Course Syllabus

For a PDF of the syllabus, click here.

Each week of your internship, beginning Monday January 30 and regularly thereafter until the end of March you are expected to post a log of about 500 words that has been proofread, revised, and refined that summarizing the work you completed the previous work as part of your internship. The log should reflect on how that week's work has aided you in developing content for your final project (see details below), due no later than 6 pm Monday May 15,  2017.

The Log:

Each week you should summarize in less than a page work you did during the preceding seven days.

Once the summary of the week has been completed select one item from the list below and explain how it in particular was a topic of interest / concern for the preceding week and explain how the manner it was addressed / resolved helps illuminate a particular idea or case study from your course of study at SSU up to now.

• what "communications" is (you can concentrate on PR, advertising or journalism, if you wish)
• how various interested parties engaged in communications are identified by other groups
• how various interested parties engaged in communications self-identify
• how those interested parties participate in the message making process
• how those interested parties respond to the message making process
• the relationship between content and platform
• how success / failure of a project is determined.

Once an item has been addressed, you cannot make it the focus of your next log entry for at least 4 weeks. 

The Final Project:

For your final project you are asked to create a presentation designed for first-year students considering majoring in Communications.

The project should address one of two questions (NOT BOTH):

either

a./ What is "Communications"?

or

b./ What does it takes to manage a media campaign?

In either case, seek to make your case by using what you have learned from your internship to address the question. Assume a presentation of 12 - 15 minutes. You will need to provide the sound track and commentary and are responsible for ensuring that all links in the presentation are working. You may wish to interview people and include edits of those interviews in the final product, in which case please ensure you have their permission to do so.

The presentation is due electronically no later than 6 p.m Monday May 15,  2017.

Grades:

The logs themselves will not be scored as they are designed to support your development of a professional understanding of your field of study and to help you prepare your final presentation.

Your final presentation will be 50 percent of your final grade. We will discuss the criteria on which the presentation will be judged individually prior to the penultimate draft being submitted.

The other 50 percent of your final grade will be determined by your supervisor's response to a SurveyMonkey questionnaire distributed toward the end of the semester, We will review the questions to be asked prior to their submission.