Master of Strategic Communication (Online)

Program Overview

The Master of Strategic Communication from UTS Online equips students with the knowledge and skills to develop effective communication strategies that deliver results. Through a blend of theoretical and practical learning, students explore contemporary communication practices, intercultural communication, and stakeholder engagement. The program prepares graduates for leadership roles in the communication profession, with career opportunities in areas such as public relations, advertising, and corporate communications.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

Master of Strategic Communication

Communicating with purpose, leading with impact

• This program helps people build the knowledge and skills to develop communication that delivers results and effectively meets set objectives.
It prepares students to thrive in the communication environment now and into the future.
• Objective
Advance your potential to become a leader in the communication profession with UTS Online’s Master of Strategic Communication. Access contemporary course content designed by academic scholars and industry experts to provide you with an engaging and high quality learning experience. Leverage the increasing importance of purposeful communication to drive impactful outcomes in businesses and organizations.

Outline:

• Duration:
2 years (minimum)
• Intakes:
Jan, Mar, May, Jul, Aug, Oct
• Subjects:
12 subjects
• Fees:
$3,320 per subject , FEE-HELP available
• Study mode:
100% Online

Understanding Communication in Society 6 CP

Public communication is a critical activity for all organizations, brands and individuals. As the communication landscape is constantly evolving, best practice must be front and center to ensure communication initiatives are contributing to strategic goals. This subject introduces students to contemporary thinking about the development of strategic communication and the impact it has on individuals, brands, organizations and society. Students explore how key theories and concepts are incorporated into contemporary practice, as well as the increasing requirement for integration of multiple forms of public communication including advertising, public relations, and digital and social media communication. In addition, students examine and critically evaluate how people access and consume information today. Students become familiar with the multiple 'touchpoints' between organizations and their publics and the need for organizations to ensure consistency and complementation in their public communication. Throughout, students are introduced to the knowledge and skills required in contemporary practice for planning and designing integrated strategic communication campaigns involving a range of multimedia and multimodal communication activities.

Intercultural and International Communication (6 CP)

In today's increasingly interconnected world, proficient intercultural skills are vital for professionals to effectively engage with stakeholders at a global level, spanning across various organizational or governmental levels. This subject provides students with the theoretical and practical expertise needed in the field of intercultural communication in order to function in the global work environment. Students explore key debates in intercultural theory and communication and analyze and develop strategies for functioning in intercultural situations and organizations. In this subject, students have the opportunity to apply their learning to contemporary, real-world instances of intercultural communication.

Emergent Communication Practices (6 CP)

The way we communicate with each other is constantly evolving as technology and digital media create new and innovative channels of communication. In this subject, students examine the transformative effect that digital communication technology has had across sectors and industries, and how that has driven the emergence of new and evolving forms of communication practice. Students will explore and understand innovative communication channels, such as the development of citizen journalism, social media influencers, digital 'creator culture', digital activism and new forms of content publishing by both individuals, brands, and other organizations. Related to this evolving context for communication practice is the emergence of 'echo chambers' within social media networks, highlighting just one of the challenges that practitioners now face when seeking to engage and inform diverse audiences in an ethical and responsible manner.

Driving Stakeholder Engagement (6 CP)

Successful communication initiatives all share one thing in common; a well-designed and implemented engagement strategy. In this subject, students examine the concept of stakeholder engagement to develop a holistic understanding of the factors that generate or hinder engagement. Students explore key concepts in the phenomena of public engagement, disengagement, and non-engagement such as motivation, trust, cynicism, authenticity and credibility whilst also considering the notions of stakeholders, stake-seekers, audiences and publics. Ultimately, students build the skills required to investigate and apply strategies to enable mutual gains, manage conflict and develop social capital. Students research best practice in engagement with Indigenous organizations and communities and consider cultural competencies needed for practitioners working with and for Indigenous Australians.

Communicating Risk, Issues, and Crises (6 CP)

In today’s world, it has become important for organizations to pre-empt and quickly respond to risk. Thus, having a solid reputation management strategy is critical. This subject introduces students to the overlapping areas of risk, issue, and crisis communication as allied functions in managing communication. Students explore the role of effective communication in relation to issues and crises for reputation management and organizational sustainability. Students examine case studies of best and worst practice to understand how risks can escalate into issues, how issues can turn into crises, and the shifting role of strategic communication in this nexus. Guided by theory, students learn about complexities in developing and implementing communication strategies and tactics in time-pressured environments that threaten organizational objectives, operations, finances and reputation.

Organizational Storytelling and Engagement (6 CP)

Within organizations, storytelling can be deployed to be an impactful tool for bringing people together, and importantly, uniting employees or other groups in the task of working towards a shared goal. This subject examines the importance of employee communication for building and supporting organizational culture, maintaining employee loyalty, and facilitating change. Students learn major methods and media used for organizational communication and employee engagement. Students critically analyze key factors that hinder and facilitate positive cultural and organizational changes. Students leverage these skills to develop ethical and effective internal communication projects that address a range of organizational changes such as mergers and acquisitions, leadership succession and technological disruption.

Contemporary Advertising (6 CP)

Advertising is one of the key methods which organizations use to be relevant and persuasive in the context of the contemporary use of paid media. Within the context of an integrated campaign for a brand or organization, students explore how messages are developed from attributes and other features or other distinctive elements in a brand (product, service, or corporate entity). Students identify how the message provides a benefit to the target audience and apply techniques to articulate that benefit through an appeal, so it is impactful to the audience by being expressed in a creative way. Students are introduced to essential skills required in developing a clear brief for the development of advertising.

Strategic Campaigns (6 CP)

An effective strategic campaign starts with effective planning process to inform the development of messages to be communicated and the techniques used to deploy those messages. In this subject, students explore the processes and purpose of strategic communication campaign planning. This includes learning about objective setting and evaluation frameworks, and the roles they play in strategic direction setting, and decision making. This includes setting roles of communication, establishing campaign frameworks and the importance of listening more than speaking. Students consider how and when integrating diversity, in terms of audiences, cultures, channels, are key to campaign development.

Applied Research Methods (6 CP)

Well-designed and accurate research is a significant contributor to the success of communication initiatives. In this subject, students learn about methods of research used in strategic communication development. This subject purposely focuses on the research planning process with an emphasis on understanding the questions to ask of a research provider when commissioning research, as well as considering the methods used to answer research questions. The use of research methods is considered in the context of the evaluation framework for the communication activity.

Strategic Communication Project (6 CP)

In this capstone subject, students synthesize and apply the skills and knowledge acquired across their studies to produce a work-like strategic communication project. The project may be, for example, a strategic communication plan for an organization or a campaign; a critical analysis of an existing communication strategy or campaign; or an evaluation of a communication strategy or campaign to inform development of a new communication campaign.

Careers:

• Career outcomes:
Career opportunities for graduates of the Master of Strategic Communication include:
• Global Manager of Internal Communications
• Director of Media and Communications
• Director of Public Relations
• Head of Corporate Communications
• Head of Corporate Affairs.
• Average annual salary:
$115,000 for a communication manager with a postgraduate qualification (Seek, 2023). This is 37% higher compared to those without a postgraduate qualification (Payscale, 2023).
• Job satisfaction:
Communication managers rate their role for job satisfaction at 4.1 stars (Seek, 2023).
• Projected job growth:
21.7% in the marketing and advertising industry by 2024 (ABS Labour Force Survey, 2019).
• 15.8% projected job growth rate in public relations by 2024 (ABS Labour Force Survey, 2019).