COURSES

ROAR (COMM490/590) is the capstone experience for Strategic Communications majors, but is open to everyone at ODU. The only prerequisite is COMM303, Introduction to Strategic Communications (or instructor permission). Graduate and undergraduate students from across the university have participated, and we are connected to the Strome Entrepreneurial Center.

Many courses from the Strategic Communications and Marketing majors are helpful for success in working with clients, but if you haven’t taken them, don’t worry! We welcome students from all majors and experience levels.

  • A study of interactions within and among communication workplaces and the public. Attention is given to the media, promotions, community relations, and public information.

    Prerequisites: COMM 260 or permission of the instructor.

  • This writing-intensive course will provide students with concrete, real-world strategic communications experience in writing for various media to enhance the communication program of an organization. Students will research and write for print, broadcast, social, and digital media like video and electronic newsletters.

    Prerequisites: COMM 303; grade of C or better in ENGL 211C or ENGL 221C or ENGL 231C, or permission of the instructor.

  • This course emphasizes a multi-disciplinary and multi-media approach to problem-solving. Students will prepare a strategic communication campaign on behalf of a real client. It will include the production of research, strategy, and media material for use by the client. These materials, in turn, may be used in student portfolios as examples of professional capabilities.

    Prerequisites: COMM 260, COMM 303, or permission of the instructor.

  • This course provides students skills needed to enter the workforce with a robust set of domain-specific skills, which includes practicing those skills in a realistic, hands-on setting, so they feel more ready to win and succeed in jobs in the competitive, modern marketplace. This course will provide relevant skills training to strategic communication students while fortifying these students for professional success.

    Pre- or corequisites: junior standing or COMM 303.

  • The design, distribution, pricing, and promotion of goods, services, people, places, and causes. The course examines both national and international markets and includes an introduction to the legal and ethical constraints on marketing.

    Prerequisites: A declared major in the University or an intended major in the Strome College of Business or permission of the Dean's Office of the Strome College, AND Junior Standing.

  • A structured work experience with or without remuneration, in a communication-related field. An ePortfolio, 150 hours of site work, plus satisfactory evaluations by supervisor and cooperating faculty member are required. Available for pass/fail grading only. Available to Communication majors and minors only.

    Prerequisites: Approval of Departmental Internship Director prior to registration.

  • The effects of personality, motivation, perception, learning, attitudes, cultural and social influence and lifestyle on buying situations and how knowledge of these factors enables the marketer to better meet the needs of the marketplace.

    Prerequisites: C or better in MKTG 311 (or equivalent), and a declared major in the University or permission of the Dean's Office

  • The foundation of any successful strategic communications, from marketing to public relations to advertising, is research. This course introduces students to secondary and primary research methods in an applied way, having students actually design and conduct full research studies for a client in the community. Students will discuss and conduct various forms of market research (situation, stakeholder, and competitor), explaining how it is integral to strategic thinking and responsible growth in order to directly prepare them for work in the field.

    Prerequisites: COMM 303 or permission of the instructor.

  • This course will introduce the theories of social marketing and apply them through collaborations with a local organization or cause. Students will focus on a practical approach to constructing a brand through communication strategy and media tactics, and how those relate to constructing and maintaining the identity of a larger organization while also promoting social benefit.

    Prerequisites: COMM 303.

  • The course introduces students to the ways in which different media forms are used for advertising and marketing purposes. Emphasis is on electronic media, though other approaches, such as direct marketing techniques and the increasing use of new media technologies for marketing, are also examined.

    Prerequisites: Junior standing and COMM 260 or permission of the instructor.

  • This course is designed to extend students' knowledge of the media elements of strategic communications, from graphics to images to video. Students will discuss how to ground creative production in strategy for a client, how to focus on content and storytelling for a specific stakeholder, and how to create an extended, coherent plan using both creative and organizational goals.

    Prerequisites: COMM 303 or permission of the instructor.

  • ADVANCED STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS

    This course provides students with a final, capstone experience in strategic communications. It will do three main things: prepare students to effectively enter the job market in terms of how they present themselves, prepare students to create and present a professional-level portfolio of research, strategies, and tactics, and give students hands-on experience with a client and a team.

    Prerequisites: COMM 303 or permission of the instructor.

FOUNDATIONS

  • Companies and organizations from just about every sector have a person or in some cases, entire offices tasked with media relations. This course will take an in-depth look at the evolving landscape of multimedia communications, including seismic changes in the media in general, the rise of bloggers, influencers, and other shared media models, and the increasing role that content generation plays in traditional media relations. The course will include hands-on instruction and projects in content generation, media pitching and contact lists, media interviews, press conferences, as well as non-traditional earned media practices.

    Pre- or corequisites: COMM 260, COMM 303 or permission of the instructor.

  • The course covers the systematic process of organizational assessment from basic communication channels (verbal, printed, and electronic modes of communication), to interpersonal and group communication, to the management of events and staff. This course examines the importance of leadership roles within organizations in planning any event as well as the communication dynamics between management and those being supervised.

    Prerequisites: COMM 200S or permission of the instructor.

  • An overview of the rhetorical and social scientific theories and research about persuasion and applications in speeches and campaigns.

    Prerequisites: COMM 200S or permission of the instructor

  • This course exposes students to conventional and alternative approaches to reporting in public journalism. Students use a combination of conventional and alternative approaches as they research, interview, and construct a story on a local community issue or concern.

    Prerequisites: ENGL 110C and ENGL 211C; ENGL 380 or ENGL 382 or COMM 260; or permission of the instructor.

  • A study of selected topics designed for non-majors, or for elective credit within a major. These courses will appear in the course schedule and will be more fully described in information distributed to all academic advisors.

    Prerequisites: Junior standing and permission of the instructor.

  • This course introduces students to the basic elements of public relations as it pertains to assisting organizations to avoid, mitigate and recover from crisis situations. Students will have the opportunity to both observe and participate in crisis communications situations.

    Prerequisites: COMM 303 or permission of instructor.

  • This course introduces students to the multi-layered challenges associated with communication in the event of accidents, crises, and natural disasters. In addition to incorporating basic elements of public relations as it pertains to assisting organizations to avoid, mitigate and recover from external crisis situations, students will have the opportunity to both observe and participate in crafting multi-agency responses to these unplanned events. Prerequisites: COMM 303 or permission of the instructor.

  • A survey of the key methods used in critiquing various forms of human and mediated communication for the purpose of becoming more discerning consumers of public and mass mediated messages. The analysis will include films, television, and radio programs, advertisements, newspapers, public discourses, speeches, and conversations.

    Prerequisites: COMM 200S or permission of the instructor.

  • Strategic communications are best learned by doing, including researching what has worked and what hasn't worked in strategies and tactics conducted by other professionals. This course will introduce students to a series of case studies organized thematically, grounding the knowledge gained in COMM 303 and allowing students to apply that knowledge to contemporary industries and cases of their own choosing.

    Prerequisites: COMM 303 or permission of the instructor.

  • A critical examination of the news industry as practiced in the printed press, network and cable television, magazines, the Internet, and alternative press. The class examines the political economy of journalism, the sociology of journalistic practice, international news flows, ideological/political control of news, and mythological narrative forms within the news.

    Prerequisites: COMM 260 or permission of instructor.

  • Focuses on theories, research, and applications of the social influence function of communication in a variety of organizational contexts. Examines traditional and nontraditional social influence theories and research as applied to organizational change.

    Prerequisites: COMM 333 or COMM 355 or permission of the instructor

  • This upper-division seminar investigates one or two particular emergent new media practices and theories. The topics will be chosen at the discretion of the instructor but may include issues such as 'mobile media,' 'micro media and audiences,' and 'social media.'
    Prerequisites: COMM 372T or permission of the instructor. item description

  • This course introduces students to different media forms that are used for advertising and marketing with an emphasis on electronic media, Other approaches are examined, such as direct marketing techniques and the increasing use of new media technologies for marketing.

  • This course will delve into activism and social change from a local and global perspective in order to enhance students' perspectives of social change as it manifests via popular media and community action.

    Prerequisite: Instructor permission is required.

  • This course is designed to help students enhance their personal and professional development through innovation guided by faculty members and professionals, while at the same time, meeting a critical need for Old Dominion University. Through a partnership with ODU's Office of Strategic Communication and Marketing, a select group of upper-level public relations, marketing or related discipline students will work, individually and in teams, as a "bureau" for the University's central marketing and communications office.

    Prerequisite: COMM 303 or equivalent.

  • The advanced study of selected topics is designed to permit small groups of qualified students to work on subjects of mutual interest which, due to their specialized nature, may not be offered regularly. These courses will appear in the course schedule and will be more fully described in information distributed to all academic advisors. Prerequisites: Appropriate survey course or permission of the instructor.

ADDITIONAL RELEVANT COURSES