{"id":2537,"date":"2020-10-21T15:31:18","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T15:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=2537"},"modified":"2025-02-11T10:38:56","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T15:38:56","slug":"the-college-of-arts-sciences-unveils-a-redesigned-communication-degree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2020\/10\/21\/the-college-of-arts-sciences-unveils-a-redesigned-communication-degree\/","title":{"rendered":"The College of Technology Unveils a Redesigned Communication Degree"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.kadence-column2537_506c27-37 > .kt-inside-inner-col{padding-right:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-left:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);}.kadence-column2537_506c27-37 > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column2537_506c27-37 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column2537_506c27-37 > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column2537_506c27-37 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column2537_506c27-37 > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column2537_506c27-37 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column2537_506c27-37{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column2537_506c27-37 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 991px){.kadence-column2537_506c27-37 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column2537_506c27-37 dynamic-main-col\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"students-now-have-a-choice-of-one-of-three-concentrations-digital-journalism-public-relations--strategic-communication-and-visual-communication\">Students now have a choice of one of three concentrations: Digital Journalism, Public Relations &amp; Strategic Communication and Visual Communication.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are really excited to offer this redesign,\u201d says Dr. Janice Colvin, chair of Communication. \u201cWe researched the possible directions of the future economy and saw a continuing strong need for communicators with a wide set of skills across the board, not just technical but those soft skills of writing, creativity and critical thinking that employers prize so much in their workforces. We specifically redesigned the program to help meet those needs. In many ways, I consider it a STEAM degree.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said that each of the new concentrations, while containing the same courses as the previous degree program, now offer wider options for students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe program offers a lot of flexibility,\u201d she says. \u201cEmbedded in each concentration is a certificate \u2013 Technical Communication, Social Media Management and Graphic Design \u2013 which students earn automatically as they move through their coursework.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAlso with this change comes the addition of 15 free electives in each concentration,\u201d she adds. \u201cThis addition allows students to take another certificate of their choice, take a minor, or take advantage of an accelerated degree option by taking two graduate courses in the College of Business, Master of Science in Management\u2019s Business Communication concentration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr. Colvin also says that four new courses are part of the redesign: Social Media Management, Current Trends in Social Media, Advanced Reporting and the Communication Capstone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBusinesses and organizations now use social media universally for public outreach,\u201d says Dr. Colvin. The social media management certificate is designed to meet this need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur students must understand how social media works for a business and how they can use that knowledge to help their employer post targeted messages to a particular audience,\u201d she says. Students move beyond the limited understanding of social media as just a user \u2013 they learn the deeper workings of each platform, and research the pros and cons of using each type, including how to analyze user data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Advanced Reporting takes students to a higher level of journalistic writing, building on skills learned in the introductory news writing course, while the Capstone course pulls the learning of the past years into one package, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve worked hard to make this a degree for the future, for both students and employers,\u201d she adds. \u201cAnd we\u2019ll be adding more certificates and courses as we move forward, to make this degree what I like to call \u2018a living degree,\u2019 flexible and ready to change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The details and curriculum for each concentration are located on the college\u2019s web page for the Communication program:&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wilmu.edu\/technology\/indext.aspx\">https:\/\/www.wilmu.edu\/artsandsciences\/comm.aspx.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Students now have a choice of one of three concentrations: Digital Journalism, Public Relations &amp; Strategic Communication and Visual Communication. \u201cWe are really excited to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":2,"label":"ACADEMIC NEWS"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Wilm-image-720x480.png",720,480,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Rebecca Slinger","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/author\/rebecca\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":2,"name":"ACADEMIC NEWS","slug":"academic-news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":559,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":460,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":2,"category_count":460,"category_description":"","cat_name":"ACADEMIC NEWS","category_nicename":"academic-news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15814,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2537\/revisions\/15814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}