Undergraduate - UnitAZA2045 - Public relations and the media

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	South Africa School of Social Sciences
Offered	South Africa First semester 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Ms Marianne Louw

Synopsis

The unit is designed to provide students with the knowledge, understanding, skills and experience in applying traditional and new media technologies to public relations practice. The unit addresses the use of the traditional media such as print, radio and television in ensuring publicity opportunities in South Africa. Students are also introduced to the developments in new media technologies, and shown how these are applied towards enhancing public relations efforts. Students will learn how new media technologies are used by PR professionals to develop online strategies, such as building personal or company profiles, expanding existing networks, communicating more effectively with key publics, gaining media attention, managing online reputations and attracting sponsorships.

Outcomes

On completion of the unit, students will be expected to be able to:

Understand the role and use of publicity in public relations;
Compile media kits for launches and events;
Develop media plans as part of a campaign;
Write fact sheets, releases and arrange radio interviews and television appearance for corporate representatives;
Develop effective media relations
Acquire sound knowledge of how new media technologies are changing PR practices;
Understand how 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 new media technologies for PR applications.

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)

Ms Marianne Louw

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Public relations practice

Prohibitions

ATS2433, ATS3433, COM2025