Mission Statement

The mission of the Marist College Communication program is to provide a high-quality professional education with a strong liberal arts foundation that will prepare students for careers in the ever-changing mass communication industry. The program is designed to encourage creativity, foster critical and analytical thinking and model practical, real-world experience in order to develop ethical communication innovators that courageously shape our world. The Communication Program features a comprehensive curriculum leading to a Bachelor of Arts Degree. Students may choose from 5 concentrations — Advertising, Communication Science, Journalism, Public Relations and Sports Communication.

Student Learning Outcomes

Students graduating with a major in Communication should be able to:

• Integrate knowledge and learning across the communication discipline to create messages for diverse targets, contexts and purposes.
• Collaborate with others to develop works of excellence.
• Conduct communication inquiry to advance the knowledge and learning in the field.

Students graduating with a concentration in the specific area should be able to:

Advertising

• Create strategic, original and effective multi-channel advertising campaigns that solve brand problems and capitalize on brand opportunities.
• Generate imaginative solutions and new and different ways of looking at problems and opportunities.
• Construct and present, either verbally or in writing, persuasive arguments to convince others to accept ideas and take the desired action.

Communication Studies 

• Create and develop strategic plans for specific contexts within communication science.
• Produce effective leadership by integrating verbal and nonverbal communication, conflict management, active listening and empathy to solve problems through class assignments and projects.
• Demonstrate intercultural awareness to confront bias, use inclusive language, and combat stereotypes.

Journalism

• Create quality works of journalism across multiple platforms and work effectively in the collaborative atmosphere of the newsroom.
• Analyze the complex ethical journalism landscape in the digital age and develop strategies for moral decision making.
• Evaluate the performance of the press and its functioning in a democratic society and produce critical analyses of the press and its best practices.

Public Relations

• Analyze public relations theories, professional practices and ethical values.
• Build compelling messages for various media channels and target audiences.
• Evaluate public relations issues, campaign implementation, and outcomes with applied research and analytics.
• Develop creative solutions for public relations issues and strategic communication plans.
• Demonstrate professional and persuasive client communication skills.

 Sports Communication

• Analyze the importance and relevance of the sports industry in terms of its impact on many facets of society.
• Examine, develop, and produce quality writing, audio, and video pertaining to the field of sports.
• Synthesize knowledge and skills to investigate and report on a variety of sports contexts.