Public Relations Strategy and Social Media (5 ECTS)
Program Profile
When the message is no longer controlled by media gatekeepers, the media landscape changes. The traditional way in which messages reach the public may not work anymore. Our ideas of community, communication and even friendship evolve as our technology evolves. This program will explore the traditional concepts of community and persuasion and how these apply in a social media context. It will explore the intersection between old techniques and new media applications. Students will have the opportunity to examine different media technologies and determine the place of social media in an organization’s strategic communication plan.
General Goals and Objectives
1. Explore new media a. Examine blogs, wikis, podcasting, RSS, Facebook, microblogs. b. Determine how the new media works and for whom. c. Develop applications for using social media in organizational contexts.
2. Examine community, communication, and persuasion. a. Research information on community, communication, and persuasion. b. Determine application of community and persuasion in online context c. Explore international application of concepts and social media.
3. Develop social media plan as part of strategic communication plan a. Determine best use of social media. b. Develop social media site to promote organization.
Description
Public Relations messages used to be delivered through the mass media —broadcast and print — to editors who determined the content that would be aired or published. But the Internet changed the way news is delivered and in the process changed the way public relations operates. This course will examine the changes in message delivery and by extension, the changes in the how society operates. We will examine communication on the Web and will practice strategic planning in the use of new media, such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, RSS, Twitter, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Course Objectives
As a result of taking this class, you will: • Understand how community is formed and how online communities develop • Understand the principles of persuasion and their online application • Understand persuasion techniques and how they apply online • Understand how the PR industry is incorporating social media technologies into contemporary PR practice • Appreciate the need to understand and use technological advances to increase message reach. • Learn to create and adapt technology for public relations applications • Be able to produce webpages, blogs, and podcastsas part of a strategic campaign
