Communications Program to Add New Concentrations
The Bluefield College Communications department is adding three new concentrations to its curriculum, hoping to attract more students to the program by giving them additional options to pursue for a degree.
According to Dr. Cynthia Bascom, professor and chair of the Department of Communications, students pursuing a degree in communications will now have the opportunity to concentrate their studies in modern media, digital marketing, and sports communications.
“This is going to really make it clear to students the benefits of a communications degree,” Dr. Bascom said, “and once they graduate they will have broader job opportunities.”
By adding the three new concentrations, Dr. Bascom added, the hope is the Communications Department and the college as a whole will grow its enrollment.
“We are expecting the major to grow very much,” she said, “because these are very marketable skills.”
The new modern media concentrations will focus on the writing side of communications and is the closest to the content already taught in the program.
“We want students interested in the study of communication to see this new modern media concentration as a cutting-edge program that goes beyond traditional journalism and reaches across all different platforms of media, including print, broadcast, multimedia, and online,” said Chris Shoemaker, an assistant professor of communication.
Shoemaker added that the new modern media concentration can pave a way for students interested not only in journalism, but also in advertising, public relations, or marketing.
The new digital marketing concentration will focus more on the online aspects of marketing. The communications team is looking to give students in this concentration the knowledge they need in this fast-changing world we live in today.
“Digital marketing includes the use of social media, search engine optimization, copywriting, analytics, mobile marketing, email marketing, website design, blogging, and application development,” Dr. Bascom said.
Lastly, the new sports communication concentration will focus on preparing students for the sports media world. The jobs that could come from this degree include sports writers and reporters, sports promoters, or sports information directors.
According to Dr. Bascom, “athletes make up 77 percent of the traditional student body (438 out of 564 traditional students)” at BC, and student-athletes typically gravitate toward a sports-related major. The Communications Department wanted to give these student-athletes an additional option for a sports-related major other than exercise and sports science, currently the only sports-related program at Bluefield.
“The communication major with a concentration in sports communication would give these student-athletes an additional degree and career opportunity to pursue,” Dr. Bascom said.
The new programs have officially been approved by the Department of Communication, the College of Arts and Letters, the Academic Council, and the faculty as a whole. However, they have one more step of approval by the Board of Trustees who will vote on the introduction of the programs on April 17, 2020.
If approved by the Board, the Communications Department hopes to have classes for the new concentrations available for students by the fall 2020 semester. Students interested in any of the new concentrations are invited to contact a member of the Communications faculty: Dr. Bascom (cbascom@bluefield.edu), Shoemaker (cshoemaker@bluefield.edu) or Allen Roberts (aroberts@bluefield.edu), assistant professor and chair of the Department of Graphic Communication.
If there are students already enrolled in a current communication program, but want to make the switch into one of the new concentrations, the department is willing to help you and work around your classes to get you where you want to be. The shift will mostly only affect incoming freshman.