COMM 4510U – Public Relations: Social Power, Social Media Platforms, and Social Responsibility

This course is a comprehensive introduction to the field of public relations (PR) with attention to PR’s link to social power, social media platforms, and social responsibility. It gives an unflinching look at PR’s history, industry, technologies, roles and goals, ethics and laws, planning, strategies, tactics, and types, as well as PR’s evolving relationship to the news media and new platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Drawing from past and present case studies of PR campaigns for companies, governments and notable individuals, the course probes how PR scripts, transmits and manages messages and images intended to influence public opinion for various clients. While the course focuses primarily on PR that is undertaken by and for the socially powerful, it also considers PR’s social responsibility, and the PR campaigns developed and launched by public sector agencies, non-profit organizations (NGO), and grassroots advocates for the social good.