Communication & Mass Media

Todd Nesbitt

Chair

tnesbitt@unyp.cz

Our mission

We seek to provide students with a world-class education that develops critical conceptual understanding and analysis, practical skills, and research capabilities. On graduation, our students will be ready for a career within one of the communication professions, or to pursue graduate studies at a leading higher education institution. Embedded within the context of an interdisciplinary, collaborative, and multicultural learning environment, students shall obtain the understanding and knowledge necessary to be contributing, flexible, adaptable, creative and tolerant in a social and professional environment characterized by convergence and change.

Our vision

 In our communications programs, we seek to respond consistently to the global demand from private, nonprofit, and research institutions for graduates who have the skills to engage with, and understand the complexities of, the processes, effects, and cultural implications of communication in the information society.

Our broad-based student learning goals

Students will be able to:

• Understand and be capable of explaining the known effects of media on society;
• Critically evaluate mass media and its role in constructing social reality;
• Comprehend political, economic, technological and globalizing influences on media organizations;
• Grasp the relationship between culture and communication, and use this understanding progressively;
• Confidently communicate using all styles of strategic writing used by various types of media organizations;
• Conduct independent, scholarly research resulting in professional analyses and presentations.

Our broad-based operational goals

We will:

• Encourage tolerance, ethical reflection, and intellectual curiosity at all levels of communication study;
• Provide students with the skills and knowledge required for their professional careers and or graduate studies;
• Ensure that courses are taught by both leading scholars and outstanding practitioners;
• Engage students in research initiatives conducted by the faculty.          

Our intended student learning outcomes

Students will be able to:

• Identify, contextualize and critically evaluate theoretical developments in the study of communication;
• Assess the impact of new information technologies on media systems;
• Understand and be able to comprehensively explain the principles and theories of public relations;
• Recognize techniques and strategies used by speakers to inform, persuade and entertain;
• Understand the divisions of the fields of communication and media studies;
• Analyze messages in the mass media in terms of rhetorical value;
• Plan and execute full-scale public relations and advertising campaigns;
• Be able to effectively write, report on events, and conduct interviews;
• Use their skills to design research projects - indicating hypotheses, best data collection method, and the most appropriate way to analyze data;
• To use Public Relations research methods in different situations;          
• Communicate effectively about quantitative and qualitative research both orally and in writing.