Public Relations and Media Strategies MA

Compulsory

• Public Relations and Propaganda
  This module explores how public relations emerged as part of the burgeoning propaganda industry in the early part of the twentieth century and how even today, powerful organisations, including state actors and corporations, utilise PR as forms of propaganda. We explore how the shaping of public opinion and perception is clearly a matter of political significance. PR as propaganda can be observed at work in relation to war, consumerism and the promotion of global free market economics. The module looks at theories of specific media and their role in persuasion, such as the press and film and we look at recent trends in political communications.
• Key Issues in Media, Culture and Public Relations
  This module will provide students with the essential background to the theories and debates that can help us understand public relations and its relationship to media and culture. How does PR shape the media and how does the media shape PR? We explore how concepts drawn from cultural studies can help us understand the context of PR as one of contests between different values and perspectives. The module examines what has been happening to the media in recent decades and the impact of social media on the media and PR. You engage with semiotic analysis of visual communication, with brand theory and the political economy of public relations. We look at crisis communications and how different types of organisations use PR including NGOs and the Third Sector as well as political activists and ‘culture jammers’.
• Building a PR Campaign
  This module will provide students with the advanced knowledge, skills and understanding necessary to build a PR campaign and to critically reflect on the role of the PR campaign in the knowledge economy and their own practice. Students will develop the practical skills in lobbying, press releases, campaign building and related practices. The module will provide students with an understanding of the changing nature of public relations today and the impact of the processes of globalisation and the rise of social media on the practices of public relations. The module will also provide students with a critical understanding of the expansion of PR across a range of social and media institutions and the effect that this has had on the practices of public relations.
• PR and Media in Promotional Culture
  This module has a particular emphasis on how public relations works in the film and television industries. We look at the relationship between PR and marketing, the role of celebrities, social media, product placement and crisis communications in the culture industries. The module also begins to teach you some practical skills in public relations skills and develop your ability for PR content creation.

Optional

• Public Relations and Media Strategies Major Project
  The dissertation module enables students to produce a substantial piece of research on a topic agreed with a supervisor in the area of Media and Public Relations. You will be able to develop your research from the knowledge and skills you were introduced to at an advanced level on the taught modules and you can choose to develop an area of specific interest.
• Public Relations and Media Strategies Major Project 2
  The dissertation module enables students to produce a substantial piece of research on a topic agreed with a supervisor in the area of Media and Public Relations. You will be able to develop your research from the knowledge and skills you were introduced to at an advanced level on the taught modules and you can choose to develop an area of specific interest.