BA (Hons) Mass Communication with Business (Kaplan, Singapore)

The aim of this module is to encourage engagement with Organisation Theory through offering a comprehensive account of ideas, perspectives and practices of organisation. You will learn to analyse organisations, people and organising practices through critical employment of Organisation Theory which challenges conventional understanding of organisations. You will learn to explore the impact of recent trends in Organisation Theory and Practice on people and their behaviour in organisations.

The module links topics on Organisation Theory and Practice:
• Introduction to Organisation Theory, and implications for practice: overview of three main perspectives (Modern, Symbolic and Contemporary)
• Organisation Theory:
o Theorizing relationship between Organisation and its environment
o Theorizing different perspectives on Culture and Organisation, and managing across cultures
o Theorizing organisational (physical and social) structure
o Theorizing power, control and conflict (including the feminist perspective)
o Theorizing Identity and organisational behaviour
• Applications in practice:
o Organisational Design, Sustainable Organisational Design
o Organisational learning, tacit knowledge and knowledge management
o Organisational change, change management, and sustainable development
o Aesthetics and organisations, performance, narrative, theatre and organisation
o Managing culture, people and behaviour in organisations, and managing across cultures

Upon completion of the module you will gain an in-depth understanding of:

o The major perspectives on Organisation Theory
o ‘Critical’ organisation theory and management practices
o The recent trends in organising practices
o Theory and practices involved in working in multi-cultural organisations with an awareness of ethical considerations.
o How to form your own construction of knowledge on organisations, managing people and their behaviour

This module brings together two important and closely related areas of study for marketing and business students, namely understanding how buyers behave and make decisions, and how to use this knowledge to effectively communicate with selected target markets.
The study of theoretical frameworks underpins the module, which is then applied to a variety of buyer and business contexts. Lectures are used to impart the theory and the seminars are a mix of practical and case study applications and academic material designed to encourage application of theory and critical thinking. The assessment provides you with the opportunity to utilise the theoretical frameworks in a hypothetical business scenario of your choice.

The module aims to:

• Introduce you to the related concepts of buyer behaviour and marketing communications. The structure of the module will first allow you to appreciate the value of analysing consumer behaviour and then use this information to develop appropriate and informed marketing communications campaigns.

• The teaching, learning and assessment strategies employed (largely focusing on a case study approach) encourage you to think critically and apply the knowledge gained into practical business scenarios.

This explores the major trajectories of communication technology, cultural readings of communication technologies and their impact in terms of human communication, technological progression, economics, business, popular culture, and cultural human space. This module will take a case study approach to media cultures which will resonate explicitly with examples which are central to the daily lives of young people as a way to explore both these and wider issues of media and cultural engagement. Such examples include the online world of social media, the 21st century music industry and global consumer culture and can be applied to more unfamiliar media cultures. The second part of the module takes a historical turn. Moving from the contemporary to the historical gives the opportunity to reflect on the current historical moment and how this is linked to longer trajectories in the development of media cultures

This module will introduce you to several things. First, it will give you a grounding in some of the main recent traditions for thinking about and researching media audiences, and the historical contexts of these; the rise of the European cultural studies approach to audiences, the mainly American mass communications approaches, the reception studies tradition, and the growing interdisciplinary field of fan studies. What links all of these approaches is an emphasis on the contexts which shape how audiences engage with and respond to different media and cultural products.

The module will also ensure you are experienced at reading and evaluating original audience and reception research. In other words, that rather than just reading second-hand summaries or excerpts, you read in detail actual empirical work in order to think about and understand the processes undertaken, and assess what distinguishes good/strong from poor/weak research.

Finally, alongside tackling the intellectual issues of audience research, the module aims to do something quite unusual – to give you experience of the processes involved, and the challenges encountered, by giving you a chance to carry out your own small piece of audience research. This necessarily has to be small-scale and preliminary, in order to fit it within the confines of one module over one semester. But working in a small group you will design, conduct and compare some different ways of learning about audience responses.

The purpose of this module is to introduce you to key theories and approaches employed when researching media, and provide you with the practical skills needed to undertake a major independent research in your final year (the dissertation). In the first half of this module, you will engage with the key processes involved in designing an academic research project, undertaking the research work and analysis, and presenting the results. In the process, you will be shown how to position your work in relation to an intellectual context; construct research questions that are practical and realistic; implement appropriate methodologies; write research proposals; and structure longer written projects (such as dissertations). The second half of the module will put research approaches in focus; academic experts will provide sessions on particular methodological approaches such as analysing media texts and archival research.

The module will focus on the televisual representation and articulation of cultural identities in Britain and the US. We will look at how gender, ethnicity, national and regional identities are constructed through an examination of different genres and areas of screen media, such as drama, comedy and current affairs. We will explore issues such as class, gender and racial stereotypes, visibility of minority groups and integration. Throughout the course we will also consider the function of television, considering what its role might be in the construction of cultural identities.

You will examine mass communications in the context of contemporary practices, trends, developments and trajectories that have developed and are developing within contemporary mass communication industries. The module takes a distinctive pedagogic approach in that the core of the module consists of three team-taught and research-led ‘symposiums’ that address a specific debate, development or controversy within the field of mass communication industries (broadcast, digital, advertising) and enable you to acquire a critical, multi-perspective, and evaluative grounding in the issues shaping such industries. Complementing and reinforcing the Media staff-led symposiums will be a series of lectures provided by industry guest speakers (from television, radio, advertising and digital/web companies) that will provide practical and state-of-the-art insights into key issues underpinning mass communication operations and developments. Finally, two workshop sessions will be based upon you undertaking personal research into salient issues (the front-facing components of Apple stores, the ‘brand’ and customer typology) and research-informed reflexive approaches to social networking technologies.

Following a case study approach, you will investigate the idea of media events in historical, conceptual and organisational terms. The module will explore how particular events (e.g. media festivals and award ceremonies) are developed, structured and organised. The aim is to consider how we, as scholars of media and culture, might conceptualise events and in so doing gain a clearer understanding of their dynamics, practices and their impact upon industry and society. In this way, the module will illustrate the key ways in which specific media events have been framed in scholarship and how these ideas might begin to be applied in the real world. As such, the module encourages you to develop a critical response to media events and, in so doing, reflect upon their broader historical, cultural and socio-political significance. The lectures will introduce key concepts that will be explored in the seminars. The main part of each seminar will focus upon group tasks and discussion of the theme, specific event or set texts. Seminar discussions are also intended to develop your communication skills and your ability to develop and respond to ideas in a collaborative environment. You are expected to prepare for the sessions by studying the set text(s) for each week, and also by carrying out additional recommended reading/viewing (which will be indicated in the module guide and on the e–Learning Portal).

‘Media Dissertation’ involves the researching and writing of an 8,000-10,000 word media-related dissertation on a subject of your own choosing. You should attend a series of mandatory lecture/workshop sessions in which the fundamental requirements of preparing and researching a dissertation will be examined and explained. These sessions will be spread across semester 1 and semester 2. In Semester 1, you will develop your initial dissertation proposal up to the point where you are ready to start writing the dissertation itself. You will develop your information-retrieval skills, familiarise yourself with your chosen subject, find solutions to any problems arising out of your research design, consider the significance of any ethical constraints, formulate your principal research question, and determine the methodology you will use. You are required to complete a 2000 word dissertation plan as part of your progress (however, the module grade will be entirely assessed against your final 8000-10000 word dissertation). In Semester 2 you will develop and amend the ideas in your dissertation plan, carry out further research, prepare and write the final dissertation. Supervision will continue to be provided through regular meetings with your supervisor.

In this module, you will critically examine the relationship between US filmic institutions (films and industrial bodies – hereafter “cinema”) and different social contexts, including, for example: changes to the Hollywood Studio System (and the birthing of the “New Hollywood”), cinema’s responses to war and global trauma, and cinema’s engagement with issues surrounding race, gender and sexuality. Taught through lectures, demonstrations (film screenings) and student-led seminars, the course explores many of the ways cinema has engaged with key societal concerns.

You will be required to read and reflect on specific theoretical and empirical academic work by leading scholars and commentators and, using your analytical and interpretive skills, relate this work to the issues raised in class and by the accompanying film screenings. The module is assessed by a written essay or equivalent video essay, which is designed to test your knowledge of film history and industry (one of the world's major mass communications industries), to evidence a sophisticated understanding of the issues under scrutiny, and your ability to work to a deadline. Ultimately, the module asks you to consider: What is the significance of studying cinema as a mass communications industry, an outlet for personal expression, and as a political tool? What can cinema tells us about history? What can cinema tell us about ourselves?

This module is designed to give you a critical understanding of current debates over the development of new media and their relationship with society. You will be introduced to the key theories, issues and debates about the use, production, and distribution of digital media. You will become familiar with key issues and ideas in new media theory and in the interrelationships between digital media, technologies and societies. You will develop critical skills in analysing digital media and understanding their roles in the information society. The module will look at how these developments are related to social inequalities by asking crucial questions about the rise and persistence of the digital divide, raising the issues of inequalities in accessing, using and getting advantages from new media. The module will also analyse how social media are changing and reshaping our social world. Finally, the module will look at recent case studies and examples to understand how new media are permeating our society and everyday life, transforming the way in which we think and act in a digital society, affecting our perception of crucial social issues such as surveillance/privacy, online identities and activism.