| Semester 1, 2020 Online | |
| Short Description: | Strategic Communication Plan'g |
| Units : | 1 |
| Faculty or Section : | Faculty of Business, Education, Law and Arts |
| School or Department : | School of Humanities & Communication |
| Student contribution band : | Band 3 |
| ASCED code : | 080509 - Public Relations |
| Grading basis : | Graded |
Staffing
Examiner:
Other requisites
Students will require access to e-mail and have internet access to UConnect for this course.
Rationale
Public relations practitioners often struggle to make the transition from technician to strategist, from officer to manager. This course provides practitioners with the skills and knowledge to step into a management role with responsibility for linking the activity of the public relations department to achievement of the organisation’s strategic aims. It will help practitioners move from a technician’s public relations viewpoint to one that allows development of the public relations function as a strategic organisational tool.
Synopsis
Strategic communication planning is a function of senior public relations practitioners and is critical in bringing all of the factors of reputation management together. This course provides advanced professional preparation for students who are at a high level in the field or are contemplating working at executive level in public relations. The course reviews public relations theory and how it relates to campaign planning, and takes the student through each step of developing a strategic communication plan for an organisation, including the communication audit and other methods of research, adaptation of the research into a strategy, implementation of the strategy and evaluation.
Objectives
On successful completion of this course students should be able to:
- review and evaluate key public relations and related theories;
- describe, explain and apply strategic communication planning processes;
- review and evaluate strengths and weaknesses of key contemporary public relations practices in the context of their applicability to various problems;
- evaluate research methods and prepare and facilitate communication research projects;
- practise strategic public relations by developing and implementing a strategic communication plan;
- advise boards of directors and company executives on strategic communication planning;
- facilitate and promote an understanding at an executive level of the value of pro-active corporate communication.
Topics
| Description | Weighting(%) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Introduction to strategic communication theory and planning | 10.00 |
| 2. | Building the strategic communication plan: the communication audit; research for campaign planning; research methodology; cases and problems | 25.00 |
| 3. | Building the strategic communication plan: the adaptation stage; organisational culture; setting goals; infrastructure and support | 20.00 |
| 4. | Building the strategic communication plan: the strategy stage; developing the campaign; implementation strategy; designing the plan; cases and problems | 25.00 |
| 5. | Building the strategic communication plan: evaluation | 15.00 |
| 6. | Strategic communication challenges: Public Relations at board/management level | 5.00 |
Text and materials required to be purchased or accessed
ALL textbooks and materials available to be purchased can be sourced from (unless otherwise stated). (https://omnia.usq.edu.au/textbooks/?year=2020&sem=01&subject1=PRL8003)
Please for alternative purchase options from USQ Bookshop. (https://omnia.usq.edu.au/info/contact/)
Reference materials
Student workload expectations
| Activity | Hours |
|---|---|
| Assessments | 115.00 |
| Independent ¾«¶«´«Ã½app | 50.00 |
Assessment details
| Description | Marks out of | Wtg (%) | Due Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASSN 1 - PROJECT PROPOSAL | 100 | 10 | 06 Mar 2020 | |
| ASSN 2 - RESEARCH PLAN | 100 | 30 | 16 Apr 2020 | |
| ASSN 3- STRAT COMM PLAN | 100 | 60 | 12 Jun 2020 |
Important assessment information
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Attendance requirements:
Students must attend and complete the requirements of the Workplace Health and Safety training program for this course where required.
External and Online:
There are no attendance requirements for this course. However, it is the students’ responsibility to study all material provided to them or required to be accessed by them to maximise their chance of meeting the objectives of the course and to be informed of course-related activities and administration.
On-campus
It is the students’ responsibility to attend and participate appropriately in all activities (such as lectures, tutorials, laboratories and practical work) scheduled for them, and to study all material provided to them or required to be accessed by them to maximise their chance of meeting the objectives of the course and to be informed of course-related activities and administration -
Requirements for students to complete each assessment item satisfactorily:
To satisfactorily complete an individual assessment item a student must achieve at least 50% of the marks. -
Penalties for late submission of required work:
Students should refer to the Assessment Procedure (point 4.2.4) -
Requirements for student to be awarded a passing grade in the course:
To be assured of receiving a passing grade a student must achieve at least 50% of the total weighted marks available for the course. -
Method used to combine assessment results to attain final grade:
The final grades for students will be assigned on the basis of the aggregate of the weighted marks obtained for each of the summative assessment items in the course. -
Examination information:
There is no examination for this course. -
Examination period when Deferred/Supplementary examinations will be held:
There is no examination in this course, there will be no deferred or supplementary examinations. -
¾«¶«´«Ã½app Student Policies:
Students should read the USQ policies: Definitions, Assessment and Student Academic Misconduct to avoid actions which might contravene ¾«¶«´«Ã½app policies and practices. These policies can be found at .
Other requirements
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Students can expect that questions in assessment items in this course may draw upon knowledge and skills that they can reasonably be expected to have acquired before enrolling in the course. This includes knowledge contained in pre-requisite courses and appropriate communication, information literacy, analytical, critical thinking, problem solving or numeracy skills. Students who do not possess such knowledge and skills should not expect to achieve the same grades as those students who do possess them.
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This public relations course maintains a high standard of spelling, grammar, syntax and style. Faults in any of these could render a project or proposal unacceptable.