Communication

This course consists of a series of interactive workshops that provide an opportunity to design, practice, and deliver academic presentations in the student’s field of study. It covers the preparation stage of effective and memorable presentations, how to structure thoughts, and how to hone presentation skills to persuade in lectures, oral exams, master theses defenses, conferences, and public speaking in general. Topics include designing, preparing, and structuring informative and persuasive presentations; creating supporting slides; using correct academic and domain specific language; speaking confidently with appropriate rate, projection, pitch, and tone; implementing nonverbal communication such as facial expression, eye contact, moving with the slides; using vocal variety and pauses to spellbind the audience; switching on the charisma button; applying “logos, ethos, and pathos”; expanding one’s comfort zone in front of an audience and delivering with confidence; analyzing and critiquing presentations in a detailed and diplomatic way; and dealing with fear when speaking in front of an audience. 

This course aims to highlight the importance of communication with stakeholders and an understanding of public relations methods. The course utilizes various media to acquire basic knowledge of effective public relations.

Communication is the key to any organization’s success. With the diversification of societal needs and business environment, it is crucial for companies to implement an effective public relations strategy as part of their management strategy and to build a trust-based relationship with stakeholders. For effective public relations/corporate communications, companies need to understand mass media and social media, with the latter receiving considerable attention from the business world as a direct and fast-acting communication channel with their high-priority stakeholders.

 

This course covers practical leadership and negotiation techniques to maximize effectiveness and contribution in the workplace setting. It emphasizes strategic management skills to effectively manage teams, team-working capacity, and problem-solving abilities. The course also covers different types of negotiations, basic bargaining skills, and strategies for mutual gain.

This course explores different aspects and contexts of Chinese communication. The various contexts of Chinese communication include advertising, business, the press, social communication, regional usages, pop culture, translations, meaning of Chinese names, codeswitching and the use of Chinese dialects. 

This course prepares students to use simple quantitative methods in their dissertations, and provides the conceptual tools needed to produce, commission, evaluate, and interpret statistical information in professional contexts. It provides a brief but systematic introduction to three forms of data collection: sample surveys, experiments, and content analysis. It explains the theory behind these techniques, the form that they would ideally take, the compromises that are made in order to conduct them in the real world, and the consequences which those compromises have for the reliability of findings. Students create proposals for quantitative research projects, analyze pre-prepared datasets, and receive an introduction to the practicalities of data collection by jointly designing and conducting a piece of survey research. 

The aim of this lecture is to familiarize students with the various methods of media research (both quantitative and qualitative) and their theoretical backgrounds. Students may already know (and be using) some of the methods and theories, but this course aims to enlighten them of other approaches as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the various methods.

The course includes engagement with videos about media research methods as well as discussion of recent articles from media and communication journals. Students will be expected to introduce each article in class to facilitate the discussion. Students will gain an understanding of the different kinds of media research methods, as well as when, how and why they were developed. This is not a practical course so students will not be taught how to use particular methods, but this course should help them make a more informed choice of research methods for their own projects.

The aim of the course is to learn and discuss 1) Basic concepts of communication/intercultural communication, and 2) Basic/universal emotions and different emotions between cultures. More specifically, the course examines (a) how openly certain emotions tend to be expressed; (b) how often certain emotions tend to be controlled, and (c) how differently certain emotions tend to be perceived in particular cultures. The course also addresses how different emotions between cultures could be related to different perceptions of “self” and cognitive styles such as thought patterns.

This course is a work experience placement, which students undertake in an art-related work environment in London. Students examine established and emerging art world careers, together with cultural and management issues related to the creative sector. Part of the class is a range of sessions designed to develop and enhance students’ professional skills, including training on wider employability skills, such interview skills, networking, and communication. Students are introduced to contemporary management models for commercial and non-commercial practices through theory, case studies, and practical work. The course prepares students for a wide range of careers in the art world, wider creative sector, or for further study.

This course is designed to explore what it takes to be a successful diplomat. The course works under the premise that many "qualified" leaders too often disqualify themselves by lacking the basic communication, presentation, leadership, empathy, and listening skills amongst many others. This workshop-style seminar highlights the most essential soft skills that are needed to make it in the world of politics. Toward that end, this course includes the teaching of advanced techniques for delivering great speeches as well as successfully taking charge and winning complex communication settings like negotiation, mediation, interviews, and debates. Media training, body language, emotional intelligence as well as negotiation strategies are the common thread underlying all lectures to practice the art of public speaking and negotiating. While this course develops these skills in a political and diplomatic setting, all techniques described and taught are applicable to any communication setting regardless of the occupation and background of the communicator. All skills reviewed in this course are presented from a theoretical point of view and taken into consideration with different layers of analysis: social, cultural, educational, religious, and generational background to name a few. In addition, the course offers a specific lecture designed for future women diplomats and political leaders to discuss the different pressures placed on them in a political communication setting and to raise awareness among male students.

The course provides an introduction to environmental journalism addressing the key themes of poverty and development, climate, water, energy, biodiversity, consumerism, garbage, etc. Topics include ecology, environment and sustainability concepts, and green economy.