Course Offerings

TOPICS VARY BY SEMESTER

Examines how constitutional and statutory law define and protect media in different countries. Introduces students to libel law, copyright and author's rights, commercial rights issues, and variations across countries. Examines the role of government institutions and regulatory bodies in formulating policy on matters such as children's television and advertising regulation. Explores the process of self-regulation and issues of journalist's ethics.

Studies rhetoric as a historical phenomenon and as a practical reality. Considers how words and images are used to convince and persuade individuals of positions, arguments or actions to undertake, with particular attention to advertising, politics and culture. Studies the use of reason, emotion, and commonplaces, and compares visual and verbal techniques of persuasion.

The world of advertising has seen dramatic change over the past decades and what used to be mass communication still in the 90s is about to evolve into the "market of one" as described by P&G, a global consumer goods company. The availability of Big Data and man's capacity to use massive amounts of information will soon allow advertisers to target people individually, directly catering to their personal needs and desires. However, in this quickly changing world of communications, the basic workings of advertising & communications have remained the same. While media choices have evolved, understanding and applying the rules and factors that produce effective advertising has not and will not change in the foreseeable future. This class provides a thorough understanding of what works in advertising and what doesn't. Among other things, students will acquire the skills to write a single-minded copy strategy and creative brief, how to plan for the right media in offline and online, how identify the target audience and how to recognize good creative ideas. The course will convey initial notions on how to develop advertising concepts in print, TV, digital and content strategy as well as social media communications. The course will look at over 100 ads as illustrations and for analysis purposes and will teach students the elementary principles of how to develop effective advertising by using a teaching method inspired by the Harvard Business School.