Public Relations Media and Methods

Catalog description

Analyzing media and audiences for public relations purposes; planning, designing, and writing public relations communications; press relations and publicity methods. COMM 471 Public Relations Media and Methods (3) COMM 471 introduces students to the methods used in public relations to generate news media coverage for organizations and individuals. The public relations practitioner must understand the goals of the client organization and its publics to establish effective and ethical communication between them. This course focuses on writing and is designed to assist students in developing and improving professional writing skills for public relations practice, in many forms and for a wide variety of media. Students will learn the importance of different writing approaches required for specific publics and news media organizations. In this course students learn to: (1) locate, read, and evaluate research materials; (2) develop clear, concise program objectives based on the organizations' or clients' goals and the results of their research; (3) determine materials that need to be developed and written to achieve the program objectives; (4) develop newsworthy story ideas; (5) write clear, concise copy that is accurate and logically organized; (6) write in a variety of formats commonly used in public relations practice, including: pitch letters, news releases, position papers, backgrounders, public service announcements; and (7) design media kits.