In the MA in Communication Management at the University of Denver, you’ll develop the strategic, ethical, and creative expertise to design and lead communications that shape organizations and public life. You’ll build advanced skills in strategic messaging, audience analysis, ethical decision-making, data-informed storytelling, and campaign leadership — grounded in communication theory and built around applied practice you can take to work the next day. Because every course is fully online and asynchronous, you’ll do the work on your own schedule and complete your degree in as few as 18 months from anywhere in the world.
You’ll choose between two concentrations — Marketing Communication or Public Relations — and shape the rest of your studies through electives and a culminating capstone that becomes a portfolio piece for your career. Whether you’re finishing your bachelor’s, building on your first few years in communications, or stepping into a communication leadership role for the first time, you’ll graduate with the intellectual foundation, the practical toolkit, and the credibility to lead the work.
Start Dates: Fall, Winter, Spring
Curriculum: 48 Credit Hours
Program Length: Complete in as few as 18 months; flexible part-time pacing supported
Format: 100% online and asynchronous
Cost of Attendance: $859 per credit x 48 credits total
18 Months to complete on the standard pace
100% Online and asynchronous
2 Career-aligned concentrations
Request Information
Our curriculum prepares you for your career
Build on strategy, ethics, and applied practice
Master messaging, audience analysis, ethical decision-making, data-informed storytelling, and campaign leadership in coursework grounded in theory and tested against how the field works now.
Shape your coursework around your career goals
Choose a concentration in Marketing Communication or Public Relations, then pick two electives with your academic advisor.
Learn from communicators who still practice
Your faculty includes marketers, PR practitioners, journalists, and corporate communicators who bring the field’s current realities into every course.
Leave with work you can show
Your capstone is a portfolio piece you built, refined, and own, ready for your next interview, promotion case, or career move.
Concentrations
Marketing Communication
Learn how brands move audiences, then build the campaigns that do it. You’ll create integrated marketing plans tied to strategic objectives and backed by data, while evaluating traditional and digital tactics and tracking where the field is headed.
You’ll learn to:
- Design, manage, and measure integrated marketing communication campaigns.
- Evaluate traditional, social, mobile, email, and search marketing, and anticipate where each is going.
- Use results to adjust strategy and defend future decisions.
- Choose the strategies and tactics that strengthen an organization’s or client’s brand.
Public Relations
Every sector needs people who manage how information flows between an organization and its audiences. You’ll use data, technology, and social media to reach stakeholders and influencers, grounding each campaign in persuasion, precise writing, and ethics.
You’ll learn to:
- Build persuasive communication plans that reach target audiences and deliver measurable results.
- Develop, manage, and analyze media relations.
- Select and defend techniques to measure, monitor, and influence an organization’s reputation.
- Explain the core principles and practices of public relations in an interconnected global economy.
Degree Requirements
- The M.A. in Communication Management requires 48 credits
- Coursework requirements
- 6 core courses
- 4 courses in concentration
- 2 electives
- All courses are ten-week terms in an online asynchronous format
- Students work with their academic advisor to choose two electives that fit their career goals.
Get Started on Your MA in Communication Management
Build your communications career with a master's degree from the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
