Topic: Misleading or untruthful marketing communications, misrepresentation and puffery
The purpose of this podcast assignment is for the students to:
develop an understanding and appreciation of (un)ethical and (ir)responsible uses of marketing communications by investigating both academic perspectives and real-world examples
have the exposure and opportunity to plan and create communications in new forms of digital media and software
use creativity in the development of their communications in order to generate interest amongst their audiences
This assignment assesses ILOs 1b), 2b), 3b).
Overview and topics
In this audio project, you will discuss an ethical or moral issue associated with marketing communications. There are many issues and unethical or irresponsible practices that we will not have time to explore at depth in the module. This assignment will offer you the opportunity to explore one of the issues that interests you personally – and to then share that exploration with an audience beyond the module (if you wish to do so) in your own podcast episode.
Your task will take the form of an 8-minute episode (+/- 1 minute) of a class podcast called Marcomms Ethics Pod on various ethical issues and questions in marketing communications. Your episode should be made interesting and accessible to a general audience – this means you should explore ways to engage your audience and to explain the complex ethical issue you choose in ways your audience will be able to understand.
This assignment will require you researching the topic of your choice. Explaining complex concepts such as those of ethics and responsibility is difficult, and requires a deep and intimate knowledge of the content – ‘teaching’ others/classmates about what you learnt in the form of a podcast, is an excellent way to learn. You will be required to base your episode on an in-depth understanding of 5 core academic articles of your choice related to your topic, which you are further required to complement by additional reading and industry examples of both ethical and unethical practice.
You will be required to submit the podcast episode recording and a full script which will include a show note and an annotated bibliography. Detailed instructions for each element can be found below. You will be graded on both the content of your podcast episode and your effectiveness in clearly communicating the issue in an interesting and accessible way (as a storyteller).
Also:
Write a short reflection on your experience (300 words). This should then be included at the end of your script. You may consider some of these questions:
What did this project help to teach you about ethics in marketing communications? Do you think about ethical issues differently now?
Do you feel your podcast will help/inform/interest its intended audience?
Why did you make the artistic choices you did when creating your podcast?
What surprised you about the technical aspects of creating a podcast?
What surprised you about the artistic and rhetorical aspects of creating a podcast?
What did you discover when you created your own podcast?
What did this project help to teach you (or help you realise) about electronic rhetoric and communication? about the differences between this and written communication? about getting beyond the words?
