CoJMC Graduate Programs
The UNL College of Journalism and Mass Communications offers three distinct graduate programs. We offer a masters of arts in journalism and mass communications. Within the master's degree students can choose between two specializations - integrated media communications and professional journalism. Additionally, the college offers one graduate certificate, public relations and socail media, with a second graduate certificate, sports promotion, set to launch in fall 2025.
Master of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communications
Integrated Media Communications
Curriculum (36 Credit Hours)
ADPR 830: Strategic Communications: Advertising Issues and Strategies (3 Credit Hours)
Description: Seminar for graduate students who do not have the equivalent of an undergraduate degree in advertising. Business of advertising and promotion, and the processes and planning involved in strategic promotional communication. Current issues and strategies faced by advertising practitioners, the importance of branding, integrated marketing communications and promotion. Creation of a strategic marketing plan.
ADPR 881: Advertising and Public Relations Research (3 Credit Hours)
Description: Research in the planning, development and evaluation of advertising. The research process, use of secondary sources of information and how to analyze data from these sources. The planning and execution of primary research. Survey techniques.
ADPR 884: Brands and Branding (3 Credit Hours)
Description: The managerial philosophy, techniques, and processes in advertising. Organizational structures, integrated marketing communications, strategic planning, marketing planning, advertising planning, advertising research, budgeting, and decision paradigms.
Electives (24 Credit Hours)
Students can select from any graduate level courses offered in the College of Journalism and Mass communications with prefixes
- ADPR - Advertising & Public Relations
- JGRD - Journalism Graduate
- JOUR - Journalism
- JOMC - Journalism & Mass Communications
- BRDC - Broadcasting
- SPMC - Sports Media & Communication
See below for electives.
ADPR 930: IMC Capstone Seminar (3 Credit Hours)
Description: Capstone course in the Integrated Media Communications (IMC) specialization. Reflect on different theories and concepts and apply those theories and concepts to real-life examples and professional goals in a final paper and presentation to faculty and peers.
Professional Journalism
Curriculum (36 Credit Hours)
JGRD 901 Ethics and Issues in Mass Communication
Description: Ethical framework for exploring current issues in mass communications.
JGRD 902 Multi-platform Journalism
Description: Skills and technologies involved with multi-platform journalism and management.
JGRD 903 Entrepreneurial Journalism
Description: Current issues in business management related to the media environment.
Electives (21 Credit Hours)
Students can select from any graduate level courses offered in the College of Journalism and Mass communications with prefixes:
- ADPR - Advertising & Public Relations
- JGRD - Journalism Graduate
- JOUR - Journalism
- JOMC - Journalism & Mass Communications
- BRDC - Broadcasting
- SPMC - Sports Media & Communication
See below for electives.
JGRD 992 Professional Project (6 Credit Hours)
Description: Development of thesis topic may come from JGRD 992. JGRD 992 is designed for increasing competency in professional practice and depending on goals, may be concentrated in ADVT, BRDC, or NEWS. Translation of social, political, and economic affairs to mass audiences in both print and electronic media.
Electives
Advertising & Public Relations (ADPR)
ADPR 829 Jacht
Description: Jacht is an innovative educational experience that puts into practice advertising, public relations, marketing, media, research and creative skills and knowledge in a startup ad agency environment. Students must think holistically about integrated marketing communications strategies and how a campaign contributes to the revenue of an agency as well as to the success of the client being served. Students must consider the broader business goals of both the startup agency and of real-world clients. Students are expected to adhere to strict deadlines and to deliver high quality work on time.
ADPR 833 Art Direction
Description: Visual and graphic design as applied to the corporate environments of advertising and public relations. Print and electronic design principles, strategies and elements using traditional and new digital technologies. Development of creative materials for actual clients, corporate identities, electronic presentations, professional creative portfolios, non-traditional resumes, and World Wide Web (WWW) sites.
ADPR 834 Digital Insight & Analytics
Description: A study of the digital communication landscape. Course explores how various channels of digital communication can be used to analyze audiences, connect with them and ultimately build brands.
ADPR 837 International/Multicultural Public Relations
Description: Content and discussions on global issues affecting the public relations profession, the professional, the specialized practices, and the engagement of stakeholders simultaneously at home and at transnational levels.
ADPR 838 Global Advertising
Description: Global advertising and communication. Cultural, economic, political and social differences that affect advertising strategy and execution in foreign markets. Advertising a USA product or service in the global market.
ADPR 847 Strategic and Creative Concepting
Description: The alternative and advanced methods of communicating a message, a need, a perception or attitude. Creative storytelling and problem-solving, critique and analysis, and how to creatively communicate with strategic thinking and design.
ADPR 850 Public Relations Management and Case Studies
Description: Philosophies and theories that underlie the discipline and profession of public relations. The critical and supportive perspectives used to gain insight into the history and direction of public relations.
ADPR 851 Public Relations Techniques
Description: Multimedia tools in advertising, public relations, direct marketing, and sales promotion. Promotional writing, publications development, and media relations.
ADPR 857 Crisis Management in Corporations and Nonprofits
Description: Role of public relations in prevention of crises, response to crises, and recovery from crises. How to preempt, prepare for and respond to corporate, nonprofit and government sector crises from a public relations perspective.
ADPR 858 Interactive Media Design
Description: Communication strategies and tactics using interactive media. Exploration of interactive's role in strategic communications, user experience, information architecture, interactive design and development using current web technologies.
ADPR 864 Sports Media Relations & Promotions
Description: Issues in sports media relations and integrated marketing communications. Background of the unpredictable nature of the sports industry and the relationships with its various publics and the media.
ADPR 866 Social Media Theory and Practice
Description: Key theories related to the study of social media, important social media monitoring and management practices, and advertising/PR opportunities on the most popular social and mobile media platforms.
ADPR 883 Portfolio Development
Description: How to improve individual portfolios of creative work and execute a variety of creative pieces that demonstrate improvement in their collections.
ADPR 888 Media Sales and Promotion
Description: Techniques for print and electronic media sales and promotion. Rate structures, legal requirements, and social and economic effects.
ADPR 889 Advertising and Public Relations Campaigns
Description: Conduct research and evaluate the findings to develop and present an integrated marketing communications strategy and creative materials for a multimedia advertising and public relations campaign needed by a client. Application of knowledge, experience, and skills learned in previous courses to a new situation.
Journalism (JOUR)
JOUR 807 Data Visualization
Description: Storytelling with visuals generated from data. Theory and practice of visualization and analysis basics.
JOUR 814 Government Controls of Information
Description: Laws, regulations, and practices by which federal, state, and local government enhance or retard access to information about the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
JOUR 813 Media Economics
Description: Economic theory applied to analysis of mass media industries. Structure, performance, and competitions across print media, advertising, broadcasting, and new digital media. Preparation for conducting economic analyses of mass media behavior and performance.
JOUR 804 Digital Photojournalism/Multimedia I
Description: News, feature, sports and picture-story journalism.
JOUR 867 School Publications
Description: Problems and procedures involved in producing school newspapers, yearbooks, literary magazines, and radio and/or video projects.
JOUR 890A Global Eyewitness Multimedia Photojournalism Project
Description: Research and then visit a selected country and produce a multimedia story dealing with an emerging country in which there is need. Spend eight weeks conducting story research on campus then travel to the country either during winter break or in May. Spend three weeks in the country while working on the story then finish writing and editing after returning to Nebraska.
JOUR 890B Global Eyewitness Multimedia Photojournalism Editing
Description: Editing multimedia stories based on previous semester's JOUR 490A/890A Global Eyewitness trip.
JOUR 805 Solutions Journalism
Description: Explores the concept and practice of solutions journalism, an emerging journalism model. Learning about the origins of this model, the reporting and writing strategies necessary to achieve it and its impact.
JOUR 820 News Engagement
Description: How to engage today's distracted readers and viewers and connect with communities to provide important news and information. Study the engagement practices of U.S. news organizations and learn how they connect with digital audiences across platforms.
Sports Media & Communication
SPMC 864 Sports Media Relations & Promotions
Description: Issues in sports media relations and integrated marketing communications. Background of the unpredictable nature of the sports industry and the relationships with its various publics and the media.
SPMC 875 Sports Promotion and Engagement
Description: The sports industry in the United States is valued at over $500 billion, and growing. Understand the best practices of the industry and how to reach, engage and communicate with the consumers and media professionals. Offers education in marketing, promotions, managing and evaluating sponsorships, and social and digital media.
SPMC 876 Planning for Sports Event Production
Description: Sports events are professionally managed at every level from youth sports to the NFL. Understand the best practices of how games are produced and presented. Offers education in the planning of sports events, including music, digital video, in-game promotions, entertainment, budget development, and sponsor integration.
SPMC 877 Content Strategy in Sports Promotion
Description: Content Strategy uses credible, trustworthy, transparent media to communicate stories and information to enhance an organization's strategic goals. Media content has never been more readily available to the consumer, and the producer of content has never had easier or more convenient ways to reach the consumer. With new technologies and sophisticated strategies, sports organizations and individuals can brand their products and themselves in better and more effective ways than ever. In this course you will learn about these new technologies, understand the trends and help develop strategies to create innovative media content.
SPMC 878 Social and Digital Media for Sports Promotion
Description: Products are branded and delivered through the always emerging formats of social and digital media. Apply writing, critical thinking, and persuasion skills to the practice of social and digital media production for the purpose of promotion. Explore various digital promotion technologies, as well as the use of emerging social media to study the application of sports promotion. Develop and produce a social and digital project.
Broadcasting (BRDC)
BRDC 854 Broadcast Management
Description: Organizational and management procedures as they relate to the telecommunications media.
BRDC 873 Broadcast Documentary
Description: Depth reporting and advanced production techniques necessary for the preparation of a broadcast documentary program.
BRDC 833 Digital Motion Graphics
Description: Creating digital motion graphics and animation using compositing and animation software. Covers project creation, techniques, workflow management, and related post-production work.
Journalism - Graduate (JGRD)
JGRD 809 Theories of Freedom of Expression
Description: Reading, discussion, and research on current issues in mass media law or theoretical bases for freedom of expression.
JGRD 811 Seminar in Media History
Description: Readings and discussion of major issues, events, and people in the history of mass media in the United States.
JGRD 819 Graduate Writing, Reporting and Editing
Description: This course teaches, at an accelerated graduate level, the principles and practices of reporting, writing and editing. It includes discussion of the ethical principles of journalism and the application of basic statistics the development of news and feature work.
JGRD 820 Mass Media: Introduction
Description: Mass media structure, development, systems, responsibilities and ethics, and criticisms.
JGRD 831 Strategic Communications: Writing and Design
Description: Seminar for graduate students who do not have an undergraduate degree in advertising. Strategic and creative components of advertising, both from the visual and textual perspectives. Specific strategies for writing and designing advertising, promotional and public relations materials; creative aspects related to strategic planning.
JGRD 835 International Communications
Description: Systems of mass communications in foreign countries and across international boundaries.
JGRD 850 Data Storytelling
Description: Every day, more of our lives are being stored in a database somewhere. With that explosion of data, storytellers now more than ever need the skills to analyze and understand data to then produce the stories hidden in the information. We'll use brainpower and software to look at raw data --not summarized and already reported information --to reveal insights and build strong stories. Coding in R and basic statistical techniques and tools from the storyteller's toolkit such as characters and narrative will be included.
JGRD 851 Data Visualization
Description: While creating publishable graphics was once the realm of a designated department, there is now an expectation across all media sectors that journalists and communications professionals be able to visualize data to gain insight, share information and enhance publications. Teaches the tools to make powerful visualizations with code using the ggplot2 library in R. This library is used by news outlets like the BBC, FiveThirtyEight, the New York Times and ProPublica. It is also widely used in scientific and social science circles because it allows for striking graphics with a high degree of customization. Of course, with great power comes great responsibility, so course readings focus on visualizing ethically.
JGRD 915 Mass Communication Theory
Description: Process and effects of mass communication.
JGRD 919 Methods of Mass Communication Research
Description: Research concepts and procedures with emphasis on methodology and research techniques in mass communication. Development of competency in consumption and interpretation of research combined with an introduction to research design, analysis, and decision making.
JGRD 995 Issues in Mass Communication
Description: Current problems in mass communication and interrelated social, economic, and political factors. Topic varies.
Journalism & Mass Communications (JOMC)
JOMC 886 Mass Media Law
Description: Legal basis for freedom of speech and press. Limitations imposed upon rights by statue, common law and court decisions. Resolving conflicts between those rights and other constitutional rights. Enhancing critical-thinking and writing skills. Roles, rights, and responsibilities of mass media in a free society through analysis of cases.
JOMC 887 Media, Ethics and Society
Description: Interrelationships between the American mass media and society, integrating ethics, theories and contemporary issues.
JOMC 808 Politics and the Media
Description: Current issues in media and politics, domestically and internationally.
JOMC 812 Literature of Journalism
Description: The roles and effects of mass media and major works exemplifying the practice of journalism.
JOMC 822 Race, Gender, and Media
Description: Multicultural and gender diversity issues within the mass media. Broadcast news, print, and advertising media messages of racial, ethnic, and gender based minorities including African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and women.
JOMC 844 Science Writing
Description: Advanced writing about science for the non-expert and/or for the general public. Issues in science communication through reading the best writers in science and journalism. Research and write short articles and longer profiles about science and scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and elsewhere. Polish writing skills for doing work in science classes.
JOMC 885 Mass Media History
Description: History of American mass media in cultural and philosophical contexts; the evolution of mass media as a social institution.
JOMC 820 Financial Communications
Description: Understanding and writing about corporate, economic and business topics as journalists or as public relations professionals.
JOMC 862 The Social Media Landscape
Description: Examine the idea of social influence and how social media trends are changing the way information flows into our society. Through Socratic-based discussions discover the impact of social media on global political and social change movements.
Graduate Certificates
A gradute certificate can be completed as a stand alone academic program or they may be completed as part of a Master's degree, by taking the required certificate courses as electives in a master's program.
Public Relations & Social Media (12 Credit Hours)
ADPR 830 Strategic Communications: Advertising Issues and Strategies
Description: Seminar for graduate students who do not have the equivalent of an undergraduate degree in advertising. Business of advertising and promotion, and the processes and planning involved in strategic promotional communication. Current issues and strategies faced by advertising practitioners, the importance of branding, integrated marketing communications and promotion. Creation of a strategic marketing plan.
ADPR 866 Social Media Theory and Practice
Description: Key theories related to the study of social media, important social media monitoring and management practices, and advertising/PR opportunities on the most popular social and mobile media platforms.
ADPR 850 Public Relations Management and Case Studies
Description: Philosophies and theories that underlie the discipline and profession of public relations. The critical and supportive perspectives used to gain insight into the history and direction of public relations.
ADPR 834 Digital Insight & Analytics
Description: A study of the digital communication landscape. Course explores how various channels of digital communication can be used to analyze audiences, connect with them and ultimately build brands.
Sports Promotion (12 Credit Hours)
Required: ADPR 884 Brands & Branding
Description: The managerial philosophy, techniques, and processes in advertising. Organizational structures, integrated marketing communications, strategic planning, marketing planning, advertising planning, advertising research, budgeting, and decision paradigms.
Elective: SPMC 864 Sports Media Relations & Promotions
Description: Issues in sports media relations and integrated marketing communications. Background of the unpredictable nature of the sports industry and the relationships with its various publics and the media.
Elective: SPMC 875 Sports Promotion and Engagement
Description: The sports industry in the United States is valued at over $500 billion, and growing. Understand the best practices of the industry and how to reach, engage and communicate with the consumers and media professionals. Offers education in marketing, promotions, managing and evaluating sponsorships, and social and digital media.
Elective: SPMC 876 Planning for Sports Event Production
Description: Sports events are professionally managed at every level from youth sports to the NFL. Understand the best practices of how games are produced and presented. Offers education in the planning of sports events, including music, digital video, in-game promotions, entertainment, budget development, and sponsor integration.
Elective: SPMC 877 Content Strategy in Sports Promotion
Description: Content Strategy uses credible, trustworthy, transparent media to communicate stories and information to enhance an organization's strategic goals. Media content has never been more readily available to the consumer, and the producer of content has never had easier or more convenient ways to reach the consumer. With new technologies and sophisticated strategies, sports organizations and individuals can brand their products and themselves in better and more effective ways than ever. In this course you will learn about these new technologies, understand the trends and help develop strategies to create innovative media content.
Elective: SPMC 878 Social and Digital Media for Sports Promotion
Description: Products are branded and delivered through the always emerging formats of social and digital media. Apply writing, critical thinking, and persuasion skills to the practice of social and digital media production for the purpose of promotion. Explore various digital promotion technologies, as well as the use of emerging social media to study the application of sports promotion. Develop and produce a social and digital project.