Wednesday, August 16, 2006

What should students know?

I'm prepping for the first day of PR Foundations and decided to start off with a quick review of some of the big issues confronting the field. Obviously, expansion of the blogosphere is one. I've also got overbilling, pay-to-play, the anti-astroturfing campaign, and the rapid growth of the industry.

Anything else new PR students should know about?

Comments:
Two things I can think of:
1) Pitching bloggers. It's tougher than it sounds and students, I think, should learn this from the get-go.

2) Corporate blogging policies. This is especially important for people going into agencies, who need to be careful about what they say, even if it's on their personal blog.

Hope that helps.
 
It's great to hear that you'll be informing your students about the anti-astroturfing campaign.

I should point out that there is a students section of the campaign supporters list which they can lend their name to if they wish.
 
Thanks for the input. Chris, I will definitely include your suggestions in my section on social media (a 2-hour block later in the semester).

Paull, thanks for pointing out the students section-- I wasn't aware of it.

And I also realized that I need to include something on women in PR. Duh!
 
There's also lots of mileage in:
* Reputation of the PR industry
* Distinctiveness of public relations (eg from advertising, marketing, publicity, propaganda: good luck!)
 
Yes, they need to know:

1) The four-part planning process and its componants (so that they don't let tactics drive a campaign)

2) Ethics: A look at the code of ethics of PRSA and IABC is a good place to start.
 
More good ideas. Thanks, Richard and Kami!
 
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