On the Business and Economics Education of Public Relations Students

Abstract

A great deal of attention has been paid in this journal, professional journalism magazines, newspaper industry, and other players to fit between journalism education, journalism profession generally, and newspaper industry specifically with regard to blogging, citizen journalism, specialized journalism, midcareer training, and so-called converged news media. But what is state of public relations education today? Commission on Public Relations two years ago issued its report, Professional Bond: Education, Public Relations and Practice, subtitled Public Relations for 21st Century, which follows up on a 1999 report and delves into every nook and cranny of PR education that most practitioners and professionals could think of. Interested readers may find report available online in full at www.commpred.org/report/pdf/research.pdf. I focus here on one aspect of that report: what it says about educating PR students in disciplines and subdisciplines that traditionally are in schools' bailiwicks. report's Research section tells us in part: understanding of practices... were identified as deficiencies in entry-level practitioners. It adds under What a Public Relations Curriculum Should Include: the fundamentals of how organizations operate and that at least graduate students should engage in interdisciplinary study that might, for instance, include... management.... report's Diversity section implies that PR practitioners obtain formal training in human resources management: The diversity aspect of public relations involves human resources, staffing, team, vendor and personnel functions. report's Education section implies that undergraduate students in PR already have been required or advised to take school courses while at same time reporting that some of content of those kinds of courses ['business and social/behavioral sciences'] is being incorporated directly into public relations curriculum. But much more explicitly, report says following knowledge and skills should be taught in an undergraduate public relations curriculum and then lists, in part: marketing and various... economic... frame works, change and development, management concepts and theories, problem-solving and negotiation, strategic and managing people, programs and resources. Its general explanation reads, in part, that Principles of public relations and must be intertwined with and related to ..... and cites a growing need for students to be completely conversant in principles and practices of business.... And its specifics for of Undergraduate Courses include: financial and investor and organizational behavior, finance ..... with directed options including and starting out with business marketing, finance, economics, behavior.... report's undergraduate education section ultimately includes three different models, a Journalism/Mass Communication Model with external requirements including accounting, marketing, and finance; a Communication/English/Liberal Arts Model with external requirements including economics....; and a Business/Management Model, which includes marketing and marketing research and statistics, marketing management, consumer insight, and business electives (e.g., public relations strategy, public relations planning, investor relations, crisis issues ethics, international business). But it is in 2006 report's Graduate Education section in which Commission made its strongest arguments in favor of more school and school-like education for PR students. Among its list of Revised Content Areas since its 1999 report is Management sciences. …