Digital Content Strategy, MS

36 credit hours

This degree was added after publishing per the addendum.**

Program Description

The MS in Digital Content Strategy provides students with the skills needed to create, analyze and optimize social media content and campaigns. With a firm foundation in information gathering techniques and data analysis, students will learn to define and analyze audiences for and with social media and to measure the effectiveness of social media strategies.

A graduate student in the School of Arts, Media, and Communications may take only one tutorial or independent study course and may enroll in a maximum of nine graduate credit hours per semester. A student may not receive graduate credit for any course designated as a dually-enrolled course, if that student received credit for the undergraduate version of that course.

Admission Requirements

Applications are initially reviewed by the director of graduate admissions. Once admitted to the university, the applicant is to provide the additional required materials to the director of graduate programs and appropriate graduate program manager for an interview.

In addition to the requirements of all graduate students, applicants to the School of Arts, Media, and Communications should complete and/ or submit the following:

  • Transcripts demonstrating completion of undergraduate degree in related field with a minimum of a 3.0 GPA in all major coursework.
  • The official results from the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) if GPA is below 3.0. 
  • Three letters of recommendation submitted through school portal. 
  • 1,000-word Statement of Purpose describing applicant’s goals. 
  • Specific deliverables depending on area of study, such as a writing sample and/or portfolio of work, brought to on-campus interview.

*If one or more of the preceding requirements are not met, requests can be made for Conditional Admit Status.

Completion Options

Non-Thesis/Applied Project Option

The applied project allows students with a professional focus to apply the theories and research methods of their field in a professional setting or in a final product or series of products. Projects may take different forms, but all students produce some form of material on behalf of an organization or field of practice. Students pursuing the non-thesis/applied project option document their progress and product for final review by their thesis committee. See the chair of the program for more information.

Thesis Option

The thesis involves the creation of an original piece of scholarship relevant to the field of study that investigates an aspect of that field, professional area or organization. Students evaluate the state of the field in existing research on their topic area and then develop a research question to investigate. Over the course of the program, students investigate their topic and refine their thesis, which is written the final two semesters and reviewed by their thesis committee. See the chair of the program for more information.

Degree Requirements

Core Curriculum

AMC 50000Research Methods

3

AMC 51000Research and Scholastic Writing

3

AMC 55000Graduate Seminar I

3

AMC 56000Graduate Seminar II

3

AMC 60000Thesis/Directed Project I

3

AMC 61000Thesis/Directed Project II

3

Specialized coursework

18 credit hours selected from the following: 

AMC 59000-59999Special Topics

1-3

ART 58100Photography

3

COM 52200Emerging Platforms and Analytics

3

COM 55000Media Literacy

3

DCS 50000Digital Content and Demographics

3

DCS 51000Media Literacy Theory

3

DCS 53000Digital Content Strategy Practicum I

3

DCS 55000Personal Branding and Content Creation

3

DCS 55500Digital Content Strategy Practicum II

3

DCS 56000Information Literacy

3

DCS 57000Contemporary Audience Analysis

3

DCS 58000Digital Content Strategy Practicum III

3

DCS 58900Digital Content Strategy Capstone

3