Communication Skills (CSK)

This course examines the capability of communication media to persuade and the basic processes involved both cognitive and social psychological theories of influence, attitude change and persuasion are examined in detail and in connection with a variety of persuasive phenomena including advertising media campaigns and propaganda. Conditions that facilitate or impede the persuasive effects of communication are investigated as are the ethical implications of employing communication media to influence audiences.

This course enables students to get a firm grip on the theory and practice of communication design. It also gets them to look beyond aesthetic concerns and develop an integrated, multidimensional understanding of this ever-changing field.

This course introduces students to contemporary communication processes and effects. Basic processes involved in the production dissemination. Reception and impact communication are examined. The course investigates a variety of effects on individuals’ knowledge, attitudes, behaviours as well as influences on the functioning of larger social systems. It proceeds from investigations of individual level to societal level impact.

This course explores the importance of customer service to an organisation’s success or overall business output. It helps students understand the need for creating and sustaining standards of excellent customer service in business operation for all kinds of organisations whether government or private.  It also explores effective ways of developing and motivating employees and measuring service levels. It also examines how delivering customer service transforms organisations from ordinary to extra ordinary.

This course introduces the history, purpose, channels, content, technologies, policy, and regulation of international communications systems. Issues covered include: differences in media infrastructure between nations and regions; international trends in the development, appropriation and governance of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and media industries; patterns in international news, entertainment and information flows, and the emergence of global communication in historical perspective.

This introductory course, designed for career changers and those new to public relations, details the ideas, skills, and principles that underlie the public relations craft. Students in this class study the role and contributions of public relations practitioners in contemporary society, learn about potential legal and ethical aspects of the practice of public relations, study the communication process and how persuasion is used with various audiences, and learn how to develop a strategic communication plan to achieve specific goals and objectives.

This course is an introduction to the theory and research of the mental processes of a communicating individual. Topics include how individuals process and remember communicating information, how motivation influences processing of communication and how attitudes form and change.

The course also reviews critically a variety of experimental and survey based techniques for observation of message processing (e.g. signal detection, physiological response, think aloud and thorough listing approaching, modelling of time sequenced processes).

This course explores inter-individual and inter-group relationships in communication using insights from a variety of disciplines like speech communication, sociology, psychology, anthropology and philosophy. Theories and research from these areas are applied to asses any communalities and differences underlying messages between individuals, ethnic and religious groups, generations, races, sex, etc. Emphasis will be places on ways applying these insights to reduce social conflict and national and international tension.

CSK 2103: MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION

This course is survey of the present state and future applications of interactive communication technologies, cable and satellite delivery systems, worldwide computing network and other electronic media. It examines the impact of these technologies on society behaviour as well as their influences on communication. Topics include the way technology affects cognitive processing of messages, knowledge representations, visualization and the manner in which communication technologies are adapted and implemented for various purposes.