PRCA 3331 Final Project

For your final project in our PRCA 3331 Corporate PR class, you will analyze a Fortune 500 or Inc. 500 company from a public relations perspective. Your presentation on your company is due the week of November 17. The written portion project is due by midnight on December 2. The grading rubric will be available by October 13 15. Be sure to review the grading rubric.

This project is worth a total of 300 points of the 1000 available in PRCA 3331. The blog/paper portion is worth 250, and the class presentation is worth 50.

You will have the option of creating the written portion of the project as a traditional term paper or as a series of blog posts. Let me know your decision in WebCT Vista no later than October 20.

If you choose to do this project as a traditional term paper:

• Use APA style for formatting and source citations
• Submit your paper in WebCT Vista

If you choose to do this project as a series of blog posts:

• Create one page (not post, but page) on your blog with hyperlinks to all the posts. Submit the URL of your page in WebCT Vista
• Cite your sources within the posts, and also provide hyperlinks to the original source if it’s available on the web
• Use tags on your posts

Required elements:

• An overview of the company and what it does
• A brief history or timeline of the company
• Based on Grunig & Hunt’s models of PR, which model is the company using?
• Describe the publics, including customers, of the company (or one of its subsidiaries)
• Top challenges facing the company (including the current financial market)
• Awards and honors the company has garnered in the past 10 years & how the company is using the awards/honors for promotion
• An analysis of how the company uses and benefits from (or could benefit from) the groundswell
• A critique of the company’s online newsroom
• Career opportunities in PR, corporate communication, marketing, etc., within the company
• Based on your research of this company, are you now MORE or LESS likely to want to work for the company? Why? Provide at least two paragraphs of a rationale for your decision.

Choose two from the following:

• For at least one news release, compare how the news release was written to how the story appeared when it was published in the media
• One crisis the company has faced and how it dealt with it
• Describe how the company is involved in its communities
• Interview (phone or e-mail) a public relations professional within the company
• Create your resume and cover letter as though you are applying for an entry-level PR position within the company
• Another section of your choice, as long as you clear it with me by November 1

Important Dates

• October 20: Let me know your decision of whether you’ll do a traditional term paper or a series of blog posts.
• November 1: Last date to pitch an idea for a section in your paper to me
• November 17 & 19: Presentations in class
• December 2: Written portion of final project due in WebCT Vista by midnight (if you’re doing the paper) or posted on your blog by midnight

Questions? You know where to find me . . .

Photo Credit: “Stiff Neck Guaranteed” uploaded to Flickr on January 24, 2007 by rpeschetz