Study Guide

Com 265-Principles of Public Relations

1. Study the web site (www.prmuseum.com) and be prepared to answer the following questions:

Q: Who is Edward Bernays?

Q: What is the Torches of Freedom campaign?

Q: Identify the key strategies developed by Bernays for different campaigns?

Q: What was the problem with radio sales?

2.Describe your role in Festival of Voices thus far. What have been your major activities—what have been your major contributions? What kind of teamwork is expected on this project? What kind of budget are you working with?

3.In the article on “Build Prestige at Colleges…..” what specific recommendations are made that you find important and detail why this is important?

4.The article on “Ten Rules…” provides examples on how you would carry out each rule—your personal commitment. What do these rules make you think in terms of being a professional in public relations.

5.In the “Emerging Theoretical Perspective…” article, who are the “sophists” (p161)? What does this article say about communication and, in particular, the role of communication in public relations?

6. In the article on “Will tomorrow’s CEOs have respect for PR?”—identify the key problems and note if there are some solutions offered.

7. In “Background…” from Port of Entry, what does the US Bureau of Statistics say about public relations? What key historical developments assisted in the growth of public relations?

8.What can you say about PR’s role in “healthcare” (article on “How Healthcare won against reform, twice?”)? Is this an example of public relations at its worst?

9.React to the article on “NASA….” in terms of your awareness of the space program and the role of public relations? Had you realized this link and what is the significance of the PR-space relationship?

10.Ethics is the core of public relations. How does Moyer’s posit the impact of ethics? What are the key aspects one should consider in terms of ethics as discussed in the article?

11.How are ethics affected when the mass media and the Internet mix? (article on “Do Journalistic Ethics Slip….”)

12.After reading the article on “PR Faces the Nagging Truth….”, do you come away with a position that public relations is working hard at being ethical or are you really full of skepticism? Why? Justify your position.

13.Discuss the statistically significant variables in the assessment study. React how well prepared you are in the area and then if you are sensing a need to improve certain areas, what do you propose? Add in the beliefs of Adams and Cook in the following articles. What does this say to you about the profession of public relations?

14.So the public relations firms do not come out to recruit you, especially undergraduate schools. (Wider Nets Needed….) React to this article—especially if an agency has major sports teams as their client. How does the graduating student overcome this attitude by agencies?

15.You received an overview of the status of public relations in key employment areas, the breakdown of stats in terms of key demographics, --all recent data (March 27, 2000). So what does this say about public relations? Did some of the data go against your particular attitudes or beliefs about public relations? How does this information add to the picture of what public relations is all about?

Note: expect a mix of multiple choice, short answer (fill in all the space provided), matching, discussion questions, and true/false questions for the exam. Any questions?