MASTER'S IN STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION PROGRAM
Class Projects
This is a sample of some of the class projects I've been working on as I obtain my Master's in Strategic Communication at American University in Washington, D.C.
MEDIA COVERAGE
This class assignment required me to promote an upcoming Keep America Beautiful event by preparing a media list of appropriate news outlets and professionals to invite to the event, writing an email to one of the media people on my list, creating a news alert and drafting a speech for one of the main speakers.
OP-ED
For this class assignment, I was intrigued by the media coverage of President-elect Donald Trump shortly after winning the 2016 presidential election. As such, I chose to write my op-ed as if I were Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s former presidential campaign manager.
The media coverage of President-elect Trump continues to fascinate me, and the escalating divisiveness in America astounds me. What has happened to us, and where do we go from here?
The field is ripe for a plethora of op-ed pieces, which will generate discussions throughout our beautiful country. We are Americans first and foremost; to once again unite is imperative for the future of our great nation
PRESS RELEASE
This is a press release I was asked to write as an assignment for my Master’s in Strategic Communication program at American University. After developing a message map, we were asked to write a press release for the DC Metro Food Tours Cherry Blossom Food Tour promotion.
I wanted to incorporate words pertaining to the food industry in my release, and I wanted to target an audience who would be looking for something slightly different than your average DC tour. Therefore, my target audience was business travelers between the ages of 25 and 40 who have visited DC before and are looking for a way to have fun and connect with others.
The objective was to position DC Metro Tours as a unique tour experience that incorporates fun, friends, exploration and learning while supporting local communities. The goal was to increase ticket sales by 20 percent in 2017. Social media tweets, shares and posts would be used as a tracking tool to make adjustments, if necessary, for 2018.
RESEARCH EXPERIMENT
For this class assignment, I had my choice of designing a survey, content analysis or experiment. I chose to design a field experiment to go along with the strategic communication plan I put together for Apple Inc.
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The aim of this experiment is to determine whether or not showing relevancy of and providing training on an iPad or MacBook Pro has any bearing on the desire of seniors, age 65 and older, to own one of these devices.
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Because the intent of this course was simply to introduce the class to communication research, we did not actually follow through with our projects. Therefore, instead of actual results and a typical discussion section, we were instructed to discuss weaknesses of our research and directions for further research instead.
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Never having written a research protocol before, I found this assignment challenging and invigorating. It stretched me in ways I hadn't been stretched before, and my hard work paid off. My professor asked to use my paper as a sample for future classes.
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION PLAN
For this class assignment, I needed to create an overall strategic communication plan for a company of my choosing. I had stumbled upon a Pew Research Center poll earlier in the course, which stated that 13 percent of Americans don't use the internet; 41 percent are people 65 years of age and older.
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As a fan of Apple, I knew it was a company that appealed to the younger generation; but I was wondering what its marketing to seniors looked like. I decided to do a SWOT analysis to find out and discovered that it was missing this prime target market.
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This ad campaign is designed specifically for the Apple iPad and MacBook Pro. The purpose is to target this heretofore-untapped market of consumers aged 65 years and older, increase their awareness of the benefits associated with using the internet, increase sales and provide services.
