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Interview with a PR Practitioner

For this assignment in PRCM 2400, you will choose and interview a public relations professional.

In our course in Canvas, submit a Word file with your 500-word (minimum) recap of the interview. In addition to the recap, you’ll need to provide me with the PR professional’s contact information (name, title & company, phone number and e-mail address) at the top of the first page, before your recap of the interview.

Due Date: See our course in Canvas

You may conduct this interview face-to-face interview, via Zoom or phone. An interview that is e-mail or text-based only is not acceptable.

Schedule your interview at least a week before this assignment is due, preferably two. PR professionals sometimes have unpredictable schedules, and it’s possible that you may need to reschedule.

Include an introductory paragraph that introduces the PR professional, including title and company, educational background, etc. Mention your connection to the professional (how you found him/her) and how you conducted the interview (face-to-face, Zoom or phone).

After the interview is over, send your interviewee a thank you note. Handwritten and snail mailed is preferred; emailed is acceptable.

Questions/Topics you need to ask/include:

  • What’s a typical week like? (If no week is typical, then what was last week like?)
  • Tell me about a project you worked on that you are especially proud of.
  • What do you do to keep current in the PR industry?
  • What do you wish you would have known before starting your career in PR?
  • How important is writing in your career?
  • What are your thoughts on the importance of thank you notes?
  • What three tips would you offer someone just starting out in PR?
  • Additional required information to include in your paper
    • After interviewing this person, are you (the student, not the practitioner) more or less likely to want to have a career in PR? Why?
    • What did you write to your interviewee in your thank you note?

Some questions you may wish to ask:

  • Did your education prepare you for working in PR? How?
  • What has surprised you the most about working in PR?
  • How has PR changed since you entered the field?
  • How does technology affect your daily work?
  • When your company is hiring for an entry-level PR position, what makes a candidate stand out?
  • What professional organizations are you involved in? (For example, PRSA, IABC, etc.)
  • Ask for feedback on your resume

Some things you may wish to do:

  • Include a photo of your interviewee. (This can be a photo he or she provides or one that you take yourself.)
  • Link to your interviewee’s LinkedIn profile and/or blog.

Questions?

barbara_is_listening

[NOTE: This must be an informational interview that you conduct this semester. Do not “recycle” an interview that you conducted during a previous semester.]

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“Choose Your Own” Case Study Paper

When my kiddos were young, they loved the series of Choose Your Own Adventure books. Riffing on this, your second paper in PRCM 2400 will be a “Choose Your Own” Case Study paper.

At the end of each chapter in your Public Relations textbook are discussion questions. (Some of these discussion questions are ones we’re using as actual DQs in Canvas. But there are many more questions in your book than we will use as DQs.)

Find a Case Study in a chapter that interests you, and then look at the end of the chapter for a question labeled Case Study. For example, in Chapter 12, there’s a Case Study on Facebook, and then a corresponding question about the Case Study in the Discussion Questions section at the end of the chapter. (NOTE: Do not choose a Case Study from Chapter 1.)

You will need to do a bit of additional research about the topic before beginning to write your paper; the amount of research will vary based on which Case Study you choose.

Title your paper with the chapter number and the title of the case study as it’s written in the textbook (for example, Chapter 12: Mr. Zuckerberg Goes to Washington).

Then using 500-700 words (two to three double-spaced pages):

  • First, summarize the case study in one paragraph.
  • Then, answer the question(s) about the case study in paragraph form.

Cite your sources in this short paper just as you would for any paper you write at Auburn.

Image Credit: https://suggestedreads.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/CHOOSE-YOUR-OWN-ADVENTURE.jpg

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A Magazine, All About *You*

For my PR students at Auburn University

Here’s a fun assignment that will help us get to know each other. Since our class is semester is online, it’s even more important to help your class learn more about you since we won’t have the face-to-face time that we’d have in a traditional brick-and-mortar class.

Using your choice of software or online service (such as the Magazine Cover creator at  Big Huge Labs), create a magazine cover that depicts you (personality, background, aspirations). The finished cover doesn’t have to be perfect (mine definitely isn’t). If you need to get assistance from a more tech-savvy friend to create the cover, that’s fine; just be sure to give them credit

The Assignment

  • The cover photo must be of you, taken at some point during the last year or so. (If the photo is a group photo, be sure to somehow let us know which person is you, if it’s not readily apparent.)
  • Include at least your first name somewhere in the design. The easiest place to do this is in the title of the magazine, but you can put it somewhere else.
  • Feel free to emulate an existing magazine cover’s look and feel.
  • Save the magazine cover as a PNG, JPG, PDF or some other format that can be easily shared.
  • Go into your class in Canvas and find the “Getting to Know Us” discussion area on our class’ home page. Click Create Message, then enter your magazine’s title into the Subject area. Attach the cover. And also write a bit about yourself in the Message area. Click Post to have the message appear.
  • Toward the end of the week, review several of your classmates’ magazine covers. Reply to their posts with your feedback, comments, etc.
  • This assignment will “count” as your Discussion Question for Week One.

Questions?