Inter-disciplinary includes the integration of knowledge and methods from different disciplines and synthesising the approach. I remember from the beginning of the course Ella briefly exploring the four main disciplines. She presented this graph above, showing how each discipline intersect and how they integrate elements of each other. I first noticed it, when I was sitting in Popular culture class and we were talking about what makes things popular, how is it accessed and how is it controlled? Then in a prof comm seminar we were talking about the internet and the intricacies of distribution of content. That kind of scenario has occurred many times throughout the semester, particularly with introduction to public relations and particular aspects of the prof comm course. Where designing a Public relations plan also involves the knowledge of aspects of journalism, advertising and producing media. With incorporating them in a plan that then successfully captures the audience.
Shown in the diagram above, the green line refers to the type of story and the red line refers to the purpose of the stories. Both journalism and public relations have similar types of stories that they produce, whereby they are factual and verifiable. On the other hand you have media and advertising appealing to the emotive and dramatised storytelling. When it comes to the purpose of a communication disciplines public relations and advertising there is a strategic and commercial interest, where there is a monetary value. Whereas, media production and journalism have a more public and creative interest. Disciplinary agnostic means that the common ground between disciplines involves the purpose, audience, message and context. When handling a crisis management PR plan, yes it has majority of Public relations foundations, however having knowledge of producing social media content that is emotive and potentially apologetic so the audience can relate and understand the to the issue it makes it easier to achieve potential outcomes. If following a crisis, it involves an organisation to hold a fundraiser, it allows us to understand the importance of advertising and making it an event that is morally correct however promotes a message to make a financial gain for a particular cause. Everything is intertwined and having knowledge about them all is very important.
I did not realise how intersected each discipline is, however after researching potential job opportunities post this course, it is evident that communication jobs require knowledge in all four disciplines. It also gives job flexibility and allows us to have the skills in multiple areas. Throughout this course it has been identified that communication relies heavily on the notion of being mutually exclusive, a strong relationship is formed between and organisation and communications company or team.
KEEP IT TOOGOOD 