Laura McCullagh, MSc in Communication

Hi my name is Laura McCullagh and I have just completed my MSc in Communication at Loughry Campus. After finishing my degree in Liberal Arts at St Mary’s I was looking for a post-grad course that would help to open up more opportunities for me and believe it or not the communication course really has. It has been a very eventful and busy year and in the middle of all the hard work I have also made some really good friends.

Over the summer I completed my thesis: the title is a bit of a mouthful – A semiotic analysis of consumer’s interpretation of nutritional claims. The study looked at how shoppers interpret the nutritional claims made on the front of food labels and what influence these may have on their purchasing decision. I got some really interesting results and some weird and wonderful answers when I was out questioning people on the street. Males seem to be more sceptical of nutritional claims, viewing them as a gimmick or scam to entice people to buy.

I will be heading off to America in January for a year and a half; I am completing an internship with a local marketing company. Just like the Communication course it will be another adventure and it will be really interesting seeing how the country changes with the new president. Although it had only been a few months since we finished, it was really good fun catching up with my class at the recent Communication fourtieth reunion and hopefully we will keep in contact and meet up in ten years time for the golden anniversary!

Laura pictured with some of her classmates from the full-time class at the recent Communication fourtieth dinner: Eoin Murphy, Aoibeann Walsh, Dr Roy Nelson (Course Manager), Ian Mullan, Laura McCullagh, Emma McAleer and Donall O’Neill.