Aims

This course introduces students to the different steps involved in working as a professional within the Communications sector. It also aims to equip them with the methods of questioning particular to the field so as to develop their ability to reason and put forward arguments at each stage of the decision-making process. Students are also expected to be able to carry out a project on the basis of fixed objectives. The course aims to both inform students about concrete, technical aspects of Communications issues (particularly financial issues) and to develop their critical and analytical skills, thus enabling them to have their own opinions about the meaning and issues for society of professional practices with the communication and media sectors. Finally, it aims to develop students' managerial skills, including team management through group projects.

Main themes

During this course, students will be required to:
1. Present and analyse the stages of development of a professional communications project (e.g. organising a press conference on a particular theme, conducting a news investigation, producing a poster campaign, creating an advertisement etc) in the five major communication sectors (organisational communication, journalism, knowledge mediation, media analysis and new technologies), after an introduction to the different stages involved:
- identifying the demand/the objectives
- analysing the context of the demand
- bibliographical and document research
- specifying the object
- identifying the target audience
- identifying the appropriate communication channels/media
- drawing up the specification
- cost estimation
- production of the message(s) that needs to be sent out
- evaluation
Finally, students will put these principles and steps into practice through a concrete project, carried out in groups, in one of the five sectors outlined above

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Prerequisite: COMU 1211 Information and Communication Studies