Course Syllabus

Contact Information

Course Details

For a list of course activities, scroll to the bottom of this page.

Course Prerequisites 

Students taking this section of JMC 5813 Ethics in Strategic Communication must be enrolled in the Gaylord College Online MA Strategic Communication & Digital Strategy program. No exceptions will be made due to the online MA program's cohort size.

Course Materials

There is no required textbook for this class. Readings will come from the recommended reading list below. Readings, resources, and other materials will be posted to the Required Resources page in each week's module.

Recommended Reading

• Bivins, T. (2018). Mixed Media: Moral Distinctions in Advertising, Public Relations, and Journalism. New York, NY: Routledge. 
• Plaisance, P. (2014). Media Ethics: Key Principles for Responsible Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
• DeGeorge, R. (2010). Business Ethics. Boston, MA: Prentice Hall. 
• Brunner, B. R., & Hickerson, C.A. (2019). Cases in public relations: Translating ethics into action. Oxford University Press.
• Walter Lippmann (1922) Public Opinion.

Grades

Breakdown

Scale

Course Components

Weekly Discussions

There are 8 online discussions based on course materials. You will participate in group discussions in your assigned group. In each group discussion, you will be asked to post your answer/thoughts to a course-related question. You will also need to respond/comment on at least one of your group members’ posts. Your discussion posts will be graded based on the quality of writing and analysis, reflections on the readings, and the depth of discussion. To give a high-quality discussion, you will need to complete course materials (both readings and lectures) and provide your own thoughts and analyses.

Weekly Quizzes

There are 8 open-book quizzes based on course materials and designed to assess your understanding of our readings and lectures for that module. Each quiz has 5 questions: these may include true/false statements and/or multiple-choice questions. You may only attempt the quiz once, and once you begin, you will have five minutes to submit the quiz. 

Case Study Paper

To prepare for this assignment, you should select a current ethical case in strategic communication and analyze the news coverage of the case. Your topic may be about an ethical issue/best practice or unethical issue, international or domestic, and it must have occurred within the past 2 years. The case study analysis paper is no longer than 10 pages in length and should include: organization and case background, ethical principles or framework applied in the case, and analysis of the case through the chosen ethical principle or framework. 

Course Policies

Communication

Questions? If you have:

• General course questions: you can post a question on the Course Help Board. Please review the syllabus and course schedule before posting a question. Most of your questions are answered there. Feel free to respond to each other if you know the answer.
• Personal or grade questions: please email the instructor or make an appointment for a meeting with the instructor. 
• Questions about the course content: you can email the instructor to set up a Zoom meeting for discussion and further clarifications.

Late Policy

This is an online class and you will be able to do many of the individual assignments at your own pace—especially module readings and quizzes. However, to help you to plan your time successfully in this class, I have labeled the class modules (learning segments), with dates that align with our current semester. In this way, you can pace yourself through the work as you might if this class met in person.

Major assignments—both individual and group—will have firm deadlines. If an assignment is late, you may submit it within 4 days for a maximum of 90% credit. After 4 days, you will automatically receive a zero.

University Academic Policies and Student Support

Access the University Academic Policies Document.