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]