Introduction to Public Relations
PR322
Spring 2013
Instructor:
Prof. Paul Chimera
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!
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