SEMESTER TWO
Business Communications 1 for Public Relations
Students examine communication within a business context. Students practise both oral and written communication activities that are common to most professional environments. Through hands-on activities, individual and group activities, students write memos, letters, and reports, and to practise oral communication in job interviews and presentations.
Desktop Publishing 1
Students are introduced to desktop publishing. The emphasis is on understanding terminology, as well as basic program commands, in a desktop publishing environment. Through tests, exercises and assignments, students use desktop publishing terms and execute basic layout.
Production Workshop 2 (Photography)
Through lectures and hands-on experience, students develop skills required for public relations job assignments revolving around photography. From a photojournalistic perspective, they learn how to use SLR digital cameras, how to take newsworthy photographs and how to prepare photos for dissemination to mass media. Students also receive hands-on experience in taking photos for newsletters and other public relations materials. On the administrative side, lectures and assignments deal with writing cutlines, obtaining releases and packaging photos.
Contemporary Issues
Students develop abilities to assess current issues, evaluate their importance and summarize key information related to these issues. The course revolves around lectures, class discussions, and group presentations on issues and trends affecting Canadian society, including genetic research, world population and the environment, corporate accountability, international peacekeeping, and peacemaking and violence in the media. Students are responsible for researching specific issues, preparing advocacy materials, taking part in and leading group discussions, and making presentations that brief colleagues on specific topical issues and trends.
Public Relations 2
Students experience the four-step public relations process: defining public relations problems/opportunities; planning and programming; taking action and communicating; and evaluating the program/activity. Students learn to identify stakeholders and publics, set and write process and outcome objectives, devise and implement strategies and tactics, prepare communications materials, establish budgets and set evaluation criteria. Students apply the four-step process and the RACE formula by planning, implementing, and evaluating a public relations campaign that involves strategic and communications management, community relations, fundraising, special event management, publicity and media relations. They also work on a team to plan community relations, and internal public relations activities and present their proposals through an oral presentation.
Public Relations Workshop (Writing)
Students are involved in the writing, production, and packaging of public relations materials, from speeches to media kits. In addition to writing using computers and the Internet, students learn how to organize public relations events, such as news conferences, how to keep track of project-related details, how to manage time, money, and other resources in a public relations environment and how to prepare a public relations proposal. All copy is evaluated for its clarity, conciseness, completeness and correctness. Students also learn the differences between copy written for print and that written for electronic media.