The aim of the seminar, Strategic Media Management - trans-disciplinary perspectives, was to bring together academic scholars and media practitioners to discuss recent developments in the field of media management from a trans-disciplinary perspective. The seminar was the closing dissemination seminar of the research project Strategic Challenges of the Media Industry in Converging Media Markets, funded by Helsingin Sanomien Säätiö. 

The seminar drew a large audience and generated enthusiastic discussion on the implications of social media to management theory and practice.

Alladi Venkatesh is Professor of Management and Computer Science, and Associate Director, CRITO (Center for Research on Information Technology) University of California, Irvine, USA. His publications have appeared in major journals, Management Science, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Communications of the ACM, Marketing Theory, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management and others.

The project focuses on creative leadership in media industry networks and organizations.The aim is to explore organizational creativity as an important strategic resource for contemporary media firms. Creative leadership is investigated especially from the perspectives of communication and collaboration.

Contact person: nando.malmelin(at) aalto.fi 

More (in Finnish)

http://www.marmai.fi/uutiset/nando+malmelin+lahtee+alehdista/a2162700

In the Department of Communication, Järventie-Thesleff's teaching and research will mainly focus on organizational and management communication, in the context of media management and corporate branding in particular. As a newly appointed professor, she will also join the management team of the department.

A . Fuat Fırat is professor of marketing at the University of Texas—Pan American. He completed his Ph.D. degree in marketing at Northwestern University. His research interests cover areas such as macro consumer behavior and macromarketing; postmodern culture; brands and branding; transmodern marketing strategies; gender and consumption; marketing and development; and interorganizational relations. His has won the Journal of Macromarketing Charles Slater Award for best article with co-author N. Dholakia, the Journal of Consumer Research best article award with co-author A. Venkatesh, and the Corporate Communications: An International Journal top ranked paper award with co-authors L.T. Christensen and J. Cornelissen. He has published several books including Consuming People: From Political Economy to Theaters of Consumption, co-authored by N. Dholakia, and is the founding editor of Consumption, Markets & Culture.

The year 2011 is marked with an increased attention towards Open Educational Practices (OEP) in the context of higher education both in EU and globally. On the 14^th of November UNESCO held a Joint Policy Forum on Mainstreaming OEP at its headquarters in Paris. Finland was represented by Tapio Koskinen (Aalto Pro) and Alona Senishch-Chmilevska (Department of Communication).

Alona shares hew experience of attending the forum: “Being someone who uses Open Educational Resources in classroom and wonders what resources for learning will look like in decades to come, I felt privileged being invited to participate in such meaningful event which aimed at establishing Guidelines for Mainstreaming Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education. The forum brought together educational professionals, organizational leaders and policy makers from around the world to examine the results of Open Educational Quality Initiative (OPAL) and Content Creation Excellence through Dialogue in Education (CONCEDE) projects that promote innovation and quality in higher education through open Educational practices (OEP).

Being a registered member of OPAL (http://www.oer-quality.org/) Aalto is seen as a supporter of Open Educational Resources (OER) movement. One of the “grand” samples of OER at Aalto is Le-Mill project run by TAIK since 2006 (http://lemill.net/). On a smaller scale, Open Educational Practices exist as individual initiatives at different schools and departments of Aalto and it is vital to bring these practices together if Aalto aims to succeed in mainstreaming OEP at institutional level.”

 Next year, UNESCO hosts the biggest OER event of the decade – 2012 World Open Educational Resources Congress in Paris that will also celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the 2002 UNESCO Forum that created the term OER. UNESCO welcomes all those interested to attend the congress in June, 20-22, UNESCO HQ, Paris, France. For more information please contact alona.senishch@aalto.fi.

On behalf of the Department, Marja-Liisa Kuronen welcomed the approximately 50 participants and  opened the discussion with three recent – invitingly debatable -  quotes. Two experienced communications professionals, i.e. Jouni Heinonen (Communications Consultancy Pohjoisranta) and  Katri Riekkinen (Metso) took up Marja-Liisa’s challenge and described current trends in sustainability and responsibility from the communications perspective, whereas Ulla Rehell (Fortum) focused on sustainability as concrete, strategic choices. Christa Uusi-Rauva (Department of Communication) concluded the morning by a provocative comment “from a CSR researcher’s desk”.

For more, see the Finnish pages.

More information: Rita Järventie-Thesleff, Executive in Residence, 

Rita.Jarventie-Thesleff(at)aalto.fi

More in Finnish here.

Media relations, business fundamentals and the global operating environment were emphasized as the most essential knowledge competencies of communications professionals. Argumentation skills and mastering the new media were regarded as the most important skills, as also an ability to communicate in both Finnish and English in the hectic, fast-pace environment.

The survey was administered in collaboration with ProCom - the Finnish Association of Communications Professionals - in June 2011 and it was a follow-up study for a survey in 2008 (Competence Survey slides June 2008.pdf). A total of 170 respondents (mainly Communications Managers and Communications Directors) answered questions related to the trends and developments of present-day corporate communications.

See the summary of the results in English (Summary of competence research 2011.pdf) and in Finnish (Yhteenveto viestintäkompetenssitutkimuksen tuloksista 2011.pdf).

More information: Leena Louhiala-Salminen

Anne Kankaanranta and Leena Louhiala-Salminen represented IBC (Aalto University School of Economics) at the 5^th NORDKOMM meeting on 25-27 February and joined the NORDKOMM network. A total of 20 researchers from Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland met over the weekend at Schæffergården in Copenhagen to discuss education and research in strategic/corporate/organizational communication in the Nordic countries.

NORDKOMM, Nordic Research Seminar on Communication, was established by BI Norwegian School of Management and ASB Centre for Corporate Communication, (Aarhus School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University) to provide communication scholars with an opportunity to present and discuss their research - “from project to result” - in an informal and intensive format.

Kankaanranta and Louhiala-Salminen presented their project titled “Competencies required of communication professionals in the 2010s? Perceptions of corporate communication professionals and top management “.

NORDKOMM will meet again in Oslo in 2012. 

During the first part of the evening the participants were invited to discuss the changes that Aalto University brings to the program and the department. For example, the plans of the new departmental program and its new name raised a lively discussion.

The new IBC course, "Analytical frameworks for business and corporate communication" offered in January-February by our new IBC Professor Eija Ventola, was also introduced. Prof. Ventola joined the IBC faculty in October and the get-together was her first contact with the students of the IBC program. She comes from the University of Helsinki and specialises in, for example, functional linguistics, discourse analysis, multimodal and multimedial discourse analysis and contrastive linguistics.

In the spring, the students will again be able to participate in the special topics course on Knowledge Communication and Visualization. As last year, the course will be lectured by Professor Martin Eppler (University of St. Gallen, Switzerland). The evening was concluded by talking to old and new friends over coffee and pies. The new students go to hear what the alumni had been up to after graduation, and the alumni heard about our new Aalto environment.

Prof. Martin Eppler’s Visualization for Knowledge Sharing: Experimental Evidence on YouTube

The IBC students participating in the course Cross-cultural issues in managerial communication worked on an authentic communication project as one of their assignments. In addition to receiving a description of the present situation of A-Katsastus in its operating environment, they also had an opportunity to discuss the specific challenges and needs of the company with Ms Arola at the start of the project.

After the presentations of the six student teams’ recommendations on 8 December, Outi Arola’s comments were highly positive. - I’m impressed by the students’ dedication, enthusiasm and professionalism. Most of their recommendations could actually be implemented by the company and on top of that, their presentations were engaging and energizing!

In accordance with the general IBC evaluation criteria, the students’ work will be primarily evaluated by Ms Arola but complemented with the instructor’s insights. As Prof. Kankaanranta pointed out, this type of cooperation is a true learning experience - and not only for the students!

For more on A-Katsastus.