Postgraduate Diploma in Communication – PGDipC

This course provides an advanced-level overview of the communication discipline, its history, key concepts, competing traditions, and noted scholars. Critical, creative and organisational theories and concepts from a broad communication studies body of knowledge are historicised, compared, and critically evaluated. Throughout the course, communication knowledge is applied to illuminate communication questions from media, industry and society.

An advanced introduction to selected communication research traditions and methods. Transdisciplinary competency in applied communication research is developed through the evaluation and application of different methodologies to communication research challenges.

This course engages students with a variety of critical and theoretical approaches to cinema, mapping their development across history and examining their usefulness in understanding the social, cultural, economic, political and aesthetic significance of film.

An examination of major developments in approaches to fiction in the twentieth century, focusing on modern and postmodern trends, and on how these have impacted on the rise and alleged decline of distinctions between elite art and popular culture. Texts for analysis are selected from both literature and film and include examples of canonical as well as popular fiction.

This course examines the role of technology in producing and transforming contemporary culture. Through the investigation of key theorists, particular attention is given to the pivotal role technology plays in shaping space, time, and experience.

This course examines the critical context of contemporary media practice, exploring how media texts, technologies, and institutions respond to and produce processes of globalisation. Students will focus on the use of digital and mobile media technologies, and consciously negotiate decisions regarding the cultural, social, political, economic, ethical and environmental implications of their own media production, distribution and consumption.

Prerequisites: 154204 or 154224 or 154304

A detailed study of the social marketing approach used to develop activities aimed at changing or maintaining people's behaviour for the benefit of individuals and society as a whole. The course examines questions about marketing and society; these issues include a consideration of how ‘socially desirable’ behaviours are marketed; how regulations affect marketing decision making; and how ethical issues can influence marketing decisions.

This course examines communication as a multimodal phenomenon, assessing space and time as key variables in the production of written and spoken utterances.

This course examines the linguistic construction of some key themes that have emerged in late modernity such as globalising panic, emotions and the imperative to feel, the discursive construction of the body, discourse and the late modernity.

Prerequisites: A Bachelor of Communication or close equivalent, with at least 15 credits in Linguistics at 300 level

This course examines the management of internal communication processes within organisations.

An exploration of the theory and practice of workplace communication in diverse organisational settings. Theory is linked to practice through the analysis of contemporary case studies.

This course uses communication theory and research to explore ways of developing cross-cultural effectiveness, with an emphasis on communication in organisational settings.

Restrictions: 219304

An in-depth exploration of the practical skills needed to write for disciplinary academic and/or public audiences. Particular emphasis will be placed on the rhetorical context of science, audience analysis, literacy expertise, reading science, and narrative use of data and analogies when writing in a public or professional context. Students may focus their assignments on writing for disciplinary and/or public audiences.

What role does theatre have in the community? Is there a valid place for community theatre in a secular society? If so, what stories need to be told through theatre? How might we tell them? The exploration of these questions will involve, initially, the examination of a range of historical and contemporary models of community theatre. Students will then engage in exploratory workshops, in community research, writing, rehearsals and theatrical performance.

An advanced, practical exploration of theatrical improvisation techniques in relation to enhancing creativity, innovation, leadership, teamwork, and communication performance, with an emphasis on the application of theatrical techniques to communication and innovation challenges.

An advanced study and practice of creative writing in its myriad contemporary forms.

This course introduces the area of Human Resource Management and Workplace Relations. Specifically, the focus of the course is on the principles and practices associated with organisational behaviour, employment relations, human resources management and development.

An examination of the social, psychological, community and organisational aspects of disaster management in New Zealand. Emphasis is on the development and implementation of an all-hazards, comprehensive and integrated approach to emergency management. Selected readings and case studies will be used to facilitate the development of an effective response to social, psychological, community and organisational issues.

Strategies for Māori advancement are examined within a Māori development framework. Barriers to development and the facilitation of positive development are explored using criteria relevant to indigenous self-determination. There is a focus on land, fisheries, social policy, health, Treaty settlements and opportunities for positive development.

An exploration of the theory and practice of international relations.

An advanced examination of the context, theories, and principles of evaluation research, and what it means to undertake evaluative activity in a range of social sector settings.