Ten weeks seem to go by even more quickly with team teaching than with solo teaching. I would have liked for another 10 weeks to continue to work with my students. The quarter flew by. I enjoyed getting to partner with John Mitchell to team teach the class. Below are top student blog posts from the students who chose to have their work highlighted here. All students provided permission for the picture above.
For one of the blog posts, I asked students to summarize an academic journal article in public relations to
- Exercise their research skills
- Deepen their knowledge in an area that interests them
- Give them experience with translating complex information, specifically with regard to scientific studies
One of the most interesting studies was described by Nicole Johnson. She summarizes a study by Mai Abdul Wahed Al Khaja and Pam Creedon, published in Public Relations Review, about tips for breast cancer awareness campaigns in the United Arab Emirates. The study shows the importance of conducting research to culturally adapt messages to audiences.
For another blog post, I asked students to write about how to engage a diverse audience of their choice to
- Give them experience with conducting research about a particular audience
- Help them see how they can use research about an audience to plan a campaign
- Deepen their knowledge about communicating with a particular audience
Jayna Omaye wrote an insightful blog post titled “Fostering Diversity and Engaging with Hispanic Audiences.” She provides helpful tips and warns against generalizing to Hispanic audiences as a whole.
I also asked students to blog about an ethical issue in the public relations community. Martina Benova wrote an engaging blog post about ghost tweeting for athletes, and Cydni Anderson also wrote an insightful blog post about ghost tweeting. Both discussions include insightful secondary research. Cassie Bates discusses astroturfing and includes a recent case involving a response to an unflattering restaurant review.
I hope my class had a great spring break and is recharged for spring quarter.
Out of all your student’s blogs why did you pick these few to highlight? What made their blogs more professional from the other students?
Thanks for your question, Janae. At the end of every quarter, I invite students to send me a link to their blogs if they would like to have their work highlighted on my blog. I highlight the blog of every student who requests it.