Basic Information
The successful conduct of business demands effective communication, and you can hone your skills and gain valuable new knowledge with a major in Business Communications. What’s the best way to communicate on the Internet? How do you effectively incorporate visual aids into a presentation? Answering these questions and many more will be part of your studies in Business Communications.
Speaking skills are of primary importance to a successful career in business. You’ll learn how to interview, make presentations, deliver a ceremonial speech, or explain a policy analysis. You’ll get practice in nonverbal communication, like visual aids, to underscore your points. You’ll analyze audiences in order to compose an appropriate speech for them. You’ll examine numerical data, such as survey results, and translate that data into helpful information. You’ll learn how to communicate policy changes to your employees and discover the best ways to use the Internet for the dissemination of information. You’ll learn how to communicate in a crisis and how to develop and maintain good public relations
You can apply most of what you learn in your Business Communications major to dealings with your own employees, co-workers, or the public. A major in Business Communications could greatly extend your career success.
Mass Communication
We are bombarded with images and messages every day of our lives, from billboards towering over the highway, to television commercials, newspaper ads, leaflets, brochures, and radio advertising. These messages shape our culture and define our perceptions, influencing the way we think and look at almost everything from a candy bar to geopolitics.
Mass Communication majors investigate the role mass media has played, and continues to play, in American culture. They are analysts and historians, examining everything from 19th Century Harper’s political cartoons to the newest McDonald’s commercial. Given the enormous effect of the media on our daily lives, Mass Communication majors seek out how and why they reflect our social values. They also describe how public policy draws boundaries for Mass Communication, like the near-prohibition of nudity on broadcast television.
Mass Communication majors are sometimes also located within a broader communication major that more generally examines the ways in which information is created and distributed, whether through a television commercial or a personal e-mail.
Communication management and project management
In project management, communication management must address the following questions
- What information needs to flow in and out of the project?
- Who needs what information?
- When is the information needed?
- What is the format of the information?
- Who will be responsible for transmitting and providing the information?
The weekly reporting method
One simple and popular communications method is called the weekly reporting method: every employee composes an e-mail report, once a week, including information on their activities in the preceding week, their plans for the following week, and any other information deemed relevant to the larger group, bearing in mind length considerations. Reports are sent to managers, who summarize and report to their own managers, eventually leading to an overall summary led by the CEO, which is then sent to the board of directors. The CEO then sends the board's summary back down the ladder, where each manager can append an additional summary or note before referring it to their employees.
Eventually, each employee will receive a long e-mail, containing many or all of the above-mentioned summaries, from every level of management; reading the full result is rarely a requirement. Curious or ambitious employees are considered more likely to read the result; task-centered employees, however, are not.
Communication planning
Communication planning is the art and science of reaching target audiences using marketing communication channels such as advertising, public relations, experiences or direct mail for example. It is concerned with deciding who to target, when, with what message and how.
The communication plan serves as a guide to the communication and sponsorship efforts throughout the duration of the project. It is a living and working document and is updated periodically as audience needs change. It explains how to convey the right message, from the right communicator, to the right audience, through the right channel, at the right time. It addresses the six basic elements of communications: communicator, message, communication channel, feedback mechanism, receiver/audience, and time frame.
A communication plan includes:
- “Who” - the target audiences
- “What” – the key messages that are trying to be articulated
- “When” – timing, it will specify the appropriate time of delivery for each message
- “Why” – the desired outcomes
- “How” - the communication vehicle (how the message will be delivered)
- “By whom” - the sender (determining who will deliver the information and how he or she is chosen)
