JOMC 134, Public Relations Campaigns
Syllabus
Fall 2005, Section 002
 

Prerequisites
JOMC 131, Case Studies in Public Relations; or JOMC 132, Public Relations Writing

Required Resources

• Austin, E.W., & Pinkleton, B.E. (2001). Strategic Public Relations Management. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
• Outside readings and research will be assigned from the Web, library resources and handouts throughout the semester. 

Course Overview
Description
JOMC 134 is the capstone course in our PR sequence. Working as an individual, you will conduct background research on a real-world client. Your first challenge will be to identify relevant resources and to use these resources to turn a loosely defined client issue into a clearly articulated pubic relations situation analysis. Then as a member of a four- or five-student agency team, you will apply your knowledge and skills from prior courses to conduct further research and develop strategy for the client. This semester's client is Project Compassion.

We will focus on a systematic process of public relations, which begins with carefully planned research. You should now be familiar with the basic steps in the public relations process: research, strategic planning, action/communication tactics, and evaluation. We will work through each of these steps with particular emphasis on research as the foundation for the rest of the process. That is, we will plan and conduct professional-quality research, then analyze the results in order to recommend strategy (including goals and objectives), tactics (including action and communication) and evaluation procedures to our client.

Objectives
Upon completion of this course you should be able to:

• define "strategic public relations";
• identify campaign-relevant resources;
• research a loosely defined client issue to develop a clearly articulated situation analysis;
• choose appropriate public relations research methods;
• conduct primary and secondary research;
• apply theory to public relations practice;
• work well with a team to develop public relations strategy;
• write effectively for public relations programs;
• evaluate public relations practices in terms of effects and ethics; and
• present a compelling public relations proposal to a client.

Quizzes 
Quizzes will cover mainly the assigned readings listed in the timeline below, but with advanced notice, quizzes also may cover material from class lectures, class discussion, online resources and handouts. Quizzes may include multiple choice, short answer and essay questions. THERE ARE NO MAKE-UP QUIZZES without proper documentation for your absence, which must be provided before the absence if at all possible. A missed quiz will count as a zero. 

Written Assignments
Graded written work will be held to the same standards as other JOMC writing courses such as 53 and 132. Number grades for late assignments will be divided by two (e.g., a late paper graded 86 will yield a 43). Assignments turned in more than a week late will earn a zero. 

Effective PR writing requires careful attention to editing and style, so refine your writing through several drafts. You'll notice deadlines listed below in the course timeline for planbook outlines and rough drafts. Although these preliminary assignments will not be graded, they are important steps in the writing and strategy-development process. Your group will have a hard time keeping up and moving forward if these deadlines are not met. I will work with all the groups in class to review your work along the way, but I won't be able to edit thoroughly for grammar and AP style during class time. You should work with your peers to edit all your writing through several drafts, not just the ones listed in the timeline.

Research Requirement
Students in JOMC 134 are required to complete three hours of research over the course of the semester. There are two ways you can fulfill this requirement. The first way is to participate in three hours of academic research studies in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Participating in studies is a valuable way for you to receive first-hand experience with mass communication research. You will be able to sign up online to participate in these studies. The second way to fulfill your research participation requirement is to write three two-page summaries and critiques of academic research articles. Each review counts for one hour of research participation, so you can combine participation in the studies with article reviews to fulfill the research requirement. You may summarize any article published in the past two years in the following journals: Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Mass Communication and Society.

Participation and Attendance
The participation portion of your grade will reflect your contributions as an individual, as a group member and as a member of the class as a whole. Your participation in class discussions should reflect your reading and preparation.Your group will need to meet outside of class to be successful. Group scheduling conflicts must be resolved early in the project. Your participation in group projects will be evaluated by others in your group. These confidential peer evaluations will be taken into account along with attendance and in-class participation. Although two absences are allowed without an official excuse, perfect attendance doesn't guarantee a certain participation grade (see "Recently Asked Questions"). Each absence without a documented excuse after the first two will result in a one-point deduction from your participation grade. Here are some examples. Of course, many combinations of factors are possible. These are only examples.

Participation Grade	Example
10	perfect attendance in class, recognized by peer group members as the top contributor to group project, regularly made resourceful and constructive comments in class discussions that reflected reading, preparation and a solid understanding of the material covered (but didn't go overboard with look-how-much-I-know comments)
9.5	no issues with attendance (missed two days or less), recognized in group as a strong contributor and/or effective leader, regularly made resourceful and constructive comments in class discussions that reflected reading and preparation
9	no issues with attendance (missed two days or less), well respected in group as a hard-working team member who accepted significant responsibility and led the group well on some parts, spoke occasionally in class, always seemed prepared with good ideas for proposals, research methods, etc.
8.5	no issues with attendance (missed two days or less), group members agree that this student made solid contributions to the group project, regularly involved in class discussions, came prepared
8	no issues with attendance (missed two days or less), rated positively by group members, getting a little behind on the reading at times made it hard for this student to get involved in discussions of more advanced concepts
7.5	no issues with attendance (missed two days or less), peers politely gave this student positive ratings, but no evidence of above-average contributions in any part of the group project
7	no issues with attendance (missed a day or two), mixed reviews from peers for doing good work but missing meetings and deadlines, didn't seem to take non-graded assignments and deadlines too seriously
6.5	missed four classes without a university-recognized excuse, but otherwise contributed like a "8.5" student above
6	no issues with attendance, but had group issues that showed up consistently in peer evaluations, often late to class or unprepared

Grading

Research requirement	3%
Participation and attendance	10%
Situation analysis & problem statement	10%
Group research report	20%
Quizzes	25%
Final campaign plan book	25%
Final oral presentation	7%

Final Grade Requirements

A	B	C	D	F
90-100	80-89	70-79	60-69	59 or less

There will be absolutely no adjustment of grades on an individual basis (e.g., "I'm only one point away from a B, and I must get a B to graduate on time.") Any requests to do so will be seen as an attempted breach of fairness to the rest of the class.

Recently asked questions (and answers)
These are all e-mail inquiries I have received at the very end of past semesters. I hope to avoid getting the same types of questions again at the end of this semester, so I'm presenting my responses up front.

Q: i have been checking the blackboard site religiously, and i thought i would be really excited to see our grades. i was a little disappointed, and i thought it might be good to talk to you about my participation grade re:absences. i was wondering what your schedule is like next week, and if you would be on campus at all.

A: This would have been a good discussion to have regarding absences, except the student waited until the very end of the semester to bring it up.

Q: Hello, I am confused about my final grade in your JOMC 130 class. On blackboard it says that I got a 74.6, but I feel like my attendance and contributions grade might be wrong. I only missed 2 classes the whole semester, which means I would have 100 for attendance, and I raised my hand a couple times in class.

A: In addition to the poor timing (waiting until final grades are in to bring this up), this student assumes that showing up regularly for class and raising a hand twice during the semester earns a 100. Although the student was not penalized for missing two classes, 100% is not a baseline grade. The student's in-class contributions were solid, and when combined with pretty good attendance, that's worth a C or better, depending on the circumstances (class size, discussion & activity formats, etc.). Perfect scores are reserved for only a handful of cases when a student has set a high standard for the rest of the class. The student followed up with, "If I had a 100 for this category, I would have a 79.6 for the overall grade, which would probably bump me to a B-." Other students have asked for extra credit as an approach to getting a "bump" in their grades. Again, any credit available to one student will be made available to all, and only the points listed above are available.

Q: When I missed one day for a holiday, I was not able to take a quiz. I was wondering if I could do a writing assignment or something to make up that quiz grade?

A: This was a university-excused absence, so a make-up quiz would have been no problem if the student asked me this in advance and followed through with the make-up work by an agreed-upon deadline. Unless the situation is an extreme case, all make-up work should be arranged with me and completed within one week of the missed class period. Keep in mind that make-up work is not an option except in excused cases such as medical emergencies.

Q: I was wondering if there is any way you could look at my grade again and give me the .2 points that would take me from an A- to an A. I never missed class and my quiz grade wasn't really that bad, but it still really hurt my grade...

A: No way. This just wouldn't be fair to the rest of the class. Any "rounding" would be applied the same for all students. Normally I round up from .5, so a 79.5 would round up to an 80, but a 79.4 would still count as a 79. (Also note: the +/- letter grading system doesn't apply in JOMC 134.)

Seeking Help
All this (Q&A, etc.) is to say that I hope you will take some time to talk to me as the semester gets going! Don't wait until the end of the semester to get in touch. I look forward to hearing your input, and I'll spend a lot of time chatting with groups and individuals this semester.

I'll be available during my office hours unless announced otherwise. Of course, I'm often in and available at times not posted as office hours. Although I plan to reserve Wednesdays for research and writing this semester, on other days, I'll leave my office door open if I'm available. If my door is closed, that either means I'm out or that I'm in but working on deadline or getting ready for class. In any case, we can set an appointment if that works better.

Special accommodations
Students requiring special accommodations must notify me by the end of the second week of class. 

Academic Honesty
Academic dishonesty of any sort will not be tolerated. I take cheating issues very seriously, and I've had some unpleasant experiences dealing with cases of plagiarism in recent semesters. Honor code offenses are highlighted in the attached honor code handout. Please see me if you have any questions about academic honesty, and I'll be happily open to discussion of such issues in advance of you taking an exam or submitting your work. After you've submitted your work, my only option will be to report such conduct for action by the Carolina Honor System.

Preliminary Class Timeline 
Please make a careful note of assignment dates and deadlines. Make sure that you do not have any scheduling conflicts.  

Class Days	General Topics and Activities	Assignments Due
Aug 30, Sept 1	Syllabus Academic integrity What do we mean by "strategic"?	Review syllabus and honor code handout by 8/30 Read CH 1 by 9/1
Sept 6, 8	Managing public relations work Mission statements as starting points Situation analyses	Read CH 2 by 9/6 Begin client research
Sept 13, 15	Client visit on Tuesday, Sept 13 (James Brooks) Overview of the PR process Goals, objectives, strategies and tactics	Read client background information by 9/13 Read CH 3 by 9/15
Sept 20, 22	Reasons for research Developing research plans	Read CH 4 by 9/20 Read CH 5 by 9/22
Sept 27, 29	Guest speaker on Tuesday, Sept 27 (Barbara Semonche) Library and online resources Work on resource gathering, situation analyses, problem statements	Read CH 6 by 9/27
Oct 4, 6	Presentations of problem statements & resources	Situation analysis assignment due 10/4 Student presentations on 10/4 & 10/6
Oct 11, 13	Finding and using relevant theory Form groups Discuss group research report assignment	Read CH 13 by 10/11
Oct 18	Overview of primary research options	Read CH 8 by 10/18
Oct 25, 27	Draft preliminary group situation analysis and problem statement Research decisions Begin collecting and analyzing additional data	Reading to be announced (depending on research decisions)
Nov 1, 3	Data collection Data analysis	Research quotas/goals to be determined by each group
Nov 8, 10	Integrate research findings into campaign proposal Write campaign goals and objectives Outline tactics	Read Craig Miyamoto's "How To Write A Comprehensive Public Relations Plan" (Parts 1 & 2) and Kirk Hallahan's "Campaign Plan Model" by 11/8 Group research report due 11/10
Nov 15, 17	Discuss campaign evaluation techniques, timelines, budgeting Discuss plan for final planbook	Campaign planbook outline due 11/17
Nov 22	Agency work on proposal components	Deadline for research requirement, 11/22
Nov 29, Dec 1	Pulling it all together Presentation rehearsals	Rough draft of planbook due on 12/1
Dec 6, 8	Presentations to clients Course evaluations	Final campaign proposal (3 copies) due on 12/6 Oral presentations on 12/6 and 12/8 Group evaluations due on 12/8