Mass Communication

This course is about understanding challenges of intercultural communication, biases, listening within and across cultures, ethics of communication, developing intercultural competence etc. It also examines the causes and significance of intercultural differences in verbal and non-verbal communication.

The course will analyze how meaning is created through the manipulation of images and sound in visual media. It explores the role of codes, symbols, typography, text and color in the construction of meaning and in establishing the audience-auteur relationship. The course critically analyses the conventions of narrative structure, sound editing and cinematography in films besides briefly evaluating the impact of the visual media in global society.

This course provides a grounding in the fundamental theory and practice of visual communication. It attempts to develop the students’ practical skills and explore the technical knowledge required for the creation of imagery in a digital context. It provides a critique of contemporary visual culture, surveying the mechanisms by which meaning is constructed through these images. It also attempts to explore the theoretical approaches to image analysis and applies these approaches to the creation of visual messages.

This course explores the nature of both verbal and non-verbal communication skills in interpersonal and intrapersonal contexts; examines areas like time management skills, assertiveness, self-motivation and raising confidence. The course provides an insight into presentation, public speaking and writing skills with an aim to prepare graduates to face the world outside the campus

This course discusses the historical development of theories of communication. It examines and analyses the social and cultural context for these theories. Critically and analytically assesses the continuing validity of these theories in contemporary society, especially in the era of social media communication.

The course explores various dimensions of ethics and morality, both in principles and practice which is fundamental to media as a conscience keeper in mirroring the society and its role in shaping the discourse on reality we live in. It provides understanding the extent and constraints of ethical framework shaped within the larger social political structures and its manifestation in media narratives reflecting contemporary society. It critically evaluates the role of the media while analytically assessing the link between individual morality and the rights and responsibilities of the media to work within ethical frameworks

This course prepares the students with grounding overviews in areas of Popular Culture namely in Contemporary global media which has its role in the formation and distribution of western popular culture as the mainstream world culture. Defining popular culture as the process by which individual identities are positioned in relation to collective experience through the influence of the media content. This course explores the interchange between popular experience and media representations of identity, community and power

This course will introduce students to the role of Photojournalism in the contemporary global media. Defining Photojournalism as the process by which Journalistic aptitudes are combined with the art of photography through the learning process of the basics of Photography and Photojournalism. The course aims to make the students learn Visual storytelling through a series of photographic images, which are thematically linked to provide a broader perspective. In addition, the course will explore the areas of Applied Visual Aesthetics, Visual readings and Applied Ethics in Photojournalism.

Video production is an entry-level course that will serve as an introduction to basic video/film/audio production. The goal of the course is for the student to develop the ability to capture great video images and audio, and to be able to edit those two elements together to tell a story. This course provides a foundation in the theory and practice of Video Production. It attempts to develop the students’ practical skills and explore the technical knowledge required for telling a story using moving images and sound. Students will learn to handle, operate a video camera and shoot on location

This course introduces debates about the impact(s) of various topical issues in media communication. It fosters a critical understanding of the nature, foundation and importance of these debates. Critically and analytically assesses the claims of competing interest groups and stakeholders.

This course introduces debates about the impact(s) of various topical issues in media communication. It fosters a critical understanding of the nature, foundation and importance of these debates. Critically and analytically assesses the claims of competing interest groups and stakeholders.

In this course students will: learn to use a wide variety or qualitative and quantitative methods to collect and analyze data; be taught to think critically about information and become better information users; and develop research strategies. In this course, the students will be guided to choose topics that are relevant to their future.

This course gives an understanding about the practice of journalism particularly print media. It includes practical exercises in basic news-gathering and writing. It also demonstrates how to be a reflective practitioner, besides providing a background to the news industry. It helps students to demonstrate competence in a core set of journalistic crafts in reporting, research and storytelling that show versatility across media, and also to demonstrate clear understanding between the difference of journalistic work in print, tv, radio and web journalism.

The content of this course will consist of the skills related to writing academic essays, reflective essays, analytical reports, with lots of practice on the aspects related to the major – related writing skills. For the Journalism major the students will learn how to write different styles of news writing. Feature writing, hard and soft news writing, editing, writing headlines and intros are skills which need to be honed and a lot of practice is required for the same. This course will provide students with good practice time.

The course aims at developing students’ understanding regarding political, business, health, sports, education, arts reporting and the ethical concerns and considerations and Interviewing techniques

This course is about teaching students how to edit political, regional , international news copies, online editing , writing news headlines, usage of grammar, journalistic values etc

The content of the course is about examining and applying the principles of design in print journalism and outlines the scope of production in print journalism. This course introduces layout terminology, promotes skillful and creative use of typography, expands on basic page architecture, modular layouts, optical weights, story display, picture editing and photograph display. Through critical analyses of layout and design of current print media, it teaches the techniques and skills required for design to serve as an effective vehicle for news and features. It also provides the opportunity for students to design newspaper pages that include graphics, photos and headlines for news and features.

Online & Mobile Media will introduce students to new media technologies, genres and audiences. It aims to develop students’ understanding of the evolving media landscape and its relationship with mainstream journalism. This course focuses on how new technologies, genres, and audiences are affecting the media landscape. Topics include the evolution of media technologies; the impact of online sites and web logs on the role and status of mainstream journalism; the changing nature of audiences in an online and mobile media era; ways that communication professionals can use websites and social software; citizen journalism; copyright; and open source production

The course explores current practices in radio journalism against a background of principles and theory, with a particular emphasis on the writing and producing of news items. Encourages critical analysis of radio work practices and news products while developing the practical skills and technological processes required to produce radio news items to broadcast standard.

Students will build on existing journalistic skills, expand and refine them within the context of feature writing. Techniques will be honed in researching, interviewing, structuring, analyzing and writing features for print, broadcast and online mainstream media. There will be a focus on identifying audiences, differences between feature and news writing, history and traditions of feature writing. Feature-writing elements, functions, genres, what makes a feature work, the social significance of features, and the roles they play and the principles to which they conform will be covered. Students will analyze and study ideas, creativity and work of important features writers’. They will also undertake research, reading and writing exercises and assignments.

This course helps in developing the understanding in students regarding media, importance of research , planning of events ,value of internal communication and issues to managed when in crisis.

Graduation Project I prepares students of Journalism, Public Relations and Media Management majors to undertake a small-scale applied research project related to their respective professional study areas. Students are required to produce a research proposal on a topic that not only is relevant to their professional development but also focuses on real life problems pertaining to their professional fields in Oman. The topic of the study must be pertaining to Omani context. The proposal submitted at the end of the semester will serve as the basis of the second level of the course (Graduation Project II).

This course focusses upon Ethics and morality in news and current affairs, structuring of stories, the role and responsibility of a news producer, importance of cooperation and team work in the reporting process, developing an understanding of storytelling and news. This course also helps students in preparing news bulletin while applying the theoretical principles.

New Media Journalism teaches at both a theoretical level and a practical level. This course examines the development of digital technologies and the issues affecting journalists that arise from new media forms such as online news media and blogging. At the practical level, this course covers the writing, editing and website design skills that are relevant to online journalism, including digital photography and image editing. Two software packages, Adobe Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop, are used.

Graduation Project II prepares students for executing a small-scale applied research project related to their respective professional study areas namely, Public Relations, Journalism, and Media Management. Students are required to produce a research-based graduation project report that (i) focuses on real life problems in their respective professional fields in Oman and (ii) are relevant for their professional development. The topic of the dissertation must be pertaining to Omani context. The length of the written dissertation is 6000-8000 words