Communicating Across Domains

Introduction

Corporations, indeed, even some small startups, communicate through diverse digital technologies and media channels, and across domains such as digital communities, fields of expertise, cultural groups and markets. In such a complex communicative environment, obstacles to understanding are many and communication competences are critical success factors in the global, digital world of business. Many business corporations list oral and written communication in their top-five desirable skills when recruiting talent. 

The course takes as its starting point an understanding of communication as two sentient beings acting together willingly to co-create meanings. You will learn to examine communication from a processual perspective in which meanings evolve through time and space, offline as well as online, physical as well as immaterial. What are the implications of this for business students? Knowledge of how meanings are created as well as the ability to communicate in meaningful terms is fundamental for all business processes to succeed.   

In this course you will: 

• Investigate the role of meaning in communication 
• Consider similarities and differences between online and offline communication 
• Learn key concepts for analysing ‘communication-as-ritual' 
• Experience some of the dilemmas in digital, interdomain communication and … 
• ... Explore techniques for dealing more effectively with them...  

... in order to make yourselves more successful interdomainal communicators – both as individuals, but also on behalf of institutions that you represent. 

The course runs as two weekly sessions of two hours each in the second half of the Autumn semester to enable students to combine it with an internship.

Course content

• Exploring key culture and communication concepts
• Online and offline selves and rituals
• Analysing digital culture and communication patterns: participation, bricolage and remediation
• The medium – analysing digital domains (social media vs mass media)
• The infrastructure – who’s in charge and where are the cables?
• Practice – simulation with industry partners