Syllabus 2328

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Communications

Course Description

COMM 2328 - PUBLIC RELATIONS

Credit: 3 (3 Lecture)

Studies principles and practices of public relations. Provides hands-on techniques to influelce positive public opinion within and ooutside of companies. Requires creation of feature and news articles, press releases, press kit, brochure and brief work plan utilizing the four-step planning process for resolving PR problems. Trains students to write good copy, construct PR goals and objectives, conduct practical researach to determine public attitudes and opinion, arrange and conduct press conferences, and develop positive media relationships.

Prerequisites

No Prerequisites

Course Goals (includes core competencies, incorporation of SCANS, etc.)

This course fulfills the following core intellectual competencies:
   o Reading
    o Writing
    o Speaking
    o Listening
    o Critical Thinking
    o Computer Literacy

Instructor Information

Whitebird, L. Scott
Northwest College
Town & Country Square Center
1010 W. Sam Houston Parkway N.
Houston, TX 77043
MC 1379
TEL: 713-718-5678
E-mail: scott.whitebird@hccs.edu

Textbook Information

Effective Public Relations, Current Edition, by Cutlip, Center, Broom

Lab Requirements (if any)

No lab requirements

Students with Disabilities

Students with Disabilities: Houston Community College System is committed to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504). Any student with a documented disability (e.g., physical, learning, psychiatric, vision, hearing, etc.) who needs to arrange reasonable accommodations must contact the Disability Support Services Office at the respective college at the beginning of each semester.

Faculty are authorized to provide only the accommodations requested by the Disability Support Services Office.

Academic Honesty

Be Honest: No cheating on a test (copying from someone else's paper during a test or secreting notes or other devices on your person.

Be Honest: No plagiarism (using another person's words, information or ideas in the student's own written work without appropriate acknowledgement (and quotation marks when exact words are used.

Attendance and Withdrawal Policies

Student must attend class regularly and punctually, missing no more than four and a one-half hours. (HCCS Absence Policy: If a student is absent more than 12.5 percent of total class time, the instructor may drop the student.)

It is the student's responsibility to withdraw from a course. (For example if a student simply stops coming to class and considers that the instructor will drop him or her, they should think twice about that. The instructor can give a failing grade to someone who does not officially drop from the class. It is up to the student to take care of the paperwork associatied with withdrawing from a class.

Grading Policy

OFFICIAL GRADE POLICY
Houston Community College System

The Houston Community College System grading system must provide for flexibility in approach to instruction in order to allow instructors to meet the needs of their students and courses. It must also be consistent in its overall grading policy so that students are treated similarly throughout the college. The following criteria should be observed in all courses and divisions.

Final grades in courses at the Houston Community College are as follows:

A	Excellent	90-100
B	Good	80-89
C	Fair	70-79
D	Passing	60-69
F	Failing	0-59
IP	In Progress
W	Withdrawn
I	Incomplete

It is the policy of the Houston Community College instructional area that letter grades A through F can be translated into the numerical ranges listed above. These ranges should be used in all classes in which grades A - F are appropriate.

This policy does not mandate a specific strategy for grading. Any number of kinds of grading scales might be appropriate. They should, however, be able to be equated to the point system; e.g., that system should award an A for 90 to 100 percent of possible points accumulated.

While the final course grade is always a letter, the grades that go into making up that grade should either be numerical or should be translatable into numbers for the purposes of averaging grades. Example: If an A, A-, B+, etc., is to be used as the grade for an essay or report of some kind, the instructor’s syllabus should indicate specifically how those grades will be translated into number grades for purposes for purposes of achieving a final average. Every student who is to receive a letter grade in the range of A - F should also receive a final numerical grade that is the basis for the letter grade.

Course Requirements for example: Testing, Projects, Assignments, Portfolios, Service Learning, Internships, etc.

ASSIGNMENTS – 30%
    Unit I        Announcement Press Release            10%
            Issue Press Release
            Rewritten Press Release
    Unit II        Interview and Feature Story            10%
    Unit III    Problem Solution Analysis            10%
            Research Questionnaire
            Press Conference Outline

PROJECTS – 30%
Major Project: Four Step Work Plan
    and Collateral Materials (Press Kit)            20%
Final Work Proposal                        10%

TESTS – 30%
3 (or 4) Unit Tests                            30%

DAILY – 10%
Classwork, attendance, and participation            10%

Make-up policy

All HCCS policies at stated in the Student Handbook apply to this class. Attendance is mandatory; a student may not miss more than six class hours without suitable make-up work arranged with the instructor. Students are expected to read and prepare on all assigned readings and tasks prior to class, to participate in class on a daily basis, to take good notes and review them regularly, and to prepare for tests. All out of class assignments must be typed or computer printed, and proofread. All assignments are due at the beginning of the class period on their due date. Late work costs grade points.

Course Content

COMM 2328, Introduction to Public Relations provides the student with thorough grounding in the principles and skills involved in the public relations process. This includes internal and external publics, communications programming, media relations, PR tools (press releases, press kits, feature stories, newsletters, production), and PR skills (writing, editing, interviewing, research techniques, problem solving, special event planning). Exploration centers on the open system concept, the two-way nature of good communication, and applying the four-step process for solving PR problems.

PROJECT
The major project is to design and present a PR work plan using the four step process, accompanied by an example press kit of collateral materials.

Course Calendar with Due Dates for Assignments and Testing

COMM 2328 Public Relations

Week            Readings and Assignments

1                  Intro. to course. Ch. 1; Ch. 9, pgs. 304-311. Press releases.

2                    Ch. 2. Writing as process. Press release #1 due.

3                   Ch. 3. Press release 2 due.

4                   Ch. 4. Unit Test 1.

5                   Ch. 5. Rewrite of press release #1 due.

6                   Ch. 6. Interviewing.

7                  Ch. 6 and 7. Feature Story from interview due.

8                Ch. 7 and 8. Unit Test 2.

9     Ch. 9, overview of Ch.10-13.
                    Four Step Method for problem solving.

10                Ch. 10-11. Defining the problem. Publics. Planning.
                    Research Questionnaire due. APRIL 2-4 EASTER.

11               Ch. 12-13. Problem-solution analysis due.
                    Taking action and communicating. Evaluating.

12                Review 10-13. Unit Test 3.
                    Press Conference outline due.

13                Ch. 14 and15. Business and industry.
                    Government and politics. Rough plans due.

14                Ch. 16and 17.. Non-profit orgs, Health Care, Education.
                    Trade Ass., Prof. Soc., Labor Unions.
                    4-STEP WORK PLAN and press kit due.

15               Proposals.

16                FINAL WORK PROPOSAL DUE.

Other Student Information (clubs, tutoring, web resources, student services, etc.)

HCC Student Communication Association - Napoleon Johnson, Faculty Adviser

Law and the Media Seminar
Annual seminar (February) and panel discussions with professional members of the bar and the media to which student lawyers and student journalists are invited.

Texas Community College Journalism Association (TCCJA)
Annual state-wide student journalism conference in October

Texas Intercollegiate Press Association (TIPA)
Annual state-wide student journalism conference in April

Texas Association of Broadcast Educators (TABE)
Annual state-wide conference of student broadcasters in September.
Occasionally meets with the Texas Association of Broadcasters (TAB)

Created by wwwadmin
Last modified 2005-07-26 08:09

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