School of Broadcast and Cinematic Arts creates media sales minor
Business majors learn about sales and broadcast and cinematic arts majors learn about the media industry, but few have both skills after graduation.
To address this, the school of Broadcast and Cinematic Arts department reached out to the department of Marketing and Hospitality to develop an electronic media sales minor.
“The goal of the program is to have more students who are ready to work in media sales positions by the time they graduate,” said BCA faculty member Amy Sindik.
To achieve this goal, BCA Director Pete Orlik reached out to the marketing department and they agreed it would make sense to offer a minor that combined marketing and BCA courses.
Sindik said a committee of two members from BCA and two members from marketing looked at what classes would prepare students the most for a career in media sales.
“There’s nothing like this in Michigan. We haven’t seen anything exactly like this in the United States,” Sindik said. “We think it’s the first of its kind.”
The minor includes seven required courses for a total of 21 credit hours. The final capstone class for the minor will allow students to sell underwriting for the college radio station to gain experience in the industry.
“(Students in this program) are going to be looking at the relationships between media advertising and consumers, media measurement and strategies of advertising, and media costs and budgeting,” said marketing professor Ken Cherry.
He said entertainment and broadcasting play a significant role in people’s lives, meaning there is a demand in the marketplace for people who understand media sales.
“Our CMU students will be prepared to walk out with an understanding of what broadcast clients want, how they plan and how to sell it,” Cherry said.
Students who sign the minor can waive the prerequisites for the required courses. Registration for the minor is now live. Professors in both departments have started promoting the minor in their classes and the minor will be included in the 2015-2016 academic bulletin.
“Our alumni are pretty excited about the fact that we’ll have students ready to start their sales careers after graduation,” Sindik said.
