Undergraduate - UnitATS2918 - Social media and online public relations

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 3, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Organisational Unit	School of Media, Film and Journalism
Offered	Berwick First semester 2015 (Day) Gippsland First semester 2015 (Off-campus)
Coordinator(s)	Mr. Matthew Loads

Synopsis

The unit is designed to provide students with the theory and knowledge, understanding, skills and experience in applying new and emerging media technologies to public relations. Students are introduced to the developments of new media and emerging technologies, and shown how these are applied towards enhancing public relations efforts. Students will learn how new and emerging media technologies are used by PR professionals to develop online strategies, such as building personal or company profiles, expanding existing networks including international networks, communicating more effectively with key publics, gaining media attention, managing online reputations, dealing with online backlash and organisational challenges through social media and attracting sponsorships.

Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit students will:

Acquire sound knowledge and theoretical understanding of the way new and emerging media technologies are shaping and changing PR practices;
Understand how social media and new media technologies are applied to PR activities such as managing campaigns, managing online reputations, and crisis communications, use online tools for PR activities;
Evaluate the relevance of various social media and new media technologies for PR applications;
Understand the wider international and global applications of social media and new media for practice.

Assessment

Within semester assessment: 70%
Exam: 30%

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. A unit requires on average three/four hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include a combination of teacher directed learning, peer directed learning and online engagement.

Chief examiner(s)

Mr. Matthew Loads

Prerequisites

Twelve credit points of first-year Arts units.