Combining advertising and public relations courses? — Your Thoughts — asks PRSA

[To comment: larry@larrylitwin.com]

Larry Litwin’s response below:

Combining advertising and public relations courses

Where I teach there is some interest (driven by the department chair and interim dean, who are advertising people) in combining the principles of advertising and principles of public relations classes into one class. This is due to a belief by the advertising faculty that advertising and public relations are so thoroughly integrated as to no longer need separate classes. The other PR faculty members and I (in the minority) feel this would limit the survey of material in an introductory PR class, eliminating many topics that are the foundation of the profession. We’ve even received feedback from James Grunig that this is a bad idea, because while PR and advertising frequently work together, they are separate, distinct disciplines that should be taught separately.

Thoughts?

Samra Jones Bufkins, MJ, APR
Lecturer, Strategic Communications
Mayborn School of Journalism
University of North Texas

Larry’s response:

 

I fully favor combining public relations and advertising as a major…called…Strategic Communication. However, the two introduction courses must be kept independent. While the two disciplines have similarities, students are not mature enough to compartmentalize and time would not permit going into the depth needed to prepare students for their future profession.

I have had a chance to read the responses and have completed the Fullerton survey. While this may be self-serving, I’d be remiss if I did not mention it. I have authored a book — for both professionals and as a text — that combines public relations and advertising. It is in many colleges. Its 17 chapters (550+ pages) include a chapter on advertising that covers much of what a public relations strategic advisor should know about advertising. It retails for under $39.95 and is available for about $30 to students. I mention the book (“The Public Relations Practitioner’s Playbook”) only because one of the responses brought up the topic. Please check it out at www.larrylitwin.com. Much of the royalties (limited as they are) go to Rowan’s PRSSA chapter. By the way…this is an excellent dialog.

Link to discussion: http://www.prsa.org/MyPRSA/forums/messages?messageid=7816#7816

[To comment: larry@larrylitwin.com]

What’s an educator to do as Public Relations and Advertising morph into Strategic Communication

This is PRSA’s Discussion Forum begun on June 6, 2012. Below are many of the responses. It’s well worth a read. I view it as the future of our professions — public relations, advertising, marketing, IMC and the related fields.  [To comment: larry@larrylitwin.com]

Combining advertising and public relations courses
Posted June 6, 2012 at 6:23 p.m. 

Where I teach there is some interest (driven by the department chair and interim dean, who are advertising people) in combining the principles of advertising and principles of public relations classes into one class. This is due to a belief by the advertising faculty that advertising and public relations are so thoroughly integrated as to no longer need separate classes. The other PR faculty members and I (in the minority) feel this would limit the survey of material in an introductory PR class, eliminating many topics that are the foundation of the profession. We’ve even received feedback from James Grunig that this is a bad idea, because while PR and advertising frequently work together, they are separate, distinct disciplines that should be taught separately.

Thoughts?

Samra Jones Bufkins, MJ, APR
Lecturer, Strategic Communications
Mayborn School of Journalism
University of North Texas

I fully favor combining public relations and advertising as a major…called…Strategic Communication. However, the two introduction courses must be kept independent. While the two disciplines have similarities, students are not mature enough to compartmentalize and time would not permit going into the depth needed to prepare students for their future profession. 6/7/12

 

6/8/12

I have had a chance to read the responses and have completed the Fullerton survey. While this may be self-serving, I’d be remiss if I did not mention it. I have authored a book — for both professionals and as a text — that combines public relations and advertising. It is in many colleges. Its 17 chapters (550+ pages) include a chapter on advertising that covers much of what a public relations strategic advisor should know about advertising. It retails for under $39.95 and is available for about $30 to students. I mention the book (The Public Relations Practitioner’s Playbook) only because one of the responses brought up the topic. Please check it out at www.larrylitwin.com. Much of the royalties (limited as they are) go to Rowan’s PRSSA chapter. By the way…this is an excellent dialogue.

 

6/14/12

 

Response to Denise is right on. Student maturity is key. I am teaching two summer public relations writing courses. As with almost every course, there is a true bell curve — this one dealing with maturity, which is directly tied to work ethic. Results (grades) are exponential — work ethic is related to maturity, which is related to experience, which leads to better learning, which leads to better grades. This is nothing new to those of us who practice our crafts (strategic communication and teaching, which I refer to as edutainment). Thanks for this dialog. As said earlier, I usually do not get involved. This one has been valuable.

 

Combining advertising and public relations courses
Posted June 6, 2012 at 6:23 p.m.

Where I teach there is some interest (driven by the department chair and interim dean, who are advertising people) in combining the principles of advertising and principles of public relations classes into one class. This is due to a belief by the advertising faculty that advertising and public relations are so thoroughly integrated as to no longer need separate classes. The other PR faculty members and I (in the minority) feel this would limit the survey of material in an introductory PR class, eliminating many topics that are the foundation of the profession. We’ve even received feedback from James Grunig that this is a bad idea, because while PR and advertising frequently work together, they are separate, distinct disciplines that should be taught separately.

Thoughts?

Samra Jones Bufkins, MJ, APR
Lecturer, Strategic Communications
Mayborn School of Journalism
University of North Texas

Combining advertising and public relations courses
Posted June 6, 2012 at 6:35 p.m.

Pepperdine has been doing this for several years, and we’re changing back to separate introductory courses for public relations and advertising. Formal and informal assessment showed that student learning outcomes for both major areas were not being met with a combined course.

Denise P. Ferguson, Ph.D., APR

RE: Combining advertising and PR courses
Posted June 7, 2012 at 7:55 a.m.

Thank you–Denise–I think it’s interesting that Pepperdine has reversed this practice. Are you aware of any other universities that have experienced this? And Larry–that’s exactly what our major is called–strategic communications. I appreciate your input as we put some serious thought into this important matter.

Samra Jones Bufkins, MJ, APR
Lecturer, Strategic Communications
Mayborn School of Journalism
University of North Texas

RE: Combining intro adv and PR courses
Posted June 8, 2012 at 9:16 a.m.

Dr. Rita Colistra within our P.I. Reed School of Journalism has created a good Intro to Strategic Communication course for our current Adv/PR (soon to be strategic comm.) majors. She was admittedly disappointed with the available intro texts when she first piloted the class a couple of years ago, so she did a lot of research, worked with both advertising and PR faculty, and pulled together a lot of resources and info/examples to better integrate info about the two fields on her own. (I told her that as soon as she gets tenure, she must write the book!) If anyone is interested in what she’s developed, I know she would be happy to share.

RE: Intro Strategic Com Courses
Posted June 11, 2012 at 12:36 p.m.

I developed an introductory strategic communication course for our new program at High Point University. I share everyone’s frustration with the lack of a text that addresses Ad, PR and social. When I began my search I found that most intro PR books included a few paragraphs about Ad and then dismissed it as something other than PR. Most Ad books devote an entire chapter to PR, but tend to focus on publicity. There are many topics that can be comdined and actually strengthened, e.g., audience analysis, history, ethics, campaigns, etc. I’ve had to rely on several books to cover the topics that I thought are important to intro students. Ultimately, this meant “killing your children” and eliminating topics that I felt were really important in an intro PR course.

In addition to the intro course, we’ve also converged much of the strategic communication curriculum. Courses in cases, research and campaigns all include both
Ad and PR content. We still have separate courses for PR writing, Ad copywriting and layout and, starting this Fall, social media.

John R. Luecke, APR

RE: Combining ad & public relations courses
Posted June 12, 2012 at 5:26 p.m.

Thank you for everyone’s input. We seem to have reached a workable compromise. We’ll develop an intro to strategic communications course with half being taught by an advertising prof and half being taught by a PR prof. The advertising folks are content with that approach, and will most likely drop their current advertising principles course out of the requirements. We’ve stood our ground based largely on comments here and on LinkedIn, and are going to be able to keep our principles of PR course, although we’re re-naming it. This should give our pre-major students a thorough overview of the complexity of the field of public relations before they delve into their major skills and strategy courses. Thank you so much for your guidance. And, because our beginning advertising courses are frequently taken as electives by English, merchandising and marketing majors, this will expose them to the field of public relations as well.

Samra Jones Bufkins, MJ, APR
Lecturer, Strategic Communications
Mayborn School of Journalism
University of North Texas

Combining courses – no choice!
Posted June 12, 2012 at 8:09 p.m.

If for NO OTHER REASON, the budget situation (especially at the state colleges and universities) will dictate that we must combine curriculum (here and elsewhere) within the COMM disciplines. We have no other options. As you know, there’s been a budget bloodbath in the Calif State System, and the worst is yet to come. Other states are in a similar situation. The old guard faculty are going to scream bloody murder- but the silos have got to come down. We have got to become more efficient – and that means consolidation, merger, streamlining. The silos will have to come down. We will have no choice.

6/12/12

Combining advertising and public relations courses
Posted June 12, 2012 at 8:17 p.m.

I agree with those who are saying the silos must come down; integration is happening in the professions and we must adapt our curriculum to prepare future professionals. In my earlier post, I said that we are going back to separate introductory advertising and public relations courses (we have majors in both areas) for a number of reasons. Where we are doing more intentional integrating is at the upper level, where we have a new course in advertising and public relations strategies and tactics, focusing on digital, and we have IMC projects in other upper level courses. That way, we can build a community and establish foundational understanding of the fields, and then demonstrate how they work together in settings where students can apply the knowledge and skills they’ve gained.

Denise P. Ferguson, Ph.D., APR

6/13/12

Denise–we have a number of integrated, upper level courses as well, but wanted to keep the fundamentals courses separate so as not to confuse kids about the skills needed as well as some of the concepts. When we get into integrated courses we run into writing issues, which is why we’re keeping our writing courses separate until the students develop the writing maturity to adapt their writing styles.

Samra Jones Bufkins, MJ, APR
Lecturer, Strategic Communications
Mayborn School of Journalism
University of North Texas

 

For the past 5 years, I have combined PR and Advertising concentrators in a senior capstone course we call EXPECT (experiential learning). PR and AD students are combined into 4- and 3-person teams and partnered with pre-selected, vetted clients from the Salem, Mass. community — nonprofits, government agencies, and for-profit entrepreneurial businesses. We assess client perceptions student professional behaviors and skills. Students and clients and professors sign a contract specifying the student teams’ tasks intended to help the clients accomplish their objectives. Students meet with clients once a week and check in via email, Skype, and Google+hangout. Students evaluate themselves and each other three times during the semester. The final week is given over to student teams presenting their work to clients and the plenary sessions of the students in all four sections of PR and Advertising — social media, Web pages, press releases, event staffing, video/YouTubes, ads, posters, pitches and publicity.

I created the program, which the university reported to the Board of Higher Ed of Mass. as one of the university’s distinguished programs. I co-teach EXPECT each spring semester with my advertising colleague, Assoc. Professor Rebecca Hains.

Robert E. Brown
Professor, Communications
Salem State University
Salem, MA 01970
@gatheringlight
978 542 6463

[To comment: larry@larrylitwin.com]

Student gave back to others – Stories worth telling – Rowan’s Colette Bleistine

[To comment: larry@larrylitwin.com]

June 10, 2012

Written by
CHRISTINA MITCHELL
Courier-Post Staff


Colette Bleistine

Following is an excerpt from Christina Mitchell’s online feature, Lives Well Lived.

After Colette Bleistine died May 21 — spent from a lifelong battle with cystic fibrosis — several people told me I simply had to write about her.

In her 22 years, Colette was undiminished by a devastating disease. Her enthusiasm and refusal to give in to illness were not to be believed, they said. So it’s fitting to focus not on what took the college senior but what made her such a bright light. And I can’t say it any better than those who knew her.

Larry Litwin, Colette’s former professor and academic adviser at Rowan University, recalled when he first met the Washington Township native and transfer student:

With a firm handshake, the new student told me she was Colette Bleistine. … My immediate thought: I was looking at a TastyKake. … All the good things wrapped up in one.”

Harriet Reaves of Newark was among those who wrote seven pages of tributes attached to Colette’s online obituary:

I thank God that I had the fortune to meet and spend time with Colette. She left a legacy of giving, caring and selflessness and is an example we can all follow.

David Hackney, also a Rowan professor:

She made such a difference in the world in her short life. She would have made an even greater difference had she been granted the gift of time.

Colette’s mother, Nancee, put it simply when she alluded to her only child’s community spirit:

She used all her challenges to make the world better.

Colette once said her greatest reward was giving back to the community. “Paying it forward,” she said in a Web interview, “is the greatest feeling in the world.”

As Lincoln might have said, it is often “the better angels of our nature” that impacts others.

To that army of spirits, add Colette Bleistine.

[To comment: larry@larrylitwin.com]

Seen a bear in your neck of the woods?

[To comment: larry@larrylitwin.com]

Bears have been spotted in Burlington (Medford) and Camden (Waterford) Counties in New Jersey. What’s a person to do. Here is a “green info box from the Courier-Post and the N.J Department of Environmental Protection.

DEP BEAR RECOMMENDATIONS

• If you encounter a bear, try to remain calm. Never run from it. Instead, try to avoid eye contact and back away slowly.
• To scare the bear away, make loud noises by yelling, clapping your hands, or banging pots and pans. If you are going to be in known bear country, it would be a good idea to carry an airhorn.
• If a bear stands on its hind legs or moves closer, it may be trying to get a better view or detect scents in the air. It is usually not a threatening behavior.
• If a bear starts snapping its jaws and swatting the ground, these are warning signs that you are too close. Again, do not run. Slowly back away.
• If a bear enters your home, provide it with an escape route by propping all doors open.
• Black bear attacks are extremely rare, but if one does attack, fight back.
• Report any damage done by a bear or nuisance beahvior to the DEP’s 24-hour, toll-free hotline at (877) 927-6337.

 [To comment: larry@larrylitwin.com]