The Master of Arts in Mass Communications degree requires 39 credit hours, including at least 30 hours of class work, and successful completion of a final academic project. The master's degree can be earned through one of two tracks of study: media studies or strategic communication management. The media studies track uses a broad approach to study mass media, and classes are as diverse as mass communication theory, public opinion, research methods, sports and media, women and media and visual communication. This track provides students with the widest range of course selections. Students write a thesis as their final academic requirement. An outside cognate allows students to incorporate topics from an area of interest in another discipline to their media studies track. This is the ideal track for students who already have an undergraduate degree in an area of mass communications and wish to explore how media shape the world and, in turn, the way the world shapes the media. The strategic communication management track focuses on communication as a management function in an organization. This perspective integrates public relations, advertising and marketing communication into a single focus. To ensure that students have a basic understanding of the field, all students in this track are required to take an introductory course before moving on to the more advanced courses. Students have a choice to complete a thesis or an applied research project as their final academic requirement. Although theoretical in nature the focus is on theory application to real-world situations. Students have several opportunities to do case study research in real organizations and work with a real-life client in their campaigns course.