Communications and Media Management
Foundation coursework in communication and media management is common to all Gabelli School students via the business core. Students who want to investigate this area further may take elective courses or pursue a secondary concentration.
The secondary concentration allows students to strengthen their personal portfolios through advanced study. Depending on the coursework chosen, students will:
- Enhance their communicative skills with specific application to their chosen major, and/or
- Increase their understanding of the communication, information media, and entertainment industries, including television and cable, digital and social media, and new media. Studies will emphasize administrative, financial, and marketing issues in these industries.
No matter what their major or primary concentration, students will find valuable points of connection in their communication and media management coursework. Each course ties communication and media management to real-world issues in accounting, business economics, entrepreneurship, finance, management, human resource management, management of information and communications systems, or marketing.
Note: Information about programs in the Communication and Media Studies department at Fordham's liberal arts schools (FCRH, FCLC, PCS) is listed separately.
How courses are counted
Students must note the following policy for how courses are counted. A student may count a maximum of one class in fulfilling more than one purpose—that is, toward any combination of major, minor, and primary or secondary concentration. For example, only one economics class could count toward both a finance major and an economics minor; any additional economics class would count toward the finance major OR the economics minor, but not both. Similarly, one management class could count toward both a primary concentration in management and a minor in sustainable business, but any subsequent management class would not count toward both. Any exceptions to these rules will be posted within the specific area major, minor, or concentration requirements.
For more information
Visit the Communications and Media Management Area web page.
CMBU 2664. Business Communications: GSB Integrated Core Only. (1.5 Credits)
This course offers a chance to improve basic competency in written and verbal business communication skills. The ability to communicate well is crucial to career success. Corporate cultures, international communications, conversational strategies, timed writing, interviewing, problem solving, business style are discussed.
CMBU 2665. Business Communication. (3 Credits)
This course offers a chance to improve basic competency in written and verbal business communication skills. The ability to communicate well is crucial to career success. Corporate cultures, international communications, conversational strategies, timed writing, interviewing, problem solving, business style are discussed.
Attribute: BUMI.
CMBU 2666. Business Communications: GSB Integrated Core Only. (1.5 Credits)
This course offers a chance to improve basic competency in written and verbal business communication skills. The ability to communicate well is crucial to career success. Corporate cultures, international communications, conversational strategies, timed writing, interviewing, problem solving, business style are discussed.
CMBU 3434. Fundamentals of Integrated Marketing Communication. (3 Credits)
Advertising is the most pervasive element of the marketing mix: the average American family of four is exposed to 1,500 advertising messages a day! Students will study the role of advertising in the marketing communications mix, allocating the promotional budget and developing advertising strategy: product positioning, creative development, media planning, research and control, legal issues and ethical considerations. Students will apply theories to case discussion and develop a full-fledged competitive advertising campaign for a potential "client." Note for Gabelli students: Since MKBU 3434 is an upper-level business course, credit for this course (for transfer students) can come only from accredited business schools (AACSB guidelines) and not from similarly titled courses at liberal arts colleges.
Attributes: CCMS, COMC, COMM, NMAC, NMDD, NMMI.
Prerequisite: MKBU 3225.
CMBU 4412. ST: Understanding Audiences/Users. (3 Credits)
Understanding Audiences and Users examines how media audiences/users of digital media are measured, what we know about audience behavior and effects, and related ethical and policy questions. The course covers the challenges and techniques of measuring audience and user behaviors, including how this has changed and is still changing. Measurement systems studied include those used for “mass” media such as television, as well as digital and mobile media. It also explores what we know about how people use, and are affected by, various media. The class also tackles the regulatory and ethical questions that surround audience and user measurement, including questions of privacy, trust, and consent.
Attributes: CAAS, CCMS, CMST, COMC, DEBS.
CMBU 4413. Digital Media & Promo Comm. (3 Credits)
Digital Media and Promotional Communication focuses on how companies, organizations, and individuals are using digital media to communicate and connect with all of their various stakeholder groups, including consumers. As the media environment changes with new technological capabilities to distribute and retrieve messages, companies promotional communication strategies must adapt as well. This course seeks to understand this media environment and apply it to the decision-making involved in a promotional communication context in terms of both message content development and message placement. Students will analyze digital media campaigns that companies have conducted in terms of their promotional communication brand goals. They will also develop their own digital media promotional communication campaigns. This course is examined through theoretical and practical means applied to current events and people affecting the world today.
Attributes: DEBS, NMAC, NMDD.
CMBU 4414. Global Perspectives. (3 Credits)
Global Perspectives for International Careers is a general introduction to international business practices and expectations. Students are introduced to international communications, law, and treaty agreements. Students will learn from case studies the cultural, historical, and financial dynamics within an international business environment. This course includes site visits within the financial and banking industry and also relevant social and cultural events.
CMBU 4415. ST: Intensive Sector Analysis: TV. (3 Credits)
Television has been one of the cornerstones of media for over 75 years and has become a medium through which we understand and study our culture. From the Moon Landing to “Who Shot JR”, to the White Ford Bronco chase, to the 2016 presidential election, television has helped to shape our industrial paradigms, social trends, and culture, and has served as a mirror to society. This class will study the sociocultural issues and effects associated with television by looking at it from various angles— including social, economic, political, and entertainment perspectives— and by reviewing the past, present, and future of television.
Attribute: DEBS.
CMBU 4416. ST: The Business of Video Games. (3 Credits)
Topics covered in this course include the two economic crashes of the industry, gaming business models from the first generation (NES) to the ninth generation (PS5, Xbox Series X, Switch), as well as a forecast of new technologies, monetization models, and industry trends. Students will also learn the importance of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) frameworks within the gaming industry through analysis of political calls for censorship of violent video games after the release of Mortal Kombat 2, video game addiction among consumers, and the negative effects of compulsory overtime practices (i.e., “the crunch”).
Attribute: DEBS.
CMBU 4453. Social Media. (3 Credits)
Social Media examines social media innovations and the disruptive force they have on traditional, established business, as well as how companies across various industries are handling these “new rules”. A key goal of the course is to understand social media through case studies, projects and using social media. In this course students will learn how social media works; why social media matters to business; and how to successfully use social media in a professional capacity.
Attributes: DEBS, ENT, JOUR, JSME, NMAC, NMDD.
CMBU 4460. ST: Entrepreneurship for Creative Leaders. (3 Credits)
This intensive, hands-on course equips students with the entrepreneurial mindset, practical tools, and leadership skills needed to transform creative ideas into sustainable ventures. Designed for artists, innovators, storytellers, and changemakers, the course explores how creative leaders identify opportunities, develop compelling visions, build strategic partnerships, secure resources, and bring projects to life. By the end of the course, students will have developed a venture concept, tested its viability, and created a practical roadmap for launching or growing a creative enterprise. Whether pursuing a nonprofit, for-profit, freelance, artistic, or hybrid venture, students will leave with the confidence and skills to turn vision into action and ideas into meaningful impact.
CMBU 4470. Business of Media and Entertainment. (3 Credits)
An introduction to the substantive business operations and media economics issues in the publishing, broadcasting, recorded music, new media and film industries. A required project links the course to the student's specific business discipline.
Attribute: DEBS.
CMBU 4471. Business of New Media. (3 Credits)
An introduction to new media industries covering matters of economics, technology and regulation; convergence in media and entertainment industries as well as social and cultural consequences. A required research paper or project links the course to the student's specific business discipline.
Attributes: CAAS, DEBS, DTEM, ENT, NMAC, NMAT, NMDD, NMMI.
CMBU 4474. Exploration of Business Through Media. (3 Credits)
This course uses documentary films as texts to stimulate discussions of contemporary issues in Business Communications and Media Management. The effects of media depictions of businesses and corporations, and how corporations respond to the challenges presented by these media depictions and the role of "social responsibility" in contemporary corporate culture as depicted by media will be discussed.
Attribute: ENT.
CMBU 4488. Business of Sports Media. (3 Credits)
This course will offer students the opportunity to develop a broader understanding of the multiple playing fields within the sports industry via in-depth study of leading media coverage, primarily through the SportsBusiness Journal and the SportsBusiness Daily.
Attributes: DEBS, JOUR, SJOR.
CMBU 4489. ST: Managing Diversity in Media. (3 Credits)
Today’s media managers find themselves at a critical moment in which audiences and communities are rapidly becoming more and more diverse. Managing diversity as a media executive comes with unique considerations that extend beyond the employee composition of the firm, as both audiences and the content distributed play a role in maintaining diversity and inclusion. In this course, students will learn about how to better understand the race, ethnicity, and cultural backgrounds of media audiences; the social, political, and economic effects of creating content that features diverse topics, casts, and themes; and the value of having a diverse workforce of artists, producers, and managers. Over the course of the semester, students will develop a strategic diversity plan for a real-world media firm that includes a stakeholder register; PEST analysis; business need and justification; diversity goals and metrics; and specific recommendations, actions, and tactics with which the firm should proceed.
Attributes: CMST, DEBS, DESC.
CMBU 4706. Honors Thesis II -Comm Media. (3 Credits)
Honors project in Comm Media.
CMBU 4995. Internship Group. (0 Credits)
CMBU 4998. Summer Internship. (0 to 6 Credits)
CMBU 4999. Independent Study. (1 to 6 Credits)
Independent Study.