Programme overview

The students are introduced to the multidisciplinary research field and the practice of Strategic Communication and Communication Management. Students acquire different theoretical perspectives, models and concepts as a starting point for further understanding and for specialised study within the field. Students are also introduced to intercultural communication and practical Rhetoric and oral presentation techniques. Industry professionals and alumni contribute as visiting lecturers on the course, providing an insight into future career paths and current issues.

The course considers the strategies by which brands are created and circulated – not only through channels such as promotion and distribution, but also how for example employees are utilized for the purpose of communicating a consistent brand message. The students will critically analyze the underlying ideas that inform how brand messages are constructed, and how for example stereotypes or normative ideas of gender are reproduced in those messages. Starting from situating branding in the context of the development of industrialized production with a perceived greater need for differentiation, the course covers how ideas of communication have changed from providing a distinguishing marker for products to becoming concerned with the management of meaning as a mode of governance. This leads us to question to which extent brand communication finally can be managed, given that meanings are dynamic and contested.

The aim of the course is for students to acquire specialised knowledge within the research field of Organisational Communication. Students gain understanding of the complex relationship between organisations, organisational processes and communication. The course addresses various areas such as identity, culture, leadership, power, change, intelligence work, ICT, intercultural communication and ethics. In addition, students are introduced to issues such as gender and diversity as related to organisations, management and communication.

The purpose of the course is to introduce students to the research field of public relations on the basis of an international perspective. In addition, the course broadens the students' knowledge of different dominant and alternative theories in the field. The course deals with key theories and practical issues defining public relations as a discipline of scholarly enquiry and practical work. Among the subjects addressed in the course are ethics and efficiency, for example in campaigns, and how they are related. Furthermore, the course introduces organisation and management theories on corporate social responsibility (CSR), stakeholder management and legitimacy that have affected public relations as an academic discipline. Finally, the course also deals with campaign planning within public relations.

The aim of the course is to develop the students skills in designing an individual research project based on quantitative methods. The course covers research design, survey methods, and different statistical methods such as cross tabulation, multivariate analysis, correlation, regression analysis and factor analysis, and learns how to use them in SPSS. The course will give the students’ practical experience of research and enable the student to design and undertake an independent research projects in the future.

The aim of the course is to develop the students skills in designing an individual research project based on qualitative methods. The course introduces the students to the epistemological underpinnings of qualitative research and to develop knowledge of a variety of research methods of qualitative data collection and analysis. The course covers collecting, interpreting, and analyzing qualitative data. It pays particular attention to in-depth interviewing, observational and ethnographic approaches, text analysis as well as alternative methods in strategic communication. The course will give the students’ practical experience of research and enable the students to design and undertake an independent research projects in the future.

This course focuses on evaluation research and its utility in strategic communication practice. Students are introduced to communication controlling as a key concept in strategic communication. After the course the students should be acquainted with the theoretical framework for communication controlling as well as its practical implementation. Special attention is paid to the alignment of strategy planning and controlling.

This course introduces students to the theory and practice of crisis communication, i.e. approaches the topic as a field of research as well as an area of practice. The course develops the students' analytical understanding of processes typically leading to crisis, acquiring them with the characteristics of acute and ongoing crisis, and provides tools and strategies to cope and negotiate crisis. Furthermore it increases the students' sensitivity to crisis preparedness and its limits. The course exposes students, in role-plays and simulations, to acute crisis situation, thus challenging them to develop tactics and strategies of crisis-response and to make managerial decisions under time pressure and uncertainty.

Students that choose this option will study courses at the department of Strategic Communication, Lund University. Students can choose to take elective courses which broaden or deepen the students’ academic profile, consequently increase the students’ attractiveness for future industry career, or application for position as a Ph. D. Candidate. The number of courses offered to the students varies every year.

Students that choose this option will study the course Internship while completing a placement in a company, organization, municipality or government agency. Most of the semester is spent on placement, but students work continuously with assignments during the course. The placement can be completed in Sweden or in any other country.

Aided by supervision at the placement-provider, the student is to engage in advanced and varied tasks of both a strategic and operational nature. The duties are to be related to previous studies on the program and the student is to have the opportunity to apply and develop previously acquired knowledge of strategic communication at the host organisation.

The placement has to be approved by the course director. To be accepted, the placement-provider must sign a Letter of Intent in accordance with standards of the Department of Strategic Communication on relevant, varied and qualified work tasks in the field of strategic communication. The responsibility for finding an internship ultimately rests with the student, but the department offers some support in the application process.

Instead of studying courses at Lund University (option A, see above), students can apply for exchange studies at a partner university of Lund University, and spend the complete third semester abroad (option C). Exchange studies at an international university hone the students’ academic profile. In addition to taking 30 credits at a foreign university, the students get an opportunity to learn about a new country, a new culture, and not least an opportunity to improve language skills.

Exchange studies demands careful planning. Students who wish to study abroad need to start planning in the autumn they start the program. Students at the Department of Strategic Communication can apply for exchange studies once a year. The Department organises information meetings before the current calls and gives advice on course selection. You can also apply for university studies abroad as a free-mover. To be accepted as elective courses in the Program, the courses have to be approved by the program director. For more information about Study Abroad, please read here. Exchange studies through Lund University's agreements are sought via the Faculty of Social Sciences in a call every autumn. 

During the course, the student designs independently an academic research project in an area of own interest. Since strategic communication is an inter-disciplinary field, research can be approached from a variety of perspectives. The student learns how to conduct research that makes a meaningful contribution to academia and/or practice relevant to strategic communication.

The research is conducted in consultation with a supervisor appointed by the department. The student meets the supervisor regularly during the process. The supervisor's task is to give constructive feedback and guide the student through the work process. Responsibility for implementation as well as the finished thesis rests, however, on the student. The thesis is assessed by an examiner at a public examination seminar.