Public Relations — AEJMC Hot Topics

Using Social Media to Develop Students’ Critical Thinking Skills

By Wanda Reyes, Sam Houston State University

I use YouTube and Facebook in Principles of Public Relations to help my students develop critical thinking skills. This course introduces students to theories and their applications in public relations. The main goal is to have students learn to analyze and critically evaluate ideas, arguments, and point of views related to the public relations practice.

Since public relations practitioners operate under a wide range of environmental influences, there are no cookie cutters in the public relations practice (Guth & March, 2005). Communication strategies or programs that may work in one situation, may not work in another. Hence, public relations practitioners must think critically before making decisions. To encourage my students to develop critical thinking skills so they can apply course content to public relations situations, I designed different assignments and exercises that use both traditional and social media. [Read more...]

Cross-University Collaboration through Micro-blogging: Introducing Students to Twitter for Promoting Collaborations, Communication and Relationships

By Tricia M. Farwell, Middle Tennessee State University and Richard D. Waters, North Carolina State University

University collaboration with schools, communities and industry has been around for some time. While recently some universities are feeling increased pressure to focus on community partnerships through service learning due to President Obama’s pointing towards service as part of the higher-education agenda (Ashburn, 2010), partnering across universities is still slowly growing in some fields (Fisher, Phelps, & Ellis, 2000). [Read more...]