Rationale

The course aims to provide an understanding of the effects that various digital communication platforms have on the role and function of public relations. As an indispensable aspect of any organisation, the digital communication landscape demands continuous support and enhancement in order to facilitate the operations of different departments and most importantly, that of public relations. The course encourages students to use the relevant digital communication theories and tools to experience and optimize various public relations consultancy environments. Among many, it also introduces topics associated with creating and managing an organisation’s online presence, online customer experience, campaign planning and digital media content creation, which are also further explored during Year 3.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students will be expected to:
(i)    Describe the impact of digital communications platforms on the function of public relations.
(ii)   Discuss the current role and practice of public relations, in terms of the abundance of digital communication resources and tools.
(iii)  Describe the use of digital tactical public relations tools.
(iv)  Explain the ways a public relations practitioner could enhance his professional consultancy activities, through strategic use of internet-based resources.
(v)   Examine the latest developments in digital communications and apply recent techniques and methods.
(vi)  Evaluate the effectiveness of digital communications in the internal and external organisational contexts.