Theses

If you are interested in writing a thesis in our research group, please familiarize yourself with the following information.

• Guidelines for preparing an exposé, [External linkpdfExternal link, 229External linkkbExternal link]External link
• Guidelines for the formal design [External linkpdfExternal link, 1External linkmbExternal link]External link of seminar papers and theses .
• If you are conducting a systematic literature search, you can find the guidelines here .External link

Supervision of final theses

In the Strategic Communication Department ( Prof. Dr. Irina Lock ), you can write an empirical (!) thesis on the following topics. Theoretical or conceptual theses are not supervised.

• Content and effects of organizational and corporate communication (public relations)
• Public Affairs and Lobbying
• Issues management/issue communication
• Ethical issues of strategic communication
• Interaction between public relations and journalism
• Sustainability and climate communication
• Visual strategic and political communication
• Visual and/or multimodal framing

If one of these topics or the concrete ideas for theses from our ongoing research (see below) arouses your interest, you can contact Ms. Carolin Junold to arrange an initial personal meeting with Prof. Lock .

proposal outline to Prof. Lock via email. The proposal outline is available for download.

If, after the initial interview, you decide to pursue a thesis in Strategic Communication, you will be enrolled in the colloquium . The colloquium takes place on three mandatory in-person sessions throughout the semester. During the colloquium, you will learn about the formalities, tips, and pitfalls of the final thesis, and you will interact with other students writing their final thesis.

Master 's students whose work is likely to be suitable for scientific publication can, after consultation, write their thesis in journal article format (maximum 8,000 words).

To register your thesis (by the 15th of the month, receipt of documents by ASPA by the 10th of the month), you must submit an exposé , which must be accepted by Prof. Dr. Lock and a second supervisor. Only then does your writing period begin (BA: 3 months; MA: 6 months).

During the writing period, you will receive support in your writing through both the colloquium and one-to-one supervision during office hours.

After submitting your thesis to ASPA on time and in the correct format, the six-week correction period begins. At the end of the thesis, you will receive a grade for the thesis (average of the grades from both supervisors) and the written assessments.