Communicating with Intent: Strategic Communication Foundations (12223.1)

Communication is a powerful tool for building relationships, managing reputation, and achieving organisational goals. In this unit, you will explore the principles and practices of strategic communication and public relations and their role in shaping media narratives, influencing public discourse, and engaging key publics. You will examine foundational theories that underpin strategic communication, gaining insight into how organisations have used communication - historically and in contemporary practice - to inform, persuade, and connect across traditional, digital and social media channels. This unit gives you the essential knowledge and skills for a career in strategic communication, whether in corporate, government, nonprofit, or digital spaces.

Learning outcomes

After successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1. Discuss key concepts, theories, roles, and functions of strategic communication, linking them to real-world examples;
2. Analyse how organisations, brands, and individuals use strategic communication to inform, persuade, and engage key publics across different media platforms;
3. Apply strategic communication principles in a variety of professional contexts; and
4. Critically evaluate the role of strategic communication in society, considering its ethical, social, and professional implications.

Graduate attributes

1. UC graduates are professional - communicate effectively
1. UC graduates are professional - employ up-to-date and relevant knowledge and skills
1. UC graduates are professional - use creativity, critical thinking, analysis and research skills to solve theoretical and real-world problems
1. UC graduates are professional - work collaboratively as part of a team, negotiate, and resolve conflict
2. UC graduates are global citizens - make creative use of technology in their learning and professional lives
2. UC graduates are global citizens - think globally about issues in their profession
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - adapt to complexity, ambiguity and change by being flexible and keen to engage with new ideas
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - be self-aware
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - reflect on their own practice, updating and adapting their knowledge and skills for continual professional and academic development
4. UC graduates are able to demonstrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing - apply their knowledge to working with Indigenous Australians in socially just ways

Prerequisites

None.

Corequisites

None.

Incompatible units

None.

Equivalent units

11103 Corporate and Public Communication Foundations

Assumed knowledge

None.