Dr Lee Edwards, PEL.7.01.B

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Strategic Communications. This course is not available as an outside option.

This course provides an advanced understanding of theoretical knowledge in the field of media and communication as this relates to strategic communications and its key promotional industries of advertising, branding and public relations. The focus is on the role, scope and activities of strategic communications in contemporary societies and in the context of globalisation and the digital age. Topics cover the context, practices and challenges of strategic communications, and are likely to include: the advance of promotional culture in and across public, political, non-profit and corporate institutions; professional structures and identities of the strategic communications industries; discourses of strategic communications, including reputation and relationship management; technologies of strategic communications; globalisation and strategic communications; strategic communications and inequalities (gender, 'race', class); and the ethics of strategic communications.

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the MT.

Students will be expected to produce 1 x 1,500 word essay in the MT.

Aronczyk, M. and Powers, D. (eds) 2012. Blowing up the brand. New York: Peter Lang.  

Corner, J, Pels, D. 2003. Media and the restyling of politics: consumers, celebrity and cynics. London: Sage.

Banet-Weiser, S.  Authentic TM: The politics of ambivalence in a brand culture.  NYU Press (2012);

Davis, A. 2013. Promotional cultures: the rise and spread of advertising, public relations, marketing and branding.  Cambridge: Polity Press.

Edwards, L. 2018. Understanding public relations: Theory, culture and society. London: Sage.

Ihlen, O and Fredriksson, M. (eds) 2018. Public relations and social theory: Key figures, concepts and developments (second edition). New York/London: Routledge.

L'Etang, J. and Pieczka, M. 2006. Public relations: Critical debates and contemporary practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Leiss, W. et al. 2005. Social communication in advertising: Consumption in the mediated marketplace. London: Routledge.

Macnamara, J. 2015. Organizational listening: the missing essential in public communication. New York: Peter Lang.

Miller, D. 2008.  A century of spin: how public relations became the cutting edge of corporate power. New York: Ann Arbor.

Schudson, M. 1993. Advertising, the uneasy persuasion: its dubious impact on American society. New York: Routledge. 

Turow, J. 2011. The Daily You: How the new advertising industry is defining your identity and your worth. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Essay (100%, 3000 words) in the LT.

This course offers students an advanced theoretical engagement with the different ways in which strategic communications industries affect society and culture. A wide range of perspectives is adopted in the course and the focus is on exploration and enquiry. My aim is to help students develop their own journey of intellectual engagement and understanding, through a critical analyses of the most influential contemporary communication industries, whose work often goes unseen or unnoticed. You should expect to be challenged by core and extended readings, be ready to participate in seminar activities, to engage with your classmates in robust discussions, and to use your critical capacities in new and creative ways. 

Student comments from 2017/18, the first year of delivery, include:

'This class is amazing!'

'Very stimulating, very helpful, very interesting'

'The seminars are great, Dr Edwards uses examples that are relevant and interesting'

'Seminar group activities and discussions are particularly helpful in further understanding class materials'

'Topics covered are very interesting'