Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Meet the Teacher: Bob Batchelor
This week I'm featuring Bob Batchelor of the University of South Florida -- he's relatively new to the blogosphere, but he sure caught my eye when he blogged about PR history! It's my area of expertise but, let's be honest, not one of wide public concern. ;-) Here are Bob's responses to my questions... it's the first time Johnny Cash has appeared in Teaching PR.
Q. How and when did you first get interested in blogging? What is the purpose of your blog? Are you using any other social media?
My professional career in communications began roughly the same time the Web started taking off, which led to a longtime interest in technology. For example, I helped design and wrote content for a corporate Web site in 1996-1997 that was at the time state of the art. I do not recall an "aha" moment when the bulb went off regarding blogging, but rather my interest in the medium grew out of my writing for online publications. I used to write for some then-big Web sites, like office.com and worked as a staff writer at dbusiness.com in the heyday of the dot.com era. I also wrote quite a bit for Rick Shenkman’s History News Network (hnn.us), which uses history as a vehicle for understanding today’s world. I see blogging as an extension of these attempts at creating a platform for myself as a popular culture specialist. My first (sporadic) blogging attempts began in March 2003 at Pop Goes Our Culture .
PR-Bridge grew out of my frustration with divide between the theory-laden, scholarly work going on among public relations academics and the buried under work, gut instinct driven world of practitioners. There are so many opportunities for true collaboration, but neither side (and they do seem like separate worlds!) seems that willing or interested in working with the other. I hope PR-Bridge grows into a place where some discussion can take place. My other hope is that professionals will recognize me as someone who can help them find new talent, thus getting my students jobs and internships.
Currently, I’m using a variety of other social media platforms, including personal and professional MySpace pages and a Facebook page. I also signed onto LinkedIn and MyRagan. I’m purposely avoiding most cell phone based social media, just because I like to be tuned out to have time to think, so I use my cell about twice a day to make short calls and in case of emergencies related to my two-year-old daughter.
Q. Tell us a little about your school and how PR is taught there.
The University of South Florida is the ninth largest university in the nation. We have gained a bit of notoriety over the last couple of years because the school football team joined the Big East and has been ranked. Also, there is a big push to become a nationally-recognized research university, so that has drawn attention.
Public relations is a sequence in the School of Mass Communications, which is approved by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, one of only 25 percent of the 450 journalism and mass communications programs in the United States accredited by ACEJMC. The School of Mass Communications requires students to apply for admission and pass an English diagnostic test, so most PR students are upperclassmen. My colleagues in the PR sequence include: Kelly Page Werder (sequence head), Kelli Burns, Rebecca Hagen, and Derina Holtzhausen, who is also the director of graduate studies. I also serve as faculty advisor for the Public Relations Students Society of America.
Public relations is a three-semester sequence, though students have strict requirements while completing the degree, from taking Mass Communications courses like Intro to Advertising and Beginning Reporting to taking management, marketing, economic, political science, and library research skills courses outside the major. Students take Principles of Public Relations their first semester. In the second, they enroll in Writing for Public Relations, Public Relations Research, and Public Relations: Issues, Problems, and Practices, which is a case study course. In their final semester in the sequence, students take our capstone Advanced PR, where they work in account teams for a real client. They also take PR Design that final semester. In addition, most of our students are juggling internships, jobs, and extracurricular groups, like PRSSA, Student Government, and a variety of activist groups and philanthropic activities. Most of our top students are graduating with two to four internships.
My primary class is Writing for Public Relations, though I also teach Principles and Issues on a regular basis. I also teach an introductory course Mass Communication and Society, which is a large course (I’ll have 300 students in January) that students from across USF can take. The PR sequence is difficult and we stress the competitive aspects of the profession. Based on my professional experience, I teach from an integrated communications perspective, which I feel best prepares my students for entering the field.
Q. In what ways do you incorporate social media into the classroom? What would you most like to do that you aren't already doing?
I use blogging extensively in my courses. In the Writing classes, I make blogging part of their weekly assignments. Often, this entails giving the students a current article or op-ed to read and then having them post their responses on our internal (Blackboard-based) blog. Supplementing their textbook this way forces students to read about events and issues taking place right now and shows them the kinds of publications they should be reading to prepare themselves for their professional lives. I started experimenting with podcasting this semester. In the 45-student Issues class, I had them do group work and then each group answered the same four questions via podcasting. Next, they had to blog about the assignment after listening to the other groups’ podcasts. The student really enjoyed the work, so I plan to incorporate more podcasting in the future.
What I would like to do more of in the future is use Wikis as a way to build the class into an online community. Also, I hope to find a way to get more involved myself in the students' blogging efforts. Keeping up with them is a numbers game that I always seem to lose to some degree. That said, I am pretty harshly critical of myself as a teacher. I will always search for better ways to prepare my students, particularly by using new technology. In the future, I foresee this including actually teaching them how to build Web sites, blogs, post podcasts, and other technical skills that they lack as a group.
Q. Do you have any advice for other PR educators who are considering starting a blog or getting involved in social media?
Despite the effort that blogging requires, I find it valuable enough to dedicate the time. My priority is my students and blogging helps me understand social media better, thus giving me some credibility when discussing it as a teacher. My students are focused on building the skills necessary for them to succeed in the profession, so they want to know that I have the experience and background to teach them. PR-Bridge is a kind of "putting my money where my mouth is" exercise that shows students the value of social media. In fact, I challenged my students to build their own brand by starting a blog or joining the social media networks that I mentioned earlier. Here’s an example of a couple students who took me up on the offer: Meg Roberts and Tory Lynne.
On a personal level, I would love it if more PR educators blogged, particularly those who approach the field from a more scholarly viewpoint. There are big issues in this profession that need addressed and we could all benefit from more voices in the mix. For example, though I know Bill Sledzik by reputation, I had never met him prior to a recent exchange we had via blogging, looking at an issue from two divergent views. This conversation would have never taken place without social media.
Q. Like me, you're a historian, and you're currently studying for your doctorate in English Literature. What are your long-term career plans and how will you fit in your varied interests?
After a decade of corporate communications work, I needed a change of pace. Luckily, USF wanted to hire someone who had deep professional experience. But, academe requires a doctorate for tenure, so I took the steps to gain admission into the English Lit program at USF. I have always been a secret lit kind of guy, so working toward this degree has been a dream come true. The degree will help me get tenure and gives me a new perspective on teaching writing to PR students.
My primary goal, as audacious as it sounds, is to become the best college professor in America. That’s the kind of standard I hold myself to. I hope to write quite a bit in the future about how to best teach PR, which is another reason why I wish more of us were blogging.
As a scholar, nearly all of my work is broadly defined as popular culture. My long-term goal is to be a respected pop culture scholar, like my friend Ray Browne from Bowling Green State University. By labeling myself as a pop culturist, rather than narrowly defining my interests, I keep my work fresh and varied enough to encompass everything I want to write about. Currently, for example, I am working on a book on pop culture in this decade and editing a 4-volume encyclopedia on American pop culture in the twentieth century. My next project is editing a 3-volume series of original essays on cult pop culture. Then I’ll be onto a modern history of public relations, which the field sorely needs, and a short bio of Johnny Cash. I want to publish a book a year for about a decade then see what happens next.
Q. How and when did you first get interested in blogging? What is the purpose of your blog? Are you using any other social media?
My professional career in communications began roughly the same time the Web started taking off, which led to a longtime interest in technology. For example, I helped design and wrote content for a corporate Web site in 1996-1997 that was at the time state of the art. I do not recall an "aha" moment when the bulb went off regarding blogging, but rather my interest in the medium grew out of my writing for online publications. I used to write for some then-big Web sites, like office.com and worked as a staff writer at dbusiness.com in the heyday of the dot.com era. I also wrote quite a bit for Rick Shenkman’s History News Network (hnn.us), which uses history as a vehicle for understanding today’s world. I see blogging as an extension of these attempts at creating a platform for myself as a popular culture specialist. My first (sporadic) blogging attempts began in March 2003 at Pop Goes Our Culture .
PR-Bridge grew out of my frustration with divide between the theory-laden, scholarly work going on among public relations academics and the buried under work, gut instinct driven world of practitioners. There are so many opportunities for true collaboration, but neither side (and they do seem like separate worlds!) seems that willing or interested in working with the other. I hope PR-Bridge grows into a place where some discussion can take place. My other hope is that professionals will recognize me as someone who can help them find new talent, thus getting my students jobs and internships.
Currently, I’m using a variety of other social media platforms, including personal and professional MySpace pages and a Facebook page. I also signed onto LinkedIn and MyRagan. I’m purposely avoiding most cell phone based social media, just because I like to be tuned out to have time to think, so I use my cell about twice a day to make short calls and in case of emergencies related to my two-year-old daughter.
Q. Tell us a little about your school and how PR is taught there.
The University of South Florida is the ninth largest university in the nation. We have gained a bit of notoriety over the last couple of years because the school football team joined the Big East and has been ranked. Also, there is a big push to become a nationally-recognized research university, so that has drawn attention.
Public relations is a sequence in the School of Mass Communications, which is approved by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, one of only 25 percent of the 450 journalism and mass communications programs in the United States accredited by ACEJMC. The School of Mass Communications requires students to apply for admission and pass an English diagnostic test, so most PR students are upperclassmen. My colleagues in the PR sequence include: Kelly Page Werder (sequence head), Kelli Burns, Rebecca Hagen, and Derina Holtzhausen, who is also the director of graduate studies. I also serve as faculty advisor for the Public Relations Students Society of America.
Public relations is a three-semester sequence, though students have strict requirements while completing the degree, from taking Mass Communications courses like Intro to Advertising and Beginning Reporting to taking management, marketing, economic, political science, and library research skills courses outside the major. Students take Principles of Public Relations their first semester. In the second, they enroll in Writing for Public Relations, Public Relations Research, and Public Relations: Issues, Problems, and Practices, which is a case study course. In their final semester in the sequence, students take our capstone Advanced PR, where they work in account teams for a real client. They also take PR Design that final semester. In addition, most of our students are juggling internships, jobs, and extracurricular groups, like PRSSA, Student Government, and a variety of activist groups and philanthropic activities. Most of our top students are graduating with two to four internships.
My primary class is Writing for Public Relations, though I also teach Principles and Issues on a regular basis. I also teach an introductory course Mass Communication and Society, which is a large course (I’ll have 300 students in January) that students from across USF can take. The PR sequence is difficult and we stress the competitive aspects of the profession. Based on my professional experience, I teach from an integrated communications perspective, which I feel best prepares my students for entering the field.
Q. In what ways do you incorporate social media into the classroom? What would you most like to do that you aren't already doing?
I use blogging extensively in my courses. In the Writing classes, I make blogging part of their weekly assignments. Often, this entails giving the students a current article or op-ed to read and then having them post their responses on our internal (Blackboard-based) blog. Supplementing their textbook this way forces students to read about events and issues taking place right now and shows them the kinds of publications they should be reading to prepare themselves for their professional lives. I started experimenting with podcasting this semester. In the 45-student Issues class, I had them do group work and then each group answered the same four questions via podcasting. Next, they had to blog about the assignment after listening to the other groups’ podcasts. The student really enjoyed the work, so I plan to incorporate more podcasting in the future.
What I would like to do more of in the future is use Wikis as a way to build the class into an online community. Also, I hope to find a way to get more involved myself in the students' blogging efforts. Keeping up with them is a numbers game that I always seem to lose to some degree. That said, I am pretty harshly critical of myself as a teacher. I will always search for better ways to prepare my students, particularly by using new technology. In the future, I foresee this including actually teaching them how to build Web sites, blogs, post podcasts, and other technical skills that they lack as a group.
Q. Do you have any advice for other PR educators who are considering starting a blog or getting involved in social media?
Despite the effort that blogging requires, I find it valuable enough to dedicate the time. My priority is my students and blogging helps me understand social media better, thus giving me some credibility when discussing it as a teacher. My students are focused on building the skills necessary for them to succeed in the profession, so they want to know that I have the experience and background to teach them. PR-Bridge is a kind of "putting my money where my mouth is" exercise that shows students the value of social media. In fact, I challenged my students to build their own brand by starting a blog or joining the social media networks that I mentioned earlier. Here’s an example of a couple students who took me up on the offer: Meg Roberts and Tory Lynne.
On a personal level, I would love it if more PR educators blogged, particularly those who approach the field from a more scholarly viewpoint. There are big issues in this profession that need addressed and we could all benefit from more voices in the mix. For example, though I know Bill Sledzik by reputation, I had never met him prior to a recent exchange we had via blogging, looking at an issue from two divergent views. This conversation would have never taken place without social media.
Q. Like me, you're a historian, and you're currently studying for your doctorate in English Literature. What are your long-term career plans and how will you fit in your varied interests?
After a decade of corporate communications work, I needed a change of pace. Luckily, USF wanted to hire someone who had deep professional experience. But, academe requires a doctorate for tenure, so I took the steps to gain admission into the English Lit program at USF. I have always been a secret lit kind of guy, so working toward this degree has been a dream come true. The degree will help me get tenure and gives me a new perspective on teaching writing to PR students.
My primary goal, as audacious as it sounds, is to become the best college professor in America. That’s the kind of standard I hold myself to. I hope to write quite a bit in the future about how to best teach PR, which is another reason why I wish more of us were blogging.
As a scholar, nearly all of my work is broadly defined as popular culture. My long-term goal is to be a respected pop culture scholar, like my friend Ray Browne from Bowling Green State University. By labeling myself as a pop culturist, rather than narrowly defining my interests, I keep my work fresh and varied enough to encompass everything I want to write about. Currently, for example, I am working on a book on pop culture in this decade and editing a 4-volume encyclopedia on American pop culture in the twentieth century. My next project is editing a 3-volume series of original essays on cult pop culture. Then I’ll be onto a modern history of public relations, which the field sorely needs, and a short bio of Johnny Cash. I want to publish a book a year for about a decade then see what happens next.
Labels: education, meet the teacher, public relations
Friday, October 05, 2007
Meet the Teacher: Carolina Acosta-Alzuru
This week for the first time I'm featuring one of my own colleagues. Some people may not like this term, but I'm telling you, she IS a rockstar. Carolina Acosta-Alzuru is an award-winning PR professor in the Grady College, but her research on telenovelas has made her a best-selling author in Venezuela, as indicated by the bottom picture of her being interviewed for television while the onlookers snap her picture, and a friend to the stars (the top picture shows Carolina with telenovela star Carlos Cruz, left, and Edgar Ramírez, who appeared in "The Bourne Ultimatum" and is now shooting Steven Soderbergh's "Che Guevera.") Carolina's blog focuses on her research.
Read this interview to find out why she's not on Facebook and how her blog serves as an academic gym.
Q. How and when did you first get interested in blogging? What is the purpose of your blog? Are you using any other social media?
My interest in blogging has grown slowly and tentatively. For the past two years I've been reading blogs related to telenovelas, which are my research topic and obsession. However, my first attempt at blogging was completely unrelated to my academic interests. It was in June of 2006 when I fulfilled an old dream: to travel to Santorini with my daughters and sisters. Blogging seemed like a very practical way of sharing the realization of my dream with friends and family. (It never crossed my mind that "other" people would read it). However, I stopped posting the minute I arrived back in the U.S.
My second attempt was related to my research and left me a bittersweet taste. I set up a group blog for the participants of my study of the telenovela Ciudad Bendita. Its purpose was to have a forum in which these audience members could comment freely on the telenovela without the need of my questions and probes. It worked well, but only for the first three months the telenovela aired. After that, participants stopped posting and started emailing me their comments directly.
After this experience I was sure I would never blog again. But last April I heard about the Blog Dawgs and how some of my colleagues in the Grady College were blogging. I visited your blog, Karen, and was amazed at its tone and usefulness. Soon after I decided to blog about telenovelas. I started writing in English and then realized that my blog needed to have a mirror image in Spanish . Therefore, my blog is really two blogs. In it/them I write about all aspects related to telenovelas, including my research studies and my classroom experience teaching about these Latin American soap operas, culture and society.
As for other social media, the only ones I use regularly are those for video sharing like youtube and dailymotion. I'm currently facing a conflict regarding the ubiquitous Facebook: I receive invitations every day from people who want me to join and be their friends. I'm curious about this phenomenon and would love to experience and study it. However, my kids, ages 19, 23 and 25, have asked me not to be in Facebook, a place they consider theirs. So far, I've abided by their request. But, I wonder if I'm missing something really important.
Q. Tell us a little about your school and how PR is taught there.
I teach in the Grady College at the University of Georgia. I'm very proud of our public relations program. For many years I've taught our visual communication course and our capstone, PR Campaigns. Every semester I'm amazed at what our students are able to do. Our program is strict in the courses it requires. We make sure our graduates are ethical strategic communicators who have mastered all necessary skills: writing, research, graphics, etc. We emphasize hands-on experience, and we teach them how to work both individually and in teams.
I teach in the Grady College at the University of Georgia. I'm very proud of our public relations program. For many years I've taught our visual communication course and our capstone, PR Campaigns. Every semester I'm amazed at what our students are able to do. Our program is strict in the courses it requires. We make sure our graduates are ethical strategic communicators who have mastered all necessary skills: writing, research, graphics, etc. We emphasize hands-on experience, and we teach them how to work both individually and in teams.
Q. In what ways do you incorporate social media into the classroom? What would you most like to do that you aren’t already doing?
Social media is both a research source and a strategic target for my public relations students. In addition, this semester I'm teaching a course on Telenovelas in which students are encouraged to participate in social media groups related to telenovelas.
What I haven't done: I would like to set up a blog for my classes. I haven't done that yet. But, I'm determined to implement it for next semester.
Q. Your blog is different from the other public relations educators I've interviewed in that it focuses on your research, so it's not actually about PR. In spite of that, has blogging affected how you teach PR? How has it affected you in other ways?
Yes, blogging has definitely affected the way I teach PR because it underscores the rhetorical underpinnings of public relations. Issues of persona, voice and audience are paramount in blogging and in the fulfillment of public relations' societal mission and purpose.
Blogging has had a profound effect on me as a researcher. Never before has my voice and my work reached so many people. I've lost count of the times I've been interviewed about telenovelas since I started blogging ...and from all over the world! I've always kept a research journal. Therefore, I'm used to being permanently reflexive. However, my blogs are like an "academic gym" in which as I plan my posts and comment on the the comments I receive, my mind is constantly analyzing, decoding and figuring out the significance and usefulness of my research, and how to construct a tight argument.
Q. Do you have any advice for other PR educators who are considering starting a blog or getting involved in social media?
Yes, do it! It's a tremendous learning experience and teaching tool, and it's a great way to connect with your students and people around the globe with similar interests.
Labels: education, meet the teacher, public relations
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Meet the (former) Teacher: David Phillips
This week's Meet the Teacher features David Phillips, formerly an instructor at Bournemouth University and, as he says, "now focusing on my PhD at Leeds Metropolitan University, leavened with consulting." I especially wanted to interview David because of a comment he made on one of my posts last summer, which made it very clear that Bournemouth is doing a lot more than most U.S. schools in terms of integrating social media into the curriculum. Here's what David had to say:
Q. How and when did you first get interested in blogging? What are the purposes of your blogs?
I go back a long way with the Internet. In 1995, I spoke to the Chartered Institute of Public Relations about the significance of the Internet. Most people did not have cell phones, or e-mail at the time. They were sceptical, it has to be said.
At that time interactivity online included chat and Usenet and pointed to where the Internet was heading.
The interruption came with Web sites and the dot-com bubble but all the evidence pointed towards improved interactivity. The marketers wanted to transpose their paradigm to the Internet and saw it as a channel and not a 'place'.
I chaired the joint Chartered Institute of Public Relations/Public Relations Consultant's Association Internet Commission in 1999 which really set the agenda and was heavily biased towards online relationship opportunities. We got it right - thank goodness. Most of the findings are in my books 'Managing Your reputation in Cyberspace' (Thorogood) and the CIPR book 'Online Public Relations' (Kogan Page). The latter coincided with Shel Holtz excellent book (Public Relations on the Net) in the USA - which is how I met him.
My first blog was about 5 years ago - I just wanted to try it out and really forgot about it until two years ago mostly because my web sites had discussion lists.
Tell us a little about your school and how PR is taught there. What would you most like to do with social media that you aren't already doing?
I am no longer with Bournemouth University but it has excellent Public Relations degree courses (MA and BA) and is one of the premier Universities for PR in the UK.
The BA course is a four year course with a year out in a placement with a consultancy or in-house department. The quality of placement is good so that in the final year, students come back with good practical knowledge to add to theory.
The BA course includes a number of compulsory and elective modules. Online PR is a compulsory, year long, module and is really about Internet mediated PR. Last year the cohort was 50, so its quite a big class!
I cannot speak for the course this year but this is what we did last year:
The course is taught using a (closed) wiki, and a lot of Internet driven technologies as well as a range of communication platforms (PC's, Mobile, Games consoles etc). Students are introduced to communications channels and, mostly, try them out inside the wiki.:
1. Blogs (and, now, microblogs)
2. Chat
3. E-mail
4. File Hosting
5. Games
6. Instant messaging
7. Message Boards
8. Monitoring, measuring, evaluation and reporting
9. Mobile
10. New Media Release
11. Newspapers Online
12. Online community portals/social networks
13. Online conferencing
14. Podcasts
15. RSS
16. Search engines
17. Surveys online
18. Tagging/folksonomies
19. TV to mobile
20. Usenet(Google Groups)
21. Videos
22. Virtual environments
23. vlogs
24. Web 2.0 media relations
25. Websites
26. Widgets
27. Wikis
28. VoIP
In groups, they are tasked to write a comprehensive description of each and have to collect enough information (I have a set of rules) to enable a PR practitioner to use these channels using the information provided. It's a tough call. This is all maintained on the student wiki and is available to all students during and after their time at Bournemouth.
In addition we identify case studies of each type of channel being used in practice and each student has to select a channel/case study and write it up, once again, on the wiki.
We spend a lot of time on value systems and planning and management and I insist on rigorous understanding of risk management as part of the plan.
Midway through the year they have an assignment. It is the same organisation for all the students and (with attribution) they can use each other's work to develop an Internet campaign beginning with analysis of the value systems of the organization and audit of their online presence. They are encouraged to use McQuail's 'Uses and Gratification' theory for online evaluation. Student just can't believe that each assignment will be different with all this visibility and transparency - its a very good lesson to learn.
Additionally there are lectures and seminars on: Motivation, meaning and use of interactivity; The internet as a social medium; Virtual communities; Monitoring, measuring, segmentation (and an introduction to user created social segments); evaluating and reporting; Value systems; The law; psychology of Internet use and application and future proofing (how the practice of PR can stay up to date with the evolution of the Internet).
Of course, a lot of the information they need is scattered across the Internet (some provided by me but mostly from the best online expertise I can find - e.g. the nature of Internet Transparency Agency and Porosity by me can be found at The New PR Wiki or the debates on Network Neutrality will come from Jonathan Zittrain at Oxford. This is added by both me and students to a bibliography (again on the wiki) which in a year becomes very extensive. Even then, I find that in assignments some students find new references requiring reading an evaluation as I mark their scripts - it's a tough life teaching online PR!
It is a very intensive 20 week module with a written (yes - dead trees and pens) 2 hour end of course exam.
One of the real problems is that this has heavy practical stuff and a high theoretical element (and, of course is controversial because much of it runs counter to a lot of PR theory - and so a lot of critical analysis). There is also a need for much more research and we need more PR students doing MA and PhD online PR research (I guess I could keep a cohort of post degree students of 50 going most of the time).
What is interesting teaching this module is how fast it changes. Last year we had the rise and rise of Facebook (why?) and Twitter (what?) and the huge shift from traditional Web sites to social media (when?) which called for analysis of the motivations for use and all the information needed to be able to us channel in PR practice and research.
Do you have any advice for other PR educators who are considering starting a blog or getting involved in social media?
I could not possibly advise other tutors about online PR. So many are so good.
It is fun to follow the exchange of Q&A on Facebook as students come to terms with Internet Mediated relationship management and I do make myself available in Facebook and IM (and Skype and inside the wiki using a number of channels as we experiment with them) at any time just to bring home the immediacy of the Internet and its range of channels.
I think the golden rule is 'never ask a tutor or student to use social media if they do not want to'. The cross over from personal and professional is all to narrow. This is why the student wiki is closed. You can make mistakes there that would not be helpful elsewhere.
The mantra I use to all students is that 'All you and say do online is cached by someone somewhere and potentially available for all time - so handle with care' and, yes, when I include it in an early lecture, a lot of them blush when they think about IM conversations with girl/boyfriends in the past - but they get over it.
I saw that your blog enables audio comments. Why do you think this is important, and do you think it changes how people interact with your blog?
There are few books, so each of us has to try or confirm the other's experiments. Over time I have had all manner of devices and widgets on one or other blog just to try them out. The outcome for the course is very satisfying.
With this background most students get jobs easily (it's a great talking point at interview, I'm told) and about a third get online PR responsibilities in agencies and in-house in the first three months.
Q. How and when did you first get interested in blogging? What are the purposes of your blogs?
I go back a long way with the Internet. In 1995, I spoke to the Chartered Institute of Public Relations about the significance of the Internet. Most people did not have cell phones, or e-mail at the time. They were sceptical, it has to be said.
At that time interactivity online included chat and Usenet and pointed to where the Internet was heading.
The interruption came with Web sites and the dot-com bubble but all the evidence pointed towards improved interactivity. The marketers wanted to transpose their paradigm to the Internet and saw it as a channel and not a 'place'.
I chaired the joint Chartered Institute of Public Relations/Public Relations Consultant's Association Internet Commission in 1999 which really set the agenda and was heavily biased towards online relationship opportunities. We got it right - thank goodness. Most of the findings are in my books 'Managing Your reputation in Cyberspace' (Thorogood) and the CIPR book 'Online Public Relations' (Kogan Page). The latter coincided with Shel Holtz excellent book (Public Relations on the Net) in the USA - which is how I met him.
My first blog was about 5 years ago - I just wanted to try it out and really forgot about it until two years ago mostly because my web sites had discussion lists.
Tell us a little about your school and how PR is taught there. What would you most like to do with social media that you aren't already doing?
I am no longer with Bournemouth University but it has excellent Public Relations degree courses (MA and BA) and is one of the premier Universities for PR in the UK.
The BA course is a four year course with a year out in a placement with a consultancy or in-house department. The quality of placement is good so that in the final year, students come back with good practical knowledge to add to theory.
The BA course includes a number of compulsory and elective modules. Online PR is a compulsory, year long, module and is really about Internet mediated PR. Last year the cohort was 50, so its quite a big class!
I cannot speak for the course this year but this is what we did last year:
The course is taught using a (closed) wiki, and a lot of Internet driven technologies as well as a range of communication platforms (PC's, Mobile, Games consoles etc). Students are introduced to communications channels and, mostly, try them out inside the wiki.:
1. Blogs (and, now, microblogs)
2. Chat
3. E-mail
4. File Hosting
5. Games
6. Instant messaging
7. Message Boards
8. Monitoring, measuring, evaluation and reporting
9. Mobile
10. New Media Release
11. Newspapers Online
12. Online community portals/social networks
13. Online conferencing
14. Podcasts
15. RSS
16. Search engines
17. Surveys online
18. Tagging/folksonomies
19. TV to mobile
20. Usenet(Google Groups)
21. Videos
22. Virtual environments
23. vlogs
24. Web 2.0 media relations
25. Websites
26. Widgets
27. Wikis
28. VoIP
In groups, they are tasked to write a comprehensive description of each and have to collect enough information (I have a set of rules) to enable a PR practitioner to use these channels using the information provided. It's a tough call. This is all maintained on the student wiki and is available to all students during and after their time at Bournemouth.
In addition we identify case studies of each type of channel being used in practice and each student has to select a channel/case study and write it up, once again, on the wiki.
We spend a lot of time on value systems and planning and management and I insist on rigorous understanding of risk management as part of the plan.
Midway through the year they have an assignment. It is the same organisation for all the students and (with attribution) they can use each other's work to develop an Internet campaign beginning with analysis of the value systems of the organization and audit of their online presence. They are encouraged to use McQuail's 'Uses and Gratification' theory for online evaluation. Student just can't believe that each assignment will be different with all this visibility and transparency - its a very good lesson to learn.
Additionally there are lectures and seminars on: Motivation, meaning and use of interactivity; The internet as a social medium; Virtual communities; Monitoring, measuring, segmentation (and an introduction to user created social segments); evaluating and reporting; Value systems; The law; psychology of Internet use and application and future proofing (how the practice of PR can stay up to date with the evolution of the Internet).
Of course, a lot of the information they need is scattered across the Internet (some provided by me but mostly from the best online expertise I can find - e.g. the nature of Internet Transparency Agency and Porosity by me can be found at The New PR Wiki or the debates on Network Neutrality will come from Jonathan Zittrain at Oxford. This is added by both me and students to a bibliography (again on the wiki) which in a year becomes very extensive. Even then, I find that in assignments some students find new references requiring reading an evaluation as I mark their scripts - it's a tough life teaching online PR!
It is a very intensive 20 week module with a written (yes - dead trees and pens) 2 hour end of course exam.
One of the real problems is that this has heavy practical stuff and a high theoretical element (and, of course is controversial because much of it runs counter to a lot of PR theory - and so a lot of critical analysis). There is also a need for much more research and we need more PR students doing MA and PhD online PR research (I guess I could keep a cohort of post degree students of 50 going most of the time).
What is interesting teaching this module is how fast it changes. Last year we had the rise and rise of Facebook (why?) and Twitter (what?) and the huge shift from traditional Web sites to social media (when?) which called for analysis of the motivations for use and all the information needed to be able to us channel in PR practice and research.
Do you have any advice for other PR educators who are considering starting a blog or getting involved in social media?
I could not possibly advise other tutors about online PR. So many are so good.
It is fun to follow the exchange of Q&A on Facebook as students come to terms with Internet Mediated relationship management and I do make myself available in Facebook and IM (and Skype and inside the wiki using a number of channels as we experiment with them) at any time just to bring home the immediacy of the Internet and its range of channels.
I think the golden rule is 'never ask a tutor or student to use social media if they do not want to'. The cross over from personal and professional is all to narrow. This is why the student wiki is closed. You can make mistakes there that would not be helpful elsewhere.
The mantra I use to all students is that 'All you and say do online is cached by someone somewhere and potentially available for all time - so handle with care' and, yes, when I include it in an early lecture, a lot of them blush when they think about IM conversations with girl/boyfriends in the past - but they get over it.
I saw that your blog enables audio comments. Why do you think this is important, and do you think it changes how people interact with your blog?
There are few books, so each of us has to try or confirm the other's experiments. Over time I have had all manner of devices and widgets on one or other blog just to try them out. The outcome for the course is very satisfying.
With this background most students get jobs easily (it's a great talking point at interview, I'm told) and about a third get online PR responsibilities in agencies and in-house in the first three months.
Labels: education, meet the teacher
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Meet the Teacher: Ross Monaghan
This week's Meet the Teacher features Ross Monaghan, who teaches public relations at Deakin University in Australia. I think he makes an especially good point about social media allowing PR educators to connect--this has been one of the biggest benefits of my blog.
By the way, Ross, I would love to come to Australia one day, too. ;-)
How did you first get interested in blogging? What is the purpose of your blog?
It was soon after I became an academic in 2004. Deakin University makes extensive use of online teaching technology, so I thought I should quickly become familiar with what we now call "social media". I experimented with some anonymous Xanga and Livejournal blogs to get a feel for the blogging technology and how to write for blogs. James Farmer, the founder and CEO of Edublogs.org, worked at Deakin at the time, and we had quite a few interesting discussions about the future of social media and education. James introduced me to blogger.com and RSS feeds (I remember thinking at the time, what use are these?) and that’s when I really started my first public blog, PR Hits and Misses. It summarised some PR case studies I found online and allowed me to mention these cases in lectures, and refer students to my blog where they could find more information. In 2006 I received a grant to establish http://themediapod.net/, which is a blog and podcast site.
Tell us a little about Deakin University and how PR is taught there.
Deakin is my Alma Mater. I was actually in the very first intake for our BA (Public Relations) degree back in 1985. It's great to have come full circle. The PR teaching discipline is in the Faculty of Arts. We offer a range of professional communication and media streams for undergraduate and postgraduate students including PR, journalism, literature and professional writing. We have campuses in Melbourne, Geelong and Warrnambool, and have an extensive "off campus" student population in regional and metropolitan Australia, and around the world.
I’m very proud of our PR degree. We have an excellent team with a variety of research and industry experience. The theme running through all PR units is the need to be open, honest and transparent, and most of the team are also members of the University's respected Corporate Citizenship Research Unit.
You’ve also experimented with podcasting. Can you describe that project?
I received a grant from Deakin to establish a podcasting and blogging site. With my journalism colleague Colleen Murrell, we established http://www.themediapod.net/. Whilst it is very much an experimental site, it does show what is possible on a limited budget. Teaching staff, working practitioners and students are able to contribute to the site, although it is primarily used to highlight outstanding student work, and case studies produced by teaching staff.
In what other ways do you incorporate social media into the classroom? What would you most like to do that you aren’t already doing?
If I can think of a way of using social media, I usually try it. I'm not afraid of pushing the boundaries, or of making mistakes for that matter. I'm not exactly shy either, so I don't worry too much about making a fool of myself on YouTube or my podcasts! As an example, I produced a podcast by pretending I was 10 years old and back in 1976. I found copies of magazines and newspapers from the time and talked about the stories, and what I thought might happen in the future. The Independent of London found it, and reviewed it as part of a feature they did on 1976.
I also have Facebook and MySpace profiles to keep in contact with current students and alumni, and of course I’m contactable on Skype and MSN messenger.
This year I received a fellowship to look at Second Life. So far I've initiated a project with Red Cross Australia, conducted a virtual tour of PR agencies online, and arranged some mentoring via Second Life. I also use YouTube to explain certain aspects of my courses. Naturally Deakin has internal resources for hosting audio and video, but for nonessential academic activities I try to use external social media sites so that students experience how they can be used.
I’ve also used blogs to assist students to reflect on their PR internship experience.
I guess another use of social media in my teaching is establishing contacts such as yourself. If it hadn’t been for our blogs, we would never have met. I recently met a fellow IABC member and author, Ron Shewchuk, online and I interviewed him for theMediaPod. Ron is based in Canada. After the interview we had a long chat, which concluded with Ron saying, "I’d love to come to Australia one day". I made a few phone calls, and arranged for Ron to speak at a conference, and conduct a workshop for IABC here in Australia -- both of which paid for his trip. Whilst here, Ron gave a lecture for my students, and is now an honorary staff member interacting with students online.
Do you have any advice for other PR educators who are considering starting a blog or getting involved in social media?
I understand that it can be daunting. Writing a blog is a completely different process to writing an academic paper. You need to quickly produce concise information, often without checking and rechecking facts. You open yourself up to criticism through work produced in a hurry. Spelling mistakes and grammatical errors are par for the course, too. That’s scary for someone who teaches communication at a tertiary level. It was one of the barriers I faced - I was very nervous about my first couple of posts. I saved them as drafts, asked someone to proof them for me, and carefully re-read them before posting them live. I’m over my hesitations now. The benefit it brings me and my students is worth the occasional red face I experience when I notice bad spelling or grammatical mistakes.
So my advice is: jump in. Perhaps try an anonymous blog to start with. Dabble. Get a MySpace or Facebook profile. Upload some photos to Photobucket. Get involved. Invest some time, and there will be some fantastic, and probably unexpected, positive returns.
By the way, Ross, I would love to come to Australia one day, too. ;-)
How did you first get interested in blogging? What is the purpose of your blog?
It was soon after I became an academic in 2004. Deakin University makes extensive use of online teaching technology, so I thought I should quickly become familiar with what we now call "social media". I experimented with some anonymous Xanga and Livejournal blogs to get a feel for the blogging technology and how to write for blogs. James Farmer, the founder and CEO of Edublogs.org, worked at Deakin at the time, and we had quite a few interesting discussions about the future of social media and education. James introduced me to blogger.com and RSS feeds (I remember thinking at the time, what use are these?) and that’s when I really started my first public blog, PR Hits and Misses. It summarised some PR case studies I found online and allowed me to mention these cases in lectures, and refer students to my blog where they could find more information. In 2006 I received a grant to establish http://themediapod.net/, which is a blog and podcast site.
Tell us a little about Deakin University and how PR is taught there.
Deakin is my Alma Mater. I was actually in the very first intake for our BA (Public Relations) degree back in 1985. It's great to have come full circle. The PR teaching discipline is in the Faculty of Arts. We offer a range of professional communication and media streams for undergraduate and postgraduate students including PR, journalism, literature and professional writing. We have campuses in Melbourne, Geelong and Warrnambool, and have an extensive "off campus" student population in regional and metropolitan Australia, and around the world.
I’m very proud of our PR degree. We have an excellent team with a variety of research and industry experience. The theme running through all PR units is the need to be open, honest and transparent, and most of the team are also members of the University's respected Corporate Citizenship Research Unit.
You’ve also experimented with podcasting. Can you describe that project?
I received a grant from Deakin to establish a podcasting and blogging site. With my journalism colleague Colleen Murrell, we established http://www.themediapod.net/. Whilst it is very much an experimental site, it does show what is possible on a limited budget. Teaching staff, working practitioners and students are able to contribute to the site, although it is primarily used to highlight outstanding student work, and case studies produced by teaching staff.
In what other ways do you incorporate social media into the classroom? What would you most like to do that you aren’t already doing?
If I can think of a way of using social media, I usually try it. I'm not afraid of pushing the boundaries, or of making mistakes for that matter. I'm not exactly shy either, so I don't worry too much about making a fool of myself on YouTube or my podcasts! As an example, I produced a podcast by pretending I was 10 years old and back in 1976. I found copies of magazines and newspapers from the time and talked about the stories, and what I thought might happen in the future. The Independent of London found it, and reviewed it as part of a feature they did on 1976.
I also have Facebook and MySpace profiles to keep in contact with current students and alumni, and of course I’m contactable on Skype and MSN messenger.
This year I received a fellowship to look at Second Life. So far I've initiated a project with Red Cross Australia, conducted a virtual tour of PR agencies online, and arranged some mentoring via Second Life. I also use YouTube to explain certain aspects of my courses. Naturally Deakin has internal resources for hosting audio and video, but for nonessential academic activities I try to use external social media sites so that students experience how they can be used.
I’ve also used blogs to assist students to reflect on their PR internship experience.
I guess another use of social media in my teaching is establishing contacts such as yourself. If it hadn’t been for our blogs, we would never have met. I recently met a fellow IABC member and author, Ron Shewchuk, online and I interviewed him for theMediaPod. Ron is based in Canada. After the interview we had a long chat, which concluded with Ron saying, "I’d love to come to Australia one day". I made a few phone calls, and arranged for Ron to speak at a conference, and conduct a workshop for IABC here in Australia -- both of which paid for his trip. Whilst here, Ron gave a lecture for my students, and is now an honorary staff member interacting with students online.
Do you have any advice for other PR educators who are considering starting a blog or getting involved in social media?
I understand that it can be daunting. Writing a blog is a completely different process to writing an academic paper. You need to quickly produce concise information, often without checking and rechecking facts. You open yourself up to criticism through work produced in a hurry. Spelling mistakes and grammatical errors are par for the course, too. That’s scary for someone who teaches communication at a tertiary level. It was one of the barriers I faced - I was very nervous about my first couple of posts. I saved them as drafts, asked someone to proof them for me, and carefully re-read them before posting them live. I’m over my hesitations now. The benefit it brings me and my students is worth the occasional red face I experience when I notice bad spelling or grammatical mistakes.
So my advice is: jump in. Perhaps try an anonymous blog to start with. Dabble. Get a MySpace or Facebook profile. Upload some photos to Photobucket. Get involved. Invest some time, and there will be some fantastic, and probably unexpected, positive returns.
Labels: education, meet the teacher, public relations
Friday, August 17, 2007
Meet the Teacher: Tim Penning
Last week at AEJMC I actually got to meet a fellow PR educator/blogger, Tim Penning, of Grand Valley State University. Of course I invited him to be the next participant in "Meet the Teacher." Here's what he had to say.
Q. How and when did you first get interested in blogging? When we met, you mentioned that you try to keep your blog focused on the local area; how does that relate to the purpose of your blog?
A. A friend of mine in D.C. has written for the Post about local blogs. It occurred to me that as social media advances, there will be occasions where local emphasis will be appreciated again. There are millions of blogs, thousands about PR, few if any about PR in my neck of the woods. I also see my blog as an extension of my role as an educator, to reach out to area professionals and comment on/start discussion about PR. It’s like an ongoing PRSA chapter event of sorts.
Q. Tell us a little about your school and how PR is taught there.
A. Grand Valley State University has grown rapidly in recent years. We now have more than 23,000 students. Our Advertising/PR major has grown from 280 students to over 500 in four years. The Ad/PR major is one of eight majors in a school of communications (i.e., not under a journalism dept. or business school). We have a communication core, and then students take most classes together for either advertising or PR consisting of three courses. We then require an internship and two electives. Our PR courses match the recently updated recommendations in the Commission on Education in PR Report. When I came to GVSU seven years ago I worked to add a research course, a tech course, and revised our writing courses. I’m pretty happy with it but realize from the recent AEJMC conference that we should always be thinking about freshening the curriculum and/or pedagogy. We try to blend theory and practice in how we teach PR--our school’s motto is "the integration of liberal arts and professional practice."
Q. In what ways do you incorporate social media into the classroom? Are you using any other social media? What would you most like to do that you aren’t already doing?
A. I have to integrate more. I am using the Blackboard software for all my courses. I have used discussion boards and offer links and supplemental reading only. It seems participation needs to be required to get students involved. I’m toying with podcasts and vidcasts, but not of my lectures. I want students to attend class! The cases would be interviews with area pros etc. as a social media version of a guest in class. I want to be sure I’m not just using tech for the whiz bang effect but that it enhances learning. The other thing I do is demonstrate how PR pros are using it, applying age-old principles to new media.
Q. Do you have any advice for other PR educators who are considering starting a blog or getting involved in social media?
A. Most importantly, have an objective. Secondly, be sure you have time. I did a "soft launch" to make sure I had time to do this regularly before I started letting people know it was out there. I have lots of students and alumni reading, which is a nice way to maintain relationships.
Q. I've noticed that your blog roll is an eclectic mix of PR, media, and other kinds of sources. Would you say this is indicative of your interests or your blog in general?
A. I aim to comment on advertising and PR in West Michigan. Sometimes that involves reports by area media. I haven’t had time to "report" and offer "scoops" on my blog often, though I will when I can. Mostly, my blog is commentary. I’m trying to offer my ideal, normative view of PR, to humbly offer that perspective to pros who see PR as only publicity or who may not always practice ethically.
Q. How and when did you first get interested in blogging? When we met, you mentioned that you try to keep your blog focused on the local area; how does that relate to the purpose of your blog?
A. A friend of mine in D.C. has written for the Post about local blogs. It occurred to me that as social media advances, there will be occasions where local emphasis will be appreciated again. There are millions of blogs, thousands about PR, few if any about PR in my neck of the woods. I also see my blog as an extension of my role as an educator, to reach out to area professionals and comment on/start discussion about PR. It’s like an ongoing PRSA chapter event of sorts.
Q. Tell us a little about your school and how PR is taught there.
A. Grand Valley State University has grown rapidly in recent years. We now have more than 23,000 students. Our Advertising/PR major has grown from 280 students to over 500 in four years. The Ad/PR major is one of eight majors in a school of communications (i.e., not under a journalism dept. or business school). We have a communication core, and then students take most classes together for either advertising or PR consisting of three courses. We then require an internship and two electives. Our PR courses match the recently updated recommendations in the Commission on Education in PR Report. When I came to GVSU seven years ago I worked to add a research course, a tech course, and revised our writing courses. I’m pretty happy with it but realize from the recent AEJMC conference that we should always be thinking about freshening the curriculum and/or pedagogy. We try to blend theory and practice in how we teach PR--our school’s motto is "the integration of liberal arts and professional practice."
Q. In what ways do you incorporate social media into the classroom? Are you using any other social media? What would you most like to do that you aren’t already doing?
A. I have to integrate more. I am using the Blackboard software for all my courses. I have used discussion boards and offer links and supplemental reading only. It seems participation needs to be required to get students involved. I’m toying with podcasts and vidcasts, but not of my lectures. I want students to attend class! The cases would be interviews with area pros etc. as a social media version of a guest in class. I want to be sure I’m not just using tech for the whiz bang effect but that it enhances learning. The other thing I do is demonstrate how PR pros are using it, applying age-old principles to new media.
Q. Do you have any advice for other PR educators who are considering starting a blog or getting involved in social media?
A. Most importantly, have an objective. Secondly, be sure you have time. I did a "soft launch" to make sure I had time to do this regularly before I started letting people know it was out there. I have lots of students and alumni reading, which is a nice way to maintain relationships.
Q. I've noticed that your blog roll is an eclectic mix of PR, media, and other kinds of sources. Would you say this is indicative of your interests or your blog in general?
A. I aim to comment on advertising and PR in West Michigan. Sometimes that involves reports by area media. I haven’t had time to "report" and offer "scoops" on my blog often, though I will when I can. Mostly, my blog is commentary. I’m trying to offer my ideal, normative view of PR, to humbly offer that perspective to pros who see PR as only publicity or who may not always practice ethically.
Labels: education, meet the teacher, public relations
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Meet the Teacher: Kelli Matthews
This week's "Meet the Teacher" features Kelli Matthews, who has her feet in the worlds of both academics (instructor, University of Oregon) and practice (managing director, Verve Northwest Communications). Kelli's blog, PRos in Training, focuses on and often features her students.
Q. How and when did you first get interested in blogging? What is the purpose of your blog? I know you're on Twitter; are you using any other social media?
I got interested in blogging a little more than a year ago. I was doing some research for a presentation I was giving to a local United Way and the search results results kept coming from blogs--specifically Kami Huyse's Communication Overtones, and Nedra Weinreich's Spare Change. While I'd certainly heard of blogs before, it really dawned on me doing that research that this medium could be so powerful. All of a sudden, two women I'd never heard of --and without their blogs, I would probably have NEVER have heard of them--are my "experts" for a particular topic. I used the blogrolls of these two "seed blogs" to build my own list. I began my student-focused blog in June of last year--114 posts later, I'm still having fun and haven't quite run out of things to say. Other social media --I'm on Twitter, but barely... I'm also in Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and MyRagan. I'm in SecondLife, but I'm still going through "training."
Q. Tell us a little about your school and how PR is taught there. What are the pros and cons of being both a professional and an educator?
PR at the University of Oregon is a major in the School of Journalism and Communication. We have five classes: Principle, Writing I, Writing II, Plans & Problems and Campaigns. The Intro class is a large lecture class (125 students), and all the others are between 16 and 20 students in size. The first writing class focuses on media-related writing and the second (which has only been part of our major for 2 years) is more direct to consumer writing. Plans & Problems is a case study class and in Campaigns the students work with real clients to do research, planning and implementation.
I think the pros of being both a professional and an educator far, far outweigh the cons. I am bringing daily PR experiences into the classroom and finding that my research interests and academic strengths enhance the work I do for clients. Students love that I practice PR and clients love that I teach--and I really love doing both. The biggest con is the time management factor. I have an 18-month old son, too, so it's really like having three full time jobs sometimes. But I have an incredibly supportive partner who gets to be a stay-at-home dad, so we make it work and somehow it does!
Q. How do you incorporate social media into the classroom? What would you like to do that you aren't doing already?
In Writing II, I have the students write an industry-focused blog (public relations, advertising and marketing). I also have them write a social media strategy for a client. Because this is a new class, there's some trial and error with the details of the assignments, but in both cases, the students appreciate being forced to focus on social media. In fact, at least two of my students got their first job or an internship because of their blogs. (I've got a pocket full of "I told you so!" for them and "Seeeee?!" for my future students). I also use social media tools to collaborate with students and share resources. I have a de.licio.us page that’s very PR focused. I use tags related to assignments to collect resources I think might be useful. I use Slideshare to share presentations with them, too. I think as the students become more familiar with social media and begin hearing about it more, thinking about it more and using it more, by the time I get them in the senior seminar style classes we can begin to think more critically about the tools and take the planning and strategy to another level. Right now they are babes in the social media woods, so it's sometimes difficult to even get beyond the basics. I'd like to take social media thinking and doing to a higher "level" with the upper-division students.
Q. Do you have any advice for other PR educators who may be considering starting a blog or getting involved in social media?
I think my advice would be to go for it. I think that we get hung up on the academics sometimes and have a hard time just communicating at a human level. You don’t have to be creating publishable work with every post. Just talk. Your students will listen. In my experience, they are eager for someone to help them understand why and how the hype is relevant to them and their careers. And and educators, what could be more important?
Q. I've noticed you incorporate a lot of video into your blog. Why is this important to you? What do you think it accomplishes?
Well, lately it's been because it's summer and I'm feeling lazy. But, the videos I choose are usually funny or particularly creative. I hope that students get inspired to think about what's possible and think about how to (re)create the share-ability of the videos that I post (or that they are sharing and posting in their daily lives).
Q. How and when did you first get interested in blogging? What is the purpose of your blog? I know you're on Twitter; are you using any other social media?
I got interested in blogging a little more than a year ago. I was doing some research for a presentation I was giving to a local United Way and the search results results kept coming from blogs--specifically Kami Huyse's Communication Overtones, and Nedra Weinreich's Spare Change. While I'd certainly heard of blogs before, it really dawned on me doing that research that this medium could be so powerful. All of a sudden, two women I'd never heard of --and without their blogs, I would probably have NEVER have heard of them--are my "experts" for a particular topic. I used the blogrolls of these two "seed blogs" to build my own list. I began my student-focused blog in June of last year--114 posts later, I'm still having fun and haven't quite run out of things to say. Other social media --I'm on Twitter, but barely... I'm also in Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and MyRagan. I'm in SecondLife, but I'm still going through "training."
Q. Tell us a little about your school and how PR is taught there. What are the pros and cons of being both a professional and an educator?
PR at the University of Oregon is a major in the School of Journalism and Communication. We have five classes: Principle, Writing I, Writing II, Plans & Problems and Campaigns. The Intro class is a large lecture class (125 students), and all the others are between 16 and 20 students in size. The first writing class focuses on media-related writing and the second (which has only been part of our major for 2 years) is more direct to consumer writing. Plans & Problems is a case study class and in Campaigns the students work with real clients to do research, planning and implementation.
I think the pros of being both a professional and an educator far, far outweigh the cons. I am bringing daily PR experiences into the classroom and finding that my research interests and academic strengths enhance the work I do for clients. Students love that I practice PR and clients love that I teach--and I really love doing both. The biggest con is the time management factor. I have an 18-month old son, too, so it's really like having three full time jobs sometimes. But I have an incredibly supportive partner who gets to be a stay-at-home dad, so we make it work and somehow it does!
Q. How do you incorporate social media into the classroom? What would you like to do that you aren't doing already?
In Writing II, I have the students write an industry-focused blog (public relations, advertising and marketing). I also have them write a social media strategy for a client. Because this is a new class, there's some trial and error with the details of the assignments, but in both cases, the students appreciate being forced to focus on social media. In fact, at least two of my students got their first job or an internship because of their blogs. (I've got a pocket full of "I told you so!" for them and "Seeeee?!" for my future students). I also use social media tools to collaborate with students and share resources. I have a de.licio.us page that’s very PR focused. I use tags related to assignments to collect resources I think might be useful. I use Slideshare to share presentations with them, too. I think as the students become more familiar with social media and begin hearing about it more, thinking about it more and using it more, by the time I get them in the senior seminar style classes we can begin to think more critically about the tools and take the planning and strategy to another level. Right now they are babes in the social media woods, so it's sometimes difficult to even get beyond the basics. I'd like to take social media thinking and doing to a higher "level" with the upper-division students.
Q. Do you have any advice for other PR educators who may be considering starting a blog or getting involved in social media?
I think my advice would be to go for it. I think that we get hung up on the academics sometimes and have a hard time just communicating at a human level. You don’t have to be creating publishable work with every post. Just talk. Your students will listen. In my experience, they are eager for someone to help them understand why and how the hype is relevant to them and their careers. And and educators, what could be more important?
Q. I've noticed you incorporate a lot of video into your blog. Why is this important to you? What do you think it accomplishes?
Well, lately it's been because it's summer and I'm feeling lazy. But, the videos I choose are usually funny or particularly creative. I hope that students get inspired to think about what's possible and think about how to (re)create the share-ability of the videos that I post (or that they are sharing and posting in their daily lives).
Labels: education, meet the teacher, public relations
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Meet the Teacher: Richard Bailey
At the urging of the Friendly Ghost, I've compiled a list of PR educator-bloggers (now featured on my blog roll). The good news is that I found quite a few more than last time I looked -- 17 by my count, but I'm sure there are more (especially those not in English). The bad news is that I don't know a lot of these people! So I decided to institute a new feature on Teaching PR, "Meet the Teacher."
My first interview is with Richard Bailey of Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK. Richard's PR Studies was one of the first PR educator blogs I found, and it remains one of my favorite (I guess I should say "favourite".) Here are Richard's answers to a few of my questions.
Q. How and when did you first get interested in blogging? What is the purpose of your blog? Are you using any other social media?
It was pure opportunism. I was working as a freelance PR consultant and professional trainer around the start of the new millennium (also the time the dot com bubble burst - with the inevitable downturn about to follow). So I was in need of a personal website, had some time on my hands - and was in need to learning some new skills myself. I then gained a broadband connection to my home office and felt the need to make use of all this 'free' time online. I didn't get on with Blogger and wasn't aware of other blogging or content management software at the time. So I created my own home-coded website with blog-like characteristics (it was at writeeffect.co.uk though it's no longer live and I've not kept up the domain name.) This was in 2001.
By 2003 I'd taken a full-time lecturing job so registered the www.prstudies.com domain and subscribed to Typepad for my blog. It was envisaged as a group blog for our 12-strong public relations teaching team but there's something solitary and individualistic about blogging so it reverted to being a personal site. This is my current blog.
It's purpose is what it always was: to keep me learning. But it's no longer technology that I'm learning about, but ideas. (Interestingly, mine was never a blog about blogs; it was always meant to be a blog about public relations ideas and practice.)
We're now in need of a faculty web presence to reflect the breadth of our teaching, consultancy and research so the next evolution should be to embed the blog into a content management system.
Yes, I've explored other social media applications, but haven't found myself an enthusiastic participant of any until Facebook opened its doors this year. Now all of those disparate applications (eg Twitter, tagging, FlickR etc etc) seem to make sense withing a social networking site with critical mass.
Q. Tell us a little about your school and how PR is taught there.
As related in Jacquie L'Etang's Public Relations in Britain, the course at Leeds Metroplitan University (then Leeds Polytechnic) was one of the pioneering undergraduate programs in the UK. We're now one of the largest in terms of faculty and student numbers. We even have two professors of public relations (the most senior academic position) in Anne Gregory and Ralph Tench.
Where we differ from some other courses in the UK, and most, I believe, in the US is that we're situated in a business school, not within journalism or media studies. So our students gain a broader business and marketing education alongside theory and practice modules. All undergraduates complete a dissertation and around half of our cohort (around 60 this coming academic year) take a paid industrial placement as part of the course.
Back to social media: we aim to embed this into the curriculum rather than to teach it as a distinctive element. (After all, no one would consider teaching 'telephone public relations' would they?) So we're introducing electronic and online versions of the practice portfolios which have for a long time been a distinctive part of our course. I'm happy to acknowledge Robert French's pioneering work on online portfolios at Auburn as an inspiration.
Q. Do you have any advice for other PR educators who are considering starting a blog or getting involved in social media?
Blogs are good places for reflection and learning; they're also famously good for Google searches, so I'm surprised that there aren't more educators online. (In a more contentious mood, I've predicted that the process of online debate might even replace the more ponderous process of academic peer review. Though there's no evidence of this happening yet, we're certainly seeing blogs and online sources cited in 'serious' academic texts. I'm a huge fan of Wikipedia - though again I may be a solitary voice among my colleagues in this.)
The downsides are very apparent too. Blogging is an instant (though not disposable) medium. This poses pressures that many educators and academics are unprepared for. What if they can't keep up the momentum (my problem this year)? What if they live to regret their off-the-cuff remarks? But the flip side is how can we teach something we've no experience of?
The dangers for students and blogs are even more apparent. We've seen it with blogs and now with Facebook. There's a blurring of the boundary between public and private - but this makes it a fascinating time to be an educator, and it's what keeps me going.
Q. You also administer the PR Books wiki. Is that difficult? How is it going?
Similar story. I needed to do before I felt able to comment or to teach, so I started http://prbooks.pbwiki.com last summer. As a collaborative exercise (the USP of a wiki) it's a failure. But as an edited site it saves me time - so I aim to keep it going. Blogs emphasise the new and the up-to-date; I find the wiki a useful repository for static data that doesn't need to change quite so often.
Q. One of my favorite things about your blog is that you occasionally review books to save a little time for the rest of us. How do you decide which ones to review? What has the response been?
I'd started book reviewing on my old site and noted how, in an early example of the rise of social media, I was being quoted by some publishers (and how I was sent review copies by others).
Reading books is an essential part of this role, so I like to keep ahead of the field where possible. I also know that there are so many inquiring and intelligent people among the practitioner community who may not have my time or access to new books so I don't limit myself to academic texts. But my reviews are sporadic: it's entirely based on what's new and what interests me at the time.
It's now time I wrote something, and in keeping with my ethos, I've already stated that I'm working on a social media project aimed at introducing public relations to beginners. They're tomorrow's students and practitioners...
My first interview is with Richard Bailey of Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK. Richard's PR Studies was one of the first PR educator blogs I found, and it remains one of my favorite (I guess I should say "favourite".) Here are Richard's answers to a few of my questions.
Q. How and when did you first get interested in blogging? What is the purpose of your blog? Are you using any other social media?
It was pure opportunism. I was working as a freelance PR consultant and professional trainer around the start of the new millennium (also the time the dot com bubble burst - with the inevitable downturn about to follow). So I was in need of a personal website, had some time on my hands - and was in need to learning some new skills myself. I then gained a broadband connection to my home office and felt the need to make use of all this 'free' time online. I didn't get on with Blogger and wasn't aware of other blogging or content management software at the time. So I created my own home-coded website with blog-like characteristics (it was at writeeffect.co.uk though it's no longer live and I've not kept up the domain name.) This was in 2001.
By 2003 I'd taken a full-time lecturing job so registered the www.prstudies.com domain and subscribed to Typepad for my blog. It was envisaged as a group blog for our 12-strong public relations teaching team but there's something solitary and individualistic about blogging so it reverted to being a personal site. This is my current blog.
It's purpose is what it always was: to keep me learning. But it's no longer technology that I'm learning about, but ideas. (Interestingly, mine was never a blog about blogs; it was always meant to be a blog about public relations ideas and practice.)
We're now in need of a faculty web presence to reflect the breadth of our teaching, consultancy and research so the next evolution should be to embed the blog into a content management system.
Yes, I've explored other social media applications, but haven't found myself an enthusiastic participant of any until Facebook opened its doors this year. Now all of those disparate applications (eg Twitter, tagging, FlickR etc etc) seem to make sense withing a social networking site with critical mass.
Q. Tell us a little about your school and how PR is taught there.
As related in Jacquie L'Etang's Public Relations in Britain, the course at Leeds Metroplitan University (then Leeds Polytechnic) was one of the pioneering undergraduate programs in the UK. We're now one of the largest in terms of faculty and student numbers. We even have two professors of public relations (the most senior academic position) in Anne Gregory and Ralph Tench.
Where we differ from some other courses in the UK, and most, I believe, in the US is that we're situated in a business school, not within journalism or media studies. So our students gain a broader business and marketing education alongside theory and practice modules. All undergraduates complete a dissertation and around half of our cohort (around 60 this coming academic year) take a paid industrial placement as part of the course.
Back to social media: we aim to embed this into the curriculum rather than to teach it as a distinctive element. (After all, no one would consider teaching 'telephone public relations' would they?) So we're introducing electronic and online versions of the practice portfolios which have for a long time been a distinctive part of our course. I'm happy to acknowledge Robert French's pioneering work on online portfolios at Auburn as an inspiration.
Q. Do you have any advice for other PR educators who are considering starting a blog or getting involved in social media?
Blogs are good places for reflection and learning; they're also famously good for Google searches, so I'm surprised that there aren't more educators online. (In a more contentious mood, I've predicted that the process of online debate might even replace the more ponderous process of academic peer review. Though there's no evidence of this happening yet, we're certainly seeing blogs and online sources cited in 'serious' academic texts. I'm a huge fan of Wikipedia - though again I may be a solitary voice among my colleagues in this.)
The downsides are very apparent too. Blogging is an instant (though not disposable) medium. This poses pressures that many educators and academics are unprepared for. What if they can't keep up the momentum (my problem this year)? What if they live to regret their off-the-cuff remarks? But the flip side is how can we teach something we've no experience of?
The dangers for students and blogs are even more apparent. We've seen it with blogs and now with Facebook. There's a blurring of the boundary between public and private - but this makes it a fascinating time to be an educator, and it's what keeps me going.
Q. You also administer the PR Books wiki. Is that difficult? How is it going?
Similar story. I needed to do before I felt able to comment or to teach, so I started http://prbooks.pbwiki.com last summer. As a collaborative exercise (the USP of a wiki) it's a failure. But as an edited site it saves me time - so I aim to keep it going. Blogs emphasise the new and the up-to-date; I find the wiki a useful repository for static data that doesn't need to change quite so often.
Q. One of my favorite things about your blog is that you occasionally review books to save a little time for the rest of us. How do you decide which ones to review? What has the response been?
I'd started book reviewing on my old site and noted how, in an early example of the rise of social media, I was being quoted by some publishers (and how I was sent review copies by others).
Reading books is an essential part of this role, so I like to keep ahead of the field where possible. I also know that there are so many inquiring and intelligent people among the practitioner community who may not have my time or access to new books so I don't limit myself to academic texts. But my reviews are sporadic: it's entirely based on what's new and what interests me at the time.
It's now time I wrote something, and in keeping with my ethos, I've already stated that I'm working on a social media project aimed at introducing public relations to beginners. They're tomorrow's students and practitioners...
Labels: education, meet the teacher, public relations
"More important than the curriculum is the question of the methods of teaching and the spirit in which the teaching is given" --Bertrand Russell
