Our New, One-year Curriculum Designed for Today’s Jobs—
and Job Market
Informed by industry research, we revamped our curriculum from the ground up to create a series of courses designed to deliver the skills and strategic thinking needed to succeed in roles across industries. And the program prepares you to get those jobs, with a refined focus on personal branding and professional networking.
Required Credits
Our Strategic Communication area of study requires full-time study on campus at UNC-Chapel Hill and completion of at least 33 graduate credits:
Curriculum Elements
Strategic Communication students complete the master’s program within a year, from mid-August until the end of the following July. They complete four 3-credit courses, along with 1.5 credits of MEJO 777: Personal Branding and Professional Networking, in each of the fall and spring semesters. They then spend two summer sessions drafting, revising and presenting their capstone projects.
The full timeline:
| Fall | Spring | Summer I | Summer II |
| MEJO 701 3 credits |
MEJO 730 3 credits |
MEJO 792 3 credits |
MEJO 992 3 credits |
| MEJO 732 3 credits |
MEJO 731 3 credits |
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| MEJO 782 3 credits |
Elective 3 credits |
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| Elective 3 credits |
Elective 3 credits |
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| MEJO 777 1.5 credits |
MEJO 777 1.5 credits |
As part of the curriculum redesign, our faculty worked collaboratively to develop a series of courses that complement one another and combine to teach students the following:
- Strategic and critical thinking skills
- Use of research as a tool to distill insights to solve a business problem
- Skills and capacity for traditional and digital storytelling across various channels and platforms in content creation
- Proficiency in video, audio, graphic design, data visualization and interactive media
- Literacy in emerging technologies such as AI, AR and VR
- Ability to effectively present and pitch ideas
- Knowledge to build a personal brand and leverage that brand for employment
- Assessment of and adaptability to situations in a business setting
- Managerial perspectives, including budgeting, client relationships and business practices
Students also select three more courses at the 400 through 900 levels inside our school, elsewhere at Carolina or at one of our institutional partners (e.g., Duke University, North Carolina Central University, North Carolina State University). Students may take up to two courses (6 credits) outside of the UNC Hussman in consultation with the program director.
In the capstone project, students are expected to demonstrate the full range of strategic communication competencies, such as analytics, writing and strategic judgment skills they have learned in their courses. They will produce a strategic communication case analysis report and complete most of the work for the project during their first summer session MEJO 792: Capstone Project Development course.
Students will enroll in MEJO 992: Non-thesis Substitute during the second summer session. Students will submit a final report by the end of first week and subsequently present their capstone project to a faculty review panel.
MEJO 792 meets virtually, during evening hours, to provide room in students’ schedules to complete an internship.
Required Courses
All Strategic Communication students take following the courses:
Students learn how to analyze, interpret and evaluate applied research data gathered using multiple contemporary research methodologies common in the fields of strategic communication. There is a particular focus on discovering insights into audiences, brands, markets, media and culture, which can then be used to drive strategic communication decisions.
The course will also explore methods of effectively communicating these analytics and insights to internal and external audiences. Students will ultimately create and execute a research plan and identify appropriate insight(s) for a client organization.
Fall course
This class is designed to give you hands-on experience writing to inform and persuade your audiences, with an emphasis on digital and social media. It is structured as an applied skills lab with both in-class and out-of-class writing assignments and an additional element of message production on behalf of an organizational client.
Fall course
Digital content creation is one of the cornerstones of modern strategic communication. This course provides students with a foundation in all the major platforms for digital storytelling. The core competencies include video production (cameras, lighting, audio, composition, sequencing and editing), graphic design principles, data visualization and interactive media (HTML,
CSS, content management systems and web hosting protocol).
Fall course
Introduction to strategic communication used by corporations, government agencies and nonprofits to build and grow relationships with stakeholders, as well as an examination of advertising and branding campaigns. Students explore communication leadership skills by assessing goals-based research, critiquing strategic effectiveness of campaigns. Students will also examine issues of client and audience management.
Spring course
This is a comprehensive course designed to equip students with advanced knowledge and practical skills required to excel in the dynamic and highly competitive world of advertising and strategic communications. This course provides a deep dive into the strategies, tactics and best practices necessary to successfully manage campaigns and clients in this ever-evolving industry. We will examine this subject through a real-world contemporary and forward-looking evaluation of the industry with an emphasis on providing insight by and access to practitioners currently working in the field.
Spring course
This is a two-part class (1.5 credits fall, 1.5 credits spring) that will teach students how to brand themselves and actively help them gain employment. Nearly everyone already has an organically developed personal brand. Still, this class will spend a semester strategically marketing that brand by writing blogs, recording podcasts and using their social media presence to amplify that brand so that, when being considered for a job, exactly what we want the potential employer to learn about us is what they find. Then, we will spend a semester professionally networking to ensure employment.
Fall and spring course
This course allows students to develop their capstone projects. Students will work together to offer one another feedback, as well as then get detailed feedback from a course instructor to help them develop and improve their projects.
Summer I course
Students will revise and submit a final report and subsequently present their capstone project to a faculty review panel. The final week of the summer course will involve project revisions as needed.
Summer II course