MCH1028 : Introduction to Professional Communication
- Offered for Year: 2022/23
- Available to incoming Study Abroad and Exchange students
- Module Leader(s): Mrs Anne-Marie Lacey
- Owning School: Arts & Cultures
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Semester 1 Credit Value: | 20 |
ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
Aims
1. To introduce students to themes, issues and ideas involved in media and communications industries.
2. To allow students to learn from a structured analysis of, and reflection on, communication strategies.
3. To enable students to develop basic key skills through practical exercises.
4. To familiarise the student with the theories and practices underpinning professional communication processes.
This module provides students with an introduction to how information can flow from media and communication industries to its various audiences and stakeholders. Through an understanding of a range of practices, such as public relations, advertising, sales promotion and direct marketing, students will be exposed to the various communication channels, and will start to understand which communications techniques work best in which situations. The module culminates in studying how to integrate the different communications media together to get the best possible results.
Outline Of Syllabus
The module will cover an introduction to public relations, advertising, sales promotion, direct and digital marcomms within a professional communications context. We start by looking at the purposes of communications and study basic theories such as PESO, DRIP and AIDA. We then move onto ask who do you need to communicate with, considering segments, audiences, publics and pluralism, all within the communications context. The next stage is to ask what is the message, where we look at branding, logos and symbols, and use motivation theories such as Maslow to assess what we are we saying. Once this generic groundwork has been covered, we then move on to look at the specifics of advertising, public relations and the other marcomms tools, looking at how they work individually and together.
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 11 | 1:00 | 11:00 | Interactive synchronous online consolidation lecture to develop key learnings from workshops |
Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 11 | 1:00 | 11:00 | Present-in-person (can be delivered online if needed) introductory lecture to the corresponding week |
Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 2 | 20:00 | 40:00 | Research into specific sectors and current campaigns, reviewing current activity |
Guided Independent Study | Directed research and reading | 11 | 2:00 | 22:00 | Watching specific programmes, reading specific titles and visiting specific websites |
Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Workshops | 11 | 1:00 | 11:00 | Present-in-person activity to check learning & apply theory to practice (can be online if necessary) |
Guided Independent Study | Reflective learning activity | 11 | 2:00 | 22:00 | Combination of quizzes, discussion boards and workshop preparation tasks |
Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Drop-in/surgery | 2 | 1:30 | 3:00 | Timetabled online group drop-in session to assist with assessment preparations (one per assessment) |
Guided Independent Study | Independent study | 1 | 80:00 | 80:00 | Linked to major communications activity and campaigns throughout the teaching period |
Total | 200:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
Students will have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding about both the theory and practice of communication within a professional context. Each session provides an introduction to the underlying theories and concepts of a specific marcomms area, with an exploration of how well, or not, these are articulated in the everyday world. Students will be expected to research and discuss current communication campaigns, in class, online and in their own assessment tasks.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Other Assessment
Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
---|---|---|---|---|
Report | 1 | M | 50 | Review and report on a current communications campaign. 2000 words |
Written exercise | 1 | A | 50 | Take-home case study. Apply communications theory to a case study situation and make recommendations in notes format. 2000 words |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
Students will be required to select current communications campaigns and analyse in terms of intended audience, message and channel using the key themes of rhetoric, language, and other communication materials (such as logos, signs, photos etc). This will allow students to show their understanding of how theoretical communication models are used in practice.
The second assessment, the take-home case study, will assess whether students have understood both the range of, and integrated use of, communications tools available by providing them with a case study and asking them to select and justify which media they will use to solve a particular communications need.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- MCH1028's Timetable