Bachelor of Arts in Communication

ACU’s Communication Major program prepares students for life by training them to be persons of influence, teaching skills for a variety of communication situations and career fields. Key skills taught include writing and speaking, media production, and content creation. The motto for the Communication Major is “Read, Think, Create.” In your studies, you will read diverse ideas about communication from both mainstream and faith-based thinkers. Then, you will think about and reflect upon those ideas. Finally, you will respond to those ideas by creating a variety of projects using your writing, speaking, or content creation skills. As students complete their program, we ask students to consider how they will use their communication skills to transform culture with the truth.

Why Communication at ACU?

ACU’s Communication program offers several unique advantages:

• The skills taught in the Communication program have great transferability and applicability to a wide variety of job fields.
• ACU offers the opportunity to explore and understand today’s mediated world and how the Christian faith can inform one’s response to it.
• Students have access to learn and use multimedia equipment as early as their freshman year.
• Through the program’s partnership with different university departments, students get real-world opportunities, such as creating marketing content or producing Livestream chapel programs.

What will I study?

Among the concepts students will encounter in the Communication Major are:

• Covenantal Communication
• Journalistic Writing
• Non-linear audio and video editing with Adobe Premiere and/or DaVinci Resolve software
• Charismatic Public Speaking and Persuasion
• Theories of Neil Postman/Marshall McLuhan
• The Prophetic Burden of media usage
• Shalom-based Communication Ethics

Academic Major Courses

Students are required to earn 40 units in the major. Major core requirements accumulate to 34 units and Communication Electives accumulate to 6 units.

Note: Courses with an asterisk (*) carry a pre-requisite. Courses with a caret (^) may be repeated up to two times (as COM 287 and COM 297) for a total of 3 credits.

• COM 203 Introduction to Communication 3
• COM 210 Introduction to Journalism* 3
• COM 215 Multi-Media Production 3

Choose One

• CMI 102 Intercultural Studies
• COM 220 Interpersonal Communication
• COM 230 Persuasion 3

• COM 277 Communication Practicum I* ^ 1
• COM 300 Communication Theory* 3

Choose One

• COM 235 Media History
• COM 242 Film History 3

Choose One

• COM 240 Redemptive Narratives in Film
• COM 250 Faith and Media 3

Choose One

• COM 330 Rhetorical Criticism
• COM 350 Media and Society
• COM 370 Communication, Culture & the Christian Faith
• COM 380 Advertising and Communication 3

• COM 470 Communication Ethics* 3
• COM 497 Communication Internship* 3
• COM ___ Communication Elective 3
• COM ___ Communication Elective 3
• COM 490 CORE Capstone 3

Communication Major program graduates are prepared to enter a variety of career fields, including:

• Video Editing/Content Creation
• Visual Storytelling/Filmmaking
• Public Relations
• Strategic Communication
• Graduate School Prep
• News Writing/Reporting
• Blogging/Website Creation