Communication for Public Organisations | COOP

Certificate of Advanced Studies (CAS)

Public administrations, and public sector organisations in general, are becoming increasingly active communicators. They must promote society’s democratic values, present the issues at stake in public decision-making, justify them, promote the activities that they carry out, and face numerous solicitations from the media and the population as a whole. Communication has also become an increasingly important public policy instrument.

As the amount of information that needs to be conveyed increases and the number of media available grows (traditional media, social networks) in conjunction with the population’s expectations, mastering effective communication is becoming ever more complex and requires the use of sophisticated models and techniques.
This course will look into the basics, principles, and specific types of communication for public organisations and the communication methods and tools available to them. A significant proportion of the course will be devoted to presentations given by communication practitioners and to exercises.

Two workshops held during the course will include exercises dedicated to using the media and maintaining relations with them: one will be aimed specifically at traditional media (What are the media’s and journalists’ expectations? How do I get my message across? What are my rights with regards to the media?) and the other at using social networks (Which networks should I use? What are the limits to their use? How can I adapt my message?).

A visit to the offices of a newsroom is also planned, including participation in an editorial briefing.

• Understanding the challenges of public communication and how these have evolved in democratic societies
• Knowing the principal types and forms of public communication
• Knowing the basic models and instruments of communication
• Being able to develop a communication strategy for a public organisation or a not-for-profit organisation
• Developing media relations skills

• Participants in the MAS in Public Administration (MPA)
• Political leaders and administrative managers in charge of communication
• Executives in public enterprises or not-for-profit organisations
• Executives in companies working with or for the public sector

• French is the main teaching language for this program
• More information available on the corresponding pages