Since the dawn of modernity, media and business have entered a quasi symbiotic relationship. Far beyond providing mere news for business opportunities, media have helped created businesses as organizations and economy as a societal system. Without the intermediary functions of media, communication would still be limited to the interpersonal realm and thus restricting business and economics to the personal social horizon of each individual. The course intends to inquire into the deep entanglement between business and the media society. The media society as the embodiment of communication as a global, total phenomenon, has wide ranging implications for business and economy. Trust and reputation, two core pillars of every (economic) interaction, are largely constituted through mediated communication. It is today not solely succes on markets, that determines the future of an enterprise, but the public reception of that enterprise. While markets issues an economic license to operate, the public is providing the social license to operate of businesses, even entire economic systems. The consequence of this development is, that businesses, stronger than ever before, are intertwined with, and dependend on the state of public opinion and its own standing in the public sphere. As Warren Buffet famously said: "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it." Buffet went on to further remark: "If you think about that, you'll do things differently." The core content of the course will thus be to think about the relationship between business and economy on the one side, and mediated communication in the media society on the other. Beginning with a reconstruction of the historical emergence of that symbiosis, the course will highlight the importance of core concepts of strategic communication such as reputation, trust, image, identity, culture, and support, to ultimately empower students to "think about" communication, and "do things differently", if necessary.

Participants of the course will be able to

• understand the historical developments that resulted in the close entanglement between business and communication
• understand the importance of business communication in todays media society
• appreciate the importance of core cunstructs such as trust, reputation, identity, image, support to businesses
• analyze the state of these constructs with regard to real cases
• be able to evaluate the communicative actions of businesses with regard to the issuing of the social license to operate

Attendance is mandatory. Students can miss a maximum of two session due to justifiable reasons. Absenteeism beyond two sessions can be compensated by an extra exam.

The course is based upon reading and discussing basic academic texts on the nature of the relationship between business and the media society. Furthermore, the participants will be asked to engage in the analysis and evaluation of concrete cases that deal with business communication and communicative problems. These case studies of companies will be prepared in teams and presented and discussed with the entire course. In interactive sessions, i.e. in mock discussions of communicative problems, fictitious press conferences, or the common dissection of cases, the students will learn to look at business problems from a communicative point of view, spanning the boundary between the organization and the public sphere.

Performance evaluation is based upon the following aspects:

• active participation in the course
• attendance
• Preparation and presentation of a case in a group (50%)
• seminar thesis on a self-chosen topic within the field of business communication (50%)

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No previous knowledge of content is necessary. However, we expect participants to be curious about and engage with the content of the course. We also expect the willingness to actively engage in discussions and work cases as part of a team.

Teachers will be available for personal and/or virtual consultation after scheduling an appointment via e-mail. Do always send requests to both teachers, Jens Seiffert-Brockmann (jens.seiffert-brockmann@wu.ac.at) and Laura Hackl (laura.hackl@wu.ac.at).