Teaching PR

At last weekend's Edelman Digital Bootcamp, I presented several assignments that educators can use to integrate social media into PR classes. Here's one:

Wikipedia editing assignment

Objectives: Get students to experiment with using a wiki; encourage discussion about the credibility of the information and what it means to have ordinary people generating media content. This assignment was created for a PR writing course.

Assignment

• Select any current entry
• Ideas: your high school, hometown, university page, your hobby or favorite TV show or movie, current events
• Print it out as it looked before you edit it
• Edit it: Not just a word or two; add a section, paragraph, etc.
• Print it out as it looks after you edited it
• For the truly brave: submit a proposed new entry

Grading criteria
Substantial edit made or proposal submitted
Verifiable references provided

Background on Wikipedia for public relations students

• Adding an entry: it should be an item worthy of inclusion in an encyclopedia
• Information should be independently verifiable from external sources
• It should be presented from a neutral point of view ("fairly and without bias")
• Autobiographical entries: Wikipedia discourages writing about yourself or subjects in which you are personally involved (including your employer)
• However, it is appropriate to correct any obvious inaccuracies about your organization; be sure to provide a verifiable reference to the new information
• You can also add your organization’s Web site to the "external links" section when appropriate
• Use the "watchlist" function so you know when someone has updated the pages you’re interested in

Resources for lecture/discussion

Wikis in Plain English (Common Craft video)
Wikipedia Policies and Guidelines
Wikipedia Help: watchlists

My downloadable slideshow from class-- I deleted the section on forums so that the Slideshare version concentrates on wikis.

Labels: assignment, classes, education, public relations, social media

// posted by Karen Miller Russell @ Wednesday, March 05, 2008