Advertising

College of Arts and Sciences

The advertising major is an interdisciplinary undergraduate major in the School of Media and Communication. The major provides students with the foundational conceptual and professional skills required in a rapidly changing media environment. These skills include contemporary audience research and analysis, strategic writing and messaging, and media planning and selection in both traditional and digital media. The major's strong experiential learning component develops student mastery in professional advertising and creative business and communication problem-solving in commercial and non-profit settings.

The advertising major consists of a six-course core, a two-course internship, four additional required courses, a three-course concentration, and a capstone experience. The core provides a strong foundation of theory and practice in different facets of the industry incorporating perspectives from Advertising, Communication, Media Production and Studies. Marketing and Graphic Design, to provide a strong context in marketing-driven and graphic design of creative advertising. A minor is required. 

Learning Outcomes

Students are expected to achieve the following learning outcomes:

  1. Explain the different functions, regulations, and roles of advertising in business marketing, the media industry, and society;
  2. Utilize consumer behavior and persuasion theories with audience research to select target audience, develop advertising campaigns' and evaluate their effectiveness with appropriate data analytics and metrics;
  3. Write advertising copy, understand graphic design principles and develop ethical advertising campaigns and strategies across multiple media platforms including social media for both commerical and non-profit organizations;
  4. Apply knowledge of the strengths and limitations of different marketing communication media and integrate them in advertising campaigns and media advertising sales.

Advertising - Major (44 hours) - Spring 2020 course requirements

With the advertising major, students may choose between two concentrations to best suit a student's talents and interests. The student's concentration options are - creative/production or management/research. 

    The Creative/Production concentration prepares students for careers in copy writing, print and digital advertising or
    commerical production, webmaster for commerical web sites or social media manager.

    The Management/Research concentration prepare students for careers in advertising sales, account management, account
    planning, advertising media planning and advertising research.

For specific courses for those concentrations, please review the check sheet for the major. This major requires students to take a minor. 

Advertising Minor

The Advertising Minor gives students a background in the advertising industry, interactive advertising, effects of advertising, and advertising campaigns for careers in advertising and media. The Advertising Minor will be beneficial to students interested in broadcasting, online media, marketing, promotion, and other media-related industries and culture.  

Students will need to complete four required courses. MDIA or Marketing majors cannot double count any courses in their major or minor.

1. Gateway courses (6 credits)

  • For MDIA Majors: MKT 3000 (3) and either MKT 4080 (3) or MKT 4100 (3)
  • For Marketing Majors: MDIA 1030 (3) and MDIA 2600 (3)
  • For all other majors, choose MKT 3000 (3) and either MKT 4080 (3) or MKT 4100 (3) sequence or MDIA 1030 (3) and MDIA 2600 (3) sequence

2. Production courses (6 credits, 3 credits for MDIA majors)

  • MDIA 2640 Interactive Online Media (3)
  • Choose one (3 credits): MDIA 2500, MDIA 2610, MDIA 2620

3. Electives (6 credits, 9 or 12 credits for MDIA majors. MDIA majors will need to take one additional course from the list as they will need to make up one course not taken for production course requirements: 9 credits. If MDIA majors used MDIA 2640 for their major, they will need to take two additional courses: 12 credits. The listed courses cannot be double counted between major and minor.)

  • COMM 3030 Persuasion
  • JOUR 3410 Principles of Public Relations for Nonmajors
  • JOUR 4900 Specialized Journalism Skills
  • JOUR 4950 Specialized Journalism Issues
  • MDIA 3520 Online Social Media
  • MDIA 3610 Media & Strategic Communication
  • MDIA 3650 Broadcasting History
  • MDIA 4530 Media Sales and Promotion
  • MDIA 4610 Audience Research
  • MDIA 4630 Media Programming
  • MDIA 4690 Seminar: Contemporary Aspects of Telecommunications
  • MKT 3020 Consumer Behavior

4. Capstone course (3 credits) Choose one - not counted in major

  • MKT 4120 Advertising Management
  • MDIA 4530 Media Sales and Promotion
  • MDIA 4911 Media Management

Updated: 04/02/2020 10:51AM