Welcome to our B.A. Program

The Department of Journalism and Strategic Media offers four areas of undergraduate study—Advertising, Creative Mass Media, Journalism, and Public Relations. The department is accredited by the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications; the public relations program is certified by the Public Relations Society of America.

The Department of Journalism and Strategic Media at the University of Memphis offers preparation for careers in advertising, broadcast news, multimedia journalism, public relations, sports journalism, and visual and creative media. Students are required to take career-oriented skills courses to enhance skills in writing, multimedia, media literacy, professionalism, and critical thinking as they relate to careers in the media.

Click on the program names below for more detail about the programs. The Undergraduate Catalog includes complete information about degree requirements. This is a listing of course descriptions outlines the offerings of the Department of Journalism and Strategic Media.

Advertising

The advertising major trains students to work in a corporate or agency office doing accounts or creative work. Students learn functions of the advertising business, develop creative strategy, explore media buying and account planning, learn to research target audiences and to execute a campaign. Students compete in the National Student Advertising Competition working with national brands, including Adobe, Ocean Spray and Pizza Hut.

Creative Mass Media

The creative mass media concentration in the Journalism major trains students to work in creative media industries, such as advertising design, public relations design, data visualization photojournalism, news design, web design, and user experience design. Students will learn skills in digital media photography, print media design, and web design and can choose courses to deepen skills in those areas. Students take a minimum of nine hours of credit from the Department of Art and work toward a creative capstone course where students will design, shoot and develop media for a client.

Journalism

The journalism major trains students to work as multimedia journalists for new and emerging digital media, legacy media, and media startups. Students can deepen skills in broadcast journalism, sports reporting, investigative journalism, feature writing, and public affairs reporting. All classes emphasize writing and multimedia skills and lead to a capstone experience working for Memphis Mirror. Broadcast journalism students produce Tiger News as part of their studies.

Public Relations

The public relations major is offered on campus, online and at the Lambuth campus. In public relations, students learn to engage the public and communicate with stakeholders, shareholders for corporate and nonprofit clients as well as work in an agency setting. Students develop skills in writing, social media, design and audience research, and then use those to execute a campaign for a client. Previous clients have included Memphis Habitat for Humanity and the University of Memphis football team.