Course descriptions

Prepares students to explore, understand and critique the state of Arab media in both historical and contemporary contexts. Theoretical ideas such as hegemony, post-colonialism and Orientalism are introduced to situate the development of Arab media systems within the framework of the social and political conditions from which they emerged. Various media systems, forms and products are examined to highlight commonalities and distinctions across the multitude of media we classify as Arab.

News Writing

Study and practice in copy reading, headline writing, proofreading, with attention given to printing terminology, page makeup, type structure, computer use in editing, and analysis of newspapers.

Elements and practices of online journalism are introduced in this course. Students would be informed about the reasons inviting newspapers to go online and the benefits and drawbacks of this type of publication. Students would be familiarized about the main differences between the traditional newspaper publication and online newspaper publication. Elements of designing interactive media messages are highlighted.

Multimedia Ethics

Rigorous, in-depth instruction and critiques of students' news and investigative reporting assignments done with different reporting methodologies: interviewing, official records, direct and participant observation, and survey research.

Instruction and practice in writing feature articles for newspapers and magazines.

Studies the advanced theories and practices of radio and television production. Explores higher level television skills and principles from those in MCM 231. Lab arranged. This course has a physical requirement requiring motor skills that allow for proper operation of radio and television equipment and the ability to exert upto 20 pounds of force on a repetitive basis.

Studies the basic skills necessary to provide news packages for broadcast. Students gain knowledge on story development and production skills needed to write, interview, report, shoot and edit audio and video news stories.

Web Interface Design

Students are presented to real cases of successful and unsuccessful advertising and public relations projects and tasks that allow students to critically think of the process of conducting these projects and what they need to avoid.

This course is a study of the application of digital audio and video tools. It focuses on the issues and production techniques involved in creating and editing digital audio and video. Codec’s, architectures, editing techniques and project-planning concerns are the key topics covered. Techniques of streaming audio and video may also be covered.

This course will explore issues in the making of digital video and Digital sound. It is designed around Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere. The course presents solutions for problems involved in digitizing from video tape, Audi CD and other sources.

Introduces students to the principles and elements of motion design. It identifies methods and process for conceptualizing in time-based media, as well as developing a vocabulary and visual language for motion. In addition to stressing systems, structure and synthesis of text and image for time-based media, the course also provides knowledge and skills in the digital creativity, such as 2D and 3D animation.

This course is the highest level of advanced digital audio and video editing. Students explore video language while producing a more ambitious work through improved technical skills, including digital modes of post-production. It integrates hands-on demonstrations, lecture, exercises, projects and critiques. Students use digital video cameras along with high end software to produce a final project.

Through the process of learning to assemble the components necessary to allow for efficient workflow in getting animated storytelling on the screen, students in this course focus on 3D modeling, texturing, animating, lighting and rendering, and assembling shots in sequence to create effective storytelling.

Multimedia Authoring

Provides students with hands-on training in the sequence of digital media production. Includes training on pre-production and planning, audio and video capture, and post-production and editing.

Internship in Multimedia

Examination of the social, economic, and political factors contributing to the development of American mass media. Emphasis on significant personalities who helped shape its course; analysis of select critical works.

The study of media content and its effect on society. Reading and viewing of selected works. Independent reading and critical analysis required.

An important element in any communication process is considering the people who receive the communication messages. People reaction is studied in this course as well as concepts such as targeting audience, active and passive reactions.

Special Topics in Visual Communication

Principles of Educational Multimedia

Discussion of laws and ethics affecting the mass media. Exploration of problems and issues in legal regulation of media content, ownership and ethical standards such as privacy, censorship, honesty, fairness, and objectivity.

Survey of elements and processes critical to human communication behavior. Comparison of influential communication theories.

Introduction to the fundamental tools of quantitative research in communication. Focus of the course is on reading and comprehending communication research reports rather than conducting quantitative research.

Multimedia Marketing

Practical work with an off-campus newspaper, magazine, or other news organization, supervised by a journalism professional in consultation with a faculty member. Repeatable, but no more than six hours total credit may be earned in internship courses toward the 36-hour minimum required for the degree.

Practical work at an off-campus radio/TV station, supervised by a professional in consultation with a faculty member. Repeatable, but no more than six hours total credit may be earned in internship courses toward the 36-hour minimum required for the degree.

Enables students to develop creative works such as audio and/or video projects as part of their professional training. The course should be conducted under the mentorship of industry professionals in coordination with the course instructor.

Senior Project

Digital Portfolio Production

This course presents students to a combining approach gathering elements and ideas from marketing and communication as a method to achieve organizational goals. Students learn that organizations mix public relations, advertising, marketing, personal communication and others, can increase their advantages. Students are presented to IMC components, planning, and message design.

Advanced practical work in business communication, political campaign communication, advertising, public relations, or other forms of organizational or public communication. Work must be done off campus, under supervision of a working professional in the field, in consultation with a faculty member. Repeatable, but no more than six hours total credit may be earned in internship courses toward the 36-hour minimum required for the degree.

In this course, students are required to create their own projects in PR/Advertising. The aim of this course is to enable students to create creative works as part of personal portfolios presented to others upon seeking a job.

Internship in Visual Communications

Senior Visual Communication Project

Focusing on character rigging and animation, expressive timing, staging and fluid movement in character animation, students create original, high quality animated segments in preparation for senior projects and portfolio quality work. Additional advanced techniques are taught such as facial expression and lip-synch.

This subject provides students with an opportunity to undertake professional attachment to an onsite multimedia/graphic project. Students will also produce a seminar paper documenting and evaluating their professional attachment.

Working in small production teams, students in this course learn how to manage the production pipeline for a visual communication project. With the focus on working in a team environment to meet deadlines, students are expected to produce a professional quality projects in the areas of to graphic design, animation, video and audio editing, or web design. Students are encouraged to develop an individual approach that defines them as independent, creative and intelligent thinkers ready to challenge and contribute to a contemporary visual communication environment.

Professional attachment to an onsite professional media organization. Requires students to officially document work and hours performed.

Advanced Multimedia

Topics in Multimedia

Based on faculty’s selection of topics, students are presented to a certain topic focusing on mass communication.

This course is an introduction to the study and practice of acting. It will consider acting from a number of perspectives: the nature of acting, the process of acting, and the relationship between dramatic texts and their performers. Analyzing and building a character, diverse acting styles, realistic and nonrealistic acting and acting for stage, television and cinema will be discussed and practiced.

This course is an introduction to the study of theatre and drama arts. The course will cover theatre and drama from a number of perspectives: the nature of theatre as a performing art, connection between ritual and theatre, relationship of theatre to life, language and literature, stage, acting directing and playwriting. The course covers the history of drama and theatre, the beginnings (ritual drama and Greek drama), the medieval theatre, the renaissance and the 17th-20th centuries.

Examines the organization of natural ecosystem as it relates to the human community. Basic ecological principles are applied to current environmental issues. Among the topics to be examined are past and present uses and abuses of natural resources; environmental ethics and public policy; global environmental problems; human population growth; pollution; waste disposal; habitat loss; species extinction; and strategies for attaining a sustainable earth;

This is an introduction to scientific methods and experimentation studies of life from basic atoms to cellular levels of organization. Emphasis on human biology and its different organs in general educational lecture is followed. This course is designed for non-science major students.

This course is survey of selected basic concepts of biological sciences. Topics covered include the scientific method; cell structure and function; biochemistry, fundamentals of genetics and molecular biology; biotechnology, and current issues in biology. This course is designed for science majors and minors and prepares students for upper level biology courses.