MSc Strategic Communications

The MSc Strategic Communications moves beyond a purely vocational approach to the making of messages to offer you an approach to strategic communication that reflects: the changing means of communication, image making and storytelling in the organisational environment today; the expanding strategic ends of selling not only products and ideas/ideals but also places and experiences in an increasingly mediated and networked world, especially through branding; and the increasingly complex consequences for all types of organisation of the interaction of these changes.

The programme will focus on the study of organisations as communicators across the governmental, non-governmental and corporate sectors, especially in the context of change associated with digitalisation and globalisation. In particular, it will examine the ways organisations communicate strategically, both internally and externally; and how communication contributes to shaping discourses and practices associated with leadership within organisations and across them.

It will also consider the role of digital technologies, the links between discourse and power, and how these relate to the way public discourse and symbolic resources are unevenly distributed and controlled, privileging certain institutions and ideologies.

Part-time students

Part-time students will normally take and be examined in courses to the value of two units in each year of study. In the first year, these two units, selected in discussion with your academic mentor, will usually include the compulsory theoretical course(s) and one or more option course(s). The methods course(s) and the dissertation are then usually taken in the second year, together with the remaining option course(s). You may be permitted to vary the courses to be taken in each year with the approval of your academic mentor.

Teaching methods

LSE is internationally recognised for its teaching and research and therefore employs a rich variety of teaching staff with a range of experience and status. Courses may be taught by individual members of faculty, such as lecturers, senior lecturers, readers, associate professors and professors. Many departments now also employ guest teachers and visiting members of staff, LSE teaching fellows and graduate teaching assistants who are usually doctoral research students and in the majority of cases, teach on undergraduate courses only.

Assessment

All taught courses are required to include formative coursework which is unassessed. It is designed to help prepare you for summative assessment which counts towards the course mark and to the degree award. LSE uses a range of formative assessment, such as essays, problem sets, case studies, reports, quizzes, mock exams and many others.

Careers

On graduating, our students enter a variety of careers in the UK and abroad, including broadcasting, journalism, advertising, new media industries, political marketing, market research, regulation and policy, media management and research in both the public and private sectors.