The B.A. in Journalism major trains students on the methods of collecting, writing, and reporting news across various media platforms, such as print, broadcast and online media. The program uses a multidisciplinary approach, exposing students to a wide array of fields outside of journalism, such as politics, law, humanities, sociology, psychology and economics, all of which a necessary complement to journalistic skill training, and which will contribute to development of better informed, well read, and well-rounded journalism professionals.

Our aim is to train and develop highly dedicated, highly skilled, and socially committed journalists who will contribute to the development, enrichment, and understanding of Cambodian society and culture, as well as that of the surrounding region and the world at large.

Major: Journalism

Course Description

ENGL 110:    English I: Reading and Composition

This course is designed to enable students of the foundation year to improve their reading and writing skills at an intermediate level. The students will read a wide range of interesting texts related to real situations. All the texts will enhance students’ reading competence through guided and independent reading activities for both academic work and pleasure. In addition to the reading skills, the students will develop their writing skills ranging from writing meaningful paragraphs to composing meaningful short essays which include descriptive essays, narrative essays, cause-effect essays, problem-solution essays, and opinion essays. To make this course more fun and productive, a variety of approaches and interactive practice activities will be employed. Those include student-centered, communicative, cooperative learning, task-based and project-based approaches, and communicative and interactive practice activities. The students are also required to do assignments and projects individually, in pairs, and/or in groups.

ENGL 120:    English II: Reading and Composition

Continuing from ENGL 110, this course aims to further enhance students’ reading and writing skills at an intermediate level. The students will read various interesting texts on different topics and themes related to real situations. All the texts will enhance students’ reading competence through guided and independent reading activities for both academic work and pleasure. In addition to the reading skills, the students will develop skills in writing longer essays which include descriptive essays, narrative essays, cause-effect essays, problem-solution essays, compare and contrast essays, opinion essays, persuasive essays, and summaries of reading texts. To make this course more fun and productive, a variety of approaches and interactive practice activities will be employed in class. Those include student-centered, communicative, cooperative learning, task-based and project-based approaches, and lots of communicative and interactive practice activities. The students are also required to do assignments and projects individually, in pairs, and/or in groups.

ANTH 102:    Cultural Anthropology

This course is designed to investigate the impact of culture on everyday living and decision making, both locally and globally. It presents basic concepts in cultural anthology and applies them to various expressions of culture, languages, family structures, livelihoods, political systems, belief systems and art.

COMP 110:    Introduction to Computers

This course is one of the general courses in the FY program required by PUC to familiarize students with the use of computers as an efficient tool for their study and work. It is designed to provide non-IT students an overview on how computer system has been developed the fundamental concepts and terminologies of computer systems, knowledge of basic computer hardware and software, and teach students how to assemble computer, install software and computer troubleshooting. There are 2 lab sessions, which equal to 3 hours for students to practice computer assembling and software installation. Students will learn what computer components are, implication of information technology, and basic troubleshooting knowledge.

NATS 102:     Environmental Science

This course is designed to provide some fundamental concepts on environmental science in order to make students environmentally aware about vital issues like natural resources conservation, sustainable use of resources, environmental degradation, and rapid growth of human population coupled with technology causing major environmental problems. Emphasis is given to promote sustainable concepts and to enable students to make informed choices regarding their environment. Additionally, this course is introduced to make students understand theories and integrate them into practical applications through real world situation observations, consequentially allowing them to establish cause and effect relationship via impact assessment projects.

POL101:         Introduction to Political Science

This course introduces the student to basic concepts of political science. The course also examines institutions and political processes in various systems throughout the world. Information and analysis provided in the course are necessary foundations for further study in this field.

SOC 110:        Gender Studies

This course is the introduction to Gender Studies/Women’s Studies. Given the comprehensiveness and diversity of the overall subject area, this course will provide an introduction to and critical engagement with several specific areas of inquiry that make up Gender Studies/Women’s Studies.

KHMR 110:   Khmer studies

Khmer Studies observes the evolution of Khmer culture from pre-history through the Angkorean period to contemporary society. It examines the art, languages, literature, customs, traditions, and creations of the Khmer people. Students gain a sense of appreciation and love for the Khmer culture and a sense of pride, integrity and national identity.

HUM 110:      Introduction to Humanities

This course will familiarize students with various aspects of the humanities, in particular the history, literature and philosophies of the ancient East and West, as well as modern and contemporary issues. Students will also learn to appreciate the performing arts.

COM 210:      Introduction to Communication and Mass Media

This course is designed to introduce students to Communications: the ability to give and receive information quickly and effectively. The art of getting your message across effectively is a vital part of being a successful manager. It is also wise to note that communication is the foundation of leadership. This course provides foundations to improve communication skills.

MATH 201:   College Algebra

Algebra provides materials in basic mathematics for general needs in related fields such as economics, business, social science, law and so on. The topics will cover: basic algebra operations, equations and inequalities, graphs and functions, exponential and algorithmic functions, and systems of equations and inequalities. All the topics are accompanied by applications in order to get the students to know the real use of mathematics.

PHL 210:        Logic and Critical Thinking

Students will be introduced to the basic methods and principles of logic. Students will study and apply various methods to test arguments, and apply the principles of logic, through various exercises, puzzles, and problem solving, to develop critical thinking skills. Students will study assorted forms of false reasoning and examine possible applications of this study in academic and non-academic life.

POL  202:       ASEAN Governments, Politics and Economics

The course is designed to provide students with the fundamental understanding of the functional and institutional of ASEAN. Snapshots of facts and figure of ASEAN (country profile/ country bio-data) will be provided to students for familiarizing themselves with local government structure, economic trends, relevant policy and challenges. Country bio-data identifies the characteristics and personality of each national government and their respective interest in the Association. The complexity of regional politics and economics integration will be addressed to assess the institutional function of the Association. In this course covers such topics as (1) the structure of ASEAN national governments; (2) ASEAN Economic Trends-Agreements/Mechanisms (AIA, AFTA, Market and Monetary Procedure/Harmonization); (3) perspectives of ASEAN Countries: in term of economics, politics and security; (4) ASEAN Charter; (5) ASEAN Political Security Community; (6) ASEAN Economic Community; (7) ASEAN Social and Cultural Community; (8) Cambodia and ASEAN.

PHIL 212:      Introduction to Ethics

This course is an introduction the subject of Ethics. We will examine the basic concepts and principles of ethical thought, including issues of morality and self-interest, right and wrong, actions, character, consequences, motive, and their relationship to issues of law, religion and society. We will also read and analyze writings by famous philosophers, thinkers, and leaders regarding ethics and the “good society”.

PSYC 212:     Personal Growth and Development

This course is designed to teach discipline, good behaviors, positive attitude, self-respect and self-confidence at the university as well as in the society. It will also teach study skills and time management for success in college as well as in life. Buddhist as well as western philosophies and thoughts are essential parts of this course. Students can learn how to value life and develop virtues, molding themselves after great heroes. The way to obtain the “positive mental attitudes” is taught through this course.

HFT 201:        Health Education and Fitness

Health Education course will introduce students to the basic knowledge on health education, health behavior, reproductive health, tropical diseases, sexual transmitted diseases, chronic disease, alcohol, tobacco, and domestic violence will be imparted. With this knowledge, students will have opportunity to explore the concept of health education/health promotion and health determinant factors affecting public health.

HIST 230:      History of Cambodia

This is a social science course that students have to fulfill before going on to their specific major course. It will be a discussion of the civil war and its consequences especially the post dark period of year 1975-79 in Cambodia. There will also be a discussion of renovation and reform after the year 1993. The changes in Khmer culture, society and economics will be discussed based on general opinions and public media. Political structure, foreign policy, gender issues, human rights, rural development, and education are also included.

ARIL 210:      Academic Research: Information Literacy

The goal of the course is to instill students with information literacy (IL) skills. By the end of the course, it is expected that students will be able “to locate, evaluate and use” information of any type, in any media effectively. Moreover, IL will enable students to communicate their work in a scholarly manner within academic ethic principles. They will understand what plagiarism is and will cite their sources properly when they use someone else’s ideas or work.

COM 250       Digital Media and Society

This course will introduce students to the basics of digital media and a few key platforms. The most effective way to understand digital media is to consume, critique and create it. Therefore much attention will be paid to critically reading, listening and watching news and other media content, in various digital forms, and producing digital content with clear, accurate writing and high ethical standards.

MGT 110:      Management Principles

This is an introductory course in Management. Students will learn basic principles of organizational structure, behavior and operations, including resource acquisition and management and supervision techniques to achieve organizational goals.

COM 222:      Introduction to Social Psychology

This course introduces undergraduate students to some of the theories, research and applications of social psychology. Social Psychology is an interdisciplinary domain that bridges the gap between psychology and sociology. Social Psychology can be useful for students who want to have a deeper understanding of marketing principles, conformities, self-concepts, prejudice, group dynamics, and crowd violence. It is hoped that through this course students will have a better understanding on why people act as they do in various social situations. This course can also help students raise their awareness of their own attitudes, self-concept, prejudice, and social behavior.

Much of the focus of this course will be on carefully examining landmark experiments that help established theories like cognitive dissonance and social influence theories. Initially students will be introduced to basic research methods and terms. The next section of the course will examine attitudes and self-concepts, while the last part looks at the social conditions that influence people’s behavior.

ECON 110:    Introduction to Economics

Although many things in life seems to be free given by nature and when unfortunately most things appear to be not free because people  cannot satisfy all their needs and wants, they face dealing with scarcity of productive resources. This course is about basic concepts in economics: scarcity and the science of economics. After studying this course, students will be able to explain the nature of the scarcity and show its relationship with the economics, describe the factors of production: land capital, labor and entrepreneurship, examine the three basic economic questions each society must decide: what to produce, and define economics and identify the four key elements within its scope: description, analysis, explanation and prediction of economic activity and thoughts.

COM 320:      Organizational Communication and Dispute Resolution

This course examines various formal and informal methods of communication and dispute resolution in an organization, company, and institution, or in everyday life. The course also focuses on developing effective strategies and techniques in dispute resolution for reaching different agreements. It emphasizes economic, cultural, psychological, ethical, and human rights areas essential to conflict resolution and negotiation. The course compares and contrasts the traditional methods and styles of conflict resolution used in Cambodian society with the methods and styles used in Western countries.

ENGL 304:    Introduction to Applied Linguistics

This course provides a general introduction to the scientific study of how language is structured, learned and used.  Topics include: history of language and applied linguistics; role of language in culture and society; notions of "grammar"; the form (written versus spoken language form), meaning and use of the grammar; the vocabulary and how it is learned and taught; spoken and written discourse analysis, and implications for teaching speaking and writing; pragmatics and its implications for language teaching, learning and use; second language acquisition and second language teaching and learning; psycholinguistics; sociolinguistics and its applications in language teacher education; four language skills and introduction to teaching and learning the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.

COM 322:      Media Psychology

Media Psychology ha emerged as an important field of study thanks to the growing impact of media technologies in our lives. The integration of media technologies throughout society and in or personal lives demonstrates the need to use psychological theory and research to better understand the impact of these technologies.

This course will examine some of the primary areas of media psychology and examine the use of psychological theory on emerging media content and presentation-from traditional pictures, sounds, and graphics to new interactive and digital media. You will gain an understanding of the specific benefits of understanding human behavior and experience when working with media applications, how media affects individuals and cultures, and how media can be used for both socially constructive purposes and destructive purposes.

We also examine and assess how these technologies are impacting Cambodian society in various contexts, including those related to wealth, social status, age, gender, politics and the various impacts on traditional Khmer institutions, cultural attitudes, and customs.

COM 427:      Contemporary Social Problems

The course aims to explore contemporary social problems through sociological perspectives. This course is designed for you to explore and understand the larger picture of social issues such as poverty, racial and gender inequality, rape, mental health, corruption, impunity, etc. this course not only aims to situate these social problems in the contest of Cambodia, but it also aims to provide a global perspective on these issues. Throughout the course, we will explore the ways in which these social problems are maintained; how they affect particular social groups and the ways to address them.

COM 411:      Introduction to Journalism

This course will introduce students to the basics of Journalism and News Writing. The most effective way to learn to write news stories is to practice news writing and read news. Therefore much attention will be paid to critically reading news and writing clearly and accurately, with high ethical and journalistic standards.

COM 414:      Fundamentals of Public Relations

An introductory course to Public Relations discipline, its foundations, theory, processes and professional practice. Exposes students to the basic tenets of the principles of PR planning, execution, and evaluation. It allows students to gain basic experience in developing tools for an integrated PR campaign.

COM 420:      Fundamentals of Public Speaking

This course provides instruction and experience in preparation and delivery of speeches within a public setting and group discussion. Emphasis is placed on research, preparation, delivery, and evaluation of informative, persuasive, and special occasion public speaking. Upon completion, students should be able to prepare and deliver well-organized speeches and participate in group discussions with appropriate audiovisual support.

COM 434:      Introduction to Media Law and Ethics

Media ethics is a subdivision of applied ethics. In this course, we will cover the fundamental principles of mass media and ethics and apply to the field of journalistic ethics and advertising ethics.

The course will be divided into two parts, with the first part introducing the students to the common issues discussed in journalism ethics such as impartiality, objectivity, balance, bias, etc. After completion of the mid-term exam, students will proceed to second part discussion of advertising ethics.

COM 413:      Business Communication

This course is designed to guide students through step by step approach to understand the foundation of communication as well as its connection to the business world.The focus of the course is to introduce different forms of communication that take place in the communication world, such as business message writing and presentations. Students will be graded by their understanding of the function of these forms, as well as demonstrate the ability to put those knowledge into practice.

ENBC 311:     Technical Writing for Business

This course is designed for students who wish to improve their accuracy, appropriacy, and fluency in letter, essay, and thesis writing. Students in this course will be briefly revised the basic grammatical rules before they actually come to the writing focus. Another basic focus of this course is to provide students opportunities for practice in writing. For individual advancement, students are regularly given homework and assignment to do and research at home and at their convenient time.

COM 412:      Introduction to Photojournalism

Provides an overview of the basics of Photojournalism, its history, principles and application. This will familiarize students specifically the materials, techniques, tools and approaches used by journalists in print and online media. Students will learn how to process photographs using digital techniques.

COM 418       News Reporting and Writing

This is an intermediate course in journalism and will further build the skills students learned and developed in the Introduction to Journalism course. In this course we will examine the fundamentals of reporting and writing the news, emphasizing print and online journalism. Before pursuing stories, students begin with a philosophical discussion of the principles and ethics of journalism as a profession and a kind of writing. Case studies rooted in the actual practice of journalism illustrate ethics and standards in action. Class exercises and writing assignments start with the basics of news briefs and then progress to a more detailed reporting, ultimately toward a final in-depth feature-length news story.

COM 401:      Cross Cultural Communication

This course focuses on cultural patters of thought, communication and behavior. It will study the relationship between the culture, behavior and communication of individuals and groups, both internationally and locally. The course will give insight on how intercultural communication factors affect the way business, services, and communication are handled in various cultural contexts.

COM 453:      Radio and TV Broadcasting

This course will study the principles and trends involved in radio and television broadcasting, cable, satellite, and other electronic media, including programming, regulation, business practices, and international telecommunications. Activities include analyzing various types of radio and television programs and producing group broadcasting projects. This course will combine theory and practice. We will learn about the history and development of radio and television, the different responsibilities of staff, and the types of programming. We will also produce a radio program and television news or talk show to apply what we learned from the theory.

COM 455:      Broadcast Journalism

This introductory study of broadcast media(television, film and internet) aims to analyze and criticize the mass media through the perspective of humanities. The course will include technical instruction in the aforementioned media, including: mass media theory, writing for the ear, editing news script, video editing, camera operation, and news show production. It will examine the substantive and scholarly aspects of all three mediums.

COM 487: Advanced Journalism Workshop

This course is a purely hands-on workshop to strengthen the core skills of students in Journalism. That said, students will be given special topics and assignments/beats to practice their skills learned from journalism courses. Beats/assignments will vary each week.

COM 484:      Language, Signs and Symbols

The study of languages and other systems of human communication including a wide range of phenomena which can be brought together by means of a general theory of signs. The course deals with three fundamental areas: 1) verbal communication, 2) nonverbal communication(iconic systems, gestures, body language, etc.), and 3) communication through art forms.

COM 423:      Media and Popular Culture

In this course we will examine the nature of popular culture—what it is, how it is created, and how it is practiced by age, gender, ethnic, social, and economic factors. The roles of modern mass media(broadcast, print, and digital) in presenting modern popular music, art, fashion, movies, television shows, and advertising will be examined. Particular attention will be devoted to the current social and economic environment in Cambodia.

COM 425:      Collective Behavior and Mass Communication

The purpose of the course is to provide understanding Collective Behavior and Mass Communication. To accomplish this, it is necessary for the student to have an understanding of Social Psychology. People often ask, “What is social psychology”? This area within psychology is very open and diverse. The best way to think of it is to study anything that can influence the way two or more people interact. It is defined as the science of “how people think about, relate to, and influence each other”. This course will explore the implications of human beings as “social creatures”. By our very nature, we are constantly in close contact and association with others. Because of this close contact, these others can have a profound impact on us and we can greatly influence them. In order to understand the influence of people on people and people in groups(collective behavior), the course will explore the foundation of social psychology.

COM 435:      Business of Media: Advertising

Introduction to the basic concept of advertising. Integrates communication concept and marketing principles to completely understand how advertising works. The subject includes hands-on application of creative strategy principles through actual production of ads. Emphasis is given on how an idea is developed into a total ad campaign. This exposes individuals to the actual client presentation during the term.

COM 464:      Introduction to Culture and Art Management

This is an introductory course to events planning and management aimed at promoting the Cambodian culture and arts. The course provides the basic elements in planning and producing events as well as exposes students to an actual hands-on approach in organizing events. This includes conceptualizing, logistics approaches, audience and marketing the event.

COM 480:      War, Media and International Relations

This course will examine how broadcast, print and digital media, as well as journalists’ report on wars and conflicts around the world. Although the primary focus will be on recent conflicts in Southeast Asia, conflicts outside the region will also be examined. The course will focus on conflict journalism and how best to report on wars and conflicts, including practical guides to survival and work in the field.

COM 440:      Visual Communication

This course will examine the concepts of visual imaging and multimedia production used in various communication platforms such as photography, print, corporate portfolios, film and the web. The course is intended to develop the critical awareness of the fundamental psychological, aesthetic, and physiological factors governing the use of images across media genres. We will also explore the rudiments of various forms of images in the digital age, its processes, image authentication, and manipulation methods. Emphasis is given on the application of principles of visual imaging through interactive class projects.

COM 445:      Advanced Visual Communication Workshop

This course builds upon the knowledge gained on Visual Communication. In this course, we will focus our study on a specific area of visual communication—photography, cinema, sculpture, paintings, drawings or comic which is to be chosen by the instructor.

COM 472:      Alternative Media

Alternative media generally includes those media practices falling outside the mainstream of corporate communication. This course offers an overview of alternative media, including its history, practice and role in culture. We will investigate, explore, and practice low-cost alternative media in variety of forms, including print, sound(including music), digital and film. Included in this discussion will be ideas of emotional labor and economic sustainability, as well as the ethics of propaganda. This course will include lectures, group discussions and field trips.

COM 489:      Senior Project or

COM 490:      Professional Internship

Students will conduct a media research/multimedia projector complete an approved internship placement in a media related business or organization. In both options, students will be assigned a faculty supervisor who will monitor the student progress. Students will also be required to submit a research paper, internship reflection paper or a multimedia project to the faculty supervisor at the conclusion of the term.