International and Intercultural Strategic Communication

Catalog description

Advertising and public relations in the international and intercultural arenas; multicultural strategic communications strategies. COMM 426 International and Intercultural Strategic Communication (3) COMM 426 will provide students with a framework for applying their existing public relations and advertising tools in the global arena. Working internationally and/or interculturally challenges the advertising, public relations or marketing executive to think outside his or her own "cultural box." Some of the challenges include finding research about consumers, competitors and the marketplace outside of North America and Western Europe, understanding local cultures and customs, understanding the importance of ethnicity, and building an integrated core of professional communications that work with a common purpose, even if they come from different backgrounds - or are on different continents.The emphasis will be on developing a methodology for researching international and intercultural strategic communications problems, and then discussing possible communications-based solutions. To that end, case studies from both the international advertising and international public relations disciplines will play an important role in the course. Additionally, students will be exposed to a number of frameworks for analyzing culture, coming from the areas of anthropology (Schwartz' 10 Value Domains), social psychology) Bond's essay on impression management in multicultural organizations) and international business (Hofstede's Dimensions of National Culture).