Public relations and strategic communication are offered in communication departments with a field of study largely geared toward professional communicators. The majors place a heavy emphasis on internships, which seem to be more competitive than ever. A class project can jumpstart students' preparation for entry-level positions in the industry by…

Communication is a critical government function that has important implications for public administration and effective governance. This research study explores how communication competencies are taught in public affairs programs in the United States. Based on a general web content analysis of graduate programs, and specific analyses of course…

The following teaching brief outlines ways for advertising and public relations educators to discuss gender pay equity in the classroom. We know that educators are asked to teach about matters of diversity; yet many faculty members do not have adequate resources to do so. Faculty can rely on data and reports, but there are few hands-on activities…

The objective of the research reported in this article was to evaluate the usefulness of supplemental videos in the advertising and public relations (PR) classroom, featuring luminaries in these same fields. Students in an introductory course in advertising and PR were given an assignment based on videos from an online library of short videos.…

Audience analysis is essential for creating successful messages across communication fields. The audience persona is an effective tool for understanding the characteristics and needs of a target audience. Through this unit activity, students experience the process of persona development, build skills in data collection and analysis, and gain…

Course: This assignment is a unit activity designed for use in a skills-focused undergraduate public relations, organizational communication, or crisis communication course. Objective: The goal of this activity is to increase students' understanding and ability to apply message design concepts in an unfamiliar context. Students will work…

This article explores the foundations and the content areas that ground the introductory public relations course. Examples of two assignments designed to help students think critically, apply knowledge, and improve their writing skills are offered, as well as the identification of several challenges both students and instructors face and a brief…

This article describes an activity designed to hone students' lay communication skills. After carefully analyzing journal articles that highlight specific aspects of vertebrate physiology, students generate "press releases" to summarize experimental results and suggest potential applications of the research. By producing succinct,…

This article describes how an international education component for an Advertising and Society course was developed and taught for undergraduate students through a virtual collaboration between American and Dutch universities. The creation and implementation of a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) project for a major requirement…