We live in a world where everyone is competing for attention. Communication professionals who can capture the attention of target audiences with strategic planning and compelling messages have a powerful advantage. Based in Washington, DC, the epicenter of national political and social movements, American University's School of Communication teaches the skills you need to stand out in a noisy marketplace. Our mission is to educate students in the most recent trends and empower them with strategic tools and insights that set them apart from their peers. Our diverse, dynamic faculty of accomplished writers, documentarians, correspondents, PR experts, politicians, and social change advocates teach you to grasp a communication challenge and create a strategy to address it, to target an audience, to create a compelling message, to write persuasively, to advocate in a changing digital media world. Expertise in these areas will allow you to build on ideas and images, persuasion and information, strategy and tactics in creative and innovative ways.