Program Overview

Advertising and Brand Responsibility Master's Program

The Advertising and Brand Responsibility Master's Program is a one-year program that examines the theory and practice of persuasive communication, brand responsibility, brand management, creative, and account planning. The program culminates in a professional project that showcases the skills and knowledge acquired over the year.

Core Courses

• JCOM 610 Advanced Curiosity for Strategists (4 credits): This course builds intellectual curiosity as a problem-solving technique within the context of culture and media, emphasizing critical thinking, readings, projects, and performance.
• JCOM 570 Strategic Communication Research (4 credits): This course teaches how and why public relations and advertising professionals conduct research and how they use it to formulate strategic campaigns and evaluate their effectiveness.
• JCOM 607 Brand Responsibility Seminar (12 credits total / 4 credits each term): This seminar provides a deep dive into brand responsibility, tying together all coursework under the brand responsibility framework. The seminar is divided into three terms:
  • Fall seminar: Defines brand responsibility, its difference from and complement to corporate social responsibility, and how brands identify and communicate their responsibility to consumers.
  • Winter seminar: Examines case studies in brand responsibility, drawing from cases developed by SOJC faculty and students or published by Harvard Business School, and identifies best practices in brand responsibility with outside professionals.
  • Spring seminar: Develops brand responsibility through the creation of campaigns.
• JCOM 610 Design, Technology, and Culture (4 credits): This course examines different perspectives on how technology and advertising have evolved, their personal and global impacts, and how these shifts affect policy and communities through guest speakers, workshops, and modern design processes.
• JCOM 611 Media & Society (4 credits): This course analyzes the social, technological, economic, and political trends influencing communication practice in the digital age and the forces challenging legacy news organizations.

Terminal Project

• JCOM 609 Terminal Project (6–9 credits): The capstone project can be approached in various ways, including an internship with a brand responsibility component, creating a strategic brand responsibility advertising campaign, presenting a case study, or conducting a comparative analysis. With program director approval, 6 credits of JCOM 609 Terminal Project can be substituted for 9 credits of JCOM 503 Thesis, requiring the completion of at least 49 graduate credits (500- or 600-level).

Electives

Courses vary by term, and not all classes may be available every term or every year.

• JCOM 510 Ideasmithing (4 credits): Teaches tools and techniques for generating exceptional ideas by understanding consumer behaviors, primarily a skill-building class.
• JCOM 510 Interactive Media (4 credits): Explores the range of digital channels available to persuasive communicators.
• JCOM 512 Strategic Social Media (4 credits): Provides an overview of the history, theory, and practice of social media.
• JCOM 560 Advertising and Culture (4 credits): Critically examines the intersection of advertising and culture in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity, mixing theory and skill building.
• JCOM 560 Essentials of Brand Planning (4 credits): Teaches the basics of account planning and its role in creating brand campaigns, primarily a skill-building class.
• JCOM 560 Green Brand Strategy (4 credits): Introduces sustainable brands, services, and messages, and how brands can change consumer attitudes and behaviors toward the environment, mixing theory and skill building.
• JCOM 560 Writing Design Concepts (4 credits): Develops conceptual problem-solving skills for traditional and emerging media, emphasizing conceptual development, advertising writing, design, campaigns, and presentation of developed work.

Graduate Programs

The University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication offers several graduate programs, including:

• Advertising and Brand Responsibility Master's Program
• Communication and Media Studies Master's Program
• Communication and Media Studies PhD Program
• Immersive Media Communication Master's Program
• Multimedia Storytelling Master's Program
• Strategic Communication Master's Program

Undergraduate Programs

The school also offers undergraduate programs in:

• Advertising
• Journalism
• Media Studies
• Public Relations