Overview

This unit prepares students for employment as media and communications coordinators by training them to use strategies and skills of media use for effective stakeholder engagement. This unit integrates the three areas of audience engagement practice: audience research, communications strategy, and content creation. This unit will develop students’ capacities to discern the specific needs of diverse audiences, to plan and implement strategies to build relationships and consensus with priority stakeholders, to make complex concepts accessible through appropriate forms of communication, as well as to track and report on the results of engagement initiatives.

Requisites

Teaching periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date
Semester 2
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
29-July-2024
27-October-2024
Last self-enrolment date
11-August-2024
Census date
31-August-2024
Last withdraw without fail date
13-September-2024
Results released date
03-December-2024
Semester 2
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
04-August-2025
02-November-2025
Last self-enrolment date
17-August-2025
Census date
31-August-2025
Last withdraw without fail date
19-September-2025
Results released date
09-December-2025

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Assess the literacies and needs of a range of audience segments, in order to prioritise specific genres, modes, and platforms of communication
  • Design and justify strategies that can be predicted and proven to engage selected audiences
  • Research and generate appropriate content across a range of genres
  • Monitor and evaluate the consistency, quantity, and quality of communication and audience engagement

Teaching methods

Hawthorn

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)
Online
Lecture
1.00  12 weeks  12
On-campus
Class
2.00  12 weeks  24
Specified Activities
Various
10.00  10 weeks  100
Unspecified Activities
Various
1.17  12 weeks  14
TOTAL     150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
Oral PresentationGroup 30% 1,2 
Research ReportIndividual 40% 1,3 
Research ReportGroup 30% 1,2,4 

Content

  • Compelling storytelling: Concept and Craft
  • Community engagement and management
  • Audience research and insights: Quantitative and qualitative methodologies
  • Graduate Attribute – Communication Skills: Verbal communication
  • Graduate Attribute – Communication Skills: Communicating using different media
  • Graduate Attribute – Teamwork Skills: Collaboration and negotiation
  • Graduate Attribute – Teamwork Skills: Teamwork roles and processes
  • Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Information literacy
  • Graduate Attribute – Digital Literacies: Technical literacy

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.