Unit description

Core Units

Communication Management: Professional Perspectives 

This unit allows students to apply their theoretical learning to authentic industry-based communication projects in order to develop high-level professional communication skills. Students may participate in a client or educator-led project under the supervision of an academic member of staff. The focus is on enhancing the capacity of students to manage communication in different international and organisational business and cultural contexts. It examines the organisational and entrepreneurial challenges associated with communicating persuasively and with authority in various communication contexts. 

Critical and Ethical Issues in Communication  

Communication professionals operate in complex digital contexts that are governed by laws, policies, regulations and professional codes. Practitioners have to learn, understand and apply them constantly. They also need to exercise ethical behaviour in critical situations, often under pressure. This unit considers communication ethics broadly and investigates some key contemporary issues that impact the media and communication industries. 

Global Media: Asia-Pacific Perspectives 

This unit explores the dynamics of the cultural, economic, political and social impacts of the global media from an Asia-Pacific perspective. It discusses the key functions of the global media industry and institutions, media content and discourse, as well as media markets and consumption in a number of key Asia-Pacific nation-states. Students will engage with current issues, debates and themes about the global media, from a Western and non-Western perspective. 

Health Communication 

This unit explores health communication from a range of perspectives. Students will explore the complexities of health communication through class discussion, case studies and reading on behaviour change, digital media, health policy, public health and strategic communication. Students research and develop strategies, putting into practice ideas about effective and ethical campaigns, and their role in developing long term relationships between health organisations and their publics and stakeholders. Students will develop research and practical skills by working on industry projects. 

International Strategic Communication and Culture 

This unit explores the theory and practice of communication, drawing on recent strategic communication and public relations scholarship focusing on critical, global and cultural perspectives. Students will develop skills in academic reading, research and writing, and critically engage with theory to explore the challenges of communication management in different cultural contexts and the implications for communication practice. Topics include gender and diversity in public relations and public activism. 

Research Project in Communication

Undertake an independent research project in the broad field of Communication that will enable students to apply what they have learned or studied during prior semesters in conjunction with their professional experiences and interests and/or scholarly interests. 

Strategic Communication 

Explore the main theoretical perspectives that inform organisational communication and situate them in relation to the strategic communication skills necessary for those in corporate and not-for-profit organisations, and the public sector. 

Examine the importance of organisational culture and communication with stakeholder groups. Develop the conceptual ability to link the development of organisational goals with communication practices appropriate for the political environment and learn to conduct professional communication within a diverse range of environments. 

Web Strategy 

This unit explores the function and form of communications strategy in the web environment by analysing the impact of the Internet — in particular, mobile communication technology, social media and websites — on the way that organisations interact with stakeholders and audiences in the online public sphere. Students will engage with Internet theory, marketing communication and public relations in order to research, develop and implement strategies in real time for real-life projects. 

Elective Units

Social Media Analysis 

This unit explores the application of communication technologies with an emphasis on digital and social media. It considers the use of social media in government and community, professional and public relations contexts. Students develop skills in audience research, campaign planning and the resources required to engage in the application of an online social media strategy for a variety of online contexts. 

Web Research 

This unit examines the process of developing, analysing and implementing web analytics. Students will learn how to design and implement effective web data collection tools and processes, or a range of search engine optimisation, strategic and business applications. In this hands-on unit, students will conduct research on target demographics, analyse both qualitative and quantitative data, and then present their results.