Personal Professional Development (Public Health and Primary Care) / Course details

Business and the media are having an increasingly apparent impact on the health of populations worldwide, positively and negatively. Issues such as trade, regulation and legislation vary globally and historically, and this course unit will explore how it can affect the health of populations in an internationalised world. The course also explores the role the media can and does play in conveying health messages to the general public, and how the rise in social media use has led to new problems such as the infodemic, but also potential opportunities.

Students will be assessed through their contribution to an open access resource on business, media and health. Students will work on a group project over the full semester supported by their peers and will receive regular formative feedback from the course unit coordinators. Students will apply their knowledge and skills to generate a high quality output of benefit beyond the course unit.   
 

Introduce the relationship between business media and health and how their interaction impacts on the health of populations. 

Provide students with the opportunity to apply their learning to real world scenarios and contribute their findings to an open online resource.
 

The unit will cover the following major themes, exemplified with contemporary case studies to keep the unit up to date, and with flexibility to incorporate any developing trends: 

• The relationship between business, media and health, incorporating historical trends up to the present day focussing on technology, big-business and social media 
• Legislation and Regulation – the industry influence on health policy covering issues such as taxes on unhealthy food and drink, regulation of alcohol and tobacco and the way that industry has challenged and adapted such measures 
• Health as a business – to include investment in technology for health, the role of pharmaceutical companies, the commodification of healthcare, and how businesses can promote health for their consumers and workforce
• Trade, internationalisation and health – international agreements around Intellectual Property and licencing and the impact on global public health, free and fair trade, access and competition for healthy and unhealthy goods 
• Framing of health issues – health reporting and representation of health issues in the media, production and circulation of health news, the media’s role in raising awareness of health issues and the risk of stigmatisation or discrimination 
• The media and health promotion – theory and methods of mass media campaigns (to include social media), media advocacy, health and media literacy, inclusion of diverse population groups  
• The infodemic – the spread of misinformation and the impact on public health, and the role of both business and media in facilitating and mitigating this 
• Social media and health – the role social media plays in health communication and the positive and negative (public) health impacts of the increase in social media usage 

The course includes a continuous student group project that forms the overall assessment and contributes to a publicly available open access Business, Media and Health resource. The project will be developed and assessed at a group level and student groups will be organised to encourage peer support. The course unit leads will provide guidance to students throughout the course, including comprehensive and frequent feedback on their work. The students’ work will be peer-reviewed at key points during the course and students will have the opportunity to revisit and improve on their work before final submission and assessment. 

This is a mandatory course unit for students studying on the on-campus programme, or an optional course unit for students on the web-based learning programme. There will be written materials by the tutors guiding students through the course, illustrated with photographs and figures to illustrate the rich topic areas. Much of the content will be presented through reading, including peer reviewed journals (accessible through the University library), and multimedia, including videos. Students will be directed to a variety of relevant literature each week, but also encouraged to research and explore and find their own sources.  

There will be regular interaction with the tutors through scheduled seminars (which will be recorded for those on the web-based option) and online through the discussion boards. Students will be encouraged to use self-reflection to think about the ideas discussed, and take part in discussion board activities. Students should work through the unit in a logical sequence. The individual course unit timetables will guide what should be done and when. Participation in the discussion boards is greatly encouraged, and can help enhance your learning experience and prepare you for your assessment.

For all students - The majority of the course will be delivered through the virtual learning platform, which will include required and additional reading, self-tests and discussion boards.  

Web-based students - There will be webinars that will be recorded to allow synchronous and asynchronous learning. Web-based students may join webinars live, but it is not mandatory. Recordings will be made of all face-to-face activities and will be made available.

For on campus students - All face-to-face activities are mandatory for all students. Attendance is monitored and an escalation policy is in place for non-attendance. The tutor-led sessions will be recorded and made available for all students as part of good pedagogic practice for accessibility, revision and consolidation. We also have weekly peer-led team study sessions where you will be asked to undertake tasks linked to the course unit materials using the discussion boards.

For all students - In line with guidance from the Office for Students and Quality Assurance Agency, the programme will be augmented by the Programme Director Seminar Series to deliver study skills, written English, academic writing, research skills, critical thinking and understanding arguments, careers and employability skills, revision/assessment/examination skills including time management. 

Students will be provided with personalised feedback for their final summative group project within 20 working days. 

If you have any questions about the content of this unit, please contact one of the course unit leaders, Greg Williams (greg.williams@manchester.ac.uk) or John Owen (john.owen@manchester.ac.uk). If you have any other queries, please contact the PGT programme administrators via email on shs.programmes@manchester.ac.uk.