About Informatics Academy

The Informatics Academy has been institutionalized to ensure that its award, bearing the quality assurance mark, will be recognised and accepted by employers and universities for employment and transfer credit respectively.

The Informatics Academic Governance is the backbone on which the quality of our awards is judged. Collectively, the Academic Council interacts with the International Advisory Panel and thereby empowers Examination Council and Examination Board the authority to grant the Informatics Academy awards.

Represented by a group of respected and experienced academic leaders drawn from universities in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States of America, each member of the International Advisory Panel brings with them a wide range of educational leadership and management experience. The Academic Council is responsible for the academic affairs for Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Institute of Business, Finance and Management, Institute of Engineering and Institute of Knowledge Economy.

You can get more information about the Informatics Academy from the following link: http://www.informaticsgroup.com/ia

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About NCC Education

Originally part of the National Computing Centre, NCC Education started offering IT qualifications in 1976 and from 1997 developed its Higher Education portfolio to include Foundation and Business programmes. With Accredited Partners in over 45 countries, five International Offices and Academic Managers worldwide, NCC Education employs the latest technologies for learning, assessment and support.

NCC Education qualifications range from ICT for schools to the International Degree Pathway in Business or IT. The programmes are recognised by universities, professional bodies and employers. Learners are able to upgrade their skills on professional development modular programmes or complete their University Degrees and Masters in their home country or in the UK.

Visit NCC Education official website: http://www.nccedu.com/

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About the Programme

To inculcate on participants the fundamentals of using the tools of Public relations, advertising, marketing and journalism in particular, as the key industries of the field, to disseminate information to various publics.

Programme Benefits

There will be in-depth training in practical skills such as writing for various media, marketing, management practices and research methods; sound theoretical knowledge of concepts of communication.

Students will develop the ability to use the tools of the key industrials, understand the concepts of mass communication and how they are related to their chosen industries, and adapt the skills they have acquire in their projects and assignments in their workplace.

Programme Duration

International Diploma in Mass Communication: minimum of 12 months

Awarded by

Entry Requirements

• Minimum 3 GCE 'O' Level credits, including a minimum grade of D7 in English, and 16 years and above
• Students with an 'A' level certificate will be admitted with Exemptions
• Other equivalent qualifications deemed suitable by Informatics Academy

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Advancement Pathway

Programme Structure

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Programme Synopsis

Advertising

The aim of the module is to test the candidate's knowledge and understanding of the practice of advertising within the marketing concept, and its economic and social justification.

Public Relations

This unit will address the followings:

• defines public relations and distinguished it from marketing and sales
• look at the broad range of activities that public relations covers, the industries in which it plays an important role and the concern of the image of an organisation and country in developing and developed countries
• Explore the various tools of public relations including press articles and releases, event management
• study the functions of the public relations consultant, the differences between a public relations consultancy and advertising and marketing agencies
• learn the meaning of public perception, a favourable and unfavourable image of a company, product or service and audience reaction
• examine the public relations transfer process and understand how a negative situation can be changed into a positive one
• look at the various publics of an organisation - internal and external and their relationship with the organisation
• define the role of public relations in commercial and non-commercial organisations with the emphasis on Asia Pacific and developing countries
• discuss the code of public relations programme for an organisation using the six-point public relations planning model and evaluate results

Communication, Media and Society

This unit will address the followings:

• Defines the communication process, the channel used to disseminate information
• Types of audiences involved in the communication process of encoding, transmission, decoding and the role of sender and receiver
• Barriers to communication inherent in all elements of the communication cycle, listening barriers, filters and mindsets which hinder the reception of messages and give rise to miscommunication and distortion
• Various Styles of communication and encoding in the context of different cultures, especially those in Asia Pacific region
• Cross-cultural implications of the communication process and their effects on receiver and sender
• Process of sending and receiving messages occurs within a company the type of messages sent, horizontal, vertical and diagonal channel and functions the effects of message transmission
• Board roles of media in a social context, various communication situations wherein different channels are used to send various classifications of information to the general public and to specific target audiences
• Functions of newspapers and other publications, the various types of print journalism, messages created and their purposes, the target audiences and intended effects as opposed to the actual effects
• The dissemination of information through broadcast media such as television and radio, the formats used in message sending, problems faced in audience perception, cultural stereotypes and levels of acceptability

Communication and Culture

This unit will address the followings:

• The effects of different cultures within the social, political, economic functions
• Semiotics of the mass communication industry, differences in verbal and non-verbal communication, the effect of culture and language on each other, the preconditions necessary for cultural forms to develop and be accepted
• Examine how various audiences use culture in defining their social status, the different social groups they belong to at any point in time, the expansion of culture into another social context and its acceptance or rejection and the process of enculturation
• The minority groups, gender, specific-interest groups which uses their own jargon, perform their own rituals and sometime assimilates other cultural forms into their own, over time,
• Examine the roots and development of cultural practices and their absorption through generations as well as varied contexts of rituals, looking at fads and fashions derived from cross cultural influences, particularly through the media

Introduction to Journalism

This unit will address the followings:

• The fundamentals of newswriting and reporting, the Associated Press style of newswriting and editing
• The principles of writing hard and soft news
• Components of a story, namely, accuracy, attribution, verification, fairness, balance, objectivity, brevity, selectivity, clarity, human interest, currency and responsibility of the journalist, editor and media owner
• Methods of developing a lead, types of leads on features and hard news stories, length and readability, contacts and developing them
• Students will also be taught news values and relativity, understanding audiences, newsroom politics and ideology, economics and news policies, the influence of media owners of what is read or seen
• Tools of a journalist: newsroom references, basic references, the internet, databases, census data, death and disease data, making a correlation, checking public records and understanding the use of the electronic newsroom
• Study the features, profiles, live, telephone, television and radio interviews, a series, the functions of each, style of writing, gathering information, using quotations, verifying information, finding an angle, summarising and presenting data
• Rewriting of news from the wires, using correct sentence structure and language, tenses, attribution, choosing a lead, interviewing and managing interviewees, shifting emphasis, copy preparation, taking notes, making retroactive requests, using and modifying quotes in Broadcast writing

Media Law and Ethics

This unit will address the followings:

• The function of media in the context of advertising, marketing and journalism and discussion on the crafting and sending of the message and the practice of ethical media operations
• explore the concerns over media content, broadcasting and printing, in publishing, cultural responsibility of news owners, writers, reporters and editors, the Hutchins' theory of social responsibilities will be examined
• expose students to the anti-trust regulations and their effect on media owners e.g. music industry censorship can be direct or indirect and how media owners and concerned groups are a force in self-regulation as well as government intervention on operations of television and film in terms of the rating system developed by countries to protect audiences from undesirable messages
• the initial radio act that was passed, the trustee concept and ownership regulations

Marketing

This unit examines the role and value of marketing in today's increasingly competitive and dynamic environment. The management of the market function will be defined in diverse marketing situations. Marketing principles are covered to analyse, plan, implement and control policies designed to achieve marketing and corporate objectives in both profit and policies designed to achieve marketing and corporate objectives in both profit and non profit organisations.

Information Technology Management

This unit covers the concepts of information system. Major types of management information systems and how each supports the manager in an organisation. Potential strategic roles of information systems within the organisations are identified. Students will be able to use some basic systems development tools in order to apply Information Systems to business problems.

Contact Us

Contact us to find out more about our programmes.

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