Brand and Media Strategy, M.A.

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Graduate School Contact:
Rickie Carter; carterrh@etsu.edu; 423-439-6165

Dr. Susan Waters, Graduate Coordinator

Media and Communication
519 Warf Pickel
Box 70669
423-439-7912
e-mail: watersse@etsu.edu

http://www.etsu.edu/mcom

The Master of Arts in Brand and Media Strategy is a workforce-driven degree, providing students with cross-disciplinary theoretical and applied approaches to brand and media strategy. The program’s focus is on content creation and content distribution as well as audience insight and analytics. The degree will appeal to any media or marketing communication professional interested in brand media management/production as well as practitioners and scholars in digital journalism, film, public relations, advertising, and/or brand communication.

Students learn through curriculum and experiences converging communication, media, sociology, marketing, computing, literature and language as well as art and technology. The program differs from most as it is a collaboration with Fortune 500 industry partners giving students the opportunity of earning software certifications as well as providing real industry experiences while earning their degree. Possible industry certifications include Adobe’s Digital Marketing Accreditation, Adobe’s Creative Cloud solution certifications as well as certifications from Google, Salesforce, and others.

This program’s interdisciplinary approach is built around faculty mentoring providing students the opportunity to build their own unique program around their expected career outcomes. Great elective options can be found in the M.A. in Sociology as well as in the 100% online M.S. in Digital Marketing. Additional collaborative graduate programs can be found in psychology, digital media, art, film, computing, literature and language, and others.

Program Admission Requirements

All application materials must be sent to the ETSU School of Graduate Studies, Box 70720, Johnson City, TN 37614.

In addition to the materials required by the School of Graduate Studies, applicants for the M.A. in Brand and Media Strategy are required to submit the following to the School of Graduate Studies:

Statement of Purpose. This approximately 1000-1500 word essay describes the applicant’s goals for his or her graduate research and/or creative work. The committee uses this information to determine if faculty skills are a good match for the applicant’s interests and to see if the applicant’s agenda is reasonable;
Undergraduate Transcript. A GPA of 2.5 on a 4.0 scale is required for domestic students and 3.0 is required for international students; and
Must have three (3) letters of recommendation submitted on their behalf.
International students should refer to the Graduate Catalog section on international student admission for additional requirements.

M.A. in Brand and Media Strategy: 36 Credit Hours

Required Courses: 18 Credit Hours

MCOM 5030 - Media and the First Amendment (3 credits)
SPCH 5065 - Communication Ethics (3 credits)
MCOM 5100 - Digital Strategic Communication (3 credits)
PUBR 5310 - Media Management (3 credits)
PUBR 5320 - Public Relations Case Studies (3 credits)
SOCI 5210 - Sociological Research (3 credits)

Guided Electives: 12-18 Credit Hours

Required for thesis option: 12 credit hours

Required for non-thesis option: 18 credit hours

Thesis: 6 Credit Hours

MCOM 5960 - Thesis (3-6 credits) (Take for 6 credits.)