I am excited to welcome you to this brand new course, which I believe has been long-overdue at Sauder and UBC.
COMM 386R Public Relations fills an important gap in our current Marketing option, complements a range of BCom options from Finance to OBHR, and supports Sauder’s efforts to enhance its connections to other faculties and to industry through the exploration of interdisciplinary opportunities in this field.
Public relations is all about relationships with publics. This seems like an obvious statement, right? But if you think deeply about what the concept of “relationships” really means – especially healthy, productive, mutually beneficial, socially responsible relationships – that so-called obvious statement becomes highly complex and significant. Ultimately, nothing gets accomplished in the long run without strong, positive relationships.
This course will focus on strategic public relations, which means a bigger-picture approach to developing and managing relationships that is universally applicable in both business and non-business contexts. While we will touch on some of the tactical components of public relations in our discussions of these higher-level strategies, this course will not provide detailed guidance on tactics like writing press releases or developing Twitter/Facebook/YouTube campaigns. (I would be happy to direct you to the courses that would be helpful in those areas, if you wish.)
Through a variety of readings, lectures, discussions, guest speakers, exercises, and assignments, we will explore topics like trust and reputation management, stakeholder and community engagement, issues and crisis management, corporate communications, and events and marketing public relations.
Since we have so much to cover in our time together, we will move quickly – starting with our very first class! Before we meet next week, please carefully review the Course Outline, purchase and download the small course package of readings (the rest of the readings in the course will be freely available online and via Connect), and complete the Prep for Sep 6: Introduction to the Course – Public Relations.
I have spent the majority of my marketing career in public relations roles, and I am excited to share this dynamic world with you!
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