PRA Major Curriculum Structure (2023 Intake Onwards)

PRAO3035 Public Relations Writing (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

This course provides instruction and writing practice designed to develop the professional-level writing skills expected of beginning public relations practitioners, emphasizing the different approaches required for particular audiences and media.

PRAO3047 Corporate Social Responsibility and Stakeholder Engagement (3 units)

Prerequisite:  Year 3 standing or above; PRAO2005 Introduction to Public Relations and Advertising (for non-PRA students)

Medium of Instruction:  English

This course highlights the theory and practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and engagement of organizations with key stakeholders and their communities to build relationships and collaborate in sustainable community programmes across different sectors. It also includes the business integration, strategic planning, engagement approach, communication strategies, measurement, and reporting of CSR. Through a critical analysis of case studies from overseas and successful local CSR programmes, students will develop a strategic CSR plan for an organization.

PRAO4016 Strategic Issues and Crisis Management (3 units)

Prerequisite:  Year 4 standing; PRAO2005 Introduction to Public Relations and Advertising (for non-PRA students)

Medium of Instruction:  English

This course investigates the concepts of issues and crisis management, the relationship between public relations and the handling of issues and crises, and the theories and techniques of planning for crisis communication for an organization. Crisis management is a multifaceted discipline that involves components from issues management, strategic crisis communication, to reputation management. This course aims to equip students with the necessary skills and abilities to identify and prepare for issues and crises, to diagnose the nature of an issue and crisis, to communicate strategically, and to recover and learn from crises. The emphasis of this course, thus is on both the preventive and reactive phases of crisis management.

PRAO2046 Internal Communication and Employee Engagement (3 units)

Medium of Instruction:

English

Organizations recognize that effective communication with their workforce is crucial for sustaining success, reputation, and profitability.  Communication professionals are confronted with challenges to managing relationships and building engagement among various internal stakeholders.  This course covers a wide range of issues related to internal communication and employee engagement.  Students will learn strategies, tactics, and skills for effective planning for internal communication.

PRAO3017 Digital Public Relations (3 units)

Prerequisite:   Year 3 standing or above; PRAO2005 Introduction to Public Relations and Advertising (for non-PRA students)

Medium of Instruction:  English

This course introduces the trend of digital media use and its effects on user generated content (electronic word of mouth) and strategic public relations. Through in-depth examination of the uses and effects of various new media technologies (e.g. blogs/microblogs, online newswires, podcasts, social networking services, mobile devices, generative artificial intelligence, etc.), students should be able to develop communication strategies for public relations practices. This course is aimed to equip students with ability to plan for public relations campaigns in the ever changing media environment.

PRAO3046 Audience Measurement and Engagement (3 units)

Prerequisite:  Year 3 standing or above; PRAO2005 Introduction to Public Relations and Advertising (for non-PRA students)

Medium of Instruction:  English

This course will examine the roles of audience measurement and engagement strategies in the advertising and public relations context. All forms of media including online and offline media, as well as product placements, will be examined. With technological changes, this course will examine creative ways of engaging audience through social media presence, search-based targeting, and space/location based engagement.

PRAO3067 Health Communication and Information Campaigns (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

This course provides an overview of the use of information campaigns as a tool to foster public health communication and enhance health outcomes. Students will learn about the critical role of communication theories and practices in campaign design, implementation, and evaluation. Students will also have the opportunity to examine significant issues and principles critical to the effectiveness of a health communication campaign. Topics to be covered in this course will include, but are not limited to, health promotion, disease prevention, risk and crisis communication in health settings, media representations of health, health information and misinformation, cultural conceptions of health and illness, e-health, and individual management of health beliefs, health information, and health behaviors.

PRAO4045 Media Relations Writing and Training (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above; PRAO3035 Public Relations Writing or PRAO3066 Writing for Professional Communication

Medium of Instruction: English

This course provides instruction and writing practice designed to develop the professional-level writing skills expected of beginning public relations practitioners, emphasizing the different approaches required for particular audiences and media.

This course advances the level of competency by building on third-year introductory public relations writing course. This course explores, especially, writing abilities necessary for handling different and more complex communication situations. Topics cover a wide range of essential high-end corporate communication and media relations writing practices.

COMM2026 Human Communication (3 units)

Medium of Instruction:

English

This course is designed to introduce the basic concepts, theories, and research perspectives within the field of human communication. Specifically, the course provides a framework from which you can think theoretically about communicative practices. Key approaches to the study of human interaction across various realms will be introduced: the verbal and nonverbal aspects of human interaction; the perception of the self and others in the communication process; and the processes and meanings of interaction in varied contexts, such as interpersonal, small groups, organizations, public, and intercultural communication. By semester end, students will be able to apply principles for effective communication in relating to others and have a fuller understanding of appropriate and effective communication based on knowledge of theoretical concepts and their applications.

PRAO2036 Group Communication (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 2 standing or above

Theories and processes of small groups are reviewed as relevant to enhance communication skills necessary for productive group interaction. Emphasis is placed on the types of small group discussions oriented towards effective problem solving, decision- making, and conflict management, as well as the role of leadership in the process, focusing on the behaviour of groups and leaders as inherently communicative. Students will study small group and leadership communication theory, research, and practice from several different perspectives, focusing on how group synergy emerges from the communication.

PRAO2037 Interpersonal Communication (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 2 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

This course introduces the theories and principles of effective communication as they apply to interpersonal and relational contexts of interaction. It aims to increase students’ ability to note communication patterns and processes, and to make active and constructive choices during their interaction with other people. Analysis of the major variables in face-to-face communication include topics on verbal and nonverbal behaviours, self-awareness and disclosure, interpersonal perceptions and communication competence, and types of relationship.

PRAO2045 Interviewing (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 2 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

Interpersonal communication in interviewing situations is examined including dyadic communication principles and specific applications in selection, appraisal, counselling, exit, journalistic, and survey interview situations.

PRAO2046 Internal Communication and Employee Engagement (3 units)

Medium of Instruction:

English

Organizations recognize that effective communication with their workforce is crucial for sustaining success, reputation, and profitability.  Communication professionals are confronted with challenges to managing relationships and building engagement among various internal stakeholders.  This course covers a wide range of issues related to internal communication and employee engagement.  Students will learn strategies, tactics, and skills for effective planning for internal communication.

PRAO2047 Media Design for Corporate Communication (3 units)

Medium of Instruction:

English

The goal of this course is to prepare students with the essential concepts, principles, skills and software tools to create works of corporate communication across contemporary digital media platforms (e.g., print communications, social media, mobile apps, web, intranet).  Emphasis is placed on developing the students' capabilities to devise and create effective text, photo, graphic, audio, and video solutions for given communication problems in an organizational setting.  This course will provide students with hands-on experience on how to effectively design and produce digital content on a variety of multimedia platforms for an internal and external audience.  By learning how to develop coherent messages and stories with a combination of different visual and audio elements, and by applying design thinking, visualization principles, persuasion theories and writing principles in the message production process, this course will not only equip students' multimedia design and production skills but also foster their storytelling and critical-thinking skills.  Students will also create a portfolio of their original communication work to use for their internship and future full-time employment applications.

PRAO2055 Programming for Digital Communication (3 units)

Medium of Instruction:

English

This course is designed as an introduction to programming for data science.  It is structured to benefit mostly for students who have no or very little programming knowledge and experience.  This course is also used as a preparation for more advanced application courses of data analytics, data visualization, and algorithm.  The aim of this course, hence, is to take students, with no prior experience of thinking in a computational manner, to a point where they are capable of deriving algorithms and codes, using Python, and be ready to solve communication-related problems in the contexts of organizational communication, public relations, and advertising.  This course will provide students with the concepts and skills in computational thinking and data science.  Students will acquire hands-on experience using Python and the popular packages related to data manipulation, processing, and analysis.  Students are required to be able to independently develop Python codes in a professional manner for elementary algorithms in data science.

PRAO3005 Content Creation in Advertising (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

Cantonese

This course deals with the concepts and techniques of advertising copywriting by introducing the importance for advertising copy. By establishing a basic understanding of advertising approach, starting from a brief to an advertising campaign, conceptual thinking and practical works will be demonstrated simultaneously.

PRAO3007 Advertising Design and Visualization (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

This course focuses on the creative and visual aspects of advertising design. Students are required to generate creative ideas and visualize their concepts aided by computer. Learning will be emphasized through the hands-on practice of assignments and projects.

PRAO3017 Digital Public Relations (3 units)

Prerequisite:   Year 3 standing or above; PRAO2005 Introduction to Public Relations and Advertising (for non-PRA students)

Medium of Instruction:  English

This course introduces the trend of digital media use and its effects on user generated content (electronic word of mouth) and strategic public relations. Through in-depth examination of the uses and effects of various new media technologies (e.g. blogs/microblogs, online newswires, podcasts, social networking services, mobile devices, generative artificial intelligence, etc.), students should be able to develop communication strategies for public relations practices. This course is aimed to equip students with ability to plan for public relations campaigns in the ever changing media environment.

PRAO3027 Digital Audio and Video Production (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

This course provides an introduction to the creation and use of sequence and time-based media for storytelling and persuasion, as well as its application in advertising, public relations and organizational communication. Building on the foundations for design with discrete media, sequences and time add unique potential for the communication process.

PRAO3065 Fundraising Events, Sponsorships, and Donor Management (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

This course will teach students the principles of fundraising for nonprofit organisations. This course will also look at several methods for raising funds from individuals, corporations, foundations, and the government. The importance of donor management and stewardship, fundraising planning process and assessment, and sponsorship will be discussed. The emphasis of this course is both theoretical and practical; we want students to use the ideas they learn in class directly to create and conduct a fundraising initiative for a local non-profit client.

PRAO3066 Writing for Professional Communication (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

This course aims to develops students’ abilities to analyze and produce major types of professional writing in different organizational contexts, such as private enterprises, community organizations, consultancies, professions, and NGOs.  Students learns how to effectively craft documents ranging from business proposals, CEO speeches, crisis responses, brochures, and annual reports to any other types of in-house publications.  The course also enhances students' writing competence and visual design skills in communicating through digital platforms.  At the end of the course, students will be able to create effective, appropriate, and strategic written works for different audiences including stakeholders, clients, and the general public in today's digital, social, and mobile world.

PRAO3067 Health Communication and Information Campaigns (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

This course provides an overview of the use of information campaigns as a tool to foster public health communication and enhance health outcomes. Students will learn about the critical role of communication theories and practices in campaign design, implementation, and evaluation. Students will also have the opportunity to examine significant issues and principles critical to the effectiveness of a health communication campaign. Topics to be covered in this course will include, but are not limited to, health promotion, disease prevention, risk and crisis communication in health settings, media representations of health, health information and misinformation, cultural conceptions of health and illness, e-health, and individual management of health beliefs, health information, and health behaviors.

PRAO3075 Intercultural Communication (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

The course will cover some important theories and practices which underlie the study of intercultural communication. Structures and barriers developed within and between cultures as they affect communication will be examined.

PRAO3076 Communication Training for Organizations (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Completion of Year 2

Medium of Instruction:

English

In an ever-changing and fast-paced corporate world, communication training is indispensable for employees to improve their work productivity, efficiencies and relationships with colleagues and bosses.  Advancements in technology and diversity in organizations have also placed increasing emphasis on the need for communication training.  This course is designed to provide students with the knowledge, strategies and tools to become more effective and impactful workplace communicators.  Both theoretical and practical approaches to communication training will be examined in this course.  Specifically, this course starts with an overview of the communication training design process, needs assessment, and theories for effective learning and training transfer.  Then, various applied communication issues like workplace etiquette, diversity and cultural awareness, anger management, press conferences and virtual teams' communication will be studied.  Through a blend of lectures, group discussions and interactive workshop activities, students will be able to handle different communication scenarios and effect positive outcomes in and beyond the organizations.

PRAO3085 Social Media @ Work (3 units)

Medium of Instruction:

English

Modern information and communication technologies, especially social media, have profoundly changed the way that people work together.  Organizations must decide on the ways that they can use enterprise social media tools to support their internal and external processes.  Tools such as Facebook, WeChat, Jive, Slack, Socialcast, Periscope, Snapchat, Twitter, and WhatsApp are already used widely in organizations, yet many organizations struggle to use them effectively.  In this course, we study the influence that social media have on organizations from several perspectives.  First, we study the interplay between trends and innovations in society, IT (i.e., social media) and organization.  We provide an overview of the unique characteristics of social media, and discuss the most important theories regarding the use of IT and social media in organizations.  Second, we study the way in which organizations incorporate these new technologies in the work environment, for purposes of communication and collaboration (e.g., teleconferencing, virtual teams), knowledge management and sharing (e.g., via Networks of Practice), and to harness employees' creativity and expertise (e.g., via internal wiki's or innovation platforms). Third, we study how the modern-day professional (i.e., the knowledge worker), makes use of social media to support their everyday work and personal life.  We discuss the consequences of telework (e.g., via cloud-computing) in both professional and private life, we investigate how employees keep in touch with and work together with colleagues (e.g., via WhatsApp/ WeChat or social network sites), and we study how professionals express their professional identity online (e.g., via LinkedIn or Twitter).

PRAO3087 Organizational Communication Issues and Processes (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 2 standing or above

Organisational Communication Issues and Processes is about the communicative interaction between stakeholder within organisations. This course examines various (strategic) issues and processes relevant to communication in organisations. The course discusses management approaches and its consequences for organisational communication. Moreover it focuses on a variety of possible issues in organisations like: workplace relations, bullying behaviour, employee wellbeing, organisational justice and change.

PRAO4006 Advanced Qualitative Communication Research (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

In practice, communication professionals need research to develop their strategic plans, task creativity and advices to the management. This course is based on the concepts of qualitative communication research methods and their applications to the study of public relations, advertising and branding. This course will help students develop the problem-solving skills through practices in qualitative communication research design, implementation, analysis, and reporting of these results to clients for understanding of stakeholder behaviours and media consumption, designing communication strategies, or testing creative concepts. This course prepares final-year students develop qualitative research skills for their honours projects and communication projects upon graduation.

PRAO4027 Financial Public Relations (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

This course investigates the application of public relations in the financial sectors. It also examines how to develop trust and strengthen relationships between financial institutions and their various stakeholders via strategic financial marketing communication programmes.

PRAO4037 Narrative and Brand Storytelling (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

This course explores how brands are using storytelling to build their brand image and create emotional connection with their customers.  Students will understand the concepts and narrative techniques used in strategic brand/organisation communications, with an emphasis on emerging areas of  brand building, digital content, and advertising.  Students will also have hands-on experiences in analysing examples of real-life stories and developing their own narrative storytelling.

PRAO4045 Media Relations Writing and Training (3 units)

Prerequisite: Year 3 standing or above; PRAO3035 Public Relations Writing or PRAO3066 Writing for Professional Communication

Medium of Instruction: English

This course provides instruction and writing practice designed to develop the professional-level writing skills expected of beginning public relations practitioners, emphasizing the different approaches required for particular audiences and media.

This course advances the level of competency by building on third-year introductory public relations writing course. This course explores, especially, writing abilities necessary for handling different and more complex communication situations. Topics cover a wide range of essential high-end corporate communication and media relations writing practices.

PRAO4047 Service Experiences and Luxury Branding (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

This course is designed to develop the perspective and intellectual ability of students in understanding the principles and practices of the services and luxury sector. Communicating branded services and luxury introduces a number of unique challenges, ranging from critical control over brand image, distinctive consumption pattern to emphasis on customer-brand  relationship. Students will explore aspects of brand management, market structure, and consumer profiles of the services and luxury industry. This course aims to engage students in a critical discussion on the complex interplay of cultural, economic and consumer factors in driving the development of service experiences and luxury branding.

PRAO4056 Creative Brand Expression (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

This course stresses advertising creative concept and its expression in brand communications, with applications in the use of different media channels. Students are encouraged to bridge up the task of promotional communications with that of strategic marketing planning and understanding of brands in the form of advertising campaign. Hand-on practices from idea development to execution are required in the class. Practical exercises and case studies are conducted in both Chinese and English languages.

PRAO4057 Organizational Decision Making and Problem Solving (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

Problem solving is a set of activities and procedures designed to analyse a situation systematically and generate, implement, and evaluate solutions. Decision making is a mechanism for exercising judgment and making choices at each step of the problem-solving process. To come up with sound solutions to problems, one must understand the judgment processes so as to avoid one's own biases. This course introduces the fundamentals of human judgment processes such as biases, errors, heuristics and rationality. Judgment and decision making are examined in a variety of organizational contexts. Practical strategies are provided for changing and improving decision-making processes in reaching sensible and effective solutions for various problems in organizations and organizational communication.

PRAO4065 Advanced Quantitative Communication Research (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

The key to effective communication is research. This course prepares final-year students develop quantitative research skills for their honours projects and communication projects upon graduation. This course will help students develop the problem-solving skills through practices in quantitative research design, implementation, analysis, and reporting of these results to clients. You will learn the most important quantitative and computational research methods used in the field—content analysis, surveys, experiment, big data analytics—and gain experience with data analyses.

PRAO4066 Leadership Communication (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

This course introduces students to leadership communication studies. Students will be exposed to many writings and ideas of leadership theorists and practitioners. Emphasis will be given to the role of communication in leadership processes typified in emergence, influence, and outcomes. Students will analyse the thoughts and practices of various leadership studies, theories, and styles and will discuss their potential applications in modern organizations. Students will gain a broad understanding of how leadership emerges and is enacted on a daily basis through communication.

PRAO4067 Communication Entrepreneurship (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

It is often not the quality of the idea, but the ability to develop and communicate a compelling vision that makes the difference between a successful entrepreneurial venture and an initial failure. This course introduces students to entrepreneurial theories, processes, and practices, with a particular focus on entrepreneurship in the media and communication context. Students will learn about initiating, communicating, and financing entrepreneurial ventures in an existing or new enterprise, and then apply the concepts learnt to their own ideas.

PRAO4075 Comprehensive Management Trainee Assessment (3 units)

Prerequisite:

cGPA 2.8 and Year 3 standing or above

This course introduces students to various types of management trainee programmes. Lectures cover basic and advanced concepts in assessment theory and research. Students participate in simulated aptitude tests assessing personality traits, analytical reasoning, and quantitative skills, experience simulated group interviews and one- on-one interviews. Students become familiar with management trainee selection process, develop confidence, and enhance career aspirations. The tangible outcome is the majority of the enrollees applying management trainee positions and make successful careers in management in the communication industry sector and other sectors as well.

PRAO4076 Conflict and Negotiation (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

This course examines various theoretical approaches to negotiation and conflict management. The "Western" and "Eastern" negotiation styles will be compared and contrasted. Students will be involved in various simulated intercultural negotiation situations.

PRAO4087 Algorithm and Communication (3 units)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is considered as one of the most important general-purpose technologies of our ear.  AI has the potential to catalyze waves of complementary innovations and opportunities, and it is poised to have a transformational impact on business as well as communication processes.  This course provides students with an understanding of the fundamental concepts and essential terminologies of AI and various AI technologies.  Students will get an overview of the current developments of AI technologies among the world's tech giants (e.g., Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Tencent, Alibaba Group) and the global trends of how various AI technologies are in use in different industries.  Special focus will be placed on the applications of  AI technology in the contexts of internal communication, public relations, and advertising, and how to prepare an organization to leverage the advantages of AI technology in a competitive marketplace.  In addition to the discussion of theoretical concepts and business implications of AI, this course will provide opportunities to students to engage in practical exercises to develop their skills in using AI technologies.  This course will also discuss the ethical and social issues in the applications of AI technology.

UCLC1005 University Chinese 大學中文 (3 units)

Medium of Instruction:

Cantonese or Putonghua

This course comprises three teaching and learning units: (1) Essence of written expression; (2) Expository reading and writing; (3) Argumentative reading and writing.

Unit 1: (1) Analysing Chinese sentence structure; (2) Producing concise writing pieces; (3) Identifying ungrammatical expressions.

Unit 2: (1) Analysing selected expository masterpieces; (2) Applying expository techniques in verbal expressions; (3) Writing an advanced expository essay.

Unit 3: (1) Analysing selected argumentative masterpieces; (2) Applying argumentative techniques in verbal expressions; (3) Writing an advanced argumentative essay.

本課程共有三個教學單元：一、書面表述要則；二、說明篇章讀寫；三、議論篇章讀寫。
單元一：(1) 句子結構分析；(2) 書寫清通語段；(3) 辨識文辭正誤。
單元二：(1) 說明名篇賞析；(2) 說明方法及應用；(3) 撰寫說明篇章。
單元三：(1) 議論名篇賞析；(2) 議論方法及應用；(3) 撰寫議論篇章。

UCLC1008 University English I (3 units)

Medium of Instruction:

English

This course aims to enhance students’ English language skills in critical reading, academic writing as well as speaking.

This course strengthens students’ ability to: (1) read academic discourse by analysing of the rhetorical and linguistic features used in academic writing; (2) respond critically to ideas through examining and evaluating evidence and arguments; (3) write coherent and structured academic essays by developing core transferable skills in critical thinking, reading, and writing; and (4) use reflection and self-assessment to become a more independent and competent readers, listeners and writers. 

PRAO2046 Internal Communication and Employee Engagement (3 units)

Medium of Instruction:

English

Organizations recognize that effective communication with their workforce is crucial for sustaining success, reputation, and profitability.  Communication professionals are confronted with challenges to managing relationships and building engagement among various internal stakeholders.  This course covers a wide range of issues related to internal communication and employee engagement.  Students will learn strategies, tactics, and skills for effective planning for internal communication.

PRAO2047 Media Design for Corporate Communication (3 units)

Medium of Instruction:

English

The goal of this course is to prepare students with the essential concepts, principles, skills and software tools to create works of corporate communication across contemporary digital media platforms (e.g., print communications, social media, mobile apps, web, intranet).  Emphasis is placed on developing the students' capabilities to devise and create effective text, photo, graphic, audio, and video solutions for given communication problems in an organizational setting.  This course will provide students with hands-on experience on how to effectively design and produce digital content on a variety of multimedia platforms for an internal and external audience.  By learning how to develop coherent messages and stories with a combination of different visual and audio elements, and by applying design thinking, visualization principles, persuasion theories and writing principles in the message production process, this course will not only equip students' multimedia design and production skills but also foster their storytelling and critical-thinking skills.  Students will also create a portfolio of their original communication work to use for their internship and future full-time employment applications.

PRAO3087 Organizational Communication Issues and Processes (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 2 standing or above

Organisational Communication Issues and Processes is about the communicative interaction between stakeholder within organisations. This course examines various (strategic) issues and processes relevant to communication in organisations. The course discusses management approaches and its consequences for organisational communication. Moreover it focuses on a variety of possible issues in organisations like: workplace relations, bullying behaviour, employee wellbeing, organisational justice and change.

PRAO3065 Fundraising Events, Sponsorships, and Donor Management (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

This course will teach students the principles of fundraising for nonprofit organisations. This course will also look at several methods for raising funds from individuals, corporations, foundations, and the government. The importance of donor management and stewardship, fundraising planning process and assessment, and sponsorship will be discussed. The emphasis of this course is both theoretical and practical; we want students to use the ideas they learn in class directly to create and conduct a fundraising initiative for a local non-profit client.

PRAO3067 Health Communication and Information Campaigns (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Year 3 standing or above

Medium of Instruction:

English

This course provides an overview of the use of information campaigns as a tool to foster public health communication and enhance health outcomes. Students will learn about the critical role of communication theories and practices in campaign design, implementation, and evaluation. Students will also have the opportunity to examine significant issues and principles critical to the effectiveness of a health communication campaign. Topics to be covered in this course will include, but are not limited to, health promotion, disease prevention, risk and crisis communication in health settings, media representations of health, health information and misinformation, cultural conceptions of health and illness, e-health, and individual management of health beliefs, health information, and health behaviors.

PRAO3076 Communication Training for Organizations (3 units)

Prerequisite:

Completion of Year 2

Medium of Instruction:

English

In an ever-changing and fast-paced corporate world, communication training is indispensable for employees to improve their work productivity, efficiencies and relationships with colleagues and bosses.  Advancements in technology and diversity in organizations have also placed increasing emphasis on the need for communication training.  This course is designed to provide students with the knowledge, strategies and tools to become more effective and impactful workplace communicators.  Both theoretical and practical approaches to communication training will be examined in this course.  Specifically, this course starts with an overview of the communication training design process, needs assessment, and theories for effective learning and training transfer.  Then, various applied communication issues like workplace etiquette, diversity and cultural awareness, anger management, press conferences and virtual teams' communication will be studied.  Through a blend of lectures, group discussions and interactive workshop activities, students will be able to handle different communication scenarios and effect positive outcomes in and beyond the organizations.

PRAO2055 Programming for Digital Communication (3 units)

Medium of Instruction:

English

This course is designed as an introduction to programming for data science.  It is structured to benefit mostly for students who have no or very little programming knowledge and experience.  This course is also used as a preparation for more advanced application courses of data analytics, data visualization, and algorithm.  The aim of this course, hence, is to take students, with no prior experience of thinking in a computational manner, to a point where they are capable of deriving algorithms and codes, using Python, and be ready to solve communication-related problems in the contexts of organizational communication, public relations, and advertising.  This course will provide students with the concepts and skills in computational thinking and data science.  Students will acquire hands-on experience using Python and the popular packages related to data manipulation, processing, and analysis.  Students are required to be able to independently develop Python codes in a professional manner for elementary algorithms in data science.

PRAO3017 Digital Public Relations (3 units)

Prerequisite:   Year 3 standing or above; PRAO2005 Introduction to Public Relations and Advertising (for non-PRA students)

Medium of Instruction:  English

This course introduces the trend of digital media use and its effects on user generated content (electronic word of mouth) and strategic public relations. Through in-depth examination of the uses and effects of various new media technologies (e.g. blogs/microblogs, online newswires, podcasts, social networking services, mobile devices, generative artificial intelligence, etc.), students should be able to develop communication strategies for public relations practices. This course is aimed to equip students with ability to plan for public relations campaigns in the ever changing media environment.

PRAO3046 Audience Measurement and Engagement (3 units)

Prerequisite:  Year 3 standing or above; PRAO2005 Introduction to Public Relations and Advertising (for non-PRA students)

Medium of Instruction:  English

This course will examine the roles of audience measurement and engagement strategies in the advertising and public relations context. All forms of media including online and offline media, as well as product placements, will be examined. With technological changes, this course will examine creative ways of engaging audience through social media presence, search-based targeting, and space/location based engagement.

PRAO3086 Data Analytics and Visualization for Strategic Communication (3 units)

Big data and data analytics have fundamentally transformed the way how brands communicate with the consumers and stakeholders. This course will introduce how a company or an organization can make use of behavioral data to understand, manage, and communicate with its consumers. The course will provide students with a foundation in data analytics and visualization as well as hands-on experience with real world data and tools. Emphasis is placed on the implications for communication strategy and strategic planning. The course applies the insights of analytics of the company’s owned media, users’ generated contents, as well as social and digital media analytics to help students gain consumer, media, and message insights. Not only will this course equip students’ data analytics and visualization skills but it will also foster their storytelling skills when they present their clients with strategies for marketing communication.