About Public Relations With New Media (ma) in Cork Institute of Technology

This innovative MA programme offers the opportunity to gain a comprehensive understanding of public relations as a form of communication and pays particular attention to the growing importance of digital and interactive media on the practice of public relations and professional communications.

What is new media?

‘New Media’ is a term that describes the emergence of digital, computerised, interactive communication technologies. Interactivity is a key aspect of many new media tools and this course focuses on how organisations are using these interactive media to communicate with stakeholders such as customers through the use of the worldwide web etc. The global reach of new media communications technologies has important implications for the practice of public relations and this course focuses on the changing nature of corporate and professional communications as a result of the rapid advances in digital technologies.

Overview

The course aims to provide students with a strategic and systematic understanding of the theory and practice of public relations and offers students the opportunity to develop their professional communication skills within a challenging, supportive and easily accessible framework. This innovative MA programme offers the opportunity to gain a comprehensive understanding of public relations as a form of communication and pays particular attention to the growing importance of digital and interactive media on the practice of public relations and its manifold impacts on the mass media industry.

By developing student’s research, planning, managerial and multimedia skills the course aims to produce graduates who can display leadership and show the capacity for innovation within the dynamic and fast evolving professional communications industry. Course content focuses strongly on PR tools and techniques, particularly within the growing new media environment, and on the increasing globalisation and convergence of the media industries.

Through liaison with PR professionals and by working on ‘live’ industry projects, the course aims to equip graduates with the knowledge, skills and competencies required to effectively function as a public relations professional in an era of high-speed and interactive digital communications.

Academic qualification equivalents

• Bachelor's degree (Honours) holders with a minimal overall first division result
• First Class BSc Science/Arts/Commerce three year degree (for MA Global Business Practice/MSc International Business course)

English language requirements (one of the below):

• IELTS 6.5 overall (6.0 for Business programmes)
• IELTS 5.5 in all four components (listening, reading, speaking and writing)
• PTE 60 (63 for integrated programmes)
• PTE 55 in all four components (listening, reading, speaking and writing)