Editorial Record: Submitted August 12, 2024. Revised December, 2024. Accepted May 5, 2025.
Authors
Denisse Vasquez-Guevara Assistant Professor California State Polytechnic University, Pomona California, USA Email: denissev@cpp.edu
Preeti Wadhwa Professor California State Polytechnic University, Pomona California, USA Email: pwadhwa@cpp.edu
ABSTRACT
Facilitating student career readiness is one of the key goals of baccalaureate communication programs. Specifically, employers seek professionals with technical skills (copywriting, editing, and content creation) and soft skills (critical thinking, problem-solving, and teamwork). However, first-generation students face disparities in accessing internship opportunities. This GIFT highlights a micro-internship experience offered to students enrolled in the course titled “Online and Social Media.” As a part of this course-embedded experience, student teams developed social media strategies and content for on-campus clients. The student learning objectives included (a) creating a social media strategy aligned with the client’s goals; (b) developing social media content adapted to varied target audience so as to increase reach and audience engagement; (c) helping students develop critical thinking, negotiation, teamwork; and last, but not the least, (d) exposing students to professional behavior and expectations. The associated assignments, rubric, teaching materials, and students’ qualitative self-evaluation results are discussed.
Editorial Record: Submitted September 13, 2024. Revised November 25, 2024. Accepted May 5, 2025.
Authors
Regina Luttrell Associate Professor Syracuse University New York, USA Email: rmluttre@syr.edu
Jason Davis Professor Syracuse University New York, USA Email: jdavis72@syr.edu
Carrie Welch Adjunct Professor Syracuse University New York, USA Email: ctwelch@syr.edu
ABSTRACT
An artificial intelligence (AI) hackathon was utilized in three class sessions in an innovative assignment designed for courses in public relations writing, campaigns, digital marketing, or capstone projects within communication majors to prepare students for the AI-driven modern workplace. The hackathon’s objectives centered on developing students’ technical understanding, practical application skills, and ability to work collaboratively with AI tools in public relations and communications contexts. Participants gained hands-on experience with image-based generative AI, demystifying the technology and exploring its strengths and weaknesses. This approach aimed to equip students with the necessary competencies to navigate and excel in communication strategies where AI can be productively incorporated. A survey of student participants revealed a positive experience as well as the acquisition of new skills.
Editorial Record: Submitted June 30, 2024. Revised June September 21, 2024. Accepted February 10, 2024.
Authors
Pauline Howes Associate Professor Kennesaw State University Georgia, USA Email: phowes1@kennesaw.edu
ABSTRACT
Preparing public relations students with knowledge and skills to apply generative artificial intelligence (AI) to professional practice has become an essential part of PR education. This teaching brief presents a public relations course assignment, Creating a Prompt Library, that involves developing prompting skills, applying AI tools to a variety of public relations tasks, and critically analyzing AI output.
Editorial Record: Submitted July 19, 2024. Revised October 14, 2024. Accepted February 10, 2025.
Authors
Breann Murphy Associate Professor Jacksonville State University Alabama, USA Email: bmurphy5@jsu.edu
Teddi Joyce Associate Professor Jacksonville State University Alabama, USA Email: tjoyce@jsu.edu
ABSTRACT
Public relations industry professionals express a growing need for undergraduate students to be profession-ready upon graduation. As a result, educators must continue to creatively integrate assignments and experiential learning experiences into the classroom that simulate real-world practices and emphasize job readiness. This teaching brief provides an assignment sample to help educators provide students with practice and experience on applying for a job in public relations and how this assignment can be implemented into a public relations campaigns or capstone course.
Editorial Record: Submitted Record March 31, 2024. Revised June 10, 2024. Accepted September 4, 2024.
EunHae (Grace) Park Assistant Professor Ball State University Indiana, USA Email: epark@bsu.edu
ABSTRACT
Although collaborative skills are essential in public relations due to its interdisciplinary nature, challenges of group projects are always main barriers to successful implementation in higher education. The challenges are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to decreased student motivation in group work sessions. The article explains diverse strategies derived from intrinsic and extrinsic motivational cues to encourage students’ active participation in group projects. These strategies are designed to maximize the intrinsic value of projects while mitigating common concerns and worries about group project work outcomes. Evidence from students shows the effectiveness of these strategies in fostering active participation and positive group outcomes.
Building upon one of the five key recommendations of the Commission on Public Relations Education 2023 standards report, this teaching brief examines how educators can actualize their diversity, equity, and inclusion missions in public relations classrooms. Public relations educators can use this teaching brief to help undergraduate students understand the meaning, significance, and current climate of DEI, as they facilitate an in-class, interactive assignment where students examine organizations’ DEI missions by engaging in research, critical strategic thinking, and class discussions. Overall, this teaching brief aims to strengthen the ongoing work of embedding DEI in the public relations curriculum, as well as share practical implications for the public relations industry.
Keywords: Public relations education, diversity, equity, inclusion, resistance, belonging, actualizing DEI
To cite this article: Vasquez, R.A., Logan, N., Fussell Sisco, H., & Place, K. (2024). Actualizing the DEI mission in public relations classrooms. Journal of Public Relations Education, 10(1), 133-149. https://journalofpreducation.com/?p=4667
Editorial Record: Submitted May 16, 2022. Revised January 19 ,2023. Accepted May 17, 2023. Published January 2024.
Author
Xiaochen Angela Zhang, Ph.D. Assistant Professor University of Oklahoma Oklahoma, USA Email: angelazhang@ou.edu
Abstract
This teaching brief describes lessons learned from a standalone public relations ethics course. It discusses how virtue ethics can be incorporated into public relations ethics courses through pedagogical approaches, and student responses to those approaches. Overall, results indicate the effectiveness of student-led discussions and moral exemplar engagements in teaching virtue ethics and ethics in general. Findings also suggest areas of improvement for future public relations ethics courses.
Keywords: virtue ethics, public relations ethics education, pedagogical approaches
Over the years, an increasing importance has been placed on public relations ethics education (Bortree, 2019; Rosso et al., 2020). The 2017 Commission on Public Relations Education Report has recommended a required ethics course to all public relations curriculum (Commission, 2018). Standalone public relations ethics courses are also favored by most public relations educators (Neil, 2017). However, ethics and ethical awareness among new public relations graduates continued to be identified as a deficient area for public relations education among supervisors and professionals (Todd, 2014; Neill, 2021).
In particular, public relations professionals identified personal ethics and value systems as the most essential and courage, confidence, and speaking up to be the most lacking for a successful public relations career (Neill, 2021). Educators have also articulated the importance of an ethics education to focus on the students’ analytical abilities, critical thinking, and moral reasoning skills (Gale & Bunton, 2005; Woon & Pang, 2020).
These recommendations pose a sharp contrast with the current state of public relations ethics education, which largely relied on deontological frameworks such as prescribed code of ethics (Neil, 2017). Yet this focus yields potential concerns. First, the reliance of deontological ethics on external sanctioning mechanisms may undermine student agency over the ethical values themselves (Schwartz, 2001). A secondary concern may be that this lack of a sense of ownership over personal ethics may undermine willingness for students or early-practitioners to assertively defend their personal ethics when challenged (Neill, 2021).
These issues reflect a need to incorporate virtue ethics in public relations ethics education to complement traditional deontological approaches. Virtue ethics emphasize on the “cultivation of individual character to become models of virtue, rather than the rightness or wrongness of specific actions” (Plaisance, 2014, p. 24). Although virtue ethics requires time, hindsight, and experience to cultivate, once successfully practiced, it is powerful and intrinsic and can encourage long-term development of character extending beyond classroom education (Bowen, 2016; Craig & Yousuf, 2018). College education is a great time for students to form the habit of practicing virtuous behaviors and characters that will last a lifetime. The incorporation of virtue ethics into public relations education may increase students’ sense of ownership and agency, addressing issues occurring in traditional deontological approaches (Neill, 2021; Schwartz, 2001). Challenges with virtue ethics education may be overcome by appropriate pedagogical approaches (Baker, 2008). Therefore, the purpose of this teaching brief is to discuss relevant pedagogical approaches designed to cultivate virtue ethics vis-à-vis analysis of the design, implementation, and student responses to a standalone public relations ethics class.
Literature Review
Virtue and Virtue Ethics
Rooted in the Aristotelian tradition, virtue has been defined as entrenched and deep-seated dispositions of character, habit or human quality (Schnitker et al., 2019). Virtue can be acquired, cultivated, and practiced (Craig & Yousuf, 2018; MacIntyre, 2007) through various approaches such as personal experience reflection (Lamb et al., 2021), engagement with virtuous exemplars (Baker, 2008), transcendent motivation (Schnitker et al., 2019), and reason-based approaches (Rawls, 2001).
Following MacIntyre’s (2007) notion that virtue ethics is a form of social practice where individuals pursue standards of excellence, journalism scholars have applied this concept of practice to achieve not only individual flourishing, but also health and excellence in journalism practices (Borden, 2007; Craig, 2011). Similarly, public relations scholars have also advocated for the use of virtue ethics to achieve professionalism and values in public relations through various approaches such as the understanding of virtues and vices (Baker, 2008; Neill, 2021). For example, humility, honesty, integrity, moral courage, caring, empathy, and candor have been identified as virtues while arrogance, deception, moral relativism, fear, uncaring, unsympathetic, secrecy have been categorized as vices for public relations practitioners (Neill, 2021).
Pedagogical Approaches to Virtue Ethics
Reflections on personal experiences. Under an Aristotelian framework, reflections on one’s own experiences vis-à-vis discussions of one’s understanding of individual virtues is one of the ways to develop “practical wisdoms” or an ability to “discern morally salient features of situations and deliberate about how best to act” (Lamb et al., 2021, pp. 14-15). The use of personal reflections to develop virtue or practical wisdom has been supported by educators (Cooke & Carr, 2014; Glück & Bluck, 2013). For example, students may be asked to reflect on personal experiences where they have exercised or failed to exercise a specific virtue. Personal reflections allow students to draw on their own experiences in understanding abstract concepts such as virtues (Lamb et al., 2021), and in the process deepen understanding of their own personal identities and dispositions.
Engagement and dialogues with moral exemplars. Moral exemplars are ideal representations or embodiments of virtues. Watching, intimating, and engaging with moral exemplars as role models is another way to cultivate virtue ethics (Baker, 2008; Lamb et al., 2021). According to Lamb et al. (2021), having dialogues or one-on-one discussions with moral exemplars have several pedagogical benefits as they help contextualize abstract virtues, increase salience of certain virtues, and can serve as “‘counterfactual models’ that prompt us to imagine how an exemplary person would act in a similar situation, which can help us discern how we should act” (p. 17). The use of moral exemplars such as guest speakers, professional interviews, and industry professional mentorships have been suggested in both journalism (Craig & Yousuf, 2018) and public relations ethics cultivation (Baker, 2008; Neill, 2021).
Student-Led CaseDiscussions. Case studies and case study discussions have been recognized as a valuable approach to teaching not only virtue ethics but ethics in general in public relations curriculum (Del Rosso et al., 2020; Neill, 2017). Encouraging dialogues about how particular virtues can be practiced in concrete cases is one of the strategies to increase virtue literacy or the “capacity to know and understand the necessary language and virtue concepts required to evaluate morally salient situations” (Arthur et al., 2017, p. 94). Through discovering, discussing and analyzing concrete real-world ethical dilemmas and cases in class and in groups, students can work together and develop needed critical thinking and analytical skills (Del Rosso et al., 2020; Kim, 2020; Rozelle, 2020; Ward et al., 2020).
Public Relations Ethics Course
About the Course
Public Relations and Society was developed as a stand-alone required public relations ethics course in the core undergraduate public relations curriculum at the author’s university in response to the 2017 Commission on Public Relations Education Report. The course was developed in partnership with the university’s Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing (ISHF), an on-campus institution dedicated to bolstering ethics education across campus. The instructor of the course received a grant from ISHF to incorporate intellectual virtue ethics as a part of the course, though the course covers a range of ethical principles and theories. The course was offered for the first time in Fall 2021 and second time in Fall 2022 as electives.
Course Objectives and Student Learning Outcomes
The course addressed a variety of ethical principles and virtues integral to public relations professionals (i.e., truth, integrity, accuracy, etc.), but also important intellectual virtues that enable a virtuous life and career, including open-mindedness, love of learning, intellectual humility, curiosity, honesty, self-regulation, civility, and compassion. Although only two of the intellectual virtues were explicitly stated in the course objectives, the course content covered all the above virtues. See Table 1.
Table 1. Students’ Self-assessment on Course Objectives
identify basic moral reasoning and philosophical approaches
M=4.64, SD=.51
2
identify and discuss professional business and public relations ethical principles
M=4.82, SD=.41
3
apply ethical principles to ethical decision-making process and to address ethical challenges in public relations
M=4.91, SD=.30
4
analyze public relations situations with various ethical principles and decision-making approaches
M=4.91, SD=.30
5
understand legal issues and their implications for public relations practice
M=4.64, SD=51
6
demonstrate a willingness to think critically, creatively and independently and actively seek novel solutions to public relations situations (love of learning)
M=5.00, SD=.00
7
articulate one’s own perspective and the perspectives of diverse publics in evaluating public relations situations and challenges (open-mindedness)
M=4.82, SD=.41
Classroom Activities and Course Assignments
The course incorporates a range of pedagogical approaches, including lecture, in-class case discussions, in-class activities (e.g., debates, code of ethics critiques, etc.), guest speakers, as well as a range of course assignments, such as the personal and career goal reflection papers, a practitioner interview, case study discussion leaderships, and a case study project.
Guest speakers. For example, the course invited four public relations practitioners in various industries to share with the students their personal stories about how ethics inform their careers and day-to-day work lives. The class sessions with the practitioners were kept informal to encourage student engagement and interactions with the practitioners. Questions such as “what motivates you ethically?” and “how has ethics or virtues guided your work/life?” were used to prompt discussions.
Personal and career goal reflection papers. Students were asked to select three virtues and reflect on the relevance of the virtues to their own goals and the public relations profession. The reflection papers, one during and one at the end of class, aim to help students construct their own narratives based on their own social and cultural identities and encourage students to think about how these virtues are intrinsically linked with their own goals.
The rubric for assessing the reflection papers is based on two criteria for each of the virtues reflected: 1) demonstrate personal understanding of the meaning of this virtue beyond what was discussed in class and 2) demonstrate personal understanding of this virtue’s relevance to public relations, and personal/career goals (D. Craig, personal communication, July 13, 2021).
Practitioner interview. Students were asked to interview public relations professionals to explore their ethical values and how they deal with ethical challenges and to present the stories in class with their own analysis relating to the virtues discussed in class. Engaging with exemplars and creating and presenting the ethics narratives through practitioners’ real experiences fully engages the students and helps students contextualize virtues, understanding what a virtuous life/career looks like rather than understanding virtues as abstract concepts (Craig, 2021; Eschenfelder, 2011). This in turn intends to help them think about virtues in their own life and career. Students were expected to share and present the interview results in class.
The criteria for assessing this assignment include: 1) brief introduction of a practitioner; 2) the practitioner’s perceptions on ethics and virtue ethics (what motivates them ethically? How do they address specific ethical challenges in work/life? What are the virtues implied or stated?); and 3) What are the implications for your professional work/life? (D. Craig, personal communication, July 13, 2021)
In-class activities and class discussions. The course is discussion heavy. Several components of the class center on class or group discussion. For example, the beginning of every class was dedicated to a dilemma-of-the-day discussion (Craig, 2021), where the class discussed and analyzed most recent ethical dilemmas in the news with course principles. Other in-class activities involved group-based discussions/engagements such as debates, code of ethics critiques, and decision-making model case discussions. To encourage active participation, participation in class discussions was counted as a part of the course grade.
Case study discussion leadership and case study project. Students were tasked with leading two class discussions on public relations ethics cases: the first on an assigned textbook case and the second on a case developed by themselves for the case study project. In both discussion leaderships, students were asked to briefly present the case, and to come up with their own questions about the case to simulate class discussion. In the case study project, students had full autonomy in selecting, analyzing, and presenting a recent public relations ethics case.
The discussion leadership assignments were assessed based on two criteria, mastery of the case and flow of discussions. Mastery of the case was assessed by 1) students showcasing thorough understanding of the case through in-depth analyses of news/social coverage of the case; 2) students expanding on the case by discussing how relevant virtue ethics or other ethical principles can be applied. Flow of discussion was assessed by 1) prepare at least three questions in advance; and 2) discussion facilitation: adapt the questions depending on directions of the discussion and encourage all participants to discuss. The case study final paper was assessed through criteria including 1) case identification and introduction, 2) case analysis (a. in-depth analysis of news/social coverage, b. analyzes the case with course principles, c. manifests critical thinking and analysis of the case based on research and theory), 3) implications (a. impact of the case, b. case evaluations supported by ethical principles), and 4) quality of research and objectivity.
Course Assessment and Student Responses
ISHF conducted pre- and post-course surveys to assess student learning outcomes on the two virtue ethics learning objectives (i.e., open-mindedness and love of learning) in the Fall 2021 class. All 11 enrolled students participated. Results of the surveys showed an increase in both virtue ethics learning objectives. However, as the surveys were not IRB approved, the detailed results of the surveys will not be disclosed here.
The instructor conducted IRB-approved (IRB#14115) assessment surveys to the Fall 2021 and Fall 2022 class. For both classes, the surveys were distributed to the students by another instructor to avoid coercion. A total of n=11 students (n=6 in the Fall 2021 class and n=5 students in the Fall 2022 class) participated in the survey. Students were asked to provide their self-assessment of course objective learning outcomes as well as their evaluation of each of the course components.
Overall students perceived that they acquired the learning objectives as self-assessment on the course objectives were high, ranging from M=4.64 (SD=.51) to M=5.00, (SD=.00) (see Table 1). While the students acknowledged that all components of the class were useful to understand abstract ethical concepts (see Table 2), they found the case study discussion leader (n=9, 81.8%) as the most helpful, followed by in-class activities (n=7, 63.6%), guest speakers (n=6, 54.5%), dilemma of the day discussion (n=6, 54.5%), readings/cases (n=6, 54.5%), practitioner interview (n=5, 45.5%), case study final paper (n=3, 27.3%), and reflection paper (n=2, 18.2%) (see Figure 1).
Table 2. Student assessment of course material/assignments
The guest speakers added to my understanding of course concepts such as virtue ethics
M=4.55, SD=.93
2
The guest speakers added to my understanding of how to deal with ethical challenges in real life
M=4.91, SD=.30
3
The personal/career goals reflection papers helped me think about how to cultivate virtues in relation to my goals
M=4.55, SD=1.21
4
The practitioner interview assignment aided my understanding of what a virtuous work/life is like
M=4.64, SD=.67
5
The practitioner interview assignment aided my understanding of how to deal with ethical challenges in real life
M=4.73, SD=.47
6
The case study discussion leader assignment helped me think critically about ethical issues in public relations practices
M=5.00, SD=.00
7
The case study discussion leader assignment helped me better understand concepts and principles (e.g., ethical principles, decision models, framing, business ethics, etc.)
M=5.00, SD=.00
8
The case study final project helped me think critically about ethical issues in public relations practices
M=5.00, SD=.00
9
The case study final project helped me better understand concepts and principles (e.g., ethical principles, decision models, framing, business ethics, etc.)
M=4.64, SD=.51
Figure 1. Student-rated most helpful class content
The qualitative responses reflected similar themes. Overall students found that discussions in class, whether it’s the discussion leader, discussions/interactions with guest speakers or other in-class discussions such as the debate, to be the most beneficial in understanding abstract ethical concepts. For example, one student expressed that “The case studies we look at are both entertaining and educational, providing a practical real-world example of what we are learning about. The focus on discussion is fantastic. I loved all the guest lecturers.” Others also shared similar sentiments toward discussions: “The discussion aspect was strong. It took me out [of] my comfort zone speaking up in class about ethical principles and real-world issues”; “The way it helped me apply critical thinking to ethical issues regarding public relations”; “Helped me think more critically about ethical dilemmas in PR”; “I really enjoyed the debate in this class. It brought creative thinking out of everyone!”
Students’ qualitative responses to least helpful assignments also echoed that of the quantitative results. Overall students found the reflection papers to be the least helpful. Students have also pointed out issues with the assignments and have provided potential solutions. For example, one student noted that while engagement with moral exemplars helped with understanding abstract ethics practically, it was disconnected from some of the other ethical principles and ethical decision-making models learned in class:
The practitioner interviews and guest speakers were great for getting a practical understanding of how PR ethics actually play out, but don’t really tend to have anything to do with the models and philosophies we learn in class. I absolutely loved the focus on discussion and see it as the most effective way of teaching a lot of this material.
Others expressed concerns over an emphasis on speaking in front of the class: “I think it’s hard for some students to feel comfortable enough to stand in front of the class so much to present.” And some suggested a smaller class size for future public relations ethics classes: “I loved the debates and wish we could have done one or two more. I think having a smaller size class is great because it allows everyone to feel comfortable with sharing their opinions and thoughts.”
Discussion and Conclusion
Overall, the students have showcased an understanding and ability to apply virtue ethics and other ethical principles in cases and scenarios as manifested in course discussions and the case study project. The course has also received positive feedback from the students. As a standalone public relations ethics course offered to students for the first time, the course provides a few key lessons for pedagogical approaches to teaching public relations ethics in general and for incorporating virtue ethics into public relations ethics education.
First, high levels of student discussions help students conceptualize, understand, and apply abstract ethical concepts, including virtue ethics. Student-led class discussions help provide students the ownership over discussed ethical issues and real-world cases, thus in turn increases students’ intrinsic motivations for learning. However, as some students have mentioned, the free flow of discussion is contingent on a smaller class size and a welcoming and open discussion environment.
Second, engagements with media exemplars, especially guest speakers, have proven to be an effective way to teach virtue ethics. For instance, students have commented in the course evaluation what struck them most was how the personal experiences of one of the guest speakers have taught them about moral courage and integrity, that it is important to speak up when observing unethical behaviors even when it might mean losing one’s job. The practitioner interview assignment, in turn, reflects issues as students expressed difficulties in finding good exemplars to interview. Future public relations ethics courses could consider partnering up with local PRSA chapters to explore practitioner interview options for students or ask students to write reflections over conversations with guest speakers.
Third, there needs to be a balance within the course content and assignments between virtue ethics and other philosophical frameworks such as deontology and decision-making models. Students in general feel that there’s an over emphasis on virtue ethics: while guest speakers and practitioner interviews focus on virtue ethics, there’s a disconnect between how moral exemplars can help them understand other ethical principles learned in class. However, virtue ethics pedagogical approaches such as discussions and dialogues, and moral exemplars are shown to be effective methods to teach not just virtue ethics, but ethics in general. Future ethics courses could use moral exemplars as means to explore other philosophical approaches in addition to virtue ethics.
Finally, more guidance may be needed in turning the reflection paper into more effective teaching tools. More prompts may be needed to help students reflect more deeply on the virtues or ethical principles. Reflection paper as a tool could also be more effectively used for students to reflect on a class discussion or an interaction with guest speakers in class.
References
Arthur, J., Kristjansson, K., & Harrison, T. (2017). Teaching Character and Virtues in Schools. Routledge.
Baker, S. (2008). The model of the principled advocate and the pathological partisan: A virtue ethics construct of opposing archetypes of public relations and advertising practitioners. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 23 (3), 235–253. https://doi.org/10.1080/08900520802222050
Borden, S. L. (2007). Journalism as practice: MaIntryre, virtue ethics and the press. Ashgate.
Bowen, S. A. (2016). Clarifying ethics terms in public relations from A to V, authenticity to virtue. Public Relations Review, 42 (4), 564-572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2016.03.012
Cooke, S., & Carr, D. (2014). Virtue, practical wisdom and character in teaching. British Journal of Educational Studies, 62 (2), 91–110. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2014.929632
Craig, D. A. (2011). Excellence in online journalism: Exploring current practices in an evolving environment. Sage.
Craig, D. A. (2021, February 19). Teaching intellectual virtues in a journalism ethics course. Teaching Intellectual Virtues Mini Conference, Norman, OK.
Craig, D. A., & Yousuf, M. (2018). Teaching and assessing learning about virtue: Insights and challenges from a redesigned journalism ethics class. Journal of Media Ethics, 33 (4), 181-197. https://doi.org/10.1080/23736992.2018.1509714
Gale, K., & Bunton, K. (2005). Assessing the impact of ethics instruction on advertising and public relations graduates. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 60 (3), 272-285. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776958050600030
MacIntyre, A. (2007). After virtue. University of Notre Dame Press.
Neill, M. S. (2017). Ethics education in public relations: Differences between stand-alone ethics courses and an integrated approach. Journal of Media Ethics, 32(2), 118-131. https://doi.org/10.1080/23736992.2017.1294019
Neill, M. S. (2021). Public relations professionals identify ethical issues, essential competencies and deficiencies, Journal of Media Ethics, 36 (1), 51-67, https://doi.org/10.1080/23736992.2020.1846539
Schnitker, S., Gilbertson, M., Houltberg, B., Hardy, S., & Fernandez, N. (2019). Transcendent motivations and virtue development in adolescent marathon runners. Journal of Personality, 88 (2), 237-248. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12481
Schwartz, M. (2001). The nature of the relationship between corporate code of ethics and behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 32 (August), 247-262. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010787607771
Todd, V. (2014). Public relations supervisors and millennial entry-level practitioners rate entry-level job skills and professional characteristics. Public Relations Review, 40 (5), 789–797. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2014.05.002
To cite this article: Zhang, Xiaochen Angela. (2024). Incorporating Virtue Ethics in Public Relations Ethics Education: Lessons from a Standalone Public Relations Ethics Course. Journal of Public Relations Education, 9(2), 38-59. https://journalofpreducation.com/?p=4075
Editorial Record: Submitted May 25, 2022. Revised September 17, 2022. Accepted October 28, 2022. Published May 2023.
Authors
Michelle M. Maresh-Fuehrer, Ph.D. Department Chair & Professor of Public Relations Communication and Media Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Texas, USA Email: michelle.maresh-fuehrer@tamucc.edu
Abstract With the purpose of giving students real-world experience in teamwork and remote project management pre-pandemic, two instructors taught their undergraduate crisis communication courses collaboratively for an entire semester. Students from comparable public 4-year Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) located in the south-central and southwestern regions of the United States worked together on a service-learning project requiring the development of a crisis communication plan for a client representing a nonprofit organization. The following themes emerged concerning lessons students learned: navigating cultural uncertainty, using tactful communication via technology, managing distance and adapting to challenges. The results correspond with reports by the National Association of Colleges and Employers and the Commission on Public Relations Education emphasizing the importance of preparing students for the challenges posed by a technological work environment. Along with anecdotes from the instructors’ observations and students’ evaluative comments, suggestions for future applications of this type of service-learning collaboration are provided.
Keywords: service-learning, crisis communication, inter-institutional collaboration, public relations, remote work
The COVID-19 global health pandemic accelerated organizations’ adoption of digital technologies, as many nonessential businesses were forced to embrace hybrid and remote work environments to sustain business activities. During the pandemic, nearly 70% of full-time employees in the U.S. worked from home (OWL Labs, 2020). As a result of the work-from-home (WFH) surge, organizations now rely heavily on technology to power connectedness among employees and processes in hybrid and remote work environments, and systems that were once manual are now digital and automated (Craig, 2021).
College graduates face the reality that employers seek new hires with relevant work experience (Craig, 2021) which now includes navigating the plethora of professional technologies required to enable WFH settings. Adequate preparation has challenged college graduates for years and spurred the need for hands-on experiences and internships (Thompson, 2014). While Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012) are referred to as “Zoomers” because they have grown up in a digital world and are hyperconnected, comfort with technology does not necessarily equate to professional prowess (Gentina & Parry, 2021).
To help students overcome these challenges in preparation for today’s job market, educators need to consider modern career readiness competencies and strategies for incorporating opportunities to practice these skills in the classroom. In the context of public relations, scholars have argued that education must include collaboration and industry tools to support PR practices (Formentin & Auger, 2021), as well as “the need to help students learn about their digital presence” (Kim, 2022, p. 9). Furthermore, a roundtable workgroup sponsored by the Commission on Public Relations Education (CPRE) argued that “a significant element in public relations education is developing a student’s presence to effectively deliver content, lead groups, and engage in interpersonal dimensions online” (Kim, 2022, p. 11).
Service-learning is one high-impact practice (HIPS) shown to help students develop competencies while providing a service for the community that allows for hands-on experience in a real-world situation (Dapena et al., 2022). Through service-learning experiences, students may develop a sense of personal and social responsibility and work ethic, retention of course content, the ability to apply theory to practice, and leadership and communication skills (Jacoby, 2015). In fact, researchers have found that service-learning and collaborative learning approaches “can successfully bridge academic concepts and practice” (Maresh-Fuehrer, 2015, p. 187) by fostering an environment where students take personal initiative, become a better team member or emerge as a team leader, and feel connected to their community (Johnson, 2007; Maresh-Fuehrer, 2015).
While many researchers have studied the benefits of service-learning in singular classrooms and across academic departments and colleges, an exploration of inter-institutional collaborative versions of this teaching practice is lacking (Chang & Hannafin, 2015). Some researchers have found that inter-institutional collaborations result in unique benefits (Fraustino et al., 2015), so it is worthwhile to explore how such a collaboration addresses the need for exposing students to the technological practices required in today’s professional environment.
Thus, the following case study reflects on a collaborative semester-long service-learning partnership led by two instructors at comparable, public 4-year Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) in different regions of the United States. Although this remote collaboration occurred pre-pandemic, the results provide important support for the CPRE recommendations for online pedagogy and guidance on how to improve such instruction.
University and Student Comparisons
This service-learning project was implemented in senior-level crisis communication courses at two accredited universities located in the south-central and southwestern regions of the United States. Because of their geographic locations, the campuses are in two different time zones with a one-hour time difference. One institution is a comprehensive university located on a tri-institutional commuter campus with 95% of its students coming from in-state. The other institution is a research university that has both on-campus and commuter students, with 93% of its students coming from in-state. More than 40% of enrollment at both institutions is first-generation college students, and both are federally designated Hispanic Serving Institutions. However, the differences in geographic locations and student characteristics made this collaboration particularly appealing to the instructors. The class at the southwestern university was composed of 11 upper-division journalism and public relations majors. Each of the enrolled students had completed several courses in AP style and journalism-centric writing techniques. Conversely, the south-central university class featured 39 students from a variety of majors, many of them had limited or no experience in public relations or journalism writing but with backgrounds working in related industries such as emergency response.
Service-Learning Project
Prior Applications
Prior to embarking on this collaboration, both instructors modeled their crisis communication courses to involve team projects and a semester-long service-learning experience where students develop crisis communication plans for community-based clients. As such, both instructors were familiar with choosing appropriate clients for service-learning projects and how to balance client needs with student learning outcomes.
Curriculum Coordination
Curriculum coordination began approximately one year in advance of the project. Since students would be registering for the course at their home university, the instructors felt it was important to discuss the time zone difference and try to teach the courses at the same time to build in time for team teaching and collaboration. However, an unanticipated challenge arose when scheduling courses as both institutions use specific time blocks, none of which were shared between campuses. As a result, the instructors selected times when the classes could overlap for 30 minutes. In the class periods leading up to a major assignment deadline, students were expected to use the overlapping time to work together and submit a report to both instructors detailing their progress.
The next step required examining course syllabi and policies, discussion content and grading rubrics with the purpose of creating a unified voice between the classes. Each syllabus incorporated the same policies, resources, deadlines and expectations except for university-mandated statements. Both instructors shared lecture notes and determined the content to be taught but, recognizing that no two instructors share the same teaching style, allowed for individuality in selecting examples and instructional methods. All documents were shared with both classes in their independent Blackboard shells. Several class periods were scheduled via Zoom to provide the students with an opportunity to participate in lessons taught by both instructors. In these class periods, the instructor in charge of the lesson for that day broadcast their lecture live via Zoom, while the other instructor and their students were sitting together in their own classroom, attending via Zoom.
New grading rubrics were also developed for each of the assignments. During the semester, the instructors graded each group assignment separately and then discussed and agreed upon scores before providing a unified grade to students. Little to no variation in the instructors’ individual scores occurred.
Technology and Collaboration
In addition to the Zoom class meetings, students used a variety of technology applications to communicate and collaborate outside the classroom, including the text messaging app, GroupMe. Students were encouraged to post questions and examples in a class group and create subgroups for discussions within their assigned teams. Students were also encouraged to participate in an optional Twitter discussion using a unique hashtag for the course. To encourage collaboration, students were prompted to share something interesting they learned in class or in the readings, an example of a course concept or commentary about a crisis that was not discussed in class. Fourteen students (28% of the class) contributed 119 posts with an average applause rate (likes) of 1.96. While the engagement rate is modest, it is worth noting that the students’ examples were referenced during class sessions to spark face-to-face discussion. Also of interest is the fact that many of the engagements were from persons who were not members of either class, thus evidencing increased visibility of the institutions and the PR profession among students’ networks.
The Assignments
The instructors used the crisis management plan (CMP) project developed by Maresh-Fuehrer (2013), which consists of four major assignments and a written/oral presentation to a client. Three of the assignments required students to work in different groups to collaborate, and one assignment allowed for individual work. Since group work can be daunting for students, the instructors assigned the most graded weight to the individual assignment. The instructors used a shared rubric to independently grade each team’s work and then briefly met to discuss and finalize scores and feedback before issuing grades to the teams. Students were told that their team assignments were being graded collaboratively by both instructors. However, for the individual assignments, instructors used a shared rubric but only graded the work of students enrolled in their class sections. Students were required to complete revisions of each assignment based on the feedback they received. The revisions were compiled into a Google document that students presented to the client at the end of the semester.
Results
A component of service learning is reflecting on what has been learned and how it applies to a real-world project. The instructors’ observations of student communication coupled with comments from student reports of instruction (SRIs) suggested that students gained individual insights and exercised newly acquired skills from the challenges posed when collaborating with peers in another region to complete a major academic project for a real client.
Navigating Cultural Uncertainty
The first learning experience for students emerged during the early weeks of the semester. While the instructors expected students to share their excitement about the collaboration, a different attitude was apparent. An “us versus them” mentality seemed to dominate students’ communication about their classmates and the project. Students at both institutions emphasized the difference in geographic regions by referring to the collaborating class as the “[State] class” or “[State] students,” rather than using inclusive language such as “our class” or “our group.” The tone was negative and competitive and became most obvious during a situation where a few teams submitted late assignments, despite the instructors’ shared policy on late work. The students tasked with submitting the assignments on behalf of the teams were all from the same campus, so the students from the collaborating campus expressed anger at the fact that the “[State] students” were negatively impacting their grades. Some students even used stereotyping to make sense of the experience, saying things like “You’d think people from [State] would be more laidback.”
This language and behavior seemed to signal the existence of implicit cultural bias among students, which was especially exposed due to the teams being geographically dispersed. However, this allowed the instructors to engage in a discussion with all of the students about recognizing how cultural differences may impact communication among the members of their teams, respecting those differences and knowing when personal accountability can be used to avoid conflict. After having this talk with the classes, the instructors observed an increase in communication between the groups and more individual students demonstrating accountability. One student shared, “This course really demonstrated ‘real world’ situations when working with groups of different backgrounds. Involved VERY tactful communications within the groups and individuals. Conflict resolution was tested to the extreme.” However, it is unclear whether the students ever fully escaped the “us versus them” mentality, as one student reflected, “There were times that working with [State] class was a little difficult, but we worked it out and made it happen – that proved to be a learning experience in itself.”
Using Tactful Communication via Technology
Students were overall receptive and comfortable using new technologies, such as GroupMe and Zoom to communicate with their classmates; however, they were faced with differing expectations for communicating on these platforms. For example, students experienced a great deal of conflict when communicating using GroupMe. A specific anecdote occurred early in the semester when students formed their initial groups for the organizational history assignment. Students from one campus were using the app for casual/social messaging, such as connecting with each other to identify their location (such as studying in the student union or eating lunch at a particular restaurant). This irritated some students who were not on the same campus, prompting them to post derogatory comments that sparked even more unrelated text exchanges that further created division among the classes. One student wrote, “The smaller chats worked better but still had problems, like people using it to find what room they should meet in. I think a training on how to use group chats would help these problems.”
Thus, when this issue arose, the instructors used class time to discuss professional text messaging conduct and provided a handout that offered tips for professional engagement. They also directly addressed concerns with select students and prompted the students to reflect on how they may have approached their text responses differently. As the semester continued, students adapted to the norms for professional technology use and realized that tactful communication was necessary on these platforms, especially to resolve misunderstandings. At the end of the semester, one student shared, “TIL [today I learned] collaboration can actually go smoothly across time zones when communication is respectful. Looking back, this project has taught me more than I thought…”
Managing Distance
For each assignment, students were randomly grouped with classmates from both campuses. During class, the students who shared a physical location would coordinate their schedules and select out-of-class meeting times to work together on their assignments. The ease of communicating with classmates that shared a physical location made it common for them to forget to reach out to the remote group members. This resulted in frustration when the classmates who were left out of the arrangements were unable to meet at the time their group chose to work on the assignment. When referring to this scenario, one student described, “Working with the…team was difficult because there were some instances where they were not willing to support team work. There were a few times where it was hard to communicate with them.”
This dynamic opened the pathway to discussing the differences between collaborating virtually and face-to-face. When the instructors learned of this, they quickly reminded the students of the importance of including everyone in conversations that impact the team or the project. They utilized an analogy of the students being stakeholders in the project and connected this to the core public relations principle of the need to inform stakeholders about matters that concern them (Center et al., 2012). The instructors expressed that the communication tools available–such as GroupMe–are meant for fostering collaboration, especially in these types of moments.
Adapting to Challenges
When the instructors approached their classes about a lack of participation in team meetings, several students shared that they were uncomfortable in virtual meetings because they could see themselves while talking and became self-conscious. Sharing these challenges in the classroom helped students realize that others had the same feelings. The instructors shared tips for navigating this situation, such as hiding the self-view on Zoom.
A second challenge that emerged was based on student characteristics (differing class sizes, majors and PR writing experience). The instructors observed several benefits and challenges students faced as a result of this mixed class configuration. The heterogeneous nature of the group contributed to the discovery of a robust set of potential risks (335 unique risk scenarios) that illustrated students’ specialized knowledge of the law, environmental science and other technical risks that may not have otherwise been considered in a class of only PR/journalism majors. At times, however, students in both courses approached the instructors with frustrations over the varying degrees of professional writing skills, AP style proficiency and personal worth ethic present among their classmates. Some students reported that they made extensive edits to their group’s work, while others expressed frustration that their individual contributions had been edited to a degree that changed the intended meaning of their content. These concerns led to the instructors discussing the nature of collaborative projects in the workplace, which included a discussion of French and Raven’s (1959) bases of power. The instructors emphasized that professionals often work with people from different departments and locations that may not share the same knowledge base. However, each person must be valued for the unique strengths that they contribute toward the success of a group. At the end of the semester, one of the students shared about the remote work experience, “Working with different individuals throughout the semester helped me jump out of my comfort zones.” Another student emphasized that the challenging nature of group work was “a real example of how life may work sometime.” Much to the instructors’ satisfaction, one student shared
This class was a favorite of mine this semester! It was definitely a challenge every minute, but it taught me so much in just a short 4 months. I learned how to work with various individuals on a large project with a wonderful outcome.
Discussion
As Kim (2022) describes in the Commission on Public Relations Education’s Spotlight Report, “online education should prepare students to develop their digital presence by providing opportunities to learn about, practice, and reflect on digital interaction” (p. 11). Since COVID-19, the professional world–including education–has seen a rise in the use of different modalities to collaborate with workgroups. Although the project described in this case study was a remote collaboration that only partially took place online, the lessons learned from this inter-institutional project show that this approach makes it possible for instructors to expose students to the “ways that remote and hybrid workplaces practice presence across teams and between managers and their teams” (Kim, 2022, p. 9).
The students’ experiences are consistent with previous research on the benefits of service-learning and inter-institutional collaborations as “mirroring the type of work PR professionals regularly perform” (Smallwood & Brunner, 2017, p. 450) and providing mutual benefit to the students and client (Maresh-Fuehrer, 2015); however, the added component of remote collaboration resulted in several added benefits. Students were suddenly thrust into an environment where communication deficiencies were realized. They had to learn to adapt to cultural uncertainty, differing skills and communication expectations, and challenges posed by geographic distance and their own insecurities. As Berger and Calabrese (1975) explain, people feel uncertainty about others that they do not know. Given the nature of the collaboration, students anticipated future interaction with one another, so their interest in reducing uncertainty was high. Unfortunately, the brief overlap between the two classes provided only limited opportunities for verbal and nonverbal warmth and self-disclosure among students. Additionally, moments of conflict–such as in the cases of the frustrated GroupMe messages or late assignment submissions–may have led to uncertainty remaining high, despite the collaborative environment. This challenge is important to overcome because a sense of closeness results in higher contributions from students (Gilmore & Warren, 2007).
Another advantage of the collaboration was the numerous teaching moments the instructors were able to have with students to help them navigate challenges, as described in the Results section. This corresponds with the CPRE’s recommendation to incorporate “topics such as leading a Zoom presentation, nonverbal communication through technology, and other elements that hold the potential to elevate or inhibit their future success” into online instruction (Kim, 2022, p. 11). This seems especially important as the instructors observed that, although both classes were mostly comprised of “digital natives” (Prensky, 2001), it became clear that students did not understand how professional technology use differs from personal use. Overcoming this issue is necessary, as “students’ efficacy with the technologies…may lead to…positive attitudes and performance expectations when using such technologies in future on-the-job environments” (O’Malley & Kelleher, 2002, p. 183).
In many cases, diversity in skill sets were an asset in helping students avoid groupthink, which occurs when a homogenous group of people allow the desire for harmony in the group to result in poor decision-making (Janis, 1997). The instructors observed students gaining insight into their strengths that required them to recognize how they operate within a team (e.g., do they take on a leadership role or do they hold back their questions or concerns? Do they criticize others’ work, or do they help improve the end product?). Students arrived at these realizations by being asked to regularly reflect on their experiences throughout the class and during the instructors’ one-on-one or team conversations with them when concerns arose. These discoveries helped students understand how to be more effective team players and work through disagreements and miscommunication, regardless of the geolocation of their team members. More research is needed on the benefits and pitfalls associated with learning in remote inter-institutional service-learning activities, especially when students have varying levels of competency.
Another significant contribution of this project is the experience and benefits afforded to students while requiring few additional resources beyond what is normally required to manage a classroom. While O’Malley and Kelleher (2002) remarked that “the extra resources required to coordinate two distant university classes did not seem worthwhile…” (p. 183), the instructors of the CMP project did not arrive at the same conclusion. The primary resource required to formulate and run this class was time. The instructors developed their own syllabi to reflect university-specific language and classroom conduct expectations but collaborated on the development of each assignment, rubric, and grading structure, and determining audio and video technology requirements to sync classrooms. Each instructor also prepared lectures for joint classroom instruction, and the instructors graded some of the projects together to ensure consistency in evaluation. When student concerns arose, the instructors took time to turn them into teaching moments, but these lessons did not exceed what would normally occur as part of classroom management.
Recommendations for Future Applications
The areas where students struggled present opportunities to improve the design of a PR curriculum focused on providing students with real-world experiences. Based on their shared experience, the instructors offer the following recommendations for future applications of inter-institutional service-learning projects.
Schedule Time for Team Building. As evidenced by the exemplars provided in the Results section, students struggled with aspects of intercultural communication which, at times, contributed to a feeling of hostility among students. The intense course schedule necessary to cover the material allowed little room for team building exercises. The instructors agree with the need to integrate team-building exercises into the curriculum to build trust, develop team identity and promote information exchange to help improve virtual team dynamics (Jarvenpaa et al., 1998). Students would also benefit from a discussion of the similarities and differences among the institutions and student skill sets, as well as more specifications for assigning roles and deadlines and streamlining communication when working in groups.
Discuss Professional Technology Use. Collaboration, especially in a virtual environment, requires guidance and some level of oversight by instructors. Initially, the instructors believed setting communication parameters, such as establishing a GroupMe text channel, offered sufficient room for students to successfully connect. However, instructors quickly found that students would have benefited from more information about what constitutes professional communication in mediated platforms. Additionally, students’ lack of comfort seeing themselves on Zoom also supports the notion of teaching them how to use technology. This finding is especially salient, as the CPRE report discusses the need to help students learn “how to do direct engagement with groups in virtual settings, how to leverage software…for successful group projects, and what effective Zoom engagement looks like in various professional settings” (Kim, 2022, p. 9).
Balance Class Sizes. Furthermore, the instructors would recommend considering comparable class sizes as a factor in selecting a cross-collaboration partner. A lack of balance in class size resulted in lopsided group representation. The natural in-person collaboration that occurred among students in the larger class meant the students in the smaller class often reported feeling out-of-sync with their teams. According to O’Leary and Cummings (2007), it is common for geographically dispersed teams to experience unequal distribution across locations. As the National Research Council (2015) explains, this results in a phenomenon called the “hub and spoke model,” where the “culture and communication style of the headquarters typically dominate, and the group members at remote locations may experience lower status and less power, while their needs and progress are invisible to others” (p. 154-155). In this case, the larger class seemed to be perceived as the main class or a centralized “hub,” where the smaller class’ students felt as though they were just the “spokes” feeding into the larger hub, though this was not the case.
Course Extensions.By fine-tuning aspects of communication and balancing the size of teams, an international inter-institutional course is possible. Such a course would enhance students’ exposure to different cultures, ethnicities, communication nuances, social norms and technologies in a way that extends what they are able to experience working with students in another region of the same country. According to Molleda (2009), gaining a broad understanding of the global economy and standards of communication practices in various regions of the world is increasingly important. This data is confirmed by the career readiness competencies outlined by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) in its job outlook report: career & self development, communication, critical thinking, equity & inclusion, leadership, professionalism, teamwork and technology (NACE, 2021).
In sum, while data exists illustrating the benefits of service-learning, little information exists about the value of experiential learning in a remote inter-institutional environment. With globalization and the ability to telework expanding, it is imperative for students to learn how to work collaboratively and virtually and with people who are different from them (Kim, 2022; NACE, 2021). With structured facilitation of such projects, remote inter-institutional collaborations are a highly effective method for honing the interpersonal and technological skills required in today’s workforce.
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To cite this article: Maresh-Fuehrer, M., and Baum, M. (2023). Inter-Institutional Service-Learning Collaborations in a Remote Environment: A Case Study. Journal of Public Relations Education, 9(1), 147-165. https://journalofpreducation.com/?p=3564
Editorial Record: Submitted June 4, 2022. Revised October 21, 2022. Revised January 8, 2022. Accepted January 26, 2023. Published May 2023.
Authors
Kim, Seon-Woo Ph.D. Candidate Manship School of Mass Communication Louisiana State University USA Email: kr.seonwoo@gmail.com
Chon, Myoung-Gi, Ph.D. Associate Professor School of Communication and Journalism Auburn University USA Email: mzc0113@auburn.edu
Abstract The teaching brief introduces what to teach and how to teach social media analytics for PR educators in a university. It suggests a semester-long curriculum for an independent research method class for both graduates and undergraduates. First, we discuss why students can better learn programming languages over industrial platforms. In addition, we compare three different ways of data collection (crawling, API, and download) and discuss the pros and cons. Then, it presents (1) data collection through API, (2) text mining, and (3) network analysis with the shared Python code on GitHub and the step-by-step tutorial for PR educators who are unfamiliar with programming languages. This brief is expected to help to bridge the gap between the growing demands of programming-based analytics in PR practice and education.
Keywords: Social media analytics, Pedagogy, Python, API, Text mining, Network analysis
Social media has become integral to digital public relations (Ewing et al., 2018). PR companies perceive social media analytics (SMA) as a useful tool to identify who is a target public, understand the current environment around an organization, measure PR campaign outcomes, build relations with stakeholders and influencers, and many more (Kim, 2021). Responding to the growing demands of social media analytics in the PR industry, analytics curricula in PR programs need to be developed to educate PR students (Commission on Public Relations Education, 2018).
However, public relations educators have faced challenges in learning and teaching social media analytics. Most PR instructors have not had an opportunity to learn computer programming knowledge for analytics during their academic careers, such as Python or R. Moreover, teaching analytics requires understanding new methodologies and data types, such as natural language processing, network theory, and deep learning. Given this background, the current analytics classes in PR programs mostly focus on conceptual knowledge and the use of other commercial tools.
For example, students have learned how to use proprietary platforms, such as Brandwatch and Sprinklr, and interpret the results on those platforms. It is also common for instructors to ask students to get certificates in Google Analytics and Hootsuite as evidence of their analytics competence (Ewing et al., 2018). Despite the above efforts, PR professionals recommend that PR graduates have programming knowledge for PR work automation and tailored PR services to clients (Szalacsi, 2019; Trafalgar Strategy, 2022). Heavy reliance on industrial analytics platforms would limit students’ SMA competency within the platforms’ modality, thereby preventing them from developing advanced analytical abilities.
To fill the gap, this teaching brief aims to provide a pedagogical foundation for utilizing Python as an SMA tool. Particularly, this teaching brief explains an SMA class material based on data collection, text mining, and network analysis. We provide Python codings that PR educators can use in classrooms to teach Python programming language. Python is the most frequently used programming language in data science (TIOBE, 2022; Woodie, 2021). The Python codes are designed as simplified as possible for a PR analytics introduction class. We provide step-by-step instructions about the Python codes to help readers understand and follow the programming function. This teaching brief is expected to encourage programming-based SMA classes in public relations classes.
Teaching Objectives
Table 1 summarizes the learning objectives of what this teaching brief delivers and required Python packages. This brief consists of three parts: data collection, text mining, and network analysis. First, students are expected to obtain knowledge about Tweet data collection through API. Because APIs tend to provide free versions and have similar ways of use across social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram), the practice of collecting tweets via API helps students equipped with social media data collection skills for various SNSs without cost. In addition to this, we introduce ways to find content published by influencers and popular tweets. Lastly, students can learn to save the collected data as a spreadsheet format (i.e., xlsx).
– Learn how to apply for Twitter Academic Research Access – Apply a Twitter access code to Python – Create search query, including keyword and date – Collect Tweets through the shared Python code – Sort out tweets by the number of likes, retweets, and followers – Save the collected data as the excel format on your local computer
– pandas – twarc – os – requests – time
Text mining
– Load the collected Twitter data – Text data cleaning – Create Word cloud – Calculate word frequency and visualize text mining results
– pandas -nltk.corpus – re
Network analysis
– Create data for network analysis from the collected Twitter data (i.e., mention relation and retweet relations) – Network object generator – Generate a network graph – Export network data for visualization on Gephi – Calculate various centrality scores
– pandas – networkx
Next, students can apply text mining and network analysis to their own data collected by API. Through the text mining section, students learn to load and clean data, and create a word cloud and calculate word frequency with its visualization. The network analysis section introduces a simple conceptual understanding of network data, how to construct network data, how to calculate centrality scores, and visualization preparation through Gephi, a popular network visualization tool utilized in academia and industry.
Teaching Preparation
To use the shared Python code for teaching, educators need to have some basic Python skills. Also, educators and students must install some Python applications and packages. Python code for this teaching brief is available on GitHub (https://github.com/formulated/PR_education_Python). We assume that readers have already installed Python 3 (https://www.python.org/downloads/) and Jupyter notebook (https://jupyter.org/install). Python is a programming language, and Jupyter is a web-based interactive computational environment for Python programming. If not, we recommend installing Anaconda (Anaconda, n.d.), which includes Python 3 and Jupyter Notebook. After installation of Python 3 and Jupyter, launch Jupyter and open the shared code in a new notebook.
Then, readers need to install the required Python packages, such as pandas and networkx, for each Lesson (see Table 1).
When running the shared Python code without installing required packages on a computer, it will show the following message “ModuleNotFoundError:no module named ‘XXX’.” Module is synonymous for package in Python.
To install a Python package on Mac, open Terminal application and type “pip3 install [package name]”. For example, below is the command for installing pandas (see Figure 1).
Figure 1
On Windows, open Anaconda Prompt program and type “pip3 install [package name]” as below (see Figure 2).
Figure 2
This short brief cannot cover every single Python code one by one. Instead, we focus on which codes should be edited to properly run the Python code and serve different learning objectives in classrooms. For example, some classes would focus more on organizational PR while others political PR. In this case, the code may require unique search keywords depending on the subject.
PR educators should have some basic knowledge in Python (e.g., installation, running code, basic built-in functions) prior to giving students a demonstration of the shared Python coding and modifying the codes for class projects and activities. To develop this basic proficiency, we recommend Python books for beginners (e.g., Codeone Publishing, 2022; Matthes, 2019) and freely-available online resources from YouTube, such as Learn Python in 1 Hour (Programming with Mosh, 2020, September 16). Also, online Python bootcamp courses, such as DataCamp (https://app.datacamp.com), are valuable resources for PR educators and students as they provide interactive web environments of Python for beginners. PR educators may connect the online bootcamp course to a part of their SMA course curriculum as assignments or pre-class activities.
Lesson 1. Data collection from Twitter through API
There is nothing to analyze without data. Data collection is the start of extracting valuable insight from analytics before moving to gather information by organizing the data. Thus, among many required skills, data collection is the foundation of SMA (Kent et al., 2011). Growing PR jobs require data collection skills from the web and social media (Meganck et al., 2020). Before digitized public relations, PR practitioners had to manually scan and gather the environment around an organization, such as news monitoring and clippings. However, today’s digital society creates a massive number of user-generated contents about organizations on the web and social media, which makes it nearly impossible for PR practitioners to collect them manually.
There are three main ways to collect web data: crawling, API, and downloading from industrial platforms. Table 2 compares the data collection methods. Web crawling, or scraping, refers to a mechanical collection of web data (e.g., text, image, sound, and video). A web crawler automatically extracts data from a website based on programming. Technically, it is possible to crawl data using freely-available packages in Python for most web pages, such as social media, news media, and web communities. These packages can be implemented for news clipping and issue/crisis monitoring as a daily PR practice.
Table 2:Comparison of Data Collection Methods
Crawling
API
Download
Level of difficulty
Difficult
Moderate – difficult
Easy – moderate
Price
Free
Free or paid
Pricy
Legality
Risky
Safe
Safe
Algorithm
Transparent
Transparent
Blackbox
Flexibility
High
High
Low-High
Data accessibility
Partial
Full or partial
Full or partial
Variables
Limited – Some
Some
Many but blackbox
Writing crawling programming requires advanced programming language and web structure knowledge such as HTML, HTTP, and CSS. Also, they should be updated whenever a website changes its layout and structure. In addition, social media companies present limited, personalized feeds and content to each account based on their algorithms and other variables (e.g., follower network, search history, location). Thus, a web crawler often cannot access the full-archived data because it can only collect data visible on the website, which may raise content representativeness issues. A crawler also cannot get invisible metadata and variables that a social media company provides to API and industrial platforms, such as user profiles (e.g., when an account was created) and metadata (e.g., the name of the app the user posted from). If necessary, you have to construct variables from crawled data. Crawling may face some legal issues if you do not get an agreement from a social media company prior to collecting the data.
Another way to collect data from social media is to use API (application programming interface). Many software companies provide API to let other third-party services and programmers use their service in a convenient way. For example, Apple and Google use weather API to provide weather services to customers without collecting weather data by themselves. Major social media platforms (e.g., Twitter, Meta) also provide API for users to collect data within the companies’ policy and authentication. Thus, it is relatively easier and safer to collect social media data compared to crawling because it is free of committing a violation of a website’s Policies and Terms of Service.
Free version APIs usually have a basic data access level like a trial version, providing limited requests that you can make within a day and shorter historical data. There are paid API services with more or full-archived data access and functions. Major social media companies have opened their premium API for research and education purposes. For example, Twitter allows researchers to access the full tweet archive through Twitter’s Academic Research Access (Twitter Developer Platform, n.d.). After filling out an application and it being accepted, Twitter will provide an access code. Currently with API access, ten million tweets can be collected per month. Meta also runs CrowdTangle, where PR educators can access Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit data. APIs present some variables, such as message type (e.g., retweet, original), the number of engagements (e.g., likes, shares, comments), and geographic location.
Lastly, industrial platforms, such as Brandwatch (https://www.brandwatch.com/) and Sprinklr (https://www.sprinklr.com/), allow paid subscribers to download social media data from their platforms. Click-based user interfaces do not require programming. However, those platforms are pricey because their business model is B2B with governments, companies, and universities. Due to high prices, a few universities are not subscribing to those services for teaching and research purposes. If a department already subscribes to such a service, they are a good resource for PR analytics teaching. Like API, there are no legal issues in data collection and use within the companies’ policy and authentication, and many industrial platforms provide full historical archive access. Industrial platforms also provide a rich amount of metadata, such as users’ gender, sentiment, and users’ profession or organizations (e.g., journalists, politicians). However, it is not clearly known how the data resellers construct those variables for users (i.e., blackbox). Although some companies provide explanations about their variable construction, researchers typically cannot replicate the variables due to limited information.
Given the pros and cons of the three data collection methods mentioned above, this teaching brief introduces how to collect Twitter by using the Twitter Academic Research Access API. Because most major companies maintain Twitter accounts, and their contents are publicly available, a few researchers and PR practitioners choose Twitter for real-time issue monitoring and reputation management (e.g., Chon & Kim, 2022; Rust et al., 2021). In addition, data collection with API and Python is similar across social platforms. If educators and students understand the code for Twitter data collection, the code can be adjusted to get data from other platform APIs.
Tutorial. Data collection
The teaching brief here shows how to collect Tweets by using Twitter API and Python. Twitter allows researchers to access the full tweet archive through Twitter Academic Research Access (Twitter Developer Platform, n.d.). After filling out applications, including research interest and affiliation, Twitter gives users access codes to collect ten million tweets per month.
To run the Python code from the GitHub (Kim, 2022) that the author has created, you need to change the OAuth 2.0 Bearer Token (i.e., credential key or password for Twitter) and the query parameters (e.g., search keyword, date). The Bearer Token is given after achieving Twitter Academic API permission. In the below code line, the coder would insert their Bearer Token. The Bearer Token format is a long combination of alphabets and numbers (see Figure 3).
Figure 3
In query parameters, query indicates search keywords. Hashtags (i.e., #) and mentions (i.e., @) can be used as a search query (e.g., @PR, #PR). Tweet.fields indicates which variables are collected. The coding includes user numeric IDs (i.e., author_id), timestamp (i.e., created_at), and public metrics (i.e., retweet, reply, like, and quote). Also, data period should be set in start_time and end_time. If the code is run, tweets will be collected in excel data format (see Figure 4).
Figure 4
We use this data for basic text mining and network analysis. There is a code for exporting the below data as an excel file (see Figure 5).
Figure 5
[Figure 5 Should Be Here]
Next, because the data has variables such as the number of likes and retweets, it can figure out which tweets have the most engagement. Also, the number of tweets posted by user accounts indicates who are active and potentially stimulated publics on social media. Sorting users by the number of followers results in a list of influencers around a topic.
The code below filters the top 10 most-retweeted tweets (see Figure 6). To get the most-liked tweets, a variable name in sort_value parameter should be changed (e.g., from ‘retweet_count’ to ‘like_count’). Additional codes filter users who wrote tweets the most about the issue and users with the highest number of followers. Depending on PR campaigns and activities, practitioners would edit to yield other valuable information. For example, combining these metrics with the time variable (i.e., created_at) may produce the best time/weekdays to post a social media posting. Practitioners may summarize weekly engagement with publics from social media campaigns by summing or averaging likes, shares, or the number of replies.
Figure 6
Lesson 2. Text mining
Text mining (i.e., computational text analysis, natural language processing) is one of the most promising areas in public relations for listening to publics and stakeholders. Digitized communication environments continue to create an unlimited number of digital texts. Knowledge discovery from text data is recommended to increase an organization’s performance and efficiency beyond data retrieval. Excellence theory posits that listening to publics is more important than disseminating information (Grunig & Grunig, 2009). When PR practitioners instill publics and stakeholders’ voices into an organization, it can make effective strategic communication, which contributes to organizational success (Kim & Rhee, 2011).
There are also many possible ways for text mining to assist public relations practices, such as topic discovery and opinion mining. For example, the topic analysis provides insights about the main topic, issue, and trend around an organization based on descriptive analysis (word frequency, co-occurrence) and algorithm (e.g., topic modeling). Opinion mining, or sentiment analysis, can be used to investigate reputations of an organization and a brand, issue, and crisis (Liu, 2011).
Text mining covers collection, preprocessing, analysis, and summary of text data based on mathematical algorithms. Analyzing a large amount of unstructured text requires different statistical methods and tools (Grimmer et al., 2021). For example, texts are unstructured, unlike traditional structured data (e.g., data in excel), so data cleaning is necessary to transform them into a structured format. Conventional statistical tools, such as SPSS and SAS, provide a limited text mining function, as originally designed to analyze structured data. Hence, programming skills in Python and R are preferred for text mining.
Tutorial. Text mining
In the shared Python code, text mining includes (a) loading the Tweet data, (b) text data cleaning (e.g., low transformation, stopwords removal), (c) word cloud, and (d) word frequency calculation and visualization. Also, this code can be used to analyze other text data from social media and other web pages if a data structure is the same (i.e., data with the same column names). Otherwise, the column names in other data should be edited. The first task for text mining is to load data (see Figure 7). For this example, the code imports the excel file collected through the Twitter API. Pandas is one of the best Python packages to load, preprocess, and analyze data. The pandas package is imported with the abbreviated name, pd, with the following code, “import pandas as pd” in the first code cell.
Figure 7
The next step is text cleaning, or preprocessing. Though any data needs some level of data cleaning before analysis, text data requires more effort in preprocessing due to the complexity of human language. User-generated content tends to include noise elements such as emojis, URLs, and stopwords. It is recommended to remove irrelevant elements for analysis purposes to improve computational efficiency and validity (Hickman et al., 2020; Welbers et al., 2017). Stopwords are functional words that have no substantial meaning, such as article (e.g., the, a, an), conjunctions (e.g., and, but), and prepositions (e.g., of, in) (see Figure 8).
Figure 8
Also, as computers are case-sensitive (e.g., computers cannot identify Computer and computer as having the same meaning like a human), text data are often converted to lowercase before analysis. Beyond the simple steps, there are different types of text cleaning methods, such as stemming/lemmatization, dimensionality reductions, bag-of-words, Word2vec, and so on. Text cleaning depends on which type of algorithms would be used and what the purpose is. The shared code removes URLs, emoticons, special characters (e.g., !, @), and stopwords.
Next, a word cloud is created to visualize the contents. A word cloud is one of the most frequently used visualizations in text mining. It is similar to the descriptive analysis in statistics (e.g., mean, sd). A word cloud is often seen as a preliminary analysis in PR-published papers (e.g., Plessis, 2018; Macnamara, 2016). The size of word fonts is proportional to the word frequencies. The generated word cloud in the example shows that rt, new, year, happy, and prsaroadsafety are prominent in the text data (see Figure 9).
Figure 9
The next code calculates a word frequency and sorts the result in descending order by frequency. Word frequency generates insightful information, such as daily/weekly issues around an organization (see Figure 10). Also, a PR practitioner may evaluate a campaign’s performance by tracking the relevant hashtag frequency over time.
Figure 10
The last code is to make a word frequency visualization. If the index (e.g., from the current 0:20 to 0:50) is changed, the number of words in the graph will accordingly change (see Figure 11).
Figure 11
Lesson 3. Network analysis Network analysis is gaining much popularity in public relations (Yang & Saffer, 2019). Network analysis deals with “structure and position” (Borgatti et al., 2013, p. 10). The network actor is an individual, group, organization, or inter-organizations. For example, companies have different types of relations (Borgatti et al., 2013), such as similarities (e.g., type of business), business relations (e.g., joint venture, alliance), interactions (e.g., trade), and flows (e.g., technology transfer). Network analysis has been applied to various PR topics such as organization-public/stakeholder relations, employee communication, crisis communication, and CSR (Yang & Saffer, 2019).
Centrality, the classical structural properties of a network, is one of the most commonly used concepts for network analysis and visualization (Freeman, 1978). A few PR studies have used centrality to investigate key publics/stakeholders (Hellsten et al., 2019; Himelboim & Golan, 2019), issues management (Sommerfeldt & Yang, 2017), agenda-setting (Guo, 2012), content diffusion network (Himelboim & Golan, 2019), and CSR performance (Jiang & Park, 2022).
Also, network analysis can be combined with text mining to figure out how words occur together in text. Specifically, PR practitioners can illustrate brand images and salient issues of an organization by looking at co-occurrence results with the organization name (Gilpin, 2010). In addition, PR practitioners identify a community network (e.g., friends, followers) around influencers and target them to encourage them to pay attention to the PR campaign, which, in turn, may motivate the influencers to share the content (Zhang et al., 2016). Another possible application of network analysis for PR is to identify potential publics who show several advocacy activities with positive sentiments toward a relevant issue but not yet toward a client’s issue. Organizations target them to foster supportive postings on social media.
Tutorial. Network analysis
Loading data is the same in the text mining section. Because network analysis is based on relations, data should have relational information. Relations are expressed in many different ways. You may construct a relationship variable between organizations and/or publics from outside social media data, such as joint ventures, alliances, and NGO coalitions. You may also infer relationships from social media data. For example, follower-following relationships are a relationship example. If User A follows User B, you may use the relationship information for network analysis (e.g., User A → User B). Likewise, if User A mentions or retweets a User B’s tweet, you may set a tie from User A to User B. The tie direction could be reversed depending on your perspective. For example, some people think that the relation should be User B → User A when User A retweets User B’s tweet because User B’s information flows into User A. The example code shows how to make mention relations. “From” indicates users who mention a certain account, while “to” is a mentioned account by “from.” If you want retweet relationships, replace the red text in the first line (i.e., the regular expression) in the below code with r “RT @([A-Za-z]+[A-Za-z0-9-_]+)”. If so, the data indicates that users in the from column retweet posts generated by a user in the to column (see Figure 12).
Figure 12
The following screenshot shows two codes: network object generator (i.e., G) and its visualization in Python (see Figure 13). If there are more than a few nodes (i.e., actor) and edges (e.g., relation), Python network graphs are not visually attractive. Instead, a few researchers use other visualization tools such as Gephi (e.g., Raupp, 2019; Yang et al., 2017). The software is free to use on Windows and Mac (download and see in detail at https://gephi.org).
Figure 13
The code in Figure 14 transforms the network data into an excel for Gephi. To import the excel spreadsheet on Gephi, click file → import spreadsheet → open excel file (Gephi_df.xlsx) → import as “Edges table” in general excel options → finish.
Figure 14
Here, n indicates the number of the relations (i.e., how many times a source mentions a target on Twitter). Compared to a Python graph, Gephi generates visually attractive and easy-to-understand network graphics (see Figure 15).
Figure 15
Centrality is one of the most frequently used metrics in network analysis. There are many different types of centrality, such as in-degree/out-degree centrality, betweenness centrality, eigenvector centrality, and so on. In the shared code, the NetworkX Python package provides different types of centrality calculations. See more network algorithm parameters at NetworkX (n.d.). For example, when “degree_centrality” in the below code is replaced with “betweenness_centrality,” it generates between-centrality scores for each node (see Figure 16).
Figure 16
Suggested Curriculum
If an introductory level SMA course is provided within a semester of 16 weeks, it is possible to design the courses as in Table 3. It is critical for students to type and edit the shared codes rather than just read or see them in order to achieve the learning objectives in this teaching brief. The suggested curriculum, therefore, focuses on hands-on experience for PR SMA with Python. The first week introduces the course. Then, the next two weeks teach PR in the digital era, social media and its application in PR, and the SMA case study. After the conceptual understanding of SMA, two weeks would be required to teach each practical programming section: Python basic, data collection, text mining, and network analysis. Finally, the remaining weeks will be used for final projects and presentations. Considering students’ abilities and prerequisite courses, the curriculum would be adjusted to serve unique class demands.
Table 3:Example of PR SMA Course Curriculum
Week
Topic
Contents
1
Introduction
– Introduction to Course and Python – PR in the digital era – Social media and its application in PR – Understanding social media analytics
3-4
Python programming
– Installation and Setup of Python and Jupyter Notebook – Installing Python packages – Reading and writing data (e.g., XLXS, CSV) – data types (e.g., list, dictionary, tuple, JSON) – Pandas data structure – Data cleaning (e.g., data selection, merge, recode) – Basic functions (e.g., define, for, if-else, while)
5-6
Data collection
– See learning outcome in Table 1 for programming contents – Three different ways of data collection: crawling, API, and industrial platform) – Introduction to data collection with API – Data collection assignment
7-8
Text mining
– See learning outcome in Table 1 for programming contents – Conceptual understanding of text mining – Text mining assignment
9-10
Network analysis
– See learning outcome in Table 1 for programming contents – Conceptual understanding of network analysis – Network analysis assignment
11-13
Applications of social media analytics
– SMA case study – Social media metrics and evaluations – Social media campaigns based on SMA
14-15
Final project
– Final project introduction – Group Work days
16
Student presentation
– Final project presentation
What if educators can’t offer a separate class focusing on social media analytics and PR? We suggest a short course in a PR research class. Generally, PR research classes should cover many topics, such as qualitative research and quantitative research. However, research methods in the digital age should teach how to use social media to solve PR problems. PR educators may suggest multiple research methods using qualitative skills (e.g., focus group interview), quantitative skills (e.g., survey), and social media analytics through Python (e.g., text mining and network analysis). Students will be allowed to analyze unstructured data by choosing between text mining and network analysis.
Assessment of Student Learning
Simply put, students can be assessed via three assignments (15% each worth of final grade) and a final group project (45% worth of final grade) with the remaining 10% points (e.g., attendance) for a semester class.
Regarding the data collection assignment, students are required to submit a Python code file edited to collect tweets via their search queries. If it works without error, they get full credit. Instructors would consider extra credit when students collect data from other social media or web crawling. The text mining assignment asks students to submit a text mining Python code to create a word cloud and word frequency visualization with the collected data through the data collection assignment. In addition, students would be required to submit a document file analyzing the text mining results, as editing a few codes is too easy of a task for 15% credit. If students conduct additional analysis, such as sentimental analysis and topic modeling, they can be given extra credit. Likewise, network analysis would require a Python code of edited network analysis and a report. Network analysis assignments get extra credit when students present network visualization through Gephi beyond the suggested code.
Lastly, the final project is group work with a team of three members. Students select a big organization (e.g., S&P 500) so that students can collect large enough social media data. They are asked to conduct (1) traditional formative research, (2) data collection, (3) text mining, (4) network analysis, and (5) social media campaign plan. Table 4 presents an example of the final project rubric.
Table 4:Final Project Rubric
Criteria
Contents
Weight (%)
Traditional formative research
– Organizational history & mission – Industry background & trend – Identification of stakeholder, public, and society – Traditional news media analysis – SWOT analysis
20
Data collection
– Social media data collection (e.g., tweets, Facebook) – Identification of popular social texts – Identification of key individuals (e.g., influencers)
20
Text mining
– Main topics about company, brand, or products – Sentiment analysis – Text mining visualization (e.g., word cloud)
20
Network analysis
– Identification and network positions of key public and stakeholder – Network visualization with Gephi
20
Social media campaign planning
– Discussion of current PR-related problems from formative research and social media analytics. – Making three social media assets/tactics with target audiences – Presentation of expected outcomes and impact on stakeholders, public, and society and measurement plan of campaign success
20
This project allows students to have a chance to apply the skills and knowledge they learn from the suggested SMA class in practice. Through the final project, they would realize the necessities of SMA along with traditional PR formative research (e.g., media coverage). The final project would also be adjusted if students in the class did not take a PR strategy or campaign class.
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To cite this article: Kim, S. and Chon, M. (2023). Teaching Social Media Analytics in Public Relations Classes: Focusing on the Python Program. Journal of Public Relations Education, 9(1), 117-146. https://journalofpreducation.com/?p=3663
Editorial Record: Submitted May 25, 2022. Revised September 17, 2022. Accepted October 28, 2022.
Authors
Nandini Bhalla, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Public Relations School of Journalism and Mass Communication Texas State University San Marcos, Texas, US Email: nandinib@txstate.edu
Arien Rozelle, APR Assistant Professor Department of Media and Communication St. John Fisher University Rochester, New York Email: arozelle@sjf.edu
Abstract As an understanding of international diversity has become more vital than ever before, PR educators are responsible for the mammoth task of imparting cultural sensitivity and equality in undergraduate classrooms. This teaching brief provides an opportunity for PR educators to help students understand cultural and structural differences among different countries. It also asks undergraduate students to think in an environmentally-friendly way in an international context. This teaching brief provides individual and group assignments along with samples to help instructors facilitate thought-provoking conversations in the classroom, and enhance student learning on international diversity issues in public relations.
Keywords: eco-tourism, diversity, race, public relations education, international PR, global PR
The recent rise of social and political unrest on a global scale has underscored the need for communicators with global and cultural competencies. While public relations educators are tasked with imparting cultural awareness in undergraduate classrooms, the field of public relations itself has been slow to make advancements in diversity, equity and inclusion. “Despite numerous calls and initiatives for change for over three decades, the industry’s D&I needle has barely moved” (Bardhan & Gower, 2020, p. 103).
Public relations educators play a major role in moving the needle. As Pompper (2005) notes, “The status of public relations practice is directly linked to public relations education” (p. 299). And, “Diversity must start at the classroom level in order for emerging practitioners to embrace diversity at the professional level” (Brown et al., 2019, p. 19).
Today’s public relations students are tomorrow’s practitioners, and educators have the ability to positively impact the pipeline from the classroom to the boardroom through exposure to courses and coursework that bring topics of global communication, diversity, equity and inclusion to the forefront. Globalization and a growing environment of inter-linked economies and multinational companies create a heightened demand for public relations students and practitioners to achieve intercultural competence (Ju & Kang, 2021).
Flowers (2020) noted that a number of scholars in the discipline have emphasized the need to teach global perspectives, as well as multicultural, intercultural, and international skills to the public relations students in U.S. classrooms (Bardhan, 2003; Creedon & Al-Khaja, 2005; Holbert, & Waymer, 2022; Taylor, 2001; Tsetsura, 2011; Waymer & Brown, 2018; Waymer & Dyson, 2011). In addition, the 2018 Commission on Public Relations Education’s report on undergraduate PR education, Foundations + Future State. Educators + Practitioners, notes “Efforts to improve D&I knowledge must start at the academic level. We recommend educators place focus on how diversity and multicultural perspectives are taught in the classroom, and commit to integrating D&I focused topics and discussions into the curriculum” (p. 139).
The concept of ecotourism presents a way to integrate global perspectives into the public relations classroom. Conservationists, professional organizations, and/or academicians have defined ecotourism in multiple ways based on their study area of tourist behavior (Sirakaya et al., 1999). The first known formal definition of ecotourism is written by Ceballos-Lascuráin (1987) as “Travelling to relatively undisturbed or uncontaminated natural areas with the specific objective of studying, admiring, and enjoying the scenery and its wild plants and animals, as well as any existing cultural manifestations (both past and present) found in these areas” (p. 14). In 1994, Andersen defined ecotourism as “a tourism experience infused with the spirit of conservation and cultural change that results in a net positive effect for the environment and local economy…” (p.32). In a more recent article, Khanra and colleagues conducted a bibliometric analysis and literature review of ecotourism and argued that the four critical thematic areas of ecotourism are the ecological preservation of the tourist destination, the carbon footprint from tourist mobility, the protection of residents’ interests in tourist destinations, and tourists’ attitudes and behavior toward sustainability, respectively.
This assignment helps students think about all four areas of ecotourism by conducting a deep analysis of a place (a country) and creating sustainable strategies to enhance tourism.
A visit to a safari park such as the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania or Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan (India) are examples of ecotourism as they allow tourists to experience animals in their natural habitat and learn about them firsthand, rather than through documentaries or movies (Verma, 2022).
THE PROJECT
This semester-long project, which can be deployed in a face-to-face or online course, provides an opportunity to integrate topics of DEI and global perspectives into a class through a hands-on project. This project was deployed in a Global PR course, but could easily be integrated into a variety of PR courses including PR Writing.
Students are given an objective: research the political, economic, and cultural aspects of a country other than the U.S. and Canada, in order to develop an ecotourism campaign in that country for 18-25-year-old American citizens.
There are two parts of this campaign assignment:
Country analysis: students pick a country other than the U.S. and Canada and conduct comprehensive research to understand PR practice in that country.
Ecotourism campaign (team-based project): The final assignment asks students to create an ecotourism campaign based on the research conducted in the first part of this assignment. This assignment provides an opportunity for students to work according to the key PR and structural variables of that country, using diverse American residents as the target audience.
This project gives students an opportunity to research, write collaboratively and individually, and peer edit. Throughout the process, students not only develop and refine PR skills but also develop empathy toward other cultures and teamwork skills through open conversations in the class as well as in small groups. The lectures and discussions in the class will allow students to share their intercultural experiences and observations, which also help them to respect other views and backgrounds and develop an effective global PR campaign.
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Understand and evaluate information about global public relations
Identify key global publics and analyze their characteristics
Plan and conduct global public relations strategies and tactics
Learn principles to be an effective public relations professional in a global setting
Create a global public relations campaign
EVIDENCE OF STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Note: One of the authors taught this course twice at a small liberal arts university with four and fourteen students respectively. Evidence of SLOs is limited but authors will continue collecting data in the future.
All students (100%) indicated “agree” or “strongly agree” on “I am more competent in this area after having taken this course.”
Qualitative feedback from course evaluations includes:
“[The professor] provided us with many case studies and background information that was very helpful in learning about Global Public Relations.”
“I very much enjoyed the report I got to give on Germany. While my grandmother was a German immigrant, I freely admit that I did not have much knowledge of the country’s economic, political, or cultural systems until conducting additional research.”
“Your examples, those offered by students, and those you requested I find, all helped me remember both the principles themselves and the realistic applications for them on the global stage.”
“She brought in speakers and people from other cultures and that worked in different facets of PR, which was really helpful.”
“I think that because this course was discussion-based, it made the material easy to retain.”
CONNECTION TO PR PRACTICE:
In our ever-changing media and social media landscape, public relations practitioners need to have a strong understanding of public relations practice in other countries and demonstrate cultural competencies. The 2017 CPRE report notes that a global perspective is essential today, and career opportunities in the public relations field are available worldwide.
The Global Capability Framework, which is a Global Alliance’s benchmark for professionals in public relations and communication management, highlighted the capabilities that professionals hold in common across the world. It states, “to provide contextual intelligence” is an essential capability for PR and communication professionals, in which “you see the bigger picture – socially, culturally, politically, technologically and economically. You identify strategic opportunities and threats, issues and trends. You operate in a connected world, demonstrating broad understanding of local and global diversity in culture, values and beliefs” (Global Alliance, para. 13)
The same study also found that the issues pertaining to businesses and organizations are global today. This indicates that a successful public relations practitioner will have to go global, beginning with the simplest of steps: understanding that public relations practice varies with borders and languages, around the world.
As PR educators work to foster a new generation of public relations practitioners, it has become more important than ever before to address topics of equality and justice by addressing multiculturalism and international diversity in the classrooms.
REFERENCES
Andersen, D. L. (1994). Developing ecotourism destinations: conservation from the beginning. Trends, 31(2), 31-38.
Bardhan, N. (2003). Creating spaces for international and multi(inter) cultural perspectives in undergraduate public relations education. Communication Education, 52(2), 164-172. https://doi. org/10.1080/03634520302473
Creedon, P., & Al-Khaja, M. (2005). Public relations and globalization: Building a case for cultural competency in public relations education. Public Relations Review, 31(3), 344–354. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2005.05.021
Pompper, D. (2005). Multiculturalism in the public relations curriculum: Female African American practitioners’ perceptions of effects. The Howard Journal of Communications, 16(4), 295-316. https://doi.org/10.1080/10646170500326582
Sirakaya, E., Sasidharan, V., & Sönmez, S. (1999). Redefining ecotourism: The need for a supply-side view. Journal of Travel Research, 38(2), 168-172. https://doi.org/10.1177/004728759903800210
Tsetsura, K. (2011). How understanding multidimensional diversity can benefit global public relations education. Public Relations Review, 37(5), 530-535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.09.020
Waymer, D., & Brown, K. A. (2018). Significance of race in the US undergraduate public relations educational landscape: Reflections of former public relations students. Journal for Multicultural Education, 12(4), 353-370. https://doi.org/10.1108/JME-06-2017-0036
Waymer, D., & Dyson, O. L. (2011). The journey into an unfamiliar and uncomfortable territory: Exploring the role and approaches of race in PR education. Journal of Public Relations Research, 23(4), 458- 477. https://doi.org/10.1080/1062726X.2011.605971
ASSIGNMENT:
Global Public Relations PROJECT OVERVIEW: COUNTRY ANALYSIS and ECO-TOURISM CAMPAIGN PROPOSAL
Note for professors: Assignments can be adapted to fit any country/region by identifying the country’s designated tourism regions.
All students are required to write a comprehensive research report related to public relations practice in the country of their choice. Then, a team of 2-3 students will develop an international eco-tourism campaign for diverse audiences of 18-25-year-old American citizens.
Examples of Eco-Tourism in different countries are:
On YouTube channel of World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), there is a wonderful example of Eco-Tourism video, India – Exceptional Stories of Sustainable Tourism.
Also, on the website of Ecotourism World, there is an article showing different examples of eco- tourism. The name of the article is “5 Inspirational Sustainable Tourism Videos for 2020.”
OBJECTIVE: By writing comprehensive research reports and presentations, the objective is to enhance understanding of global public relations strategies and raise awareness of eco-tourism in the country of students’ choice among 18-25-year-old American citizens.
ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTIONS
COUNTRY ANALYSIS [INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT- report + presentation]
Students are required to conduct thorough research related to a country of their choice. Students will conduct a deep analysis of the public relations practice of their chosen country by understanding various structural variables such as political environment, cultural characteristics, media systems, and economic environment, and also provide an example to substantiate their argument.
The report will elaborate on the history and development of public relations practices in that country, identifying when public relations practices/events began in that country, and examining how public relations is practiced today. Through this exercise, students will be able to identify the most important variables that influenced the practice of public relations in that country.
The research report must include an introduction followed by a brief summary of public relations development in their chosen country and concluding thoughts at the end, focusing on the important variables that they believe most influence the practice of public relations in their chosen country, as mentioned above.
CAMPAIGN PROPOSAL (GROUP ASSIGNMENT)
As teams, students transition to the role of PR practitioner of their country of choice, and will collaborate to produce a comprehensive international eco-tourism campaign proposal targeting
18-25-year-old American residents, which they will present in class. In consultation with the instructor, each team will select a country and create ONE proposal.
Each student has already done extensive research about his/her/their county in the CCA report assignment. Students will collaborate and can choose either country. Students can make this choice among themselves. Students will also conduct research related to target audience of 18-25 year old American residents, specifically related to their traveling habits, preferences, and expenditure criterion.
Students will craft a campaign proposal for their chosen country. Ex: Consider their campaign proposal as a pitch to the decision makers. It should be persuasive (based on research); they should spend thousands of dollars on it.
The key sections are (1) Target audience, (2) Travel campaign “idea” overview- define purpose, (3) context-argument/ justification for the “idea [target nation analysis], (4) SWOT analysis of the country, (5) strategic (implementation) suggestions for the future.
