Program Purpose

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The Media and Society sequence exists as a counterpoint to the other sequences within the School of Communications. Whereas each of the other sequences excels in providing specialized instruction in a particular discipline of communications (e.g., Public Relations, Advertising, or Journalism), the Media and Society emphasis takes a more generalized approach. Coursework equips students with a solid foundation in the areas of critical thinking, research, writing, presentation, and communications theory, but also grants students the freedom to select supplementary coursework from the School's catalog of elective offerings. These courses span a variety of interests, including digital media, diversity, history, popular culture, advocacy, freedom of speech, international issues, and many others. The combination of required and strategically-selected supplementary coursework begets a degree program that is highly customizable. With this freedom, however, comes the charge for students to work closely with their faculty advisor to make their professional goals known, and to work together in the creation of a viable learning plan. The Media and Society faculty acknowledges that the lines between communication disciplines (in many cases) are blurring, and it seeks to equip students with the skills they feel are necessary to succeed in their personalized path-whether this path is professional or academic in nature, and whether it leads them deeper into the communications industry, or on to other disciplines.

Curricular Structure

1. Each student must be formally accepted into a degree program. Contact the college advisement center for admission requirements, or go to comms.byu.edu.

2. All students must take a campus writing course before applying for admission to the major. The following writing course fulfills this requirement: WRTG 150.

3. Every student must complete a minimum of 72 hours in courses outside of the department, while meeting BYU's University Core requirements.

4. Every student is required to complete either a mentored research practicum or a professional internship. Mentored research practicums are initiated at the approval of a student's faculty advisor, who will also serve as the supervisor of the practicum. For professional internships, while the School operates an internship office (280 BRMB) that serves as a clearinghouse for internship information, the responsibility for securing a relevant internship rests upon the student. As with the practicum, approval for the internship must be secured by the faculty advisor before it is initiated, and after all relevant prerequisites have been completed.

5. Faculty advisors may recommend that students seek additional training, or take additional courses outside of the Media and Society sequence, if these are determined necessary to provide students with experience to achieve their stated goals.

Learning Outcomes

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Students will demonstrate proficiency in the twelve professional values and competencies of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC), which are each related to one of the following program learning outcomes:

• Effective Communication;
• Professional Practice;
• Mass Communication Processes;
• Gospel-centered Values.

Writing

Students will write correctly and clearly in forms and styles appropriate for the communications professions, audiences, and purposes they serve.

Editing

Students will critically evaluate their own work and that of others for accuracy and fairness, clarity, appropriate style, and grammatical correctness.

Numerical skills

Students will apply basic numerical and statistical concepts.

Technology

Students will apply tools and technologies appropriate for the communications professions in which they work.

Research

Students will conduct research and evaluate information by methods appropriate to the communications professions in which they work.

Theory

Students will understand concepts and apply theories in the use and presentation of images and information.

History

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the history and role of professionals and institutions in shaping communications.

Critical thinking

Students will think critically, creatively, and independently.

Freedom of speech

Students will understand and apply the principles and laws of freedom of speech and the press, for the right to dissent, to monitor and criticize power, and to assemble and petition for redress of grievances.

Ethics

Students will demonstrate an understanding of professional ethical principles and work ethically in pursuit of truth, accuracy, fairness, and diversity.

Domestic diversity

Students will demonstrate an understanding of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and, as appropriate, other forms of diversity in domestic society in relation to mass communication.

International diversity

Students will demonstrate an understanding of the diversity of peoples and cultures and of the significance and impact of mass communications in a global society.

Evidence of Learning

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1. Embedded assignments from classes are assessed each Fall on a rotating schedule.
2. Student applications to the major in Fall and Winter Semesters provide faculty with baseline direct assessment data.
3. Portfolios are assessed each Winter by communications professionals.
4. Student surveys provide indirect assessment evidence, which is examined by the faculty each Fall Semester.
5. Student awards and other recognitions provide indirect assessment evidence, which is examined by the faculty each Winter Semester.

Direct measures

The following forms of direct evidence inform the faculty's assessment of program learning outcomes:

1. Reported every Winter Semester (ongoing, but new rubric employed in Winter 2020): alumni professionals assess student portfolios. The rubric used for this assessment measures the following program learning outcomes: Editing, freedom of speech, ethics, critical thinking, research, history, theory, and technology;
2. Reported every Fall Semester, beginning Fall 2019: assessment of employer evaluations for Comms 496R (Academic Internship). The rubric used for this assessment measures the following program learning outcomes, research, technology, writing, diversity, ethics, First Amendment;
3. Reported every Fall Semester, beginning Fall 2019: Comms 307 literature review. The rubric for this assessment measures writing;
4. Reported every Fall Semester, beginning Fall 2019: Faculty's assessment of indirect measures derived from surveys.

Indirect measures

1. University senior surveys
2. National Survey of Student Engagement
3. Student evaluations
4. Discipline-specific focus groups
5. BYU Alumni survey (AQ)

Learning and Teaching Assessment and Improvement

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New assessment procedures

In Winter 2019, the School of Communications began to update its assessment plan with the following goals:

1. Developing a more sustainable, accountable, authentic, faculty-driven, assessment procedure;
2. Strengthening direct measures;
3. Revising the internship rubric to ensure it reflected relevant Values and Competencies of ACEJMC, thus making it a useful direct measure;
4. Faculty selecting, then scheduling which direct assessments would take place each semester;
5. Faculty in each emphasis reporting results of direct and indirect assessments, as well as their interpretations and recommendations for closing the loop. Assessments of class-embedded assignments, including internships, are reported at the end of each Fall Semester and portfolio assessments are reported at the end of each Winter Semester;
6. Developing or strengthening rubrics, then deploying the RCampus platform for class-embedded assignments; 
7. Deploying the Digication platform for portfolio assessment. Faculty in Communications Studies and Journalism experiment with the platform in 2020'
8. Recruiting alumni professionals to assist with assessing portfolios (or retaining alumni professionals who have already been performing this service), then selecting from this group new members for our Alumni Advisory Committee.

The following procedures were carried out during 2019-2020:

1. Winter 2018: Learning outcomes were rearranged to align with the values and competencies of ACEJMC;
2. Winter 2019: The employer evaluation of student interns was revised to produce direct measures of assessment for certain learning outcomes (values and competencies);
3. Spring 2019: Online assessment platform RCampus was adopted to facilitate faculty assessment of embedded course assignments;
4. Fall 2019: A new Teaching and Learning Committee was constituted, with representatives from each of the emphases. Each member was charged with leading emphasis assessment activities;
5. Fall 2019: Emphases chose which embedded class assignments would be assessed and designated a schedule for which years these assignments would be assessed;
6. Fall 2019: Faculty worked to develop and/or refine rubrics for designated embedded assignments;
7. Fall 2019: An assessment day was held in October to orient faculty on the RCampus platform;
8. Fall 2019: Embedded assignments from designated classes in each emphasis were batch uploaded to RCampus, then samples were drawn for faculty members to assess;
9. Fall 2019: Faculty in each emphasis analyzed assessment reports generated by RCampus, then reported their findings;
10. Fall 2019: Faculty analyzed survey results (Senior Survey, Alumni Questionnaire, NSSE) and reported their conclusions;
11. Fall 2019: Faculty recruited alumni professionals and organized to assess student portfolios during the Winter Semester;
12. Winter and Spring 2020: Emphases employed different methods to assess portfolios: Advertising and Public Relations continued with their ongoing methodology of having alumni and other professionals evaluate digital portfolios, while Communications Studies and Journalism used the Digication platform for students to develop, curate, and present portfolios, which were then assessed by alumni professionals;
13. Spring 2020: Faculty analyzed, then reported the following: the results of portfolio assessments, internship assessments, and compiled awards and other recognitions received over the past year;
14. Summer 2020: It was determined the committee would retain the same members for the 2020-2021 school year.

 

Awards and recognitions (indirect evidence of overall program excellence)

1. Student paper from Comms 302 was accepted for presentation at the Popular Culture Association Conference
2. Four student papers from Comms 319 have been submitted to conferences
3. Two student papers from Comms 319 were submitted to academic journals (one has received a "revise and resubmit").