Présentiel, premier quadrimestre, 30 heures de théorie.

Premier quadrimestre
le lundi de 10:45 à 12:45 au 43 Botanique 4

Anglais

This course provides an analysis of the practice of corporate communications and public relations. It will cover how major companies provide information on their activities, defend their issues and spin their image. Attention will be given to a major current trend of the greening of the corporation (critics call it green-wash).
Several skills particular to this course will be necessary to develop. Benchmarking is an important skill in communications - a good part of the student's activity is to take the themes and concepts from the lectures and reading and benchmark them against their chosen company and any other competitors in similar businesses. Basic communications tools and concepts will be assumed. This course will cover how trust and narrative influence how messages are communicated in a business context. The student will be expected to know the elements of a corporate press release. The student will be able to identify a company's vision, mission, values and objectives (as expressed by corporate communicators).

Pour le programme de Bachelier en droit :

Pour le programme de Bachelier en information et communication :

Pour le programme de Bachelier en sciences politiques, orientation générale :

Pour le programme de Bachelier en sociologie et anthropologie :

Aucun

Corporate culture and the role of the communicator, distinctions between PR and Corporate Communications, Public Affairs, lobbying…
Our green narrative: Environmental communications, CSR and sustainability;
Corporate communications and social media, on-line communications.
Elements of the Corp-Com department: Investor Relations, Internal, External, Product, Web and Environment Communications as well as Science, Risk and Crisis Communications. Marketing, the media and communicating the corporate message.
Attention will be paid to ethical issues around exuberant corporate spin and the dangers therein.

Descriptif du cours magistral :


Lectures supported by support materials and the professor's publications to cover the main contents. Students will select a company to follow during the course and consider how the communications principles have been applied in that context. This company must be approved by the professor in advance. They will share their observations of the communications tools with other classmates on the eSaint-Louis forum (collaborative learning). An individual paper will be produced on a topical theme relative to corporate communications (defined at the beginning of the course according to the ongoing narrative).

There are three elements to the evaluation process:
• Chosen company benchmarking on major themes (shared on forum): 20%
• Paper on an assigned thematic issue related to corporate communications: 20%
• Exam: 60%
Chosen company benchmarking on major themes (shared on forum): 20%
Students will be expected to have followed the communications activity of a company they have chosen during the course (pre-approved by the professor), and benchmark it against other similar companies. Their collaborative contributions on the course forum will be worth 20% of the course mark. Full marks in this portion not only refer to presenting your company's approaches and methods, but also how you can benchmark its use of communications tools in contrast to competitors or similar companies. There will be cut-off dates for each assignment (when the students' work will be discussed in class) after which students will not receive a grade. Students failing to have a company or contribute to the forum will receive 0/20 for this grade element.

Paper on an assigned thematic issue related to corporate communications: 20%
At the beginning of the course, an issue playing an important role in the corporate narrative will be highlighted and students will be expected to do a short research paper on it. Possible subjects include: Public trust and corporate reputation issues, Crisis Communications (on a topical communications crisis), Evolutions in corporate leadership via redefined perceptions of the CEO … Papers are expected to be researched, referenced and written (in English) according to standards of academic integrity with an expected length of 5-6 A4 pages. Due date: End November. Feedback will be provided before the exam period.
Assignments will be submitted via Turnitin to check research originality. Any excessive unreferenced unoriginal (copy-paste) work will result in an automatic 0/20 for this assignment and the student will be reported to faculty administration. The professor has a zero tolerance for cheaters.

Exam: 60%
An oral exam will cover the main concepts within the context of the student's particular chosen company. They will need to critically assess how the company communicated in a situation (40% of the course mark). During the oral exam, a further random general question on the course themes will be posed (20% of the course mark). If the student goes to a second session exam, the exam will comprise of three random course questions (worth 20% each of final course grade). If the student had not selected a company by the deadline and did not contribute to the forum, then he or she will receive three random general questions during the exam.

Course materials available on-line, many of them personal publications freely available. The official textbook will be the communications materials from the student's chosen company which he or she will follow in relation to the lecture content and benchmark against other companies