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MAIN > ACADEMICS > UNDERGRADUATE > JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATIONS > COURSES |
PROGRAM CHAIR | COURSES
Admission Requirements Students are admitted to the J&MC program based on three examinations:
Graduation Requirements: To earn the degree of Bachelor of Arts, J&MC students are expected to complete 21 courses within major (51). All AUCA Journalism and Mass Communications students must undertake two internships during their course of studies: 1) Introductory internship with duration of two weeks to be implemented after the second semester (end of first year). 2) Specialized internship with duration of 30 days to be undertaken after the sixth semester of studies (end of 3 year). The Department determines the location of the internship, and makes and agreement with mass media, PR agencies, consulting companies and private commercial institutions.
The following courses are mandatory for all students: MC 190 Intro to Mass Communication MC 235 Effective Writing Skills MC 290 Visual Communication MC 236 Introduction to Video Audio MC 237 Newswriting Skills MC 238 Introduction to PR and Advertising MC 295 Broadcasting Skills I /Writing seminar I / Public Relations and Advertising Skills MC 321 Mass Media Research Methods MC 360 International and Political Communication MC 340 Broadcasting Skills II / Print/Online Layout and Design / Public Relations and Advertising Campaigns MC 420 Psychology of Journalism Jor 296 Media Analysis Jor 321 Management of Mass Media Jor 425 Investigative Reporting Jor 450 Internship Jor 490 Mass Communication Theories Jor 495 Honor Thesis Seminars I Jor 470 Media Law and Ethics Jor 495 Honor Thesis Seminars II Jor 499 Problem Project/ Senior Thesis
Graduating Journalism and Mass Communication students must produce a degree project or a senior thesis (Jor 495 (I and II) 9 credit hours). There is no option of state exams. Students with GPA of 3.2 or higher (cumulative GPA after the 3rd year) are invited to write a senior thesis under the guidance of a faculty member. Such a paper must be of the highest quality, properly referenced and conform to rigorous academic, stylistic and ethical requirements. Other students must produce a degree project: a practical project demonstrating what the students have learned during their studies at the Journalism and Mass Communication Department, and producing a significant outcome. Such projects may include, but are not limited to, shooting a documentary on a socially important topic, producing an issue of a new newspaper, magazine or electronic or on-line publications, designing and implementing an original public relations campaign, etc. The students must successfully present and defend their thesis or project work to a committee of professors and experts.
Minor in Journalism and Mass Communication: Journalism and Mass Communication Department offers a minor for the students of other departments and programs. MC 190: Introduction to Mass Communication – Fall Semester MC 235: Writing Research and Evidence – Fall Semester MC 237: Newswriting Skills and Cultural Reportage – Spring Semester Jor 470: Media Law and Ethics – Spring Semester MC 360: International and Political Communication (Spring Semester) OR JOR 490: Mass Communication Theory (Fall Semester) Choose one elective journalism courses at the 100 or 200 level. Choose one elective journalism course at the 300 or 400 level. Total: 21 credits Courses to substitute for numbers 3) and 4) may be substituted at the request of the students and at the discretion of the Department Chair. The second part of the final requirement for the minor is a portfolio of at least six (6) articles of minimum 300 words published in the New. And students must produced at least FIVE video stories for TV AUCA.
Suggested order to study 1st year of study Fall semester MC 190 Spring semester CTL 107 Jor 210.1 2nd year of study Fall semester MC 235 MC 290 Spring semester MC 236 MC 237 MC 238 3rd year of study Fall semester MC 295 MC 321 Spring semester MC 360 MC 340 Jor 321 4th year of study Fall semester Jor 490 Jor 495 Spring semester Jor 470 MC 420 Jor 495 Jor 425
Short description of the required courses
MC 190: Introduction to Mass Communication 3 credits (English) Prerequisite: English language proficiency This course is focused on gaining basic knowledge of Mass Communication theories. It will also discuss various contemporary mass media issues in order to understand how mass communication works. We will use that understanding to study how media interact with various other forces in society to cause acculturating forces on us. Students should leave this course with an understanding of the role and history of mass communication in global sense, and the role of mass media in the government and culture of different societies.
MC 235: Effective Writing Skills 3 credits (English) Prerequisite: Eng 301 Good writing has become a key ingredient to success in any communications job. This course will stress the basis writing skills essential to any student in any mass communication. In this course you’ll learn to develop a story idea, to improve your information gathering techniques, writing and revising/editing skills.
MC 290 Visual Communication Prerequisite: MC 190 In our increasingly visual global society, visual literacy is more important than ever. This course will help you develop your visual literacy skills to make you a more informed reader of images. This is essentially a theoretical/analytical course, but it has a practical purpose. Just as reading texts is a critical part of preparing to be a writer, reading images is essential to becoming an adept producer of compelling images in journalism, public relations, or entertainment.
By the time you finish this course you will: 1) be familiar with the history and technologies of visual communication; 2) have gained theoretical tools for reading and analyzing images; 3) have practiced reading, analyzing, and discussing images; 4) have honed your critical thinking skills.
MC 236: Introduction to Video and Audio 3 credits (English) The course introduces students to the reportorial TV and radio genres and the professional specifics of TV and radio reportage. Students will learn how to produce reportorial programs for TV and radio and gain the teamwork skills appropriate to TV groups. In the course of the study, students will learn to independently select topics of their news reports as well as shoot and edit their footage.
MC 237: Newswriting Skills 3 credits (English) Prerequisite: MC 235 This is a hands-on course to develop practical skills related to information search on Internet and spreadsheet analysis using Excel software program. While we all use Internet on daily basis, we are not necessarily familiar with all that Internet can offer in terms of information sources for journalistic articles (or, for that matter, any other need to find reliable information quickly). Students will be introduced to various ways of approaching online information search and choosing adequate search strategies. Emphasis will be laid upon numerical and other data contained in tables and spreadsheets. Students will learn to “interview” such data to identify patterns that can be used to develop story ideas and write articles with solid statistical and other evidence. In addition to practical exercises, some reading materials will be assigned as well.
MC 238: Introduction to Public Relations and Advertising 3 credits (English) Prerequisite: MC 290 This course aims to acquaint students with the goals and technologies of PR, different PR publics, action plans to resolve crisis situations, and strategic PR planning. Students will also learn about the methods of forming a PR budget, fundraising, organizing special events, differences between internal and external PR, neutralizing rumors, and will create a PR campaign plan, among other projects.
MC 295: Broadcasting skills I/ Writing Skills I/ Public Relations and Advertising Skills I 4.5 credits (English ) Prerequisite: MC 235,MC 236, MC 238 Broadcasting skills I: During this course, students will learn about the analytical genres of radio and TV and the professional aspects of preparation of analytical materials. Students will learn how to produce informational-analytical and analytical programs. Students will learn to choose topics for analytical materials and develop analytical program scenarios. Writing Skills I: The aim of this course is creation of journalistic stories for diverse audiences. Students will learn how to develop story ideas, gather information, combine visual and verbal messages, write and edit news. An additional emphasis is put on developing news writing skills for various sources in the pursuit of accuracy: developing information gathering techniques, including interviewing and computer-assisted reporting; a develop an understanding of news deadline. Two different instructors will teach this course one for broadcast media and the other for print media. Public Relations and Advertising Skills I: After you learned the applied aspects of the field of public relations in the introductory course, you have to beef up your skills with a theory, knowledge of a broader societal context and learn how to analyze a public relations problem and create a public relations plan based on your research. In public relations, you are paid to give voice to an organization (or individual) and represent it in communications with its publics. Many organizations and individuals claim to practice public relations, yet implement techniques that are not based on research, which gives an understanding of the situation (real-world behavior), or that lack ethics. The term “public relations” gets bandied about often in the news media and political discourses, but there is still much confusion over the definition of public relations and its scope. This course will introduce you to the teory, principles, and techniques of public relations. You will learn how to put theory into hands-on practice by solving real-world public relations problems inKyrgyzstan.
MC 321: Mass Media Research Methods 3 credits (English) Prerequisite: Soc 102 This course is intended to introduce you to standard research methods and procedures in mass/communication(s) studies. This course is a prerequisite for your Senior Thesis course and three components:
MC 360: International and Political Communication 3 credits (English) Prerequisite: MC 290 This course, required for junior mass communication department students and open for others, examines how the media work in an international political scale. The goal of the course is to make students think on contemporary political issues covered by media in various societies and cultures of the world. This course discusses issues that global journalism is facing in the 21st century and we’ll try to describe broad dimensions of international political media. The course is based on critical topics and theories of existing media and political systems. It uses that understanding to study how media interact with various other forces in society to cause acculturating forces on us. It also covers questioning and critical thinking about political media issues. During the semester, students develop a clearer understanding of the role that politics plays through media, and the role of the mass media in terms of other social developments.
MC 340/1: Broadcasting Skills II / Writing Skills II/ Public Relations and Advertising Skills II 4.5 credits (English ) Prerequisite: MC 295 Broadcasting Skills II: This course is designed for 3rd year journalism students who have received substantial video production training and TV reporting experience in TV-I and TV-II classes. Students will learn in detail about technical aspects of video production (cameras, audio, directing, editing, lights, set and graphics design) as well as about organizational aspects (concept development, scriptwriting, cast selection, budget planning, pitching your program, syndication). We will discuss production process of different types of programs such as news, public affairs programs, talk shows, documentary films, fiction films, commercials, video press releases and reality TV shows. Depending on their interests, students create and produce programs as a team. Writing Skills II: This course teaches students to craft solid stories that adhere to the writing conventions of newspapers. It will help you learn to find the best way to develop journalistic skills and thinking. This course makes extensive use of technology for printing journalism (i.e., about learning how to communicate effectively with diverse audiences). At the end of the course, you should be able to: gather information for and write a profile of an individual who exemplifies a larger trend, problem or issue; create an article or package of articles on a complicated topic for a print publication; develop good story ideas that will interest and inform a target audience; edit your work and that of others for news judgment, accuracy, precision, fairness, mechanics and aesthetics, and appropriateness to the audience; pass a language-skills test that covers basic word usage, grammar, punctuation and spelling. Public Relations and Advertising Skills II: After studying theoretical aspects of the field of public relations, students should learn how to apply a theory, understand the broader societal context, and be able to apply the full range of communication tools to specific public relations and marketing problems. This course considers these problems from a management perspective. Its emphasis is on problem-solving using all available promotional tools. Companies and organizations now rely on a range of skills to communicate, through both traditional and new technology methods. Communications professionals work to manage the promotional process in an integrated and coordinated manner to achieve a synergetic effect. Such an approach to managing the promotional effort has become known as integrated marketing communication, or IMC. An IMC approach allows firms and organizations to more effectively use the tools of promotion. Thus, the overarching goal of the course is to familiarize students with the whole cycle of promotional process and make them ready for a real-world public relations and marketing job.
MC 420 Psychology of Journalism Prerequisite: MC 190 This course explains the interactions between psychological processes and media processes. It offers a variety of ways to understand how the media work in individuals, more than in groups, systems or societies. Major theories about media psychology help the class imagine how to create a wide range of media productions. By learning about and discussing principles of producing and receiving media, you will be better prepared to work effectively as a professional communicator. You will also understand more about your personal media use, its influences on you, and how people actively shape their media consumption.
Jor 296: Media Analysis 3 credits (English) Prerequisite: none This course introduces students to the principles and skills of analyzing media messages. It is designed to help academic analyses, improve work skills in communication industries, and improve “media consumption” by making them more aware of how the media creates meanings for varied purposes and with varied approaches, technologies and methods. It covers most kinds of media, and encourages students to apply new techniques to the media and academic approaches that interest you most. We are not born knowing how to make sense of the media, but learn over a lifetime of message processing and interpretation. Similarly, while anyone can have a quick opinion about a media product (newspaper article, Internet site, sitcom, rock song), we need to learn how to investigate mediated messages. The alternative is to be stuck with some combination of what the message producer wants us to believe, and inherited understandings that are unlikely to reflect our own perspectives and values. We will consider mainstream academic and commercial analysis, such as those used in basic and advertising research, as well as critical, semiotic, cultural and other academic approaches. You will develop new mental “muscles” that will be valuable in many ways.
Jor 321: Management of Mass Media 1,5 credits (English) Prerequisite: none
Jor 425: Investigative Reporting 1,5 credits (English) Prerequisite: MC 235
Jor 450: Internship 3 credits This one-month summer module is designed to help junior students acquire professional experience under the supervision of recognized professionals in the local media in their media emphasis.
Jor 490: Mass Communication Theory 3 credits (English) Prerequisite: MC 321 This course is designed to introduce students to the variety and diversity of modern theories of mass communications. It provides a basic understanding of how modern theories relate to mass communications, how mass media are organized, and how they function; how they influence audiences, as well as how these theories may be used by students for their further development, both professionally (if they decide to practice journalism or another mass communications field like public relations or marketing communications) and academically (if students continue their education after they graduate).
Jor 495: Honors Thesis Seminar I and II Prerequisite: MC 321, Jor 490 6 credits This is an intensive course for senior journalism students writing their undergraduate theses. It explains how to write a major undergraduate work that passes academic standards of accuracy, validity, and awareness of relevant literature. It also explains how to organize findings and arguments. To achieve these objectives, the course covers the methodologies of writing a thesis and identifies its necessary structural “ingredients”, such as literature review, explication of the methods used, and interpretation of data.
Jor 470: Media Law and Ethics 3 credits (English, Russian) Prerequisite: MC 190 This course is designed to provide students with a good working knowledge of those aspects of law, which are of particular concern to journalists and mass communicators. The course covers current debates about privacy, freedom of information, race and sex discrimination. It is designed to give students insights into key ethical issues in journalism, such as protection of sources, bias, defence against moral, financial, political pressure, problems of sexism and racism. By the end of this course, students should be able to recognize and avoid the main legal pitfalls in a work of a journalist, i.e. defamation, contempt, violation of privacy and confidentiality. It also familiarizes students with the Kyrgyz and international legal media system.
Jor 499: Problem Project / Senior Thesis 3 credits Prerequisite: Jor 495 (I/II) This course gives students an opportunity to undertake a substantial research project on a topic related to the study of mass media and journalism. It brings together knowledge and skills gained both from the practical and theoretical sections of the coursework. The project component helps students produce and write a paper on a practical product, such as a booklet or video documentary.
Short description of some elective courses:
Jor 295: Online journalism 3 credits (English) Prerequisite: none This course is designed to provide an introduction to HTML and web-site design, advance students’ knowledge of the Internet as a research tool. It teaches how to link images to text and encourage students to use the web as a source of story ideas. The course also gives students a critical understanding of the ethical and professional difficulties of journalists using the Internet. Students are expected to carry out research by using the Internet.
Jor 310: Photography 3 credits (English) Prerequisite: none This is an introductory journalism course focusing on the basics of light, camera operation, and employment of chemical and digital darkrooms. It includes instruction in spot news and feature photography as well as covers the issues of photography ethics, privacy and law. At the end of the course, students’ works are submitted to a thematic photo exhibition.
MC 310: PR Research 3 credits (English) Prerequisite: none
Jor 326: Basic of Camera Skills and Non-linear Video Editing 3 credits (English) Prerequisite: none
Jor 472: Digital PR 3 credits (English) Prerequisite: MC 238
JMC 245: New Media 3 credits (English) Prerequisite: none
CTJ 201: Critical Approaches to Information Production 3 credits (English) Prerequisite: none
Note: For more detailed information regarding a course, please consult the department or discuss it with instructor.
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