Information Systems

In a general sense, the term information system (IS) refers to a system of persons, data records and activities that process the data and information in an organization, and it includes the organization's manual and automated processes. In a narrow sense, the term information system (or computer-based information system) refers to the specific application software that is used to store data records in a computer system and automates some of the information-processing activities of the organization. Computer-based information systems are in the field of information technology. The discipline of Business process modelling describes the business processes supported by information systems.

The term "information system" has different meanings:

• In computer security, an information system is described by the following components (Aceituno, 2004):
  • Structure:
    • Repositories, which hold data permanently or temporarily, such as buffers, RAM, hard disks, cache, etc. Usually, a computer-based information system involves a Information processor
    • Interfaces, which exchange information with the non-digital world, such as keyboards, speakers, scanners, printers, etc.
  • Channels, which connect repositories, such as buses, cables, wireless links, etc. A Network is a set of logical or physical: an introduction to informatics in Organisations.
• The common view of an information system is that of an Information processor, that involves Input-Process-Output.

The study of information systems originated as a sub-discipline of computer science in an attempt to understand and rationalize the management of technology within organizations. It has matured into a major field of management, that is increasingly being emphasized as an important area of research in management studies, and is taught at all major universities and business schools in the world. Börje Langefors introduced the concept of "Information Systems" at the third International Conference on Information Processing and Computer Science in New York in 1965.

Information technology is a very important malleable resource available to executives.[3] Many companies have created a position of Chief Information Officer (CIO) that sits on the executive board with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Technical Officer (CTO).The CTO may also serve as CIO, and vice versa. The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), which focuses on information security within an organization, normally reports to the CIO.

Information Systems has a number of different areas of work:

• Information Systems Strategy
• Information Systems Management
• Information Systems Development

Each of which branches out into a number of sub disciplines, that overlap with other science and managerial disciplines such as computer science, pure and engineering sciences, social and behavioral sciences, and business management.

There are a wide variety of career paths in the information systems discipline. "Workers with specialized technical knowledge and strong communications skills will have the best prospects. People with management skills and an understanding of business practices and principles will have excellent opportunities, as companies are increasingly looking to technology to drive their revenue."

Public Relations

Course Description:

This course will provide candidates with an introduction to the study of public relations: the profession, the process, the publics and the practice. Students will learn how public relations operates in organizations as well as about its impact on publics and its functions in society.

The profession of public relations continues to emerge as a major force in the global society. The practice of public relations has undergone evolutionary changes in the past few years to Internet – driven technology. This major source provides, for the first time, a way for organizations to communicate directly with a variety of audiences, often through the world, instantly. Globalization of world wide markets and organizational restructuring are two more powerful influences on the practice of public relations.

These critical changes in globalization, technology and organizational structure lend increasing importance to the management function of public relations. Practitioners are no longer mere technicians who shape and transmit messages from their organizations. They are professionals who shape the relationships an organization has with its various constituencies. Public relation practitioners must possess the communications expertise and social sensitivity necessary to enable organizations to adapt to the changing environment.

So, the public relation practitioners must bring not only all of the traditional communication skills to their broadened role, bit they must bring the ability to research and understand problems, to plan public relations programs, to create effective messages using the latest technologies, and evaluate the effectiveness of these programs. The goals of this course is to provide the tools for public relation practice while also establishing a historical context, a theoretical foundation, and legal and ethical frameworks for the profession

This course provides a foundation for those planning public relations careers as well as very valuable knowledge for those planning to continue their career in organizational communication and effective media strategies.

Another very important purpose of this course is to learn how to write for public relations, because after all, the basic form of communications is still the written word. All forms of writing for public relations have one thing in common: they should be written well. As to purpose, a public elations piece generally is product for one of two reasons: to inform or to persuade. The medium which is chose to delivery the messages will also dictate style and format, but all public relation s wring attempts to establish positive relations between an organization and its various publics, usually through image building techniques

Course Objectives:

By the end of this course candidates will be able to:

• Define public relations
• Describe public relations principles and practices
• Identify an organization’s key publics or target audiences
• Describe and apply the public relations process
• Solve public relations problems within an ethical and legal context
• Describe various contexts for public relations
• Why good writing is important to public relations professional
• The most often –used tools of public relations writing and how they differ
• The process of public relation writing

Mass Media

Mass media is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. It was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines, although mass media (like books and manuscripts) were present centuries before the term became common. The term public media has a similar meaning: it is the sum of the public mass distributors of news and entertainment across media such as newspapers, television, radio, broadcasting, which may require union membership in some large markets such as Newspaper Guild, AFTRA, & text publishers. The concept of mass media is complicated in some internet media as now individuals have a means of potential exposure on a scale comparable to what was previously restricted to select group of mass media producers. These internet media can include:

• television
• personal web pages
• message boards
• podcasts
• blogs and
• video hosting services.

The communications audience has been viewed by some commentators as forming a mass society with special characteristics, notably atomization or lack of social connections, which render it especially susceptible to the influence of modern mass-media techniques such as advertising and propaganda. The term "MSM" or "mainstream media" has been widely used in the blogosphere in discussion of the mass media and media bias.

Types of drama in numerous cultures were probably the first mass-media, going back into the Ancient World. The first dated printed book known is the "Diamond Sutra", printed in China in 868 AD, although it is clear that books were printed earlier. Movable clay type was invented in 1041 in China. However, due to the slow spread of literacy to the masses in China, and the relatively high cost of paper there, the earliest printed mass-medium was probably European popular prints from about 1400. Although these were produced in huge numbers, very few early examples survive, and even most known to be printed before about 1600 have not survived. Johannes Gutenberg printed the first book on a printing press with movable type in 1453. This invention transformed the way the world received printed materials, although books remained too expensive really to be called a mass-medium for at least a century after that. Newspapers developed around from 1612, with the first example in English in 1620 [1] ; but they took until the nineteenth century to reach a mass-audience directly. During the 20th century, the growth of mass media was driven by technology that allowed the massive duplication of material. Physical duplication technologies such as printing, record pressing and film duplication allowed the duplication of books, newspapers and movies at low prices to huge audiences. Radio and television allowed the electronic duplication of information for the first time. Mass media had the economics of linear replication: a single work could make money proportional to the number of copies sold, and as volumes went up, units costs went down, increasing profit margins further. Vast fortunes were to be made in mass media. In a democratic society, independent media serve to educate the public/electorate about issues regarding government and corporate entities (see Media influence). Some consider the concentration of media ownership to be a grave threat to democracy.