**Students can refer to bid point history and course evaluations under course number 42123/Reputation, Regulation and Communications - How Media Influences Business**
This course equips MBA students with the analytical and strategic tools needed to understand how media systems operate and how they shape business, political, and social realities. Media has never been a neutral mirror of the world; it has always constructed it, defining what we see, believe, and value in private and public life. The media does not merely report events; it sets agendas, frames narratives, and determines which issues, companies, and leaders are perceived as legitimate, successful, or controversial. It influences investor confidence, consumer trust, regulatory priorities, and the boundaries of markets.
Today, that power operates within a dense and rapidly evolving ecosystem. Traditional news organizations still continue to shape policy discourse, corporate reputation, and market sentiment, while digital platforms, social media and,increasingly, large language models and AI-driven tools filter and amplify information with extraordinary precision and reach. Together, these forces create a hybrid information environment in which journalism, news, and technology are inseparable. For business leaders, understanding this ecosystem is not a soft skill but a strategic necessity. Success increasingly depends on the ability to anticipate how narratives emerge and how crises are mediated. Developing the capacity to critically interpret, engage with, and ethically shape these media dynamics is therefore as vital to leadership as mastering marketing, finance, or operations.
Through case studies, guest lectures, and real-world analysis, students will gain a deep understanding of how the media economy functions. They will examine the shifting business models of traditional news organizations and explore how economic pressures and technological disruption affect the role of the press in democratic market economies. The course will analyze how news coverage influences key decision-makers: legislators, regulators, CEOs, boards of directors, and investors. Students will learn how media narratives affect corporate reputation, valuations, and legitimacy, and how companies seek to influence, collaborate with, or challenge them.
Who Should Take This Course?
-
Consultants and strategists who advise organizations operating in complex, high-visibility markets where perception, policy, and media framing directly influence outcomes.
-
Entrepreneurs and startup founders who need to understand how media narratives, platform dynamics, changing regulation and public sentiment affect valuations, investor confidence, brand legitimacy, and growth.
-
Students pursuing roles in technology — who must anticipate how algorithms, AI systems, and online discourse shape regulation, competition, and reputation.
-
Finance professionals and investors who need to evaluate not only financial fundamentals but also the regulatory, media, and cultural environments in which companies are embedded—factors that increasingly determine valuation, risk, and long-term performance.
-
Future leaders in highly regulated sectors such as energy, healthcare, or financial services, where public opinion, policy agendas, and media narratives define both constraints and opportunities.
-
Students who want to understand the world more deeply and become sophisticated, critical consumers of all forms of media—from traditional journalism to social platforms, algorithms, and AI-powered chatbots—developing the discernment essential to modern leadership.
