Sep 16, 2024  
Undergraduate Catalog 2024-2025 
    
Undergraduate Catalog 2024-2025

Department of Communication, Journalism, and Public Relations


Faculty

Professor

  • Stephanie Bennett, Ph.D.
  • Katherine Chute, Ph.D.
  • Thomas Parham, III, Ph.D.
  • Tom St. Antoine, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

  • Joseph Sowers, M.A.
  • Jiehua Zhang, Ph.D.

Department curriculum focuses on preparing students for professional career opportunities in business, government, journalism and education where they can make an impact.  Students may pursue Bachelor of Art degrees in Communication, Journalism and Public Relations.

Communication

From understanding media and their cultural implications to building effective interpersonal skills and growing in eloquence, Palm Beach Atlantic University Communication majors prepare for the full array of life in the work force. A major in communication prepares students for lifelong learning, leadership and service. It emphasizes contemplation and action, providing students with a liberal arts environment designed to enhance intellectual, spiritual, and personal character development. Graduates will enter the community and the wider world with exceptional oral, written, and relational skills gained through courses covering rhetoric, persuasion and time-honored ideas of citizenship, community, and commitment to civil discourse.

Journalism

Journalism majors develop skills in writing and multimedia storytelling through professional-level research and investigation, interviewing and reporting, explanatory and analytical media writing, editing, media law and ethics. Students develop their skills through hands-on experience with the student-run online newspaper, The Beacon Today.

Journalism Lab

All Journalism students must enroll in and successfully complete JRN 3061 - Journalism Lab during each semester beginning upon declaration of the major. Students may repeat the lab up to eight times. This weekly course provides majors with an opportunity to hone their journalistic skills in a workshop environment and apply them on the student newspaper, The Beacon Today.

Public Relations

The Public Relations program provides opportunities for students to work on real-world projects and acquire skills in writing, business, research, client relationships and communication strategies necessary to plan and implement effective programs and campaigns. Students will learn to apply foundational Christian principles to the area of public relations to become servant leaders of high moral character.

Whether a student is interested in managing communications for a large company or working in a public relations firm, as a public affairs specialist in government, or PR for nonprofits, this program offers the critical advantage of learning that is relevant and immediately applicable.