 can count toward any graduation requirements. Faculty members and the assigned supervisor at the internship oversee student work. Students complete a detailed end-of-semester internship report, and the internship supervisor provides a thorough evaluation. Register for 2 or 4 units.

4 credits

Prerequisites: MET LB 103, MET LB 104, and (METCS 520 or METCS 521), or equivalent knowledge, or consent of instructor. The goal of this course is to provide students with the mathematical and practical background required in the field of data analytics. Probability and statistics concepts will be reviewed as well as the R tool for statistical computing and graphics. Different types of data are investigated along with data summarization techniques and plotting methods. Data populations using discrete, continuous, and multivariate distributions are explored. Sampling methods and errors during measurements and computations are analyzed in the course. String manipulations and data wrangling methods are examined in detail. The concepts covered in the course are demonstrated using R. Laboratory Course.

4 credits

Prerequisites: MET CS 544 or MET CS 550 or consent of instructor. Learn the foundations of machine learning, regression, and classification. Topics include how to describe data, statistical inference, 1 and 2 sample tests of means and proportions, simple linear regression, multiple linear regression, multinomial regression, logistic regression, analysis of variance, and regression diagnostics. These topics are explored using the statistical package R, with a focus on understanding how to use these methods and interpret their outputs and how to visualize the results. In each topic area, the methodology, including underlying assumptions and the mechanics of how it all works along with appropriate interpretation of the results are discussed. Concepts are presented in context of real-world examples in order to help you learn when and how to deploy different methods.

4 credits

Prerequisites: MET CS 544, or MET CS 555 or equivalent knowledge, or instructor's consent. - The Web Mining and Graph Analytics course covers the areas of web mining, machine learning fundamentals, text mining, clustering, and graph analytics. This includes learning fundamentals of machine learning algorithms, how to evaluate algorithm performance, feature engineering, content extraction, sentiment analysis, distance metrics, fundamentals of clustering algorithms, how to evaluate clustering performance, and fundamentals of graph analysis algorithms, link analysis and community detection based on graphs. Laboratory Course.

4 credits

Prerequisites: MET CS 521, MET LB 103 and MET LB 104; and either MET CS 579 or MET CS 669; or consent of instructor. - Study basic concepts and techniques of data mining. Topics include data preparation, classification, performance evaluation, association rule mining, regression and clustering. You will learn underlying theories of data mining algorithms in the class and practice those algorithms through assignments and a semester-long class project using R. After finishing this course, you will be able to independently perform data mining tasks to solve real-world problems.