Posted in PR education, Social Media on Jun 30th, 2008 2 Comments »
Dozens of PR educators from across the U.S. (with one or two Canadians thrown in for good measure) gathered in Chicago last week for the second New Media Academic Summit, sponsored by Edelman and PR Week. Eleven panels over two days prodded the social media phenomenon from a variety of angles and I came away […]
Posted in PR education, Social Media, Writing on Jan 28th, 2008 8 Comments »
Just as I find myself slowing down on the posting-frequency front (I plead guilty to distractions: teaching a new course, setting up internships, interviewing applicants … work), it’s great to see our students revving up in this space.
As part of their Online PR course, Centennial students are required to set up a blog. For some […]
Posted in PR education, Social Media on Jan 2nd, 2008 6 Comments »
On January 2, 2007, A Class Act was conceived. At the time, it was my hope that this blog would be “more than the personal ramblings of an academic.” Of course, I’ve wallowed in my share of that over the past 12 months, but that may be because the blog’s primary goal has yet to […]
Posted in Books, PR education on Oct 18th, 2007 5 Comments »
I’ve been meaning for some time to respond to a blog post by student Scott MacDonald (currently on an internship) who questions the value of using textbooks to learn PR.
Now, let me disclose that Scott is not one of my students (wish he was) and that he appears to have spent about four times as […]
Posted in PR education, Social Media, Talk Is Cheap on Oct 11th, 2007 6 Comments »
Talk Is Cheap — an unconference for Toronto-area PR and corporate communications practitioners on Thursday evening, November 15 — is officially launched and looking for presenters and registrants.
In the spirit of unconferences (you might be familiar with Podcamp or Case Camp), Talk Is Cheap is free and features short presentations from registrants who will be […]
Posted in PR education, Social Media on Oct 4th, 2007 5 Comments »
The postgraduate Corporate Communications and Public Relations program at Centennial College has jumped into the social media space with a blog that will:
cover student initiatives and activities
profile program graduates
share useful information with potential applicants
include other newsworthy items we haven’t even thought of, yet
Contributors will include program faculty and students. Commenters, we hope, will include […]
Posted in PR education on Sep 10th, 2007 5 Comments »
Communications guru Wilma Mathews (my moniker for her, she’s earned it) asks an intriguing question on the myRagan social network: “Is there a point at which I cease being a practitioner and become a teacher?”
Wilma is the director of constitutent relations at Arizona State University and has been conducting workshops on media relations and other […]
Posted in PR education on Aug 28th, 2007 9 Comments »
I’m just back from several months away — from the campus and from this space — only to find that my role in training new PR practitioners may be unnecessary. No, it’s not an edict from my dean; it’s an assessment on the career pages of The Princeton Review, a commercial website out of New […]
Posted in PR education on Jun 26th, 2007 3 Comments »
Once upon a time, I pondered a career shift that would move me from doing corporate communications to talking about it. On the upside, I relished the thought of stepping away from the rat race (although, as most teachers can attest, the first year in academia was far more demanding than any previous job). On […]
Posted in Colleges & Universities, PR education on Jun 4th, 2007 10 Comments »
On June 11, coordinators and college professors from Corporate Communications and Public Relations programs across Ontario will be meeting for the first time. It’s a very encouraging development, one that’s long overdue. Many other academics (in disciplines like advertising and journalism) have been getting together for years to discuss issues they have in common. For […]
