For your final project in COMM 4363, you will analyze a Fortune 500 or Inc. 500 company from a public relations perspective. Your project is due on the last day of class, with progress reports due during the semester.
This project is worth a total of 350 points of the 1000 available; a rubric will be available in MyFire by the second week of the semester.
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 your professor know your decision no later than Week Two.
If you choose to do this project as a traditional term paper:
- Use APA style for formatting and source citations
- Include a title page and table of contents
- Submit your paper in MyFire.
- NOTE: Another option is to write a traditional term paper of at least 10 pages, on any topic discussed in our textbook Reputation Management. I will write a separate blog post with more details on this option, if any of my students choose to write a traditional term paper.
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; list the posts on your page in the order below. Submit the URL of your page in MyFire.
- Cite your sources within the posts, and also provide hyperlinks to the each original source if the source is available online.
Required elements:
- An overview of the company and what it does
- A timeline of the company, using an interactive timeline creator such as Dipity, Timetoast or Timeline JS. The timeline needs to include at least ten milestones, with dates, images, descriptions, etc.
- Based on Grunig & Hunt’s models of PR, which model is the company using? Provide examples.
- Describe the publics, including customers, of the company (or one of its subsidiaries)
- Top challenges facing the company (including the current financial market)
- For at least one news release, compare how the news release appears in the company’s online newsroom to how the story appeared when it was published in the media
- An analysis of how the company uses and benefits from (or could benefit from) social media. Provide links to all major social media accounts for the company, if available.
- An overview and 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.
Also, choose two from the following if you are working alone on the project:
- One crisis the company has faced and how it dealt with it
- Describe how the company is involved in its communities
- Awards and honors the company has garnered in the past 10 years & how the company is using the awards/honors for promotion
- 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 your professor by Week Four
Important Dates
- Week 2: Choose a company.
- Week 3: Let me know your decision of whether you’ll do a traditional term paper or a series of blog posts.
- Week 4: Last date to pitch an idea for a section in your paper to me (if there’s something you would like to write about your company that is not on the list above)
- Week 8: Final project due
