Course Description

SEMESTER 1

GED 1101: English Reading and Speaking

The course is designed to improve students’ Academic English skills integrating reading and public speaking skills to prepare the students entering the University for studying through the medium of English. Along with strengthening students’ reading skills e.g., skimming, scanning and so on, the module will enrich their vocabulary by reading about a variety of adapted and authentic texts in group, pair and individual works. After reading on some intriguing topics, students will also improve oral communication skills for academic interactions through extensive conversational practices as a reflection on reading. Reflective oral practices include forming and communicating opinions by discussing contemporary issues and developing formal and informal oral informative and persuasive presentations after reading several texts on particular topics and outlining them.

GED 1102: Foundations of Sociology

The course intends to acquaint students with an overall introduction to the fundamental concepts and views of Social Sciences, particularly sociology and its relationship with other Social Science fields. It offers the foundational sociological theories and examines some major social issues and problems in contemporary society with a special focus on Bangladesh. In addition to the theories, topics such as social interaction, family, culture, social inequality, gender, crime and deviance are also covered in this course. The course also aims to develop the ability to identify, analyze and apply sociological perspectives to current social problems and to everyday life to better understand how larger society affects individual behavior and choices

GED 1103: Introduction to Digital Tools of Communication

This course introduces the personal computer as a tool for human communication. It shows how computers design, produce and deliver communication in publishing, advertising, entertainment, and education. Students learn to use basic computer tools to build works of communication in a variety of media, including text, images, numbers, sound, and video. This course covers the stages of familiarizing with the pipelines of various basic applications that will aid in forthcoming courses that require basic knowledge of understanding how to navigate crucial computer software. This course will ensure that students are able to navigate crucial computer software used for creative purposes effortlessly and efficiently.

GED 1104: History of Emergence of Bangladesh

This course will present a general overview of political events, organizations and issues that contributed to the birth of Bangladesh. The course will focus on various political history of this land along with iconic historical moments starting from the political events of ancient Bengal. This course will provide emphasis on the iconic historic moments such as the battle of pallasi of 1757, Sepoy mutiny of 1857, the partition of Bengal in 1905 and its multiple nationalist implications, partition of Bengal in1947; the 1952 Language Movement, Pakistan experiences as a background to the Liberation War of 1971 and the role of the father of the nation Bangabandhu Shekh Mujibur Rahman. The course will help to develop students’ knowledge on Political & Cultural traits, Heritage, and Socio-economic condition of Bangladesh. It will focus of its historical background, emergence of Bangladesh as a new nation, its social structure, politics, and governance.

GED 1105: Arts and Aesthetics

This course introduces students in getting familiar with key ideas of arts and aesthetics. They are supposed to learn the role of Film in our society. They’ll understand about Art Film and the contribution of Filmmakers, and through film shows they’ll absorb the fine techniques of Direction, Screen play writing, Music, Lyrics, Casting, Costume designing, Editing etc. Before they go to world of visual art, they’re expected to learn the Art & elements of Design and Art & principles of Design to understand the visual elements like, line, shape, direction, size, texture, values, balance, gradation, repetition, contrast, harmony, dominance, unity etc. In color theory they’ll learn the role of color in work of art and life. In visual art they’ll learn the art movement of Impressionism, and other visual art topics like Landscape Painting, Still Life Painting, Portrait painting etc. Visiting museums and art galleries will give them direct contact with art works and artifacts and they’ll develop their aesthetic senses instantly.  In performing Art they’ll go through a bit of Indian classical music they’ll learn and understand few RAAGAS of early morning, morning, afternoon, late afternoon, night, late night etc., and few seasonal raagas like monsoon, winter, spring, summer etc. They’re also expected to learn the music of Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam. Finally, they’ll learn the contemporary Art of Architecture of Bangladesh and will visit National assembly of Bangladesh to get a real architectural essence of Sansad Bhavan.

 

SEMESTER 2

GED 1206: Bangladesh Studies

By taking a historical approach, this course explores the political process and institutions, the building blocks of a national economy, and key cultural debates in the country. The first part of the course will discuss arts and literature, social structure, religious philosophies, archaeological evidence of the cultural heritage, geography, politics, electoral system, political parties, parliament, and forms of government. The second part will explore the building blocks of a national economy such as budget, taxation, banking and share market. And the final part will discuss the key cultural issues such as identity, secularism, and nationalism.

GED 1207: Introduction to Economics

This course will help the students to understand the importance of economics in everyday business decision-making, differentiate between microeconomics and macroeconomics, and its implications for business organizations. Students will also understand fundamental economic principles, appreciate supply and demand analysis in market systems, understand short and long-term cost curves, explain price and output decisions of a firm in various markets, learn economic reasons for regulations and build awareness of related current issues, the aggregate performance of the economy with a focus on the determination of particular variables such as national income, the rate of unemployment, the rate of inflation, and the level of interest rates. Government fiscal and monetary policies and other relevant topics will be discussed to assist them in the day-to-day business decision-making process.

GED 1208: Bangla Language and Literature

The course will explore the basic tenets of Bangla linguistic and literature features. Texts and poems of several literary maestros make students acquainted with Bangla’s rich literary elements in relation to Bangladeshi cultural values. In this course, students will grasp the evolution of modern Bengali language, culture, history and art (including cinema, painting and songs as well as literature). This course covers history of Bengali Language and Literature, Short Story and Novel, Author’s Biography, Practical Bengali vocabulary and functional grammar exercises, Bengali Poems, Translation, Contemporary text analysis and writing of paragraphs/essays/letter and creative pieces, and topic-based conversation and role-play. At the end of the course, students should acquire a widespread knowledge in Bangla language and literature and develop proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking standard colloquial Bengali. 

JMC 1201: Introduction to Journalism

The goal of this course is to introduce students to the key concepts of journalism including news value, right to information, news treatment, newsroom operation, freedom of expression, ethics, libel, and defamation. Students will develop knowledge, know-how and competence in basic journalism, content generation and provision, information collection, different news story writing techniques and ethical issues in journalism.

JMC 1202: Concepts of Communication

The aim of the course is to teach students the basic concepts and approaches of communication and how it is changing with the constant advancement of technology. The key ideas include the types of communication such as interpersonal, small group and mass communication, the models of human communication, conflict resolution and communication skills and competence. They will acquire abilities to think critically using the concepts and approaches of communication. This course will give them insights to understand communication critically.

JMC 1203: History of Animation

This course is designed to introduce students to the wonderful world of animation and its entire history. This will help them appreciate all the various styles and techniques used by different artists that have evolved through the years starting from the Paleolithic Age to Modern and Contemporary art. This course will help inspire them to become excellent storytellers.

 

SEMESTER 3

JMC 2104: History of Journalism and Mass Communication in Bangladesh

This course prepares students to develop, explore the key concept of the history of journalism and mass communication in Bangladesh. It focuses on the origin, transformation and present status of the major means of mass communication, namely, newspaper, radio, television, film and online media. Analyzing the historical trajectory of these media with reference to the socio-political underpinning of various periods will help the students to develop a deeper understanding of media industry’s journey in our country. Alongside with the discussion and deliberation on the mutual influence of media and society, this course will elicit the contribution of the prominent practitioners of the sectors whose vision and values have molded the shape of journalism and mass communication in Bangladesh. Studying the key problems and practices of the media industry will also encourage the students to better prepare themselves to brace the future challenge as a media professional.

JMC 2105: New Media Culture

Internet, smartphones, Facebook and other social media have significantly influenced business, communication, protest, election campaign, democracy, privacy and every other aspect of human life. Fake news and disinformation have become one of the major concerns all over the world.  Considering this fact, this course intends to explore the relationship of changing technology, Internet, smartphone, AI, Facebook and other social media— and its impact on human behavior and culture. Finally, the course will increase the ability of students to develop the necessary skills for thinking, researching, writing, and speaking critically about the relationship of changing technology and its impact on human behavior and culture.

JMC 2106: Introduction to Mass Communication

This foundational course intends to introduce the primary concepts and theories of media and mass communication. The course will explore the mass media system, meaning how it works in society, how it influences audiences’ minds, how media function in modern society and so on. It will also examine the political economy of the media in brief. Conceptually this course is divided into two parts. In one part, an attempt will be made to explore the ideas, concepts, theories and examples from across the globe that are applicable universally.  In other part, it will focus on Bangladesh to explore and examine the reality on ground.

JMC 2107: Graphic Communication

The intention of this course is to prepare students to develop and explore different types of graphic communications i.e., distinguish between stages and functions in graphic communications. They will understand the basics, elements and principles of design and colour. Students will be able to develop skills and competencies in problem solving, decision making, critical thinking, spatial abilities, visualization, and design capabilities. function of graphic design, art of graphic design to communicate. They will be able to analyze individual graphic design and typography.

JMC 2108: Advertisement Concepts and Production

The rationale of this course is to prepare students to develop and explore different types of communications i.e., language, dialogue, nonverbal communications, and visual communications etc. Advertising is mass communication; students will know the major communications in field of advertising. Students will go through graphic art and graphic design and the role of advertising role of graphic designer and their various kinds of works like, logo design, Symbols, Emblem, Trademark, Mascot, Typography, Illustrations etc. Lesson of advertising agency. role of an ad agency. Who is who in ad agency? End product (design) of ad agency, and their creativeness through audio video and through other visual communications. There will be project work and students will physically visit an ad agency and will see the working process of different departments.

GED 2109: Global Languages

This course is intended to teach the third language to beginners. As an elementary course, the aim of this course is to introduce students with a third language. According to modern pedagogy, emphasis is given on a function-based communicative approach to facilitate the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). Students develop their vocabulary, grammar, structural accuracy, pronunciation, oral fluency and overall acquisition through different activities, pair work, group work, role play, exercises. The basic contexts of daily life such as introducing oneself, eating and dining, asking for road directions, shopping, discussing one’s studies, and campus life will be taught in this course. This course mainly focuses on spoken third language so that students can communicate with the nationals without a translator. Reading and comprehending texts have also been emphasized while writing and composing texts using the characters of the language have been kept to the minimum.

 

SEMESTER 4

JMC 2209: Digital Photography

The rationale of this course is to prepare students to develop and explore the key concept of digital photography and designed to introduce the technical, aesthetic, and conceptual challenges implicit with digital photography. The class is structured on a studio model, in which students can expect to spend most of their time in class working on projects under the supervision and outdoor assignments as well.

JMC 2210: Advertising as Social Communication

The rationale of this course is to prepare students to develop, explore the key concept of advertising. Through this fourteen-week program students will learn a theoretical and hands-on exploration of the social causes and no product advertising. Students will learn the basic ideology of the course – and the driving force behind its pedagogy –that is social, ethical and economic aspect of advertising and advocacy advertising campaign.

JMC 2211: Mass Media and Society

This course, Mass Media and Society, will focus on the relationships between the media, society and culture, and will explore media contents such as news, film, advertisement, cartoon, meme, image and comedy that represents race, gender, community with different political and sexual orientation and will examine how certain type of presentation manipulates/reshapes audience perceptions regarding culture and ideology. After the completion of the course students will develop the necessary skills for thinking, researching, writing, and speaking critically about mass media and its impact on human behavior, culture and society.

JMC 2212: Media Laws and Ethics

This course will orient students with the relevant media laws in Bangladesh and teach them how to do journalism by following the legal requirements. In addition, they will learn about the necessary laws which set limits for media and journalism in Bangladesh. At the end of the course, students will be able to write news stories avoiding legal sanctions and seek protection under the law.

JMC 2213: Video Editing

This course aims to explore video editing as a form of storytelling and teaches how to use this medium to communicate. Students will have the chance to compose, edit and put their content together and tell the story in a more concise way that the viewers will enjoy. This course will also explore technical, aesthetic, and practical consideration of editing video. Its focus is on developing software skills for audio and video editing. Students will learn that video editing is an art and not only used for films but also for personal use, business, marketing, and in other various fields. Assignments will include editing commercials, interviews, music videos, and narrative scenes.

JMC 2226: Broadcast Reporting and Anchoring

This course has two parts. One part is focused on reporting while the other is focused on anchoring. In the reporting part, students will learn about different techniques of writing, recording and editing a report for the different broadcast media such as radio, TV and podcast while the course will also provide students a hands-on-training on writing headlines, preparing rundowns and will train them to translate a foreign news piece for the local audience lucidly. In the anchoring part, students will learn about the qualities they need to acquire to become good presenters. As a part of the anchoring part students will receive a short training on basic pronunciation, voice modulation, and script writing. Hands on practice will be provided for students where they will get the opportunity to use the broadcast facilities of the media studio.

JMC 2240: Introduction to Drawing and Design

This course will make students realize that drawing and design are the birth of idea conceptualization and generation. They will develop their skills in communicating their ideas to other people visually and creatively. They will learn the design process or the stages of the project phase – from start to finish. This course will explore perceptual and expressive drawing, traditional mediums, and perspective drawing. It will introduce illustration for graphic and digital design (2D), the process of illustration, and professional practice. Students will create illustrations from concept through to final compositions while exploring style, voice, storytelling, and emotional context.

JMC 2241: Introduction to Animation

This course is designed to introduce students to basic methods and practice in animation. The course will provide an overview of techniques ranging from hand-drawn frame-by-frame animation to object animation and pixilation. It will also look at the historical progression of animation techniques, how it became an industry, the social characterizations presented in popular cartoons, and the artistic brilliance of animators from around the world. This course is an introduction to the art and history of animation, which includes the exploration of different techniques and trends developed in the animation industry through the years. The students will have the opportunity to do both traditional and digital drawing and painting, using the latest software – the basic knowledge and skills needed to be able to design and conceptualize their own characters, props and backgrounds for the final production bible requirement.

 

SEMESTER 5

GED 3111: Quantitative Research Methods for Communication

This course will cover a wide array of statistical techniques ranging from simple frequency table construction to hypothesis tests. Students will learn the important techniques of collecting, organizing and analyzing quantitative data to identify and interpret important patterns in different sets of variables. Key concepts of descriptive and inferential statistics will enable students to analyze various social phenomena in a more authentic and authoritative way.

JMC 3114: Concepts of Televisions and Film Studies

By introducing the major contents of television and significant films made around the world, this course will equip students with central concepts and theories to analyze these works and understand their effects. Television studies section will cover topics like how the television medium evolved over time, how the power relations between different parties like government, owners of the media entities, advertisers and audience set the trends of the television industry and what major challenges the medium is facing right now. Important events in the film history, e.g., growth of Hollywood studio system, Italian Neorealism, French New Wave as well as noted works from renowned filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock, Andrei Tarkovsky, Stanley Kubrick will be discussed in the class so that students get to learn the key issues and ideas of film studies. Students are expected to develop more insightful mindset to evaluate television programs and films after completing the course. An introduction to screen studies which explores the relationship between film and television and provides techniques for analyzing screen texts, understanding the industrial and institutional history of film and television, and exploring the impact of aesthetic style, stardom, and genre on meaning and audience responses.

JMC 3115: Public Relations

This course is designed to provide students with the basic ideas of Public Relations (PR) through theoretical discussions and practical work. The concepts that will be covered under this course are principles of PR, the history of PR, basic communication concepts, PR communication process, PR communication tools, crisis management techniques, dealing with public opinion, handling the media, designing PR campaigns and corporate social responsibility. The rationale of this course is to prepare the students to develop the necessary skills to develop the necessary skills for thinking, researching, writing, and speaking critically about PR.  This course also emphasizes practical work. As part of the practical learning students will meet PR professionals from renowned organizations, they will visit organizations to observe the PR activities closely while they will also take interviews with PR professionals as assignments as part of the course.

JMC 3116: Mass Communication Theories

This course focuses on a wide range of significant theories to examine the role and influence of mass media. Students will be equipped and encouraged to assess the dynamics of the media industry by closely studying the economic, social, political, and technological forces affecting the mediascape. The ways media construct identities and shape ideology of the masses will be discussed with the aid of various television programs, commercials, and films. Finally, students will be prepared to develop the necessary skills for thinking, researching, writing, and speaking critically about media’s role and media content.

JMC 3117: Gender, Media and Identity

This interdisciplinary course, initially, will bring some foundational concepts of gender studies—sex, gender, sexuality, patriarchy, feminism, sexism, toxic misogyny, objectification of women’s body, self-objectification, dehumanization of women etc.— and communication—framing, cultivation, social expectations, stereotype representation, ideological bias, cultural industry, ideological state apparatus— while it will explore socio-cultural input in creating identity and gender role in a society. It will explore impacts of digital feminism, activism, hashtag movements to fight rape and sexual assaults. Relevant local, regional and global examples, case studies and research will be discussed throughout the semester. In addition to that, several feature films and documentaries relevant to topics will be studied as text.

JMC 3127: Reporting and Editing

Reporting and Editing course is designed to give students the primary ideas of print journalism. This course will deal with two aspects of print journalism— one is reporting and another is editing. Fundamental concepts such as what is news, how to write a news, how to write headlines, how to conduct an interview will be described in the classroom situation. Besides theoretical learning, this course is particularly designed for hands-on-training and practical works. The rationale of this course is to prepare the students to develop the necessary skills to perform as reporters and subeditors in print media. In addition, as part of practical learning students need to visit different spots to learn about spot reporting. They need to submit report after covering real-life events to fulfil the course requirement. Throughout the semester students will learn through lectures and presentations, by meeting renowned reporters, by dissecting several news stories from local and global media, and by writing news stories.      

JMC 3142: Documentary Production

The mission of this course is to allow students to connect their educational experiences and creative expression to broader community life through documentary fieldwork projects, while they also examine theoretical and practical issues related to this work through readings, screenings, and classroom discussion. Students will engage in critical thinking regarding fieldwork as a responsible and theoretically sound mode of research that can be used effectively in a variety of settings and related directly to academic research in a variety of disciplines. Using their chosen methodology, students will produce professional-quality documentary work, including at least one major project with a public presentation.

JMC 3143: Animation Production

This course will offer intermediate study of 2-D and 3-D computer animation with focus on character modeling. Students will learn and use course specific software technology to implement principles of animation and practice intermediate level work in 3-D CG character creation, modeling, facial blend shapes lighting, surface texture. They will learn to execute independent animation styles in the different stage processes from layout to final animation. They will animate their scenes or sequences and composite, render, and edit their animations with sound and backgrounds. They will also practice creative concept process of research, development, and design for character. Students will also be able to observe industry-standard practices, protocols, and train to work as part of a team.

JMC 3144: Writing for Animation

This course will provide practical instructions on the basic writing process from generating story ideas up to the basic format of the screenplay. Students will learn to create the synopsis, plots, shot list, and final scripts for animation in proper formats. Included will be a critical study of writing in the best shorts, features, and TV episodes. This course covers the completely creative process of conceptualizing written content from story ideas and its development into a full-blown script (screenplay). The script is the root document in the pre-production stage that will propel the creative production process that will produce the concept art package for use in the next stage in the pipeline, which is the production stage proper. Underpinning knowledge and comprehension of the creative and technical aspects are also assessed though tasks prior to the midterms and final examinations, both of which include a practical part that will form their final grades.

JMC 3145: 3D Character Modeling

This course is an introduction to the 3D maya software. It will cover the procedures and work paths involved in producing a 3D model. It requires evidence of performance through submissions of various tasks and mandatory projects. This also includes the knowledge and comprehension of the technical and creative processes involved in the 3D asset creations. At the end of the course, students will learn to apply the proper topology in the geometry of the models based on isometric views. Assimilating the best practices in organizing tasks and project files is also included in this course.

 

SEMESTER 6

GED 3212: Qualitative Research Methods for Communication

This course will concentrate on the qualitative methods required for media and communication research such as content analysis, image analysis, semiotic analysis, discourse analysis, and critical discourse analysis. After the successful completion of this course, the students will be able to independently conduct a research project by applying the qualitative approach.

JMC 3218: South Asian Cinema

This course aims to look at the history and recent developments of the film industries in the region. It will cover Bollywood, Dhallywood, Kollywood (Tamil cinema industry), Tollywood (Telugu cinema), Follywood (Sri Lankan movie industry) and Lollywood (Pakistani Urdu and Punjabi-language film industry). To do that, this course will provide brief ideas of film theories and concepts. In addition to that, this course will particularly focus on Bangladeshi film industry and will take a closer look on the history of Bangladeshi film industry, recent developments in the country’s cine-world, classic works of Bangladeshi master makers such as Jahir Rayhan, Alamgir Kabir & Tarek Masud, independent cinema in Bangladesh and the country’s contemporary film trends. Additionally, students will study non-Bangladeshi Bengali master makers such as Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak & Mrinal Sen’s works.

JMC 3219: Global Media System

This course aims to explore the existing media system around the globe. It will study the past, present and future of global media. The factors and elements that helped media to emerge as global system will also be examined. From this course, students will learn about the patterns of control and ownership of media. This course, particularly, will focus on the internet and 4th industrial revolution as it will take attempt to understand the impacts of digital revolution in shaping the concept of traditional media across the globe. The course will explore the role of TV and internet in the highly connected society where people living their lives as global citizens. This course will also provide some critical views about media as scholars are claiming that with the help of media, big countries are spreading their colonies around the world electronically.

JMC 3220: Political Economy of Communication

By discussing the central concepts of the political economy of communication, this course will introduce students to the strengths and scopes of this framework. Debates and discussions on seminal articles written by the distinguished researchers of the field will help students to better understand the key themes and arguments of political economy of communication. Many scholars identified praxis as one of the most important features of critical political economy and this course will attempt to instill the essence of this notion in the students so that they get equipped and inspired to work towards justice, equity and public good.

JMC 3228: Photojournalism

This course deals with the technical and aesthetic consideration of digital photography with the specific aim of applying these in journalistic practice. After orienting the students with the functions of different components of the digital camera and its fundamental variables, i.e., shutter speed, aperture, and ISO, this course explores in depth the significant elements of composition, i.e., line, form and shape, light, color, etc. Students will be assigned to take photographs on topics using specific techniques and these works will be assessed on a regular basis in the class. Evolution of photography will be discussed from the perspective of major technological breakthroughs and artistic transformation along the years both in local and global context. Basic tools and techniques of organizing, managing, editing using a digital platform will introduce the students with the entire workflow from capturing to printing digital photographs. Learning the craft of storytelling with befitting captions and the importance of strictly following the ethical codes of photojournalism will be discussed with reference to exemplary cases. Analyzing the body of work of influential photographers along with developing a portfolio of own photographs on assigned themes will enable students to grasp the essence of photojournalism. Students are expected to attain a clear understanding about the scope and challenges of photojournalism and develop a keen interest after the successful completion of the course.

JMC 3229: Multimedia Journalism

The purpose of this course is to provide intermediate and advanced training on multimedia journalism, especially regarding the creation of new storytelling techniques developed on digital platforms. Besides this hands-on training, the course will also examine the digital revolution and the creation of a global information society, with a special focus on the effects these phenomena are having on the media in general, and on journalism in particular. The class has two components: a seminar session, based on lectures, readings, case studies and discussions about the ongoing transformations in the media and journalism environments; and a computer lab session dedicated to hands-on experience with the development of multimedia journalism projects for digital platforms. The first component helps students understand the rapidly changing media environment where journalism is practiced nowadays, and the creation of a new media ecosystem. The second component intends to give the students tools to work with multimedia narratives more attuned with this new “mediascape.” Students will learn how to develop multimedia projects, working with different formats, such as text, hypertext, photos, video, animation, databases, etc. The digital technology training will be placed within journalistic contexts, such as responsible reporting, clear writing, critical thinking, ethical principles, etc.

JMC 3230: Mobile Journalism

This course aims to equip students with storytelling skills along with other know-hows of mobile journalism including workflow, MOJO story development process, MOJO story writing techniques and ethical issues of MOJO. It will give students hands-on training on recording and editing audio & visuals. The rationale of this course is to prepare the students to develop the necessary skills to work in the digital age by following the requirements of the digitalized newsrooms.

JMC 3246: Television Script Writing and Analysis

The basic ideology of the course – and the driving force behind its pedagogy – is that great documentary films are made with intention, vision, and foresight. Students will learn the key and modern concepts of television script writing and analysis, the secrets of successful script writing, and they will also learn a theoretical and hands-on exploration of the creation of documentary films. They will also be able to understand and analyze written and oral communication, time management and work-planning, Moreover, they will understand debates surrounding the aesthetics, reception and politics of Bangladesh TV script writing and drama.

JMC 3247: 3D Character Animation

This course offers advanced 3D character animation with an emphasis on performance, lip-synching, timing, and execution. Students will learn how to select dialogue clips, and how to present ideas in the audio in an interesting way by clarity of acting choices. They will explore technical aspects of creating an animatable rig for characters for animation production. They will learn to apply basic animation principles in pre-built character rigs, and on create their own animatable 3D characters. It is an introduction to the basic skills in 3D animation, which incorporates the execution of animation principles to the 3D scenes and characters. It includes the familiarity with the tools and interface of the 3D software used for the entire duration of the course to give the students the grasp of animating in 3D space.

JMC 3248: Special and Visual Effects

This course gives students skills to create and expand their visual creativity and hone their technical competencies. They will learn to produce and compose new worlds using special effects and edit seamless videos to tell engaging and compelling stories. This course is designed to introduce and expand the knowledge of the world of motion graphics and special effects. Students will explore contemporary concepts and approaches to production in the current state of film and video effects work. Digital and traditional methodologies will be covered, with a concentration on digital exercise illustrating modern techniques. It will offer the students        who wish to combine design creativity, physical model making skills, cutting-edge 2D, 3D computer modeling, and prototyping in the creation of a variety of effects for film, television, and theater.

 

SEMESTER 7

JMC 4121: Technology and Society

This course is intended to explore the relationship between human and technology. The course will start with an introduction of technology and culture. Then it will examine the ways how the technology has been influencing human activities, beliefs, social structures and human lifestyle from its inception. The rationale of this course is to prepare the students to develop the necessary skills for thinking, researching, writing, and speaking critically about the symbiotic relationship of technology and human and its impacts on human behavior, culture and society.

JMC 4122: Asian Media System

This course, particularly, will focus on print and electronic media to understand the impacts of internet and social media while it will also examine print and electronic media’s effort to survive and thrive in the digital age. In addition, this course will study the past, present and future of Asian media as it aims to explore the existing Asian media system. The patterns of control and ownership of media, relationship between political regimes and the Media in Asia will also be taught. The factors and elements that helped media system to emerge in different Asian countries will be examined. The course will learn the impacts of the influx of Western media to Asia and response of Asian governments. Case studies from big countries such as China, India and Japan will also be discussed in the course. 

JMC 4123: Development Communication

This course has two different parts— development and journalism. The development part intends to introduce students with the different theories and practices of the field by bringing some of the case studies from around the world. The journalism and communication part intends to discuss the role and function of communication, journalism and mass media play in accelerating the development process. In this part, different case studies will also be discussed to exemplify and examine the importance of media in changing peoples’ views and perceptions regarding certain issues.  To achieve the goals of the course, students will know the historical and theoretical evolution of the field in brief. Gradually, students will know about some of the basic theories, practices and perspectives of the discipline. This course aims to explore the process—how mass media function in a society and how they shape people’s thinking and lifestyles by bringing different new ideas into their lives. Development communication and journalism courses will also examine the intertwined relationships of mass media, political economy and socio-cultural structures.

JMC 4131: Newspaper Design, Makeup and Desktop Publishing

The rationale of this course is to prepare students to develop and explore different types of newspaper design, makeup of different types of newspaper and desktop design and publication, and to develop skills and competencies in problem solving, decision making, critical thinking in newspaper design, spatial abilities, visualization, and design capabilities. After completing the course students will gain knowledge and develop hand-on experience as content software application for newspaper layout and its modern techniques.

JMC 4132: Crime and Court Reporting

This course teaches students crime and court journalism. Students will learn different types of crimes, how to deal with victims, ethical issues in crime reporting, Bangladeshi criminal justice system, and the techniques of writing crime and court stories for print, broadcast and online media. After the successful completion of the course, students should be able to work as a crime reporter in any news media.

JMC 4133: Political Journalism

This course teaches the political process, institutions, and government systems in Bangladesh and how to report about them. More specifically, it studies the constitution, political forces, public meetings, parliament and its rules of business, elections, and public opinion and assesses media reports on them.

JMC 4134: Sport Journalism

This course is designed to teach students about sports journalism, techniques of gathering, analyzing, and writing sports news for electronic & print media. Sports Journalism is a bit different than mainstream Journalism. Because there are lots of technical terms & issues. We will address that on this course. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to realize the significance of photo in telling compelling stories
To help the students learn about sports journalism.    Know the rules of various sports like football, cricket, tennis, hockey, swimming etc. To help students learn how to practice news gathering and writing techniques for electronic media.

JMC 4149: Directing Television Drama and Film

This course will eventually help students in getting familiar with key concepts of TV, Drama and Film, and they will acquire abilities to think critically using the concepts and approaches the directing. This course will give them insights to understand directing critically, they will develop their directing skills. Students learn about planning, rewriting, shooting, editing, and mixing a film into a finished product, ready for viewing.

JMC 4150: Advance Animation and Set-up

This course will focus in preparing the students to get them ready and produce an impressive portfolio, which will be their passport to the industry. They will discover how to market themselves and make the best possible impression in employers and impress them with their skills. This course will equip them with more advanced knowledge in modeling using sculpting tools and industry-standard rendering outputs.

JMC 4151: Advance 3D Character Modeling and Lighting

This course will focus on depth, in developing competence in modeling the humanoid and other organic geometry through polygons as well as inorganic subjects such as architecture, props and technical objects. Included in the course is applying texture maps and lighting to modeled subjects. Projects are rendered by familiarizing the students with production-based rendering techniques.

 

SEMESTER 8

GED 4213: Professional Development

This course is designed to prepare the graduating students for job and professional environment which will give them competitive edge over others. This course is not only designed to groom the students but also to guide them to make appropriate decisions. As the course uses multiple techniques, the students will become more equipped to seek and avail the most suitable opportunities. As well as gaining outlook, the students will get special-learning results, gain skills, and improve their existing skill sets via assessments & activities tailored in this non-credit course. A well-established course description is enforced to create a cohesive learning outcome throughout.

JMC 4224: Communication and Human Rights

This course intends to introduce basic human rights such as human rights history, philosophy and practices of this field. Simultaneously, it will focus on communication from two different aspects. Communication will be discussed from the basic human rights perspective while it will also be viewed as a tool of promoting and protecting human rights all over the world. In addition, this course has three main domains such as theoretical domain, burning global, regional and local issues domain, and Bangladesh perspective. Different definitions of human rights, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN and other organization’s role will be discussed in the first domain. The second domain will deal with some human rights issues such as poverty, health, religious freedom and so on. The third part of this course will focus on Bangladesh perspective where the ground situation will be discussed.   

JMC 4225: Media Advocacy

The course focuses on the strategic use of media— new media, traditional media, indigenous media— as core part of media campaign and policy advocacy.  Media campaign and policy advocacy processes include research, plan, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. It will equip students with techniques and strategies of media advocacy process of disseminating policy-related information through media to influence people to change their opinion or behavior regarding any idea or habit. In this course tactics, strategies, methods, elements and characteristics of awareness and policy advocacy will be discussed. To learn from the real-life situation, case studies from local, regional and global perspective will also be dissected. At the end of the course students need to produce a media campaign project to demonstrate their knowledge.

JMC 4235: Environmental Journalism

This course is designed to provide students with both practical/ hands on experience and theoretical concepts of environmental journalism. It intends to introduce local and international environmental issues to the students.  Students will learn climate change, climate migration, journalism and environmental issues, role of media in making environmental issues, campaign and protest, and Bangladeshi environmental journalism. As part of practical work students will visit fields, write individual report and will do group projects; they will design posters focusing on different environmental issues, students will meet journalists who cover environmental issues in Bangladesh; students will do group research to know how much importance Bangladeshi newspapers give to the environmental issues.  

JMC 4236: Business Journalism

This course focuses on the theories and trends of the market that shape the economic environment. Students will study the key business concepts, and they will analyze significant economic events using these ideas. Important cases from local and global contexts will be discussed to understand the relation between different economic players and institutions. The functions and strategies of business organizations as well as government regulating policies will be studied with the aim of understanding the market dynamics. This course will equip and encourage students to critically examine the multifaceted implications of financial happenings. Students will prepare reports on given economic and business issues as group assignments. The exercises along with the debates and discussions on important economic theories and policies will help students to develop a better understanding of the business world.

JMC 4237: Investigative Journalism

The course intends to introduce the basic ideas and techniques of investigative reporting.  This course aims to explore local and global classical and contemporary case studies of the field. To complete this course students, must get involved in two types— theoretical and practical work. The rationale of this course is to prepare the students to develop the necessary skills for thinking, researching, writing, and speaking critically about investigative reporting for responding to the critical investigative issues in their respective circumstances. As part of theoretical learning, students will know the history of the field, and will also learn about planning, gathering information, using and analyzing data and paper documents for an investigative story.  As part of practical learning, students need to produce two—one in the mid-term and another in the final-term—investigative reports. By doing the projects they will get hands-on training and will have a thorough understanding of investigating journalism.

JMC 4238: Media Management and Marketing

The aim of this course is to give students an overall idea about media’s management sector. This course will discuss topics related to media operations, production, business, marketing, human resources and overall management systems.  They will acquire knowledge about the fundamental concepts of media management and will learn about the evolution of the field, will have a thorough understanding of media business and will be able to examine media houses economic drives and finally will be able to develop marketing plan for any media outlet.

JMC 4252: Television Production: News and Current Affairs

The course will describe the basic principles of television content production; discuss the main stages of TV production; explain the production process of different news programs; and describe the role of different people involved in the content production in a TV news channel in current affairs. This course will also discuss television content related to news and current affairs. From this course, students will learn the exact nature and ways of working in a TV news organization for production of the content.

JMC 4253: Television Production: Program

This course can prepare students for employment in different studio programs. They will learn the latest techniques for producing exciting and creative film and television content. The students will also learn all the practical and theoretical aspects of filmmaking, such as Directing, Camera work, Lighting and Cinematography, Producing, Editing, Scriptwriting, Film Analysis, Media Ethics, and Visual Literacy. This course will take a more advanced and intensive approach to the production of specialized television shows in and outside the studio. Students will practically learn how to produce reality shows, talk shows, docu-fiction, dramas, and other entertainment-based programs. They will go through the details of program planning from casting to budget making, from research to scripting, from team building to leading from the front.

JMC 4254: Graduate Production: Animation

This course is the integration of all the knowledge acquired because of pursuing a degree in animation. It enables the students to integrate the skills and concepts learned systematically during the entire program. The final project or capstone project marks the culmination of years of animation studies. This course is considered as the capstone project creation where the students will be producing their own short animation film, at least 3-5 minutes. This serves as their portfolio in showcasing their skills and talents in the original film they are going to produce.

JMC 4239: Seminars in Journalism

This course is designed for advanced students who intend to do the major in journalism. It focuses on in-depth investigation, writing and presentation of significant contemporary issues from critical perspectives. In this course students will get a rare opportunity to work on their first seminar-length solo project on various issues including SDG issues comprehensively and thoroughly. Seminar in Journalism is a 100% practical work-based course. To complete the course, students require to organize two (2) seminars in the department of journalism and mass communication, and the seminars will be equivalent to mid-term and final-term Exam. In seminar-I (Mid-Term project) the students will present one in-depth report/ keynote paper prepared by herself/himself). In seminar-II, students will present a 15-minute-long broadcast or multimedia content produced, directed and edited by them.

 

Grading/Evaluation

Grading Scale: 4.00

Grades

Academic performance in each course is based on continuous assessment. There are two major examinations, which are written: mid-semester examination and the final examination. In between there are sets of quizzes, in-class evaluation, assignments, case studies, etc. Each course has a certain number of credit hours. A letter grade with a specified number of grade points will be given to students. A minimum grade point average (GPA) is to be maintained or satisfactory progress. Also, the minimum number of units earned must be acquired and a CGPA of 2.50 or better to qualify for graduation.

 

Course Withdrawal

Students can withdraw from a course according to the university policy. Absence exceeding 20% of the required number of cslasses held per semester in each subject may result in unofficial withdrawal (UW) from the course or even lead to actions being taken as per the university policy.

 

Incomplete (I) Courses

Incomplete grades may be given at the end of the semester to students who have unfinished work with passing academic standing. Students must complete this course within a month after the semester has ended, otherwise the student will be given an F for that course.

 

Retake

A student can retake a course if s/he receives a passing grade equivalent to a GPA below 2.50 (on a scale of 4.00). If a student receives ‘F’, ‘I’, ‘W’ or ‘UW’ grades in a particular course, s/he must retake the course in the immediate semester the course is offered. A student is allowed to retake any course only once. The new earned grade will be displayed alongside the ‘F’ grade and in most cases will not replace the ‘F’. However, the newly earned grade will be considered while calculating the CGPA. A student is allowed to have a maximum of 4 (four) ‘F’ grades in the undergraduate program and 2 (two) ‘F’ grades in the graduate program. From the 5th ‘F’ grade (undergraduate) onwards, the grade ‘F’ will be considered while calculating the CGPA. (Excessive ‘F’ grades in the transcript may result in the CGPA falling below 2.50 and lead to termination from the university.) If the ‘FD’ grade is awarded by any disciplinary committee for any disciplinary violation, it cannot be replaced or removed by a new grade under any circumstances.

 

Grade Improvement

For improving his grade, a student can also retake a course if he /she obtains a grade below ‘D’ in a particular course. In that case, the grade earned in the course repeated will be substituted for the previous grade in computing CGPA. However, the previous grade will also be shown in the transcript. A student is allowed to have a maximum of four ‘F’ grades. A course can be retaken only once.

 

Dropout

For dropping a whole semester, students need to write an application addressing the Vice Chancellor stating valid reasons and submit the application to the registrar office. Students found guilty of the relevant disciplinary violation or misconduct may be dropped from the examination or course for the semester. A discontinuation of studies may occur either upon the issuance of a transfer of credits (honorable dismissal) by the Office of the Registrar, for a justified cause or upon petition from the student, or upon an order of dismissal by the university on grounds of a major offense, specified in the code of conduct for students.

If a student wishes to temporarily leave the university, they must acquire permission from the office, using the Leave of Absence Form, stating the definite period and reason for the leave. Failure to do so may result in the period of absence to be considered to exceed the time limit of maximum residency. Prior permission must be obtained from the Registrar’s Office in case of Discontinuance of studies for any reason or purpose. Such discontinuation of studies will be termed as “Leave of Absence”. The Leave of Absence Form must be filled out stating the specific reason.

Otherwise, the period of absence shall be counted against the student and an absence of 2 (two) consecutive semesters without prior approval will lead to cancellation of his/her studentship from the University. At the time of rejoining, the student will be subjected to the new/updated policies (if any) regarding the academic curriculum, tuition fees, graduation requirements, etc. Students once terminated due to probation, disciplinary or any other reason cannot apply for new admission or readmission.