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Communication (BA/BS)


Communication is much more than just the written word. Communication is also verbal or non-verbal, and it takes place at both an interpersonal and mass scale. With the University of Utah’s Communication program, students learn how to be effective communicators for all different types of audiences. Communication is a diverse discipline and offers a variety of skills to prepare students for their careers.

The program has focus areas in four sub-fields of communication, allowing students to tailor their degree to best fit their strengths and interests: these focus areas include Strategic Communication (public relations, advertising, integrated marketing), Journalism (digital, broadcast, print), Communication Studies, or Science, Health, Environmental, and Risk Communication. Through a combination of theoretical and technical training, the Communication program allows students to develop a comprehensive portfolio to market themselves to the industry.

The Student Experience


The Department of Communication offers students many enrichment opportunities, such as internships and part-time work in professional settings. If you want to network and spend time with fellow communication students, be sure to join one of the department’s many clubs and organizations: the John R. Park Debate Society in Salt Lake City allows members to practice debate skills in a friendly, competitive environment, while the Absolute Communication agency both at UAC and Salt Lake City is a student-run advertising and PR company affiliated with the U that allows students to gain experience in the communications industry.

Career Opportunities


Graduates of the Communication program have found work as editors, communication directors, PR specialists, marketing experts and managers, and radio and video producers. Careers in publishing (as a writer or editor), advertising, and the media (as a broadcaster, journalist, or reporter) as well as work for the government as a campaign manager, lobbyist or town manager, or in the nonprofit sector as a grant writer or program coordinator are also possible. With additional education, students can also become lawyers, advisors, and professors. Some of our graduates received admissions from prestigious graduate programs around the world (e.g., University of Utah, Michigan State University, Seoul National University, London School of Economics, and University of Cambridge).

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Emphases
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Internship
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Meet Your Faculty
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Emphases


Students declaring the major Fall 2019 and after will be declared into an official emphasis and that emphasis will print on transcripts.  Please note that if a student is declared in a prior Catalog Year (2017 or 2018) they will continue to work on previous sequences.

Strategic Communication Emphasis

Strategic Communication is used in growing professions, including public relations, advertising, marketing, event planning, project management, and health communication. Through the study of persuasion, social influence, and behavior change, students learn the basic framework for Strategic Communication. Students design social media messages, logos, brochures, websites, and promotional videos for their clients and organizations.

Journalism Emphasis

The Journalism emphasis ensures a strong foundation to support creativity and career exploration. Students sharpen their skills in reporting, writing, and producing news for evolving audiences; engage with communities by combining innovative storytelling with ethical, historical, and legal principles; and use digital and social media and evolving methods of data and algorithmic journalism to bring their engaging projects to life.

Communication Studies Emphasis

Students in the Communication Studies emphasis are exposed to the full breadth of the Communication discipline. They learn the key theories and methods that motivate effective communication and improve written and spoken skills. Students in this sequence are prepared for positions in professional, media, corporate, government, and nonprofit sectors, as well as graduate study in law, social work, business, and public administration.

Internship


An internship is a new and temporary position in which students learn and apply new skills directly related to their major under the guidance of a professional. To receive academic credit for an internship related to the Communication major, students must take the online course COMM 3610 concurrent with their internship placement. COMM 3610 is offered for credit/no credit only and fulfills a requirement for the Communication major. 

  • COMM 3610 is for new current internships only. Credit cannot be received for a past internship.
  • Students cannot repeat the COMM 3610 course for the same internship, except in some approved cases such as Student Media on-campus internships.
  • Students cannot use their regular job for internship credit.
  • The internship must have a defined start and end date.
  • Students may take the course for 1-6 credits during the semester. The course may be taken up to 3 times, students can only earn a maximum of 12 credits combined.
    Please Note: COMM 3610 can only count for one course in a given semester. The course will not count for two separate courses if you opt to take it for 6 credits (in other words, it is one course taken for 6 credits). 
  • You must submit a new application for each semester you wish to enroll in COMM 3610.
  • Internship dates must coincide with semester dates as closely as possible.
  • Your internship supervisor cannot be a relative, spouse, or fellow student.

THIS COURSE IS BY PERMISSION CODE ONLY. 

Students that have obtained an internship must apply for the course and obtain permission code from Cameron Vakilian.

Want to Declare a Major?


Students may complete a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science in Communication within one of four emphases:

  • Strategic Communication (public relations, advertising, integrated marketing);
  • Journalism (online, broadcast, print);
  • Communication Studies; or
  • Science, Health, Environmental, and Risk Communication.

Students must meet the requirements of

  1. U of U cumulative GPA of 2.75 or higher and
  2. Completion of at least one U of U Communication course with a grade of C or better.

Please make sure to submit the major declaration form here once you meet the admission requirements. Major declaration is important to determine catalog year and is required in order to graduate. For declaring Strategic communication Minor or Media Studies Minor, please click below.

Communication Minor


This minor will serve students who are interested in pursuing knowledge of public relations, advertising, marketing, event planning, and campaign design/evaluation to compliment majors outside the Department of Communication. The minor will help students understand branding, media buying, copywriting, and other skills related to the professional practice of public relations, advertising, marketing, and event planning. Courses examine strategic communication writing (e.g., press releases, media kits), graphic design (e.g., Adobe Creative Suite), account planning, and both theoretical and applied strategy. 

Admission Requirements:

  • U of U Cumulative GPA of 2.75 or higher AND
  • Completion of at least one U of U Communication course with a grade of C or better

Graduation Requirements:

  • 6 courses total
  • At least 15 credits
  • 'C' or better in all courses

Requirement Details

Meet Your Faculty


Donald MacAngus

Professor
 d.d.macangus@utah.edu
 Location: U729

Donald MacAngus

Professor
Areas of Expertise: Law, Ethnic Studies (American Indian focus), Social Work, Writing, Negotiation, Mediation, Arbitration UAC Courses: COMM 1270 (Analysis of Argument), COMM 3550 (Principles of Visual Communication), COMM 5300 (Mass Communication Law)

Don MacAngus is an Assistant Professor Lecturer at the University of Utah Asia Campus. He began his teaching career at the Salt Lake City campus, and has been teaching full time for nearly 20 years. He is the longest serving professor at the Utah Asia Campus at Incheon, South Korea.

He holds a JD from the SJ Quinney College of Law, a Masters of Social Work, a Bachelors in Communication, and an AA in Military Science. He is a military veteran, a grandfather, a businessman, a teacher, a lecturer, an author, a world traveler, and a Master Mediator, approved by the Courts of the State of Utah.
 d.d.macangus@utah.edu
 Location: U729

Sejin Kim

Professor
 sejin.kim@utah.edu
 Location: U726

Sejin Kim

Professor
UAC Courses: Strategic Communication Theory & Practice, Comm. Theory & Life, Intercultural Comm., PR Cases and Campaigns, Principles of Advertising, Principles of Public Speaking, Special Topics in Strategic Comm.

Dr. Sejin Kim currently serves as Director of the Communication Program at the University of Utah Asia Campus. He received his bachelor's degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked as an actuarial consultant at a U.S. consulting firm located in Seoul. After this professional experience, Dr. Kim decided to pursue his graduate degrees in Communication (M.S. from University of Louisiana and Ph.D. from Colorado State University). His current research interests pertain to strategic message design, persuasion, information processing, and public campaigns (e.g., health, environment, risk, and science). Dr. Kim has published journal articles and book chapters, and also presented papers at various national and international conferences. Through his research work, he would like to contribute to the creation of more effective messages in strategic communication as well as identifying appropriate channels for current and future communication campaigns. Dr. Kim and his wife are lucky to raise fraternal twins. Raising the twins offers them one more special reason to positively contribute back to the global community. Dr. Kim enjoys visiting beautiful national parks and meeting new friends from different parts of the world.
 sejin.kim@utah.edu
 Location: U726

Jaehyeon Jeong

Professor
 jaehyeon.jeong@utah.edu
 Location: U727

Jaehyeon Jeong

Professor
Dr. Jaehyeon Jeong is an Assistant Professor (Lecturer) at The University of Utah Asia Campus. Previously, he taught in the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University, where he received his Ph.D in Mass Media and Communication. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from Seoul National University and master’s degrees in Visual Communication and in Media, Culture, and Communication from Yonsei University and New York University, respectively. Dr. Jeong’s broad research program stands at the intersection of critical cultural studies, media industry studies, and global communication. He has published multiple peer-reviewed journal articles, monographs, edited book, book chapters, and online essays on Korean television, media globalization, diasporic identity, food and nationalism, comics industry/culture, etc. Dr. Jeong is teaching Kickstart to Communication, Principles of Visual Communication, Video Production I, and Globalization and Media at the University of Utah Asia Campus.
 jaehyeon.jeong@utah.edu
 Location: U727

Jeffrey Hedrick

Professor
 jeffrey.hedrick@utah.edu
 Location: U730

Jeffrey Hedrick

Professor
Areas of Expertise: digital journalism/technology, scholastic journalism, fake news issues, public relations, constitutional law UAC Courses: COMM 1130 (Media Writing), COMM 1610 (Intro to News Reporting), COMM 3555 Digital Journalism, COMM 4590 Writing for Strategic Communication, COMM 4670 (Specialty Reporting), COMM 5630 (Mass Communication History)

Jeffrey Hedrick is an Assistant Professor (Journalism Lecturer) of Communication at the University of Utah Asia Campus. He received his Ph.D. from Bowling Green State University (2006) and a Master of Journalism from Temple University (2002). His areas of specialization include journalism, public relations, technology, and constitutional law. His research interests include adoption/use of mobile technologies, perceptions of fake news outlets, how smaller to midsize newspapers cover news, assessment of learning outcomes (scholastic journalism and accreditation issues), and public perceptions of online organizations (website confusion). Prior to his current position, he served at department chair for a smaller HBCU in Texas for five years and taught at an ACEJMC-accredited smaller program in Alabama. He also served as a webmaster for various organizations and was an amateur radio station DJ for eight years. Originally from southern California, he has a desire to visit all 50 states (40 thus far) and every major national park in America. His hobbies include collecting music CDs, coin collecting, and hiking. He hopes to continue visiting parks and hiking in Korea.
 jeffrey.hedrick@utah.edu
 Location: U730

C.H. Kim

Professor
 chunghyun.kim@utah.edu
 Location: U728

C.H. Kim

Professor
Prior to joining the UAC, C-H Kim (Ph.D. in Marketing, University of Oregon) was on the faculty in the School of Communication, Sogang University, serving as Dean, Director, Chair and other administrative positions. His major research interests include marketing communication, advertising, brand management, and consumer psychology. He has published research papers in academic journals such as Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Advertising, Mass Communication and Society, and Current Issues and Research in Advertising and served as co-editor for Creating Images and the Psychology of Marketing Communication. In addition, he has presented research papers at major international research conferences such as ICA, AEJMC, ACR, AMA, AMS, ACP as well as Korean conferences and has published more than 40 research articles in Korean academic journals. His industry collaborations include consulting for corporations such as SK Telecom, POSCO, and several major ad agencies in Korea such as Cheil Comm., Daehong Comm., and HS Ad among others and working for government organizations including the City of Seoul as a consultant and served as a board member at Korea Broadcasting Advertising Corporation(KOBACO). For academic community services, he served as chief editor of the Korean Journal of Adverting and the Advertising Research (Korean), and acted as co-chair of Advertising and Consumer Psychology(ACP) Conference which was held in Seoul. Currently, he is teaching Absolute Communication at the UAC, and graduate courses at Sogang University as professor emeritus and serves as Chair of Board, Kiturami Culture and Scholarship Foundation.
 chunghyun.kim@utah.edu
 Location: U728

Marisa Hill

Professor
 marisa.hill@utah.edu
 Location: U768

Marisa Hill

Professor
UAC Courses: COMM 1020 – Public Speaking

Marisa Hill has been teaching communication for almost 20 years. She enjoys teaching about the thing we do more than anything else — communication. She teaches courses related to public communication, rhetorical analysis, persuasion in everyday life, and communication theories. Marisa has also taught at Boise State University, Texas A&M University and Idaho State University. She is a PhD Candidate from Texas A&M University. Her research interests range from the First Amendment Right of Petition (the “forgotten right”) to social movement rhetoric to war rhetoric to public presentation in different cultures. In other words, studying communication in times of change and through various contexts. Marisa was recently awarded a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship to participate in a group project in Taiwan where she will study public speaking norms and pedagogy in different cultures (now projected for June 2021). In Idaho, she helped create a pilot public speaking training course in conjunction with Jim Poston for the initial Boise Refugee Speaker’s Bureau, through the Idaho Office of Refugees (2015). This volunteer course helped provide refugees specialized training to aid them as they engage in public dialogue and advocacy. She continues to work with refugee families and agencies. Although she still claims Texas as “home,” and lived in Idaho for 15 years before coming to UAC, she is delighted to be living and teaching in Korea. Marisa enjoys spending time with her family; they love water sports, hiking, trying new restaurants, camping, and watching college sports. They have a goal to visit all of the National Parks. They look forward to doing all of those very same things, but in Korea!
 marisa.hill@utah.edu
 Location: U768

Meet Major Advisor


Communication / Civil & Environmental Engineering

Alexis Choi

alexis.choi@utah.edu

032-626-6110

u739

 

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