AY24/25 CNM Courses Review - Domain Knowledge

Disclaimer: The following reviews are submitted by CNM students who have taken the courses in the specified semesters of AY23/24. Please use this information at your own discretion, as course syllabus may have changed over time.

Aside from cosmetic changes, CNM Society has not made any alterations to the content of these reviews.

Also, do note that this list is not exhaustive. For a complete list of CNM courses, please visit NUSMods. These are the courses and the corresponding number of reviews that this post contains:

Domain Knowledge:

• NM4228 (2 reviews)

• NM4258 (1 review)

• NM4254 (1 review)

NM4228 - Risk and Crisis Communication

Workload Rating: 4/5

Difficulty Rating: 3.5/5

Review: I came into this course expecting to learn about PR and the practical side of risk comms. It turned out to be more theory based, which is quite disappointing - especially for those who plan to go for PR as their career focus. There were a lot of readings to finish (around two readings for every week), and you were required to list down minimum three questions for each reading (each question should have a minimum of 50 words). This must be done weekly. While I understand the rationale behind this task, it was very demanding on the student in terms of workload, considering that this course's workload was around 7-8 assessments in total. The writing assessments were also very heavy in terms of demands, while not all were practical: no press release/holding statements writings, no practice on crisis press conference, etc. The professor focused too much on health-related crisis/risks, and seem to not have the greatest hold of real-life PR practice in crisis management. For a 4k course, I expect more from the course and the professor to create opportunities for student to live a life of a PR crisis strategist, rather than just waltzing through and looking at crisis from an academia viewpoint. Tips for future students: due to the heavy workload, plan your timings smartly so you don't have to rush for the group project + final writing + peer reviews. Do note that this course simply scratches the surface of PR works, so actively learning more from other sources (internships for example) if you really want to enter PR in the future. (Taken in AY23/24 Semester 1)

Review: Unlike its name, this course is not about managing PR crises. It's about communicating in times of natural disasters and dangerous situations with high risks. Think earthquakes, floods and pandemics. Workload was pretty bad even though it looked light on paper. We had to work on 2 individual papers (1500-2000 words), 1 leading discussion and 1 final project with multiple components (literature review, presentation, project paper, peer evaluation). For seminar participation, students will have to send in 3 questions each for a reading (you'll need to read 2 readings per week). Due to the high workload and relatively short turnaround time between each assignment, it was a challenge meeting deadlines. I'd recommend starting the individual essays early if you can. I would not recommend this course for students who are into more practical assignments. The course and readings are extemely theory-heavy and it can be a little dry at times. Try not to leave assignments to the last minute as their deadlines are stacked quite close together. (Taken in AY23/24 Semester 1)

NM4258 - Health Communication

Workload Rating: 3/5

Difficulty Rating: 2/5

Review: If you're interested in communicating health problems and designing a health communication campaign, this is the course for you! You’ll learn about different frameworks to communicate health issues to your target audience. The concepts and frameworks were relatively easy to understand and there are only 3 assignments for this course including a group project. There’ll be 2 readings every week and you’ll be tasked to present one reading that semester. Overall, a very chill course.(Taken in AY23/24 Semester 1)

NM4254 - The City and Public Culture

Workload Rating: 3/5

Difficulty Rating: 4/5

Review: As someone who has never taken a culture-related course before, this course was certainly a challenge in terms of the thought process to critically analyze culture in a city. However, I feel that if you're interested in learning about how culture manifests in a city, this course is manageable and extremely well-structured. Assessment-wise, we have 3 blog posts and 3 blog responses, an essay outline, essay bibliography leading up to the final essay, on top of class participation. The blog posts require us to reflect on the content we have learnt in class and how we see that in a city in the world. For the final essay, we have to choose a topic of interest and write about how culture manifests or is shaped, also in relation to course content. The weekly readings are difficult to understand, but I find important to read or at least skim through even if you don't understand as the reading content will be explained in class. Do anticipate being a little lost or confused at times, as the course contents do tend to be a bit abstract, and I find that what we learnt over the weeks only starts to click towards the end of the semester.(Taken in AY23/24 Semester 2)