There is no getting around the fact that we live in a media society nowadays. Niklas Luhman once pointed out quite correctly, that almost everything we know about the world, we know from mass media. Hence, understanding the the modes of action and functioning of the modern media world is indispensable for a succesful career in business communication. This seminar focuses on the ethical challenges that arise as a result of the complex relationship between organizational communication and (news) journalism. Today, there are more than six communications professionals for every journalist. Business communications heavily outguns journalism, particular interests more often than not, trump the public interest. With journalism in a deep crisis, the economic pressure on news production has also an enormous impact on corporate media relations. Where businesses used to rely on so called earned media primarily, paid and owned media have risen in importance in the past decades. While journalists are still the main gatekeepers to the public sphere, they are under more and more economic pressure while exercising this function. The students will analyze the relationship between journalism and business communication from an ethical point of view against the background of the media reality in the third decade of the 21st century. In a row of simulations, the students will work with real data from an interview study to design simulations of ethical dilemmas, in which communication professionals find themselves again and again in their daily routine.

The learning outcomes will be as follows:

• The students will learn to design and simulate a scenario, based on real interview data. The point is to prepare the students for their leadership responsibilities when they themselves need to be able to understand the challenges practioners are facing every day.
• A thorough understanding of the ethical challenges that arise in the field of business communication.
• Participants will gain the ability to empathize with different players in the media system and learn to "put themselves in their shoes". This is an invaluable skill for every management position.
• Develop potential solutions and enact them during a classroom simulation.
• The students will be able to abstract a complex problem and fit it into a simulation, which they run as "dungeon masters".

Attendance is mandatory. Students can miss one session without good cause.

The seminar is designed as a simulation course. The kick-off will consist of a short simulation that is designed to experience an ethical challenge in the field of business communication, based on a real case. This initial simulation will work as a template for the students to develop their own simulations over the course of the seminar. In the introductory phase, the class will inquire into the theoretical underpinnings of ethical challenges in business communication and media. Hence, participants will learn about important codes of conduct in the field of business communication, about the relationship between organizational communication and journalism, and ethical challenges that arise thereof.

The main part of the course will consist of the independent development of ethical simulations by student-teams. Each team will receive real data from expert-interviews, which they shall use to create a simulation that enacts the ethical challenges within the classroom. The students will create a role-play which they themselve orchestrate, and where the other groups participate as actors.

In the final phase, the students should reflect on the outcomes of their simulation and elaborate on the solutions that were created during the simulation. They should especially estimate, whether the simulated solution is applicable to the real world of business communication.

Assessment will comprise the following elements:

• Reflective essay on ethics in business communication (20%)
• Design and conduct of a simulation of ethical challenges (40%)
• Case study report on the basis of the simulated scenario (40%)

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