PR - Spring 2013 - Daemen College . . .

Greetings!

Please check this site (www.professorchimera.blogspot.com) for assignments and other notices -- including potential class cancellations, special announcements, etc.

Assignments noted here are subject to change, and in most cases due dates are yet to be determined. While checking this site is a good idea, of course, it's still best to attend class!

The first graded assignment will be a News Release (also known as a Press Release). That will be forthcoming, and details will be noted on this site.

Have a great semester!

Prof. Chimera

Crisis Management Case Activity

Crisis Communication assignment for Introduction to Public Relations:

 (Please ignore any published date associated with this post. Due date for this assignment to be announced.)

A grocery shopper in Atlanta, Georgia, has discovered some metal filings in a box of cereal manufactured by the company you work for as its PR director. This is brought to the attention of the store manager, who brings the matter to the attention of the cereal manufacturer.

It’s learned, upon investigation, that in fact a worker in your plant accidentally spilled some metal filings into a large vat of cereal. It’s a “substantial” amount of filings, and it affected only this one vat.

The company vice-president for sales is concerned that cereal sales would decline if the public finds out about the accident, and therefore he wishes to keep it quiet. As PR counsel to the company’s top management, your task is to advise company officials on what they should do in this matter.

Draw upon your knowledge of what we (and the book) have been talking about in terms of handling crisis management issues and, specifically, how to most effectively communicate during a crisis. You can provide your advice to me (Mr. Paul Chimera) as President of Cheery-Oh Manufacturing Co., Inc. You should put your recommendation in a narrative form – as if you’re basically talking to me, one on one – and may include bullet points as part of your explanation. Length is up to you: whatever you believe it will take to be as clear and complete as possible. Remember: you not only want to address the immediate problem, but also consider steps that will ensure continued support and confidence from the consuming public.

.

 

Latest PR Assignment: Dali News Release . . .

News release assignment, due: (to be determined).

Write a standard news release, including subject line in e-mail, headline, and a summary lead, plus the full release in typical inverted pyramid style. You can add some things as you wish, as long as they’re reasonable. Here are the copy points or facts, in no particular order of importance:

·        Salvador Dali was a Spanish painter and the leading surrealist artist of his time (born 1904, died 1989).

·        The exhibition is sponsored by a grant from M& T Bank of Buffalo.

·        You work for the Albright-Knox Art Museum in Buffalo, as a PR specialist.

·        Exhibition times: weekdays and weekends, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

·        An exhibition of all 20 of Dali’s large-scale masterpieces. First one was done in 1950, last one in 1970. First time that all of these huge works have been shown together in a single exhibition.

·        Opens April 1 and runs through August 30.

·        Admission is $20 adults, free for children 12 and under.

·        Will occupy all the large second-floor rooms of the Museum, located at 1285 Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo.

·        Quote museum director Louis Grachos about importance of this show.

·        Add information about Dali to help readers better understand who he was.

·        These large works explored historical, religious, and scientific themes.

·        Exhibition has a title: “Dali in Large Dimension”

* Come up with a brief "boiler plate" line

News Release Assignment due: (to be determined)

Graded News Release Assignment:

Write a straight news release – using a one-sentence Summary Lead paragraph – based on the following information. It’s intended for a Buffalo-area audience.

WHAT: A new hypnosis group formed

WHO: Western New York Hypnosis Society

WHAT: First meeting of this newly formed group will be: Saturday, March 4, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

WHERE: Amherst Community Center. Location: 1200 Harlem Rd., Amherst

WHY: An open forum for anyone interest in the subject of hypnosis. They can be professional or amateur.

WHO: Mark L. Summer, Ph.D., hypnotherapist, will lead discussions. Quote him about the group’s purpose, objectives, etc. Add information as you see fit about the popularity of hypnosis; statistics that may be relevant; doubts some may have – whatever. You may wish to do some research via the Internet about hypnosis.

Also: Let readers know what they can do for more information. Meetings are admission-free.

BOILER PLATE: Come up with one.

Assignments for Introduction to Public Relations

PR 322

Spring 2013 semester – Daemen College

 

ASSIGNMENT:                                                           DUE DATE:

 

News release                                                             

Pitch Letter                                                                

Mid-Term                                                                   March

Case Activity – pg. 381 in text: 3-part assignment - You'll do all three items.

Involving a news release, pitch letter, and media advisory. One overall grade will be assessed, based on your overall handling of this multi-task assignment. Be sure to read the precise directions very carefully and produce only what is asked.

                 

Case Activity (Program Planning): “Sunshine Café”, pg. 161 in book. 

                     

Crisis Management Case Activity (separate sheet

will be given to you for this assignment; or, it will be posted on this blog)                    

    

In-Class Oral Presentation (details to be announced).                              

Key Chapter Readings (not necessarily limited to these):

Ch. 1 – What is public relations?

Ch. 4 – PR departments & firms

Ch. 14 – News releases, media alerts, pitch letters

Ch. 6 – Program Planning

Ch. 10 – Conflict Management: Dealing with Issues, Risks &

Crises

Ch. 11 – Public opinion and persuasion

(Note: This is not necessarily a complete list of readings and assignments – graded or otherwise – and is subject to change.)

Syllabus: Introduction to Public Relations

Syllabus

 

Introduction to Public Relations

PR322

Spring 2013

Instructor: Prof. Paul Chimera

Preferred e-mail: chimera1@verizon.net

Secondary: pchimera@daemen.edu

During business hours: 839.5282

Office hours: arranged as needed

Blog on which certain course info. is posted: www.professorchimera.blogspot.com

 

 

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

 

“Introduction to Public Relations” is likely to include information far different from what many people presume public relations or PR is all about. At the core of public relations as a profession is solid communication skills – verbal and most especially via the written word.

 

This course is essentially divided into the “technician” side of PR, and the bigger-picture, management & strategy side of PR. Both skill sets are key to understanding and practicing public relations, and both will be covered in this course. (There is likely to be some overlap between parts of what will be covered in this course and what some of you may have dealt with, if you took my courses in “Writing for the Media” and “Promotional Writing.”  A measure of “cross-sell” is inevitable, since there are some undeniable similarities in these media-related courses.)

 

Through chapter readings, discussions, assignments, and – hopefully – a guest speaker sometime during the semester, students will have the opportunity to get a solid, practical introduction to the basics of public relations as a marketing management function.

 

COURSE EXPECTATIONS

 

There will be a number of writing assignments dealing with both the PR technician’s tools, and with activities involving PR strategy and issues management. Because presentation skills are also very important in practicing public relations, one assignment will be an oral report that promises to actually be fun as well as skill- and confidence-building. There will be a mid-term, but no final exam per se. In effect, the end-of-semester presentation will be your “final.”

 

 

LATE WORK

 

We’re going to run the course like a business. After all, you’re being prepared to graduate at some point and eventually enter the workplace full-time in your chosen career. Excuses for why reports and other work aren’t in on time don’t cut it in the business world. They also don’t fly here. Assignments turned in later than the end of the class session at which they’re due will be dropped one full letter grade for every day past deadline. Only bona fide doctor’s excuses will serve as an exception to this rule.

 

GRADING

 

I use numeric grades, with 90 – 100 (A); 80 – 89 (B); 70 – 79 (C); 60-69 (D); under 60 (F).

Participation is very big with me. So is attendance. These things show interest and ambition, and help create an enriching learning atmosphere for everyone. While attendance will not be mandatory; i.e., you will not be directly penalized for absence from class, what you miss by not being in class can never be fully recovered. If you can find someone from whom you can get notes, that’s terrific, but please don’t ask me to tell you what you missed. They just don’t pay me to teach it twice! And guess whose responsibility it is to be here? You know the answer to that one. It’s suggested you immediately get to know a classmate and exchange phone numbers and/or e-mail addresses, in case you need to get notes and assignment information, due to your absence.

 

Assignments will be described on a separate sheet, distributed early in the semester (or, in lieu of this, they’ll appear at: www.professorchimera.blogspot.com). Due dates may or may not be included at the time the sheet is distributed (or blog notices posted), but they’ll be communicated to you shortly thereafter. You’ll know what’s due and when. But missing in-class instruction, including occasions of in-class writing or other exercises, is something that can’t be recovered. Bottom line: miss class at your own peril. As comedian Woody Allen famously said, “Ninety percent of success is just showing up!”

 

Finally, with respect to grading . . .

 

In some cases, I may have you write two assignments of the same basic style (e.g., two press releases) and I’ll take the better of the two to serve as your grade in that unit. However, you must do both, in order for me to take the better one as your final grade in that unit. If you don’t do one of them, then that becomes a zero, which gets averaged with the grade you receive on the other assignment.

 

 

RUBRICS

 

All written assignments will be evaluated on (1) how well you understood the intent or purpose of the assignment; (2) its completeness, where nothing crucial is omitted; (3) the strength of your argument (when writing more “essay-style” assignments); and (4) their “technical” proficiency; i.e., grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, and spelling. I do not, however, assign a precise number of points for each of these categories. Rather, each assignment is expected to conform to these areas of evaluation. Then I make an ultimate judgment on whether the work would be considered “average” from a professional, entry-level job point of view; above average; or below average.

 

Do not depend on spell-check! Do yourself a huge favor and get into the habit of carefully reading your work out loud. We read with our ears as well as our eyes. You’ll often catch things when you hear them that you don’t when you read them silently. I cannot judge the quality of your work on what you meant to write; I must do so on what you turned in. Even simple typos remain a concern, because they suggest a lack of diligent proofing.

 

No paper can achieve “A” status if it has more than perhaps one fundamental error. For example, a great paper that has two run-on sentences is almost assured of not receive an “A,” no matter how much of the rest of the paper was excellent. Basic writing skills MUST be mastered here in college. It’s truly essential in order to be a properly educated college graduate. That’s my story – and I’m sticking to it!

 

PLAGIARISM

 

I recently encountered a couple of cases of student plagiarism; it was very troubling. Make it a point to first understand what plagiarism is (some elementary research will help sort this out), then pledge to never engage in it. It cheats everyone, but most especially you. As course instructor, I have the obligation to address student plagiarism in one of several ways: I can award no credit for the given assignment; I can fail the student in the course altogether; or I can even recommend expulsion from Daemen (though a final decision on that is not mine to make). Incidents of plagiarism need to be reporter to the Associate Dean of the college, and information pertaining to the infraction is kept in the student’s file until graduation, as I understand it. Make sure the work you turn in is yours, not someone else’s.

 

 

 

 

OUTCOMES

 

Successful completion of “Introduction to Public Relations” will mean gaining a solid grasp of basic PR principles – or, as the text book suggests in its title, PR strategies and tactics. The strategy part will come primarily in the form of Program Planning and Crisis Communications. The tactics part will span the crafting of such things as News Releases and Pitch Letters, among others. If you came into the course thinking PR was primarily about smiling charmingly and being a good conversationalist at cocktail parties, you’ll leave the course realizing that is very, very far from the reality of the public relations business.

 

Instead, you’ll have a fundamental grasp of what the public relations field entails, how it functions as part of the marketing process, and how to actually prepare various PR tools, such as news releases, program plans, etc.

 

Enjoy. And much luck!

 

________

 

Check blog for assignments, announcements, etc. . . .

In lieu of Daemen College's Blackboard system (I have nothing against it!), I've created this blog (www.professorchimera.blogspot.com) on which to post class assignments, special announcements, occasional supplemental lecture information, etc.

If you miss a class or anticipate missing a future class, check this blog for assignments and other pertinent information.

I've never used this format before, and I do hope I'll be able to "migrate" (is that the right term) information from my desktop or other sources to this site. If the physical presentation of transferred material looks a bit askew, it may be due to certain incompatibilities between systems.

I hope this blog site will prove to be a helpful tool for you and me. Good luck this semester!

-- Prof. Chimera