School of Arts - Modules 2023-2024

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Previously ELA020N223A

This module draws together in the final year the fundamentals of the programme. It will cover the theoretical, implementational and professional skills students need to understand the role of Public Relations (PR) in everyday affairs and its place in an organisation’s mix of communicative resources. Students will therefore continue to develop strategic communication skills at a professional level.

In terms of theoretical background, the module gives an overview of communications theories across broad-and narrow-cast media and the roles of different media. Students will be taught to understand the importance of ideas, to think critically key concepts such as social media and media democratisation, ethics as applied to media and communication and models of persuasion. This will equip students with an understanding of the role of PR as a resource for shaping and influencing
opinion.

The goal of this module is to enable students to develop practice-based knowledge, with a strong emphasis on implementational skills. Students will learn how to identify an idea, how to use it to construct stories and story arcs, and how to turn stories into on-message communications. They will learn to use data analysis as a practitioner tool, how it can be applied to audience and stakeholder targeting and segmentation (this builds on the Power of Data module in year 1). Students will get involved in campaign analysis, planning and evaluation, objective-setting, and will learn techniques for multi-channel/integrated campaign assessment.

Writing skills are an important aspect of PR, so the module gives students opportunities to develop their writing skills across multiple content forms(i.e. press releases, content marketing).

Building professional skills and experience that students can take with them into the workplace is a central aim of the programme as a whole. Through a combination of workshops run by external practitioners and seminar activities, this module builds students’ understanding of relationship building in the context of teamwork and client-supplier relationships, and opportunities to develop hands-on experience of pitching and presentation, negotiation and influencing and selling skills.

This module gives students a valuable opportunity to showcase the knowledge and skills they will have acquired in the course of the programme, demonstrating how they can out into practice their analytical, critical and implementational skills to develop and produce a complete multi-media project. This module enables them to further develop and build on their skills and experience: project design, research skills, storytelling, media optimisation, audience engagement and technical and production skills as well as their ability to conceptualise, manage and bring to completion a professional project.

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