COM 459: Public Relations Tactics
Syllabus
Summer Session II, 2011
| Professor | Tom Kelleher, Ph.D. |
| tkell@hawaii.edu | |
| Office | Crawford Hall 321, 956-9944 |
| Meeting Times and Place | Tuesday and Thursday, 9-12:15 p.m. Crawford 212 |
Required Resources
Course Overview
Description
This section of COM 459 focuses on public relations tactics, particularly online tactics. This course will enhance your communication skills and equip you with some of the tools necessary for success in public relations. We will apply principles of effective and ethical writing to online assignments likely to be encountered in modern public relations.
We will discuss contexts for traditional public relations tactics and their online offshoots -- news releases and new media releases, professional biographies and profiles for SNS, letters to the editor and blog entries, VNRs and Vimeo clips, pitch letters and persuasive tweets, etc.
Objectives
Success in this class requires the following:
Quizzes
Any day with assigned reading due as listed in the course timeline is a likely day to have a brief quiz right at the beginning of the class period. Quizzes mainly will cover assigned readings, but with advance notice, quizzes also may cover material from class lectures, class discussion, online postings and handouts. Quizzes may include multiple-choice, short-answer and matching questions. THERE ARE NO MAKE-UP QUIZZES without proper documentation for your absence, which must be provided before the absence if at all possible. You can drop your lowest quiz grade. A missed quiz will count as a zero (and therefore count as your drop).
Although we won't have quizzes on every day with assigned reading, you'll want to be prepared each time. (The idea is to motivate you to keep up with the reading and on-time attendance.) We'll have about one quiz a week this session. Since your quiz average counts for 30% of your final grade, consider this: if we were to have exactly six quizzes and you drop your lowest one, each of the others would count for 6% of your overall grade. Please arrive prepared and on time.
Primary course objectives covered: 1 & 2.
Written Assignments
You'll have the opportunity to do much of your writing in class. We'll discuss expectations and grading criteria before getting started with each assignment. In the beginning of the session, grading rubrics will have heavy emphasis on grammar and mechanics. Assuming mastery of these technical issues, later assignments will be assessed with more weight on assignment-specific criteria such as appropriateness for social media, argument quality, voice, resourcefulness, timing, flow, and other goals for writing that we will discuss in class prior to the assignment.
Primary course objectives covered: 3, 4, 5 & 6.
Participation
Contributions to in-class discussion and activities are essential. At the
end of the session, your participation will be rated based on the following:
Engaging in distracting behavior -- especially e-mail, Facebook, texting etc. -- will hurt your
participation grade in the same way that being late will hurt your attendance grade (see next section).
Primary course objectives covered: 2, 6, 7 & 8.
Attendance (10%)
In case of absence due to an emergency such as a death in family or a serious
illness, you must notify me and provide appropriate documentation
within a week after first missing class. Excuses for planned absences must be
given to me in writing and must be approved one week in advance of the missed
class period. Since we only have 12 class periods, each absence is the equivalent of missing more than a week of school during a regular semester. One unexcused absence
will mean 8 points maximum for attendance for the semester, two unexcused
absences will mean 6 points, etc. Being late (arriving after attendance is taken)
or leaving early without an acceptable excuse or advanced approval will equal
one tardy. Being late or leaving early twice will equal one unexcused absence.
Primary course objectives covered: All.
Grading Weight
| Quizzes | 30% |
| Writing/online tactics | 50% |
| Participation | 10% |
| Attendance | 10% |
Final Grade Requirements
A = 90-100%
B = 80-89%
C = 70-79%
D = 60-69%
F = Below 60%
There will be absolutely no adjustment of grades on an individual basis (e.g., "I'm only one point away from a B, and I must get a B because I'm on probation.") Any requests to do so will be seen as an attempted breach of fairness to the rest of the class.
Special Accommodations
Students requiring special accommodations must notify the instructor and
present appropriate supporting documentation by the end of the first
week of class.
Seeking Help
This course should provide a great learning experience for all of us.
The success of the course depends largely on effective student-teacher
interaction. Don't feel like you have to have a pressing problem to talk
to me. I look forward to hearing your input. Although I may not have normal office hours as I do in the regular school year, just let me know if you'd like to meet and we can set up a time.
The phone number for the School of Communications is 956-8715.
Academic Honesty
Academic dishonesty of any sort will not be tolerated.
I take cheating issues very seriously, and I've had some unpleasant experiences
dealing with cases of plagiarism recently. Please see me if you have any questions
about academic honesty, and I'll be more than happy to discuss such issues before
you complete your work.
Preliminary Class Timeline
Make sure that
you do not have any scheduling conflicts. Topics and readings are subject to change, especially to accommodate
current events and emerging innovations! Additional readings and assignments
will be added as we go.
| Class Days | General Topics | Assignments Due |
| July 5 | Course overview: the bridge from traditional to "new" PR | Review syllabus, confirm computer access, get textbook |
| July 7 | Interactivity, systems approaches to public relations, your online social networks and profile | Read CH 1 & 2 |
| July 12 | One-way, two-way, P2P PR tactics, feature writing | Read CH 3 & 4 |
| July 14 | The publics and the relations in pubic relations | Read CH 5 Feature story assignment |
| July 19 | Media relations, news releases, social media releases, etc. | Read CH 6 |
| July 21 | Media relations, news releases, social media releases, etc. | News release/social media release assignment |
| July 26 | Commerce-driven public relations, integrated communications, pitching | Read CH 7 |
| July 28 | Pitfalls of pitching (particularly with social media) | Pitch letter/blogger contact assignment |
| August 2 | Issues-driven public relations, persuasion, social marketing | Read CH 8 |
| August 4 | Saying it more than one way: the letter and the A/V clip | Letter to editor & audio/visual assignment |
| August 9 | Strategic planning, new media tools and tactics not covered yet (tba - maybe you tell me!) | Read CH 9 |
| August 11 | Putting it all together - neat new tactics + solid public relations principles | Social media plan assignment |
*This is a link to an excerpt of Solis & Breakenridge's chapter (pp.125-136) in Putting the Public Back in Public Relations. The full chapter will be available on reserve.