Communication, Media & Design
Are you driven by a passion for storytelling, creativity, and making your mark in the media world? At St. Thomas Aquinas College, our Communication, Media & Design degree turns your passion into a powerful career. With the flexibility to choose your concentration, you can tailor your education to match your interests and career goals.
Choose Your Concentration:
- Social & Interactive Media: Become a digital communication expert. Craft engaging and strategic content for social media, marketing, and audience engagement, positioning yourself as a sought-after professional in the fast-paced digital landscape.
- TV & Digital Media: Dive into the world of media production. Create compelling content for TV, radio, and digital platforms, gaining hands-on experience that equips you to inspire and entertain in a competitive industry.
- Graphic Design: Unleash your creativity to craft visuals that leave a lasting impression. Whether you’re designing for digital platforms, print media, or advertising campaigns, you’ll learn to create compelling designs that not only capture attention but also resonate with target audiences.
- Customized Concentration: If you are interested in various aspects of communication, media and design, you can choose the general concentration and take a mix of classes across areas to hone your interests.
Guided by industry professionals, you’ll gain real-world experience and master the business skills that employers demand. Through micro-internships and service-learning projects, you’ll develop a standout portfolio. Whether you’re filming documentaries, presenting live news broadcasts in our HDTV studio, or designing comprehensive social media campaigns, you’ll graduate with more than just a degree—you’ll have the experience, skills, and confidence to thrive in the communication, media, and design industries.
At a glance
- Undergraduate major & minor
- Three concentrations: General, Broadcasting & Digital Content Production, and Social & Interactive Media
- 4 years
- Main Campus
Common Minors
- Journalism
- Marketing
- Public Relations
- Social Media
- Visual Art
Only at St. Thomas Aquinas College
Ignite Your Career With Experiential Learning
Explore different career paths and develop new skills through countless experiential learning opportunities, including micro internships and hands-on activities built into courses and a required internship. Film documentaries and live events on campus, present the news as a broadcaster in our HDTV studio or WSTK radio station, or write feature stories for our student newspaper, The Thoma. Create a comprehensive social media marketing program or plan, promote, and host a public relations event for a local nonprofit for a service learning project. Our students have consulted with many local nonprofits, including The Penguin Plunge, People to People, The United Way, and Baking Memories for Kids.
Career Preparation & Mentoring
Our faculty of seasoned professionals will guide you throughout your college journey and beyond. In addition to many real-world learning experiences, our curriculum offers practical courses in which you’ll develop key business skills. Create an impressive résumé and develop your confidence and presentation skills in mock interviews. Network with our alumni who share leading intelligence from the field as guest lecturers and mentors.
Ignite Your Passion | Job Outcomes
With a strong foundation and diverse skill set, you’ll be ready to pursue a wide range of exciting career paths. Our graduates are making their mark in various fields, and you can, too.
Job outcomes include:
- Marketing Specialist
- Public Relations Specialist
- Content Creator
- Social Media Manager
- Communications Manager
- Video Producer/Editor
- Web Designer/Developer
- Brand Strategist
Where our graduates have worked:
- KPMG
- ABC News
- NBC
- Disney
- Madison Square Garden
- iHeartRadio
- Bloomberg London
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment of advertising, promotions, and marketing managers, including social media managers, is expected to grow by 10% from 2022 to 2032, faster than the average for all occupations.
Featured Courses
Students will focus on news and feature writing by employing the elements of digital journalism to tell stories interactively through the use of text, images, sounds, video clips and graphics. The class brings together elements of broadcast, marketing, advertising, writing and social media in order to help students effectively communicate their ideas in digital form.
This course explores the profound impact of communications technology—from writing and printing to TV, film, and social media—on society and culture. Students will critically analyze how media influences and reflects individual attitudes, values, and behaviors within historical, economic, religious, educational, and political contexts. The course aims to demonstrate how culture is created, shaped, and transmitted through communication.
This course is designed to give the students a “real world” learning experience. Throughout the semester students will be working in teams to develop a unique design solution for a real client. Students will learn how to develop a creative brief, manage workflow, generate ideas as a team, present to a client professionally, and create a successful design package for a client.
What Success Looks Like
Program options
The B.S. in Communication, Media & Design develops the creative, strategic, and technical knowledge and skills to step into successful careers in virtually every area of communications. The Broadcasting and Digital Content Production concentration is tailored to careers in the broadcast industry while the Social and Interactive Media concentration develops leading-edge skills in the latest digital technologies for careers in new media. Our general track offers the flexibility to customize the program with a selection of electives that match your career goals.
Maybe you dream of hosting your own television or radio show or becoming a groundbreaking journalist or blogger. Or maybe you prefer to work behind the scenes as an editor, producer, technician, or camera operator. Our degree in communication arts prepares you for all of this, and more. You have the option of pursuing Broadcasting & Digital Content Production, Social & Interactive Media or a general track.
The ability to communicate clearly and effectively is essential to articulate ideas, persuade audiences, and lead teams. A minor in communication arts develops key skills that give job candidates a competitive advantage in any professional pursuit.