MECM90044 Public Relations and Communications
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · S2 2026MECM90044 Overview
- The University of Melbourne
- Semester 2, 2026
- Postgraduate coursework (graduate) subject
- Three tasks
Within University of Melbourne, Faculty of Arts — School of Culture and Communication, MECM90044 Public Relations and Communications works through the working functions of contemporary PR practice — stakeholder and issues mapping, news agendas and framing, PR writing and media releases, campaign planning and evaluation, crisis communication, ethics and CSR, internal communication, and lobbying/advocacy and AI in PR — treating each one both as a practitioner skill and as a critical/theoretical problem about PR's role in society.
- MECM90044 grading Three tasks — Assessment 1 case-based interactive oral (crisis press conference, graded in the Week 7 tutorial after an ungraded Week 6 practice), Assessment 2 interactive oral argumentative debate (Week 11 tutorial; each class's best speaker repeats it at the Week 12 lecture), Assessment 3 argumentative essay due Tue 9 June 2026 23:59. Published percentage weights remain unconfirmed; use the current Subject Guide for them.
- MECM90044 task mode No exam. The final piece is a take-home argumentative essay due Tuesday 9 June 2026 by 23:59 via the LMS. The two oral assessments are performed live in the tutorial: the Week 7 press conference runs ~15–20 minutes per team (1 minute of introduction from the moderator / 1-2 minutes of speech from the spokesperson (usually the CEO) / 15 minutes of Q&A with the media), and the Week 11 debate is a TED-style argumentative speech delivered without notes.
- MECM90044 mark trap Performing under live hostile questioning, without a script. In the Week 7 press conference students face 15 minutes of Q&A from classmates briefed as broadcast and print journalists, supported by a tutorial handout titled Trick Questions & Reasons to Decline Comment; the Week 6 practice scenario (Yummy Food & Beverage product tampering) tells students to Expect tough questions from your audience and get ready to address them. The Week 11 debate must be delivered at the highest professional level without notes, is assessed based on the depth of their arguments and their oral presentation performance, and each speaker must cite a reliable study from a credible academic source in this argumentative speech.
- MECM90044 pass rule An attendance hurdle exists: Students should be aware of the attendance hurdle requirements in their Arts subjects. Students requiring attendance waivers due to exceptional circumstances must seek approval directly from the relevant subject coordinators. The current official MECM90044 current Subject Guide controls the numeric threshold.
How MECM90044 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Case-Based Interactive Oral | 40% | Semester 1 evidence; confirm the Semester 2 task brief |
| Interactive Oral Debate | 20% | Semester 1 evidence; confirm the Semester 2 task brief |
| Research Essay | 40% | 2,000 words in the retrieved Semester 1 guide; confirm Semester 2 |
The retrieved Semester 1 guide publishes 40% case-based interactive oral, 20% debate and 40% essay. It also says Arts attendance hurdle requirements apply but does not state a numeric threshold in the retrieved evidence. Confirm the Semester 2 guide before relying on weights, hurdle threshold, dates or task operation.
What MECM90044 covers
Read Assessment and Offering Boundary as the foundation, Campaign Research and Planning as the main change in method, and Persuasion, Lobbying and Emerging Technology as the final application of the course.
Assessment and Offering Boundary
40/20/40 S1 evidence · Semester 2 verification · live-guide control · use S1 material for concept study while checking every S2 operational fact02Past, Present and Future of Public Relations
PR history · professionalisation · contemporary legitimacy · connect historical models to present institutional expectations and critique03Issues, Publics and Stakeholders
issue construction · stakeholder salience · public formation · map who is affected, attentive and able to influence the communication problem04News, Media Agendas and Framing
newsworthiness · agenda setting · framing · analyse how selection and emphasis shape the available interpretation05PR Content and Channel Design
message purpose · channel affordance · content credibility · match message, evidence and channel to a named public and action06Campaign Research and Planning
situation analysis · measurable objectives · strategy and tactics · build a campaign chain from research finding to objective, action and evaluation07Media, Government and Investor Relations
institutional audience · relationship management · disclosure and accountability · compare how evidence, timing and obligation change across three relations functions08Crisis and Risk Communication
crisis lifecycle · stakeholder harm · response credibility · prioritise affected publics, verified information and corrective action under uncertainty09Ethics, Responsibility and Power
professional ethics · corporate responsibility · power imbalance · audit whose interests, voice and consequences a communication strategy privileges10Internal Communication and Organisational Change
employee publics · sensemaking · change communication · design two-way communication around uncertainty, agency and implementation feedback11Persuasion, Lobbying and Emerging Technology
persuasion and advocacy · public sphere and lobbying · AI and emerging tools · evaluate persuasive tactics through evidence, transparency, power and public consequenceIt is Postgraduate coursework (graduate) subject.
This is a performance subject, not an exam subject: two of the three assessments are live oral assessments held inside the tutorial (a graded crisis press conference in Week 7 where classmates play hostile journalists, and a TED-style argumentative debate in Week 11 that 'must be delivered at the highest professional level without notes'), with an argumentative essay as the only written piece.
There is no exam, and the Faculty of Arts attendance hurdle applies — marks are won or lost live in the room.
Assessment in MECM90044 is distributed as follows: Three tasks — Assessment 1 case-based interactive oral (crisis press conference, graded in the Week 7 tutorial after an ungraded Week 6 practice), Assessment 2 interactive oral argumentative debate (Week 11 tutorial; each class's best speaker repeats it at the Week 12 lecture), Assessment 3 argumentative essay due Tue 9 June 2026 23:59. Published percentage weights remain unconfirmed; use the current Subject Guide for them.
The operational assessment conditions matter here.
No exam. The final piece is a take-home argumentative essay due Tuesday 9 June 2026 by 23:59 via the LMS.
The two oral assessments are performed live in the tutorial: the Week 7 press conference runs ~15–20 minutes per team (1 minute of introduction from the moderator / 1-2 minutes of speech from the spokesperson (usually the CEO) / 15 minutes of Q&A with the media), and the Week 11 debate is a TED-style argumentative speech delivered without notes.
What makes MECM90044 demanding is concrete: Performing under live hostile questioning, without a script.
In the Week 7 press conference students face 15 minutes of Q&A from classmates briefed as broadcast and print journalists, supported by a tutorial handout titled Trick Questions & Reasons to Decline Comment; the Week 6 practice scenario (Yummy Food & Beverage product tampering) tells students to Expect tough questions from your audience and get ready to address them.
The Week 11 debate must be delivered at the highest professional level without notes, is assessed based on the depth of their arguments and their oral presentation performance, and each speaker must cite a reliable study from a credible academic source in this argumentative speech.
An attendance hurdle exists: Students should be aware of the attendance hurdle requirements in their Arts subjects.
Students requiring attendance waivers due to exceptional circumstances must seek approval directly from the relevant subject coordinators.
The current official MECM90044 current Subject Guide controls the numeric threshold.
Read Assessment and Offering Boundary as the foundation, Campaign Research and Planning as the main change in method, and Persuasion, Lobbying and Emerging Technology as the final application of the course.
Worked example: Public Relations and Communications integrated response
- 1Extract the outcome, actor or operation that the Public Relations and Communications integrated response task actually requires.
- 1State the precondition under which 40/20/40 S1 evidence is relevant rather than merely familiar.
- 1Use issue construction to reject the nearest alternative, then run a failure-path check with message purpose.
- 1Choose the response and state when it must be withdrawn or narrowed: Reach metrics alone do not demonstrate understanding or trust.
Key terms
- Situational Theory of Publics (publics vs stakeholders)
- The Situational Theory of Publics predicts communication behaviour by problem recognition, constraint recognition and involvement; stakeholders have a relationship with an organisation, while publics form around a shared issue or consequence.
- Two-way symmetrical communication / communication symmetry
- Two-way symmetrical communication uses dialogue and mutual adjustment so an organisation and its publics can influence one another, rather than treating communication as one-way persuasion.
- Stakeholder salience
- Stakeholder salience is the priority managers give a stakeholder according to perceived power, legitimacy and urgency.
- Agenda-setting, framing and priming (Hallahan's seven models of framing)
- Agenda-setting influences which issues receive attention, framing selects aspects that shape interpretation, and priming changes the standards used for later judgement; Hallahan distinguishes seven communication objects that can be framed.
- News values and the inverted pyramid in media-release writing
- News values are criteria that make an event newsworthy, while the inverted pyramid places the most important who-what-when-where-why-how information first and less essential detail later.
- Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) and image repair strategies
- SCCT matches crisis responses to attributed responsibility and reputational threat, while image-repair strategies are rhetorical options such as denial, reducing offensiveness, corrective action and mortification.
- TARES test and the PRIA Code of Ethics
- The TARES test evaluates persuasive communication through Truthfulness, Authenticity, Respect, Equity and Social responsibility; the PRIA Code sets professional ethical duties for Australian public relations practice.
- Greenwashing (and pinkwashing / bluewashing / whitewashing) in CSR communication
- Greenwashing misleadingly presents environmental responsibility; related 'washing' labels describe unsupported social, humanitarian or reputation-cleaning claims that create a gap between communication and practice.
MECM90044 FAQ
Is MECM90044 hard?
Performing under live hostile questioning, without a script. In the Week 7 press conference students face 15 minutes of Q&A from classmates briefed as broadcast and print journalists, supported by a tutorial handout titled Trick Questions & Reasons to Decline Comment; the Week 6 practice scenario (Yummy Food & Beverage product tampering) tells students to Expect tough questions from your audience and get ready to address them.
The Week 11 debate must be delivered at the highest professional level without notes, is assessed based on the depth of their arguments and their oral presentation performance, and each speaker must cite a reliable study from a credible academic source in this argumentative speech.
How is MECM90044 assessed?
Three tasks — Assessment 1 case-based interactive oral (crisis press conference, graded in the Week 7 tutorial after an ungraded Week 6 practice), Assessment 2 interactive oral argumentative debate (Week 11 tutorial; each class's best speaker repeats it at the Week 12 lecture), Assessment 3 argumentative essay due Tue 9 June 2026 23:59. Published percentage weights remain unconfirmed; use the current Subject Guide for them.
What is the MECM90044 exam or final-task format?
No exam. The final piece is a take-home argumentative essay due Tuesday 9 June 2026 by 23:59 via the LMS.
The two oral assessments are performed live in the tutorial: the Week 7 press conference runs ~15–20 minutes per team (1 minute of introduction from the moderator / 1-2 minutes of speech from the spokesperson (usually the CEO) / 15 minutes of Q&A with the media), and the Week 11 debate is a TED-style argumentative speech delivered without notes.
Does MECM90044 have a hurdle or component-level pass rule?
An attendance hurdle exists: Students should be aware of the attendance hurdle requirements in their Arts subjects. Students requiring attendance waivers due to exceptional circumstances must seek approval directly from the relevant subject coordinators. The current official MECM90044 current Subject Guide controls the numeric threshold.
What prerequisites or restrictions apply to MECM90044?
Check the current official handbook before enrolling in MECM90044; prerequisites are not inferred from its course number.
Is MECM90044 offered in Semester 2, 2026?
This resource is aligned to Semester 2, 2026. Confirm your class and assessment timetable in the current institutional system.
Is this MECM90044 resource an official university guide?
No. It is an independent MECM90044 study resource; current institutional instructions remain authoritative for assessment operation.
How to prepare for the assessments
Retrieve the subject map, practise the recurring method—define the stakeholder and communication problem, analyse the media and institutional frame, then design and ethically qualify a public-relations response—on changed scenarios, and verify every operational assessment detail in the live institutional system.
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