Designed for students who excel in written and visual communication, Cairn’s new Digital Media and Communication (BA) offers you a program with clear career objectives, opportunities, and outcomes. Your passions and interests will see growth inside and outside the classroom. Cairn seeks to enrich your academic experience through various internships, allowing you to acquire the professional tools you’ll need for your future career.

But these resources and experiences aren’t all Cairn has to offer to you in this program. When you come to earn your degree in Digital Media and Communication, you are studying at a holistically Christian university. Our dedication to serving Christ and studying from a biblical perspective will not happen only in your Bible classes or chapels, but will be incorporated into your whole curriculum. While we want to help prepare you for a career, we also want to prepare you to be salt and light in the fields you will serve. 

“Our current cultural context requires us to navigate the dynamic waters of the digital world. I want 91łÔąĎ to be at the forefront of preparing Christian communicators and providing them with the hard and soft skills they need to stay afloat.”

—Charlotte Gleason, Chair of the Humanities Department

Learn more about our digital marketing program at Cairn and see for yourself what kind of educational experience we offer. 

Already know this program is right for you? Apply today at cairn.edu/apply.

In today’s increasingly technological world, employers are seeking those adept at navigating the digital world and communicating effectively through it. Those who study Digital Media and Communication may follow a career as a:

• Content Writer
• Technical Writer
• News Analyst
• Graphic Designer
• Sports Media Manager
• Editor
• Social Media Manager
• Public Relations Specialist 
• Digital Journalist 
• Communication Manager 
• Copywriter
• Web Developer

That’s a lot of options! What do some of these careers even mean and look like in the day-to-day? Here are just a few descriptions with a link to more information below: 

: News Analysts and Journalists create, write, collaborate on, and edit content for newspapers, websites, magazine publishers, television, or radio broadcasting. Your ability to understand an audience and communicate a message effectively to them is the valuable skill you need to be a successful news analyst or journalist.

If you have an eye for the aesthetics, a trained ear for what’s popular, and a grasp on what words and phrases will get people’s attention, being a social media manager may be the perfect job path for you. With digital media becoming an ever-relevant platform, the social media manager is a great place to start in the workforce.

Content writers use their skills in a variety of industries, including for-profit and nonprofit organizations. You’ll combine your ability to research, organize creative content, and write to a specific audience. 

If your passions lean you more toward a desire for an artistic career, graphic design is an incredibly useful and ever-increasing need in the workforce. Graphic designers can be responsible for a myriad of things, including contributing creative ideas, designing aesthetically pleasing content, and working alongside others to produce appealing media.

These are just some of the many opportunities you can pursue when you have a degree in Digital Media and Communication. As you cultivate and expand your knowledge and use of effective communication from a digital and content standpoint, you’ll gain marketable skills employers need for their businesses. 

Already know this degree is right for you? Apply today at cairn.edu/apply.

Abigail is a senior in high school. She enjoys design and dabbles in writing. Throughout high school, friends and family frequently commissioned her to design flyers for school, create Instagram posts for her friends, or edit her younger sister’s papers. Abigail loves the creative challenge of these tasks, and she wants to pursue these interests in college. Everyone—from her teachers to her parents—tells Abigail that her gifts will lead to career opportunities, but she wonders how editing posts and creating flyers could ever be more than a side hustle.

As Abigail sought direction about her college career, she continued to run into difficulty. Often, she was directed to apply for colleges in their English or Art programs. While they were viable options, Abigail was concerned with the pressure and disappointment it would bring to pick one passion over the other. 

When Abigail visited a college fair, she discovered that many colleges actually did offer a degree that could combine her passions and turn them into a career: digital media and communication. Blending arts, writing, and marketing, Abigail began to envision all the doors such a program could open for her. She continued to scan the program brochure and was delighted with the career options they posited for the program: content writer, social media manager, digital journalist, graphic designer, and many others. Flipping over to the other side, she examined some of the typical courses offered, which included Writing for Social Media and the Web, Digital Storytelling, and Communication and Culture. All of these courses could offer her the opportunity to pursue her passions and expand her knowledge in these areas. It was the perfect program for her.

* * *

Learn more about our digital marketing program at Cairn and see for yourself what kind of educational experience we offer. 
Already know this degree is right for you? Apply today at cairn.edu/apply.

1. Qualified Faculty: The university you choose should have professors who are not only qualified but dedicated to the subjects they teach. A school may dazzle you with their Oxford-educated faculty who are thought-leaders in literary criticism, but are these same professors available for office hours? Personalized assistance from English professors who are invested in your academic and personal development can make or break your college experience.
2. Diverse Courses: Courses offered in various areas of literature and writing, like a short stories class or one on Asian literature, allow you to tailor your education to your specific interests. When exploring different programs, request a curriculum sheet to get a better sense of what types of courses you could take. 
3. Integration of a Biblical Worldview: As you study a wide range of literature, you will find the truth of Scripture in the themes of both religious and secular texts. An effective English program at a Christian university will embrace and encourage this type of integrated thinking. The mindset gained at a Christian university is an asset to the English major, not only because they will be able to apply what they learn about Scripture to other class material, but they can also use what they learn about literature to build a greater appreciation for the Word of God.
4. Internships: Internships allow you to grow professionally and better prepare for the job market. Most universities offer internships for students on campus or have connections with internship programs off-campus, with certain opportunities even tailored specifically for English Majors. Find out what kind of internships could be available to you.  
5. Study Abroad: Options to study abroad in places like Oxford or Ireland open a whole new understanding and context to the literature you study. Not only do you gain a cultural context to the classics you love, but your own worldview broadens through these new experiences. 
6. Creative Expression: Students who are allowed to pursue the creative arts through class, competitions, or clubs often end up more well-rounded. University outlets for creative expression are important to your chosen English program. This also breaks up the monotony of academic writing and studying.

English programs from a biblical worldview prepare Christians to work within the world to serve and benefit those around them. Whether you major or minor in English at Cairn or another Christian university, you will receive a well-rounded education that combines your love of literature with your love of the Lord. 

1. Persuasion by Jane Austen – Not Pride and Prejudice? Nope, everyone and their mother has already read Pride and Prejudice and/or knows the plot. Why not let a lesser known Austen title take the spotlight? There’s just as much yearning and romantic tension that is quintessentially Jane Austen in Persuasion. 
2. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – Cuddle up with Marmie, Jo, Meg, Beth, and I guess Amy too. Rejoice, laugh, and cry when each little woman finds her place in 1860s America. 
3. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens – Get ready to argue with your club about the themes and characterization in this ensemble cast novel by Dickens. Dickens stories are full of moving parts and insignificant characters who turn out to be essential to the plot later on, and A Tale of Two Cities is no different. 
4. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien – Everyone should read a little Tolkien in their lifetime, and The Hobbit is a great teaser. Easier to digest than the lengthy Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit allows you to go on an adventure in Middle Earth without the commitment to a thousand or so pages. 
5. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell – Pride and Prejudice, but make it Industrialization! Set in the Industrialization Era, Gaskell’s novel tells of the class divide and prejudices between the north and the south of England with a dash of romance thrown in. 
6. Dubliners by James Joyce – Joyce’s collection of short stories gives a gritty image of what life in Ireland was like at the turn of the century. Intense prose and subtle characterization make for a hauntingly beautiful collection. 
7. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston – Everyone should read Zora Neale Hurston in their lifetime. She so clearly and lyrically delivers prose that conveys her experience of what it was like to be a woman of color in the South. 

Bonus Book: Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney – I know I said there were only seven books, but I think every book club should read a collection of poetry. I listed this collection by Seamus Heaney because all of his poetry—and this collection in particular—transports you to the wilderness of Ireland and forces you to face your feelings and desires, and he brings a bit of magic to his words. That being said, you don’t have to read this particular collection of poetry, but do read some poetry for me. It’s good for the soul.