Download Using Communication Theory: An Introduction to

UPPSALA UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATICS AND MEDIA
MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION
SPRING 2013
COURSE DESCRIPTION
2IV099 Strategic Communication
7,5 HP/7.5 ECTS
Uppsala 2013-04-08
UPPSALA UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATICS AND MEDIA
MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION
2IV099 Strategic communication (7,5 hp/7.5 ECTS)
Introduction
The course is part of the course package International media and communication
studies. It can be taken as a single subject course by exchange students and master
students.
Learning outcomes
This course provides an introduction to strategic communication, on both a theoretical
and practical level. Having completed the course, the student should be able to:
• account for and reflect over dominant and alternative perspectives of strategic
communication
• illustrate sufficient familiarity with central concepts such as strategy/tactics, target
group, communication channels and sender/receiver
• critically reflect on these concepts and relate them to the introduced theoretical
perspectives
• account for and reflect over what different ways of approaching communication
mean for organizations and their communication activities
• independently identify and analyze how strategic communication is organized and
carried out in a variety of contemporary organizations
• suggest and prepare how strategy documents such as policies, guidelines and
communication plans, can be produced, implemented and evaluated. Special attention
is paid to the role and importance of media relations
• discuss essential issues of responsibility and accountability in strategic
communication
Content
The course offers an introduction to relevant theories, models and practices in
strategic communication. The history of strategic communication is presented. It
introduces a selection of the most dominant perspectives, their underlying
assumptions, central concepts and critique. Substantial part of the course deals with
investigating and discussing some of the critical communication challenges
contemporary organizations face. Ethical considerations of strategic communication
activities are also addressed.
Instruction
The course consists of a series of lectures and mandatory seminars and optional study
trip. The seminars are based on case methodology, and will provide the student an
opportunity to improve his /her capacities in analysing, criticizing and evaluating real
media events, policies and products and present verbally in public.
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Assessment and examination
The examination of the course is built up by (1) the preparation and active
participation in the discussion seminars and (2) the handing in of an individual final
project report, as well as an (3) individual commentary piece for one of the guest
lectures.
The grade is based on performances in both the seminars and the final project report.
The course has the grades VG (Väl godkänd), G (Godkänd) and U (Underkänd).
ECTS-grades are given as additional information.
Literature/required reading
Sven Windahl, Benno Signitzer, Jean T Olson,
Using Communication Theory: An Introduction to Planned Communication
2nd Edition Sage Publications Ltd; 2008
| ISBN-10: 1412948398 | ISBN-13: 978-1412948395 | Edition: Second Edition
Cheney, George; Christensen, Lars Thøger; Morsing, Mette
Corporate communications: convention, complexity, and critique
London : SAGE, 2008 - xii, 251 s.
ISBN: 978-1-4129-3103-8 (pbk) LIBRIS-ID: 10731884
Library Catalogue
Cornelissen, Joep
Corporate communication: a guide to theory and practice
Third edition. : London : SAGE, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-84787-245-6 (hbk.) LIBRIS-ID: 10864765
Library Catalogue
Heath, Robert L.; Toth, Elizabeth L.; Waymer, Damion.
Rhetorical and critical approaches to public relations II : Rhetorical and critical
approaches to public relations two
New York : Routledge, 2009 - xii, 380 s.
ISBN: 978-0-8058-6423-6 (hbk.) LIBRIS-ID: 12239132
http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0824/2008031872.html
Library Catalogue
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Teachers
Sheri Fox (SF), Lecturing, [email protected]
Peder Hård af Segerstad (PHS), Lecturing, [email protected]
Emma Svensson (ES), Lecturing, [email protected]
Susann, Krieglsteiner (SK) Seminar leader, [email protected]
Cecilia Strand, (CS) Examinor, [email protected],
Guests:
Max McCombs (MMC)
Craig Carroll (CC)
Practitioner from Prime
Information
Please keep yourself updated! We will mainly be using Studentportalen and your
UpUnet-email addresses communicating important information during the course.
This is the main communication channel. You may also use Studentportalen to access
information about your study results.
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Schedule IMCS: 2IV099
Strategic communication
130408
Day
8 April
Time
13-14
Room Content
A144 Course introduction
Course pm and examination and case study
methodology. Mandatory
Lecturer
9 April
11-13
A114
SF
11 April
13-15
A114
12 April
9-11
12-14
A114
A114
15 April
14-17
A114
16 April
13-15
Hö 3
17 April
8-10
Hö 1
18 April
10-12
H425
13-15
H425
22 April
15-17
Hö1
23 April
9-11
12-14
A144
H425
26 April
9-11
12-14
16.00
A156
A156
29 April
3 May
Lecture 1: Introduction to the field of Strategic
Communication and stakeholder analysis
Reading: Assigned articles + Cornelissen, Chap. 3
Lecture 2: The field of Strategic
Communication
Seminar 1: Contextual analysis/Business
intelligence/arena analysis
Mandatory
Lecture 3: Strategic planning and camping
management
Reading: Cornelissen, Chap. 5+6 + 10 + 13
+ Ethics in strategic communication.
Heath, Toth, Waymer, Section two and four.
Guest Lecture 1 - Agenda setting
Mandatory
Guest Lecture 2 - CSR Communication
Mandatory
Lecture 4: Methodologies for evaluation
Reading: Sven Windahl, Benno Signitzer, Jean T
Olson, Chap 16 + Cornelissen, Chap 7
Lecture 5: Critical and rhetorical traditions in
Public Relations
Reading: Heath, Robert L.; Toth, Elizabeth L.;
Waymer, Damion. Section one.
Guest lecture 3: Strategic communication cases
from the field.
Seminar 2: Analyze a public communication
campaign backwards
Mandatory
Seminar 3: Develop a Campaign Strategy
Mandatory
Deadline for individual commentary to S.K
Deadline for individual project report at 23.59
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SF/SK
PHS
SK
SF
MMC
CC
SF
ES
PRIME
SK
SK
Course components
As mentioned earlier, the examination of the course is built up by the following
components:
(1) active participation in the discussion seminars (grade: pass/not passing)
(2) an individual project report, (grade: pass with distinction/pass/not passing)
(3) an individual commentary piece for one of the guest lectures (grade: pass/not
passing)
Introduction to the seminars
The ability to conduct a solid analysis, write fluently and concisely, and to present
your thoughts in a highly professional and compelling manner to disparate audiences
are invaluable skills within any organizational settings. The seminars for this course
are intended to further some of these necessary skills. The seminar will jointly provide
you an opportunity to work with the following learning outcomes:
• account for and reflect over what different ways of approaching communication
means for organizations and their communication activities.
• independently identify and analyze how strategic communication is organized and
carried out in a variety of contemporary organizations.
• suggest and prepare how strategy documents such as policies, guidelines and
communication plans, can be produced, implemented and evaluated.
General information
The seminars are based on case methodology, which entails that you will work with
the same organization throughout the course. By working with a single case
organization, you will accumulate knowledge of that organization, which in turn will
allow for a progressively more sophisticated analysis. You will thus be able to
improve your analytical capacity. As you will work with the same organization, take
great care in selecting an appropriate organization. Subsequently, take a moment to go
through the seminar assignments and make sure that you/the group will able to find
the information that is required. Although it is not necessary, it is highly
recommended that you/the group select an organization that you/the group have either
direct access to, or can get access to through your personal network.
Furthermore, the seminar assignments, as opposed to the final report, are a group
exercise. You are thus asked immediately, after the introductory lecture, to get into
groups of 5, using the function “register group” at Studentportalen.
At the seminar, your group is to present the seminar assignment in a 10-15 min long
presentation, using Powerpoint, Prezi or similar visual aids. You are required to
participate actively in the seminar you are scheduled to attend. Furthermore, at the
seminar, each group will be asked to provide substantial feedback to one other group.
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The seminar leader will notify you about which group is providing feedback on what
group.
Finally, kindly take note of the fact that all seminars are mandatory. Consequently, if
you miss a seminar and fail to make up for it, you will not be able to have your grade
on your individual exam or the course in general registered. There will be no
exceptions from this rule. You will not need to hand in any written documentations
for the seminars, but as the final report is built in the analaysis that you conduct in the
seminars, we strongly urge you to work on the final project report parallel to the
seminars. The final project report needs to be fully referenced, checked for grammar
and spelling. The report should include between 1700 and 2200 words. The report
will be checked for plagiarism.
Seminar I. Business Intelligence/Contextual analysis/stakeholder analysis
A stakeholder analysis is an essential entry point for understanding your
organization’s communication needs.
Besides the lecture and course literature, the following will provide some guidance on
how-to-do a BI: Jan P. Herring (1999) Key Intelligence Topics: A Process to Identify
and Define Intelligence Needs, Competitive Intelligence Review, Vol. 10(2) 4–14.
The article is available on Studentportalen.
Furthermore, read Nils Brunsson article Organizing for Inconsistencies: On
Organizational Conflict,Depression and Hypocrisy as Substitutes for Action,
available on Studentportalen
Starting point:
Begin the stakeholder analysis with identifying the selected organization’s goals, and
thus gain a general understanding what type of information the organizations needs
make known to its various stakeholders. It is essential that the group identify the
primary stakeholders for the organization and include an analysis of the key
stakeholders. Furthermore, the group needs to pay special attention to the media as a
stakeholder.
Also conduct a wider analysis of the organization’s context by identify primary
potential/ongoing threats and long term processes (legislation of fast food on schools,
religious fundamentalism, secularism, indifference to regular politics, euro crash,
dollar crash etc.) and opportunities that hampers the organizations ability to reach its
communication goals.
Distribute stakeholder amongst yourselves and start gather material in accordance to
the area you are assigned to in the group.
Types of sources:
 Organizational website, annual reports, personal communication
 government websites and reports
 online databases, interviews or surveys,
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


special interest groups (such as academics, trade associations, and
consumer groups),
private sector sources (such as competitors, suppliers, distributors,
customer) or
media reports (journals, wire services, newspapers, and financial reports).
Furthermore, depart from read Nils Brunsson article and discuss critically how your
organization is exposed to conflicting demands from its environment, as well as how
strategic communication could be used by the organizations to navigate these
incongruent demands.
Seminar II. Analyze a public communication campaign backwards
With this assignment, you will be asked to analyze the strategic thinking of a public
communication campaign that your organization’s has already done. The goal is to by
using the course literature attempt to trace the strategy/ies behind the campaign. Also
attempt to identify which stakeholders the campaign is attempting to address.
The choice of which campaign to choose is yours: it could be an advocacy campaign
for a piece of legislation or social change, or an outreach campaign for mobilizing
citizens to get involved in X, or campaign to generate support for a specific political
candidate, or a public awareness campaign such as saving energy or using public
transports, or a campaign to increase a knowledge on a health- related issue, or change
a health related behavior such as stop smoking or reduce fat-intake – the possibilities
are endless. The only area not allowed is product advertising.
When researching the campaign, the group should collect as many components from
the campaign as possible, such campaign strategy and the campaign materials. Also
attempt to find news items on the campaign, and then, if at all possible, speak with the
person or persons responsible for putting the campaign together. By doing this
investigative work, you should be able to identify the strategic thinking behind the
campaign. Finally, critically discuss the implications of the choice of strategy, as
opposed to other approaches.
Seminar III. Develop a Campaign
The goal with this final seminar is to apply the insights and skills you learned
throughout the course to not only understand the basic components from a theoretical
perspective, but offer an opportunity to practice your professional skills.
The course literature (Windahl and Signitzer, part II, Cornelissen, chapter 5+6 + 10.
Heath,.; Toth, Waymer, section 2 and 4.+ Cornelissen, Joep Chapter 13) presents
different theoretical approaches and practical tools for communication planning.
Review the literature with the intent to have both a solid theoretical understanding of
planed communication process and pragmatic considerations. For the third and final
seminar you will be asked to develop a communication campaign of your choice. The
campaign has to be in line with the organization’s stated goals, but does not need to
address the organization’s goal/s/ in entirety. It can thus focus on some aspect of the
organization’s goals.
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It is essential that you take into consideration the organization’s key stakeholders,
even if the campaign does not attempt to reach all stakeholders. Critically analyze all
stakeholders’ expectations and if these may be in conflict with each other, and how
that may be addressed in the campaign and its material.
Furthermore, use your analysis of previous campaign strategies from seminar II
appropriately to guide you in the processes of constructing the campaign.
The output of this exercise is not a campaign in its entirety, but a campaign plan
where the various campaign components are easily identifiable and the sequencing of
those components. Each part of the campaign (its strategic focus, target population
and various campaign components) should be clearly motivated.
Individual final project report
Instructions
For the individual final project report, you are required to compile and synthesize the
separate analyses from the three seminars into one comprehensive report. Do not
chose a new organization or a new campaign but work with your analyses from your
seminar work. Please note that the final report should not be the result of a simple cut
and paste exercise and is not a group exercise.
Think of the report as something that you could hand in to the organization itself. The
report should be a logically structured and coherent text. Its structure should look like
this:
1) Situational analysis of the organization (introduction of the organization, its
communicative environment, key stakeholders)
2) Examples of previous actions (past experiences in terms of campaigns;
theoretical discussion in terms of diffusion of innovations; message structures;
audience addressability)
3) Strategy for further campaigns (the work you have done in proposing your
own campaign for the organization can form a basis for this section, together
with support from the literature.)
4) Evaluation and Measurement (description of how the results have been/can be
measured/evaluated)
5) Conclusions regarding the organization’s previous use of and future
opportunities for strategic communication.
Besides structure, textual fluency, your report is assessed by how well you integrate
the course literature. You should integrate at least two concepts from the literature for
sections 1-4. Analyses and subsequent conclusions carried out without the support of
the course literature will lead to a failing grade.
The final project report needs to be fully referenced, checked for grammar and
spelling. The report will be checked for plagiarism when you upload it on
Studentportalen.
Format of the report: Between 1700 and 2200 words (12-point font, Times New
Roman, 1.5-spacing, normal margins, A-4 size paper). Include a list of bibliographic
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references. Remember to keep to a consistent reference style, e.g. Chicago Manual
Style, Harvard Style, etc.
Deadline: 5 May 23:59. Late reports can never receive more than a passing grade.
That is, only reports turned in on time can receive a “pass with distinction”/VG.
Individual commentary on one of the guest lectures
Although all guest lectures are mandatory (!) you will only be asked to submit a twopage commentary on one of the lectures. You are free to choose which lectures to
base your submission on. Besides briefly describing the lecture and its main content,
your commentary should focus on: how can the lecture and its content inform the
analyses carried out in conjunction with the seminars and the final report?
Deadline: 26 April, 4pm upload onto Studentportalen.
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