Navigating the Stakeholder Media Landscape (corporate communicatie)

The media landscape has changed, and new players are imposing new strategies on communicators. Shifts in the political environment as well as new technologies are driving this evolution. Meanwhile, a major implication for communications professionals is that their role is widening and becoming far more strategic. Beyond shaping messages for mainstream media, they are obliged to monitor a growing number of actors who possess their own media outlets, and to devise effective channels of dialogue that lead to shared solutions. Meanwhile, a “fake news” industry that respects neither the norms of journalistic discourse, nor minimal professional standards of veracity, increasingly targets businesses.

The expected outcomes of this course include a deep tool kit as well as principles that can guide communicators in their quest to protect and extend reputations, within and outside their organisations. A key assumption is that in our era, communication is a concern of the entire organisation. In other words, it is not enough that leaders be communicators; other internal stakeholders also express its mission and values.

We ask for your help in making the class sessions a journey that includes surprise and discovery. In many of the cases we will use as the basis for group work, subsequent scholarly publications revealed outcomes and insights deliberately excluded from the teaching cases. The precise purpose of using cases is to transmit not only knowledge, but experience, particularly in cases focused on crises. Thus, we sometimes ask that you do no further research on a case or text beyond what is specified in class reading assignments. In that way you will face decision points armed only with the information available to company leaders and communicators portrayed in the cases. The resulting emotions will powerfully reinforce your intellectual insights.