ACC20040 Business, Media & Corporate Communications

Academic Year 2022/2023

This module will critically examine the evolution, operation and effects of mass media and its influence over business, markets and capitalism in the 21st century.
The module seeks to explore mass media, its commercial aims and its intersection with organisations, markets and economic actors. It will examine theoretical approaches to these issue and explore linkages between todays 24/7 ‘always on’ digital media and the more traditional media forms of the past. In addition to this, the module also aims to equip students with the skills to be media literate and effectively communicate themselves across multiple channels in an era of disinformation.
The module will also examine how organisations, particularly corporate and government entities, strategically utilise media channels to enhance and defend corporate reputation and to persuade external audiences and important stakeholders.
This will be explored via theoretical approaches, but also by looking at global case studies of reputation management, including corporate scandals.

The current Covid-19 Pandemic and its impact on media and the distribution of information will also be a focus.


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Curricular information is subject to change

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this module, a student should be able to:
• Understand why modern mass media looks like it does and identify the connections between todays digital media advertising-led business models and those of the past.
• Analyse the economics of news and the algorithmic-based strategies of modern social media firms, with particular reference to the production of news and politically oriented content.
• Critically evaluate online and traditional media content (including journalism), from the perspective of bias, reliability and network effects.
• Demonstrate the skills necessary to produce and publish effective content on digital and social channels, including understanding systems of news values.
• Understand how corporate reputations are formed, evolved and sometimes damaged, while understanding the tactics and strategies used by organisations to address reputational challenges, particularly those deriving from digital channels.
• Understand and recognise the strategies organisations (particularly corporates), deploy to persuade, frame arguments and convince external audiences when economic resources are at stake.
• Demonstrate skills for the analysis and evaluation of arguments and evidence in the academic literature.

Indicative Module Content:

Session 1 (Jan 18th): From the printing press to Instagram: The development of global mass media
Session 2 (Jan 25th): Mass media economics:All the news that’s fit to sell, share (and make a profit)
Session 3 (Feb 1st): Persuasion, messages and communication theories.
Session 4 (Feb 8th): Communications in practice: News values, economy of language and writing for Web
Session 5 (Feb 15th): Media Analysis and Evaluation
Session 6 (Feb 22nd): Financial markets, information and media participants.
Session 7: (March 1st) Corporate reputation: An Introduction.
Session 8 (March 22nd): Strategic communications. A practical and theoretical guide.
Session 9 (March 29th): Issues management and crisis communications:
Session 10 (April 5th): Owned media and organisations as brand publishers
Session 11 (April 12th): Two step communications, the attention economy and influencers:
Session 12 (April 19thst): Recap and Conclusions:

Student Effort Hours: 
Student Effort Type Hours
Lectures

24
Autonomous Student Learning

80
Total

104
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:

Delivery will primarily be delivered by way of lecture, with compulsory readings set for each session, aimed at encouraging participation and input from students at the commencement of class. Students are expected to have read the required readings and be ready to discuss these in class, either as part of a group, or individually. In-class exercises will also be utilised heavily to enable students to get familiar with some of the most important concepts in the module. Groups will be used for many of these exercises. Among the disciplines touched upon during the module will be digital journalism, history, media studies, corporate communications, news writing, corporate governance, persuasion, reputation management, public relations, content creation.

More details on Brightspace

 
Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
 
Assessment Strategy  
Description Timing Open Book Exam Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade
Project: The individual project concerns organisational reputation/case study Varies over the Trimester n/a Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

60
Group Project: Group project relates to creating a suite of media formats, including digital media. Throughout the Trimester n/a Standard conversion grade scale 40% No

40

Carry forward of passed components
No
 
Resit In Terminal Exam
Autumn No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 
Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Group/class feedback, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Feedback post assessment.

Below is a list of Required Reading/Texts - more information available on Brightspace

Wheeler, T (2019) ‘Connections Have Consequences’ Chapter 1 from “From Gutenberg to Google: The History of Our Future’’, Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. Available from: ProQuest https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucd/detail.action?docID=5233952

Nielsen, R.K., (2015) The increasingly digital business of news, in Witschge et al (eds) Sage Handbook of Digital Journalism. London: Sage Publications. (on Brightspace).
Piore, A., (2018). Technologists are trying to fix the “filter bubble” problem that tech helped create. MIT Technology Review. Issue August 22, 2018. Available at: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611826/technologists-are-trying-to-fix-the-filter-bubble-problem-that-tech-helped-create/

Petty, R. E., Brinol, P., & Priester, J. R. (2009). Mass media attitude change: Implications of the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In J. Bryant and M. B. Oliver, (Eds.)Media effects: Advances in theory and research, pp.141-180. New York: Routledge. (Brightspace)
Holbert, R. L., & Tchernev, J. M. (2012). Media influence as persuasion. In J. P. Dillard and S. Lijiang, (Eds.)The SAGE handbook of persuasion: Developments in theory and practice, pp.36-50, London: Sage Publications. (On Brightspace)
Pornpitakpan, C. (2004). The persuasiveness of source credibility: A critical review of five decades' evidence. Journal of applied social psychology, 34(2), pp.243-281. Available at: https://doi-org.ucd.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2004.tb02547.x

Harcup, T & O’Neill, D (2017). What is News?, Journalism Studies, 18:12, pp.1470-1488.


Krause, N. et al (2019). Fake News- A New Obsession with an Old Phenomenon? in Katz, J. and Mays, K (eds.) Journalism and Truth in an Age of Social Media. Oxford: Oxford Scholarship Online. p1-21. (eBook/ UCD Library)
Allcott, H and Gentzkow, M (2017). "Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31 (2): pp.211-36. https://web.stanford.edu/~gentzkow/research/fakenews.pdf

Manning, P. (2013). Financial journalism, news sources and the banking crisis. Journalism. Vol 14, Issue 2, 2013.
Thompson, P (2013) Invested interests? Reflexivity, representation and reporting in financial markets. Journalism. Volume 14, January 30, 2013. pp. 208-227

Eccles, R., Newquist, S., Schatz, R (2007). Reputation and Its Risks. Harvard Business Review. February 2007 Issue. pp.1-10. (saved to Brightspace)
Gotsi, M., & Wilson, A. (2001). Corporate reputation management: ``living the brand''. Management Decision. Vol. 39 No. 2, pp. 99-104.

Required Text: Hallahan, K et al (2007). Defining Strategic Communication, International Journal of Strategic Communication, 1:1, pp.3-35

AOB and Pentland Analytics (2018). When Crisis and Technology Collide: Protecting Reputation in the Digital Age. Available at: https://www.aon.com/reputation-risk-cyber-social-media-pentland-analytics-aon/index.html [accessed 29 December, 2019)


Bonchek, M (2014). Making Sense of Owned Media. Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2014/10/making-sense-of-owned-media
O’Brien, J (2012) How Red Bull Takes Content Marketing to the Extreme. Mashable UK. Available at: https://mashable.com/2012/12/19/red-bull-content-marketing/?europe=true#z60XNuq9L5qt

Martineau, P. (2019) The WIRED Guide to Influencers. Wired 12.06.2019. Available at: https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-an-influencer/
Finkelstein, H (2019) Influencers are changing the face of commerce for good. Harley Finkelstein. QZ Com, October 15, 2019. Available at: https://qz.com/1708956/the-benefits-of-the-influencer-economy/
Marwick, A. E.(2015) Instafame: Luxury Selfies in the Attention Economy. Public Culture, January 2015; 27 (1 (75): pp.137–160


Name Role
Dr Jamie O'Neill Lecturer / Co-Lecturer