Public Relations as Community Relations

Comm 375EV – Fall 2003

4:20pm-6:00pm-URH108

One hour to be scheduled per week

Dr. B.D. Neff, Ph.D-Associate Professor Office: Schnabel 8

Bonita.Neff@valpo.edu X6827

Office Hours: MTW 11:15am-1:15pm W 1:15pm-3:30pm Th 11:45am-2:00pm and by appointment

Course Goals. Community relations is the core of public relations. Community relations efforts are implemented by public relations professionals in nonprofit, corporate, agency, and governmental organizations. This course traces the development of community relations both from an academic and a practitioner point-of-view. A particular emphasis will be made to cover both the growing development in diversity and the contributions of technology to community relations strategy.

In addition to the textbooks and specially developed materials, students will be reading selections from PRWeek (class will subscribe to this trade publication) and two Public Relations Society of America’s publications--Tactics and Strategist. The classroom activities will focus on experiential exercises, stress teamwork, provide opportunities for reflection on your learning process, and involve field and case investigations.

Required Texts:

Banks, Steve P. Multicultural Public Relations: A Social-Interpretive Approach. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University, 2000.

Burke, Edmund. M. Corporate Community Relations. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1999.

Neff, Bonita D. Community Public Relations, 2003 (course pack)

Required Subscription: PRWeek (will allow two people to a subscription—no more).

Blackboard Class site: Selected readings.

Evaluation

Students must successfully complete all of these assignments to receive a course grade.

      1. A daily participatory grade (points) for each class session/exercises, independent sessions (remember missing class is equal to missing class for a week) 100 points
      2. A series of evaluations (quizzes, exams, exercises—often unannounced)

        3.  

         
         
         

        150 points

      3. Successful completion/presentation of projects, activities and/or exercises assigned as a member of a team (both individual and team evaluation conducted) 150 points
      4. Scheduled field trips and subsequent analyses 85 points
Unauthorized Aid

It is the responsibility of each student to review and understand the University’s Honor Code. For purposes of this course, it is a particular violation of the Honor Code to submit papers or assignments based on materials submitted by students in previous offerings of public relations. Project proposals are expected to be original and not derived in whole or in part on others’ work or work submitted in other classes or from work planned for submission in those classes. If you have any doubts about what you plan to propose for this course, see the instructor. Plagiarism of published literature reviews and/or research designs is an absolute violation of the Honor Code. The honor code must be written in full for all assignments and exams.

Grading

Course grade will be based on the following point breakdowns (total available points = 485).

A 485 (95%) B- 440 (80%) D+ 401 (67%)

A- 470 (90%) C+ 431 (77%) D 395 (65%)

B+ 461 (87%) C 425 (75%) D- 380 (60%)

B 455 (85%) C- 410 (70%)
 
 

You always know how you are doing in this course. Take the number of points you have on any given day and compare them to the number of points you could have if you had obtained a perfect score on everything. Take your actual score point total divided by the perfect score total, and match the resulting percentage to the grade list above. Since the exams, quizzes and presentations/projects represent ample opportunity for evaluation in this course, there will be no opportunity for extra credit work.

Attendance

Because the exam and quizzes are derived from lectures and readings, regular class attendance is important—especially during class presentations. Failure to attend all such presentations will result in course points being deducted. Make-up exams and quizzes will be given for illness only when the instructor can verify the illness through a nurse and/or doctor. Make-ups for other reasons are at the instructor’s discretion, but will be difficult to obtain. All sports participants must provide official schedules of their activities. No exceptions. Arrangements for make-ups must be made in advance of the absence. Make-up quizzes may be oral. Make-up exams will usually be essay, and always different from regularly scheduled exams.

Vacation Policy: The University specifies clearly when vacation periods begin and end. The course operates strictly on that schedule, which students are expected to know. Leaving for vacation early, returning late, missed rides or failures to make alternative transportation arrangements do not constitute good excuses for missed classes, assignments, quizzes and exams. GRADE RECORD SHEET

Please keep a record of your grade points. That way you will easily be able to compute how well you are doing in the course on any given day.

Quizzes (The number of lines do not represent the actual number of quizzes that will be given.)

#1_____#11_____

#2_____#12_____

#3_____#13_____

#4_____#14_____ Class participation (100 points) _____

#5_____#15_____

#6_____#16_____ Evaluation (150 points) _____

#7_____#17_____

#8_____#18_____ Projects & exercises (150 points) _____

#9_____#19_____

#10____#20_____ Field Trips ( 85 points) _____

COURSE CALENDAR

COM375EV-PR as Community Relations

WEEK ONE

Aug 27                    Obj: To understand the basis of community relations
 

Obj: To be oriented to the expectations in this course
Schedule/Background Form: Complete with specific detail as to time and coursework. Must provide reason for not including telephone and/or any addresses for later update.

Assignment: Search nonprofit listings on the web to identify community relations programs/efforts for at least two groups.

Each team select a nonprofit area of concentration: health, sports, youth, arts, broadcasting (PBS--public broadcasting systems-broadcasting), etc.

See if you can find the following for each organization: Community Relations mission statement, budget, staff positions, special events/programs, public relations goals (publicity, promotion, branding efforts, etc.)

E-mail group findings to Bonita.Neff@valpo.edu as an outline (not composition) to document the results of your search by September 2th. www.nonprofit.org

Presentations: visual, interactive, all team members must speak, provide individual organizational comparison and contrast (how the same; how different) and then a summary synthesis of your findings. Presentation skill will be counted as part of your grade.

 WEEK TWO

Sept 3                              Obj: To learn how to work in teams

Obj: To clarify the different approaches to community relations

Readings: Banks, Culture, Diversity, and Public Relations, 1-21

Readings: Neff, Community Relations—Encyclopedia of Public Relations, Sage Publications

Assignment: Nonprofit presentations with group presentations between 10 – 12 minutes.

WEEK THREE

Sept 10                            Obj: To understand the various components of community relations

Obj: To appreciate CR as part of nonprofit, agency, corporate, government relations

Obj: To understand the historical perspectives of community relations

Readings: Banks, A Theory for Multicultural Public Relations, 23-41

Readings: Burke, The Principles of the Neighbor of Choice
      1. The Psychological Contract, 3
      2. From Balloons and T-shirts to Neighbor of Choice, 15
      3. How to achieve a Competitive Advantage, 31

        4.  
      Readings: Neff, Philip Lesly—Encyclopedia of Public Relations, Sage Publications
         
      Assignment: Complete first assignment in teams for corporate organizations, for example:
         
        finance, health, sports, technology, fashion, etc. Presentations due Sept. 17th
      Speaker: Richard Henson, Director of Visitor Services and public relations/communication staff
         
        Lake County Indiana Convention & Visitors Bureau--Hammond
      Assignment: Outline on team corporate community relations due via e-mail on September 16th. Select general area and each team member finds a corporate organization within that topic area (health, transportation, finance, technology, etc.).
         
WEEK FOUR

Sept 17                            Obj: To discover experientially the sense of community
 

      Obj: To understand the role of assessment
         
      Readings: Burke, Implementing the Neighbor of Choice
      1. The company Assessment, 47
      2. Who are the Company’s Communities? 59
      3. The "Shadow Constituencies", 69
      4. The Community Assessment, 81

        5.  
      Readings: Banks, Communicating with Multicultural Internal Publics, 45-61

      Assignment (paper): Contact community relations’ practitioners in nonprofit and corporate organizations.

      Presentations for corporate community relations (same teams).

         
WEEK FIVE

Sept 24                             Obj: To profile CR programs for each type of organization

         
      Obj: To learn how trust is developed

      Readings: Banks, Multicultural Community Relations, 65-79

      Readings: Neff, Interpreting Community Relations, Chapter One

      Assignment (paper): Contacts for community relations’ practitioners for nonprofit and corporate identified (must turn in names, organizations, and contact information).

         
      Exercise: Experiential community relations process
         
WEEK SIX

Oct 1                                Obj: To understand the nature of the multicultural community

         
      Obj: To explore one’s own multicultural awareness

      Readings: Neff, Interpreting Community Relations, Chapter Two
       
WEEK SEVEN

Oct 8 Obj: To assess the role of profit in community relations

       
      Obj: To compare and contrast the various attitudes

      Exam: Last part of class period (one hour)
       
WEEK EIGHT fall break

Oct 15 Field Trip
 

      Assignment: Analysis of "AmeriFlora" Case from a CR perspective (focus of assignment for teams outlined).
         
WEEK NINE

Oct 22                    Obj: To understand how different organizations approach strategy

         
       Obj: To assess how different organizations view the "competitive advantage"
         
        Readings: Burke, The Three Strategies
      1. The First Strategy: Building Relationships of Trust, 101
      2. The Second Strategy: Managing Community Issues and Concerns, 111
      3. The Third Strategy: Using Community support Programs to Build Trust, 125
      4. Achieve a Competitive Advantage, 143
Assignment (twelve page paper—double spaced—no e-mails) due: Results of interviewing community relations’ practitioners for nonprofit and corporate organizations. WEEK TEN

Oct 29                     Obj: To understand how culture affects public relations
 

Obj: To understand how cultural is pivotal to community relations

Obj: To determine awareness of multicultural dimension

Obj: Top experience the multicultural dimension

Readings: Banks, Cultural Diversity in International Public Relations, 101
 

WEEK ELEVEN

Nov 5                     Obj: To learn how social vision differs
 

Obj: To learn how social vision is important to constructive growth

Readings: Burke, The Social Vision

  1. The Shaping a Social vision: The Value Premise of the Neighbor of Choice, 161
Assignment: Guidelines for final paper Exam: Last part of class period (an hour)

WEEK TWELVE

Nov 12                   OBJ: To exam the view of the future of CR in regard to diversity
 

OBJ: To establish the role of the multicultural dimension

Readings: Banks, The Future of Multicultural Public Relations, 115-120
 

WEEK THIRTEEN

Nov 19                    OBJ: To apply the research skills to a community relations project
 

Assignment: Reports on team projects


WEEK FOURTEEN
 

Nov 26 Thanksgiving Break


WEEK FIFTEEN

Dec 3                     OBJ: To professionally present reports
 

Assignment: Reports on team projects


WEEK SIXTEEN

Dec 10                    OBJ: To professionally present reports

 
Assignment: Reports on team projects


Friday, Dec 12: Classes end

Saturday, Dec 13: Reading day

Final Exam Period: Friday, Dec 19 3:30pm Have a nice holiday!

Group Assignment


Meredith Baugher Leslie Eggerding Kristin Sanders Kelsey Peterson Sarah Schmalz
Jeffrey Borchardt Kathleen Nowak Cassidy Kuhlmann Erin Krueger Alan Hines
Mary Bull Lindsey McCracken Andrea Conner Anthony Mytas Kristina Meyer
Kristin Small Allison Treftz Elizabeth Walp Erin Wicklund Kendra Baker
Rebekah Peterson Ali Al-Ameri Ryan Barno Lindsay Dumanch Gretchen Stahl

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