PREL 3627 — Critical Thinking About Public Relations Strategies
4 semester hoursUndergraduateLectureNUpath SINUpath WI
Offers upper-level students from multiple disciplines an opportunity to take a microscopic view of how issues are purposefully driven by professionals interested in promoting causes, political candidates, public policy, and corporate image. Examines how corporations and others make decisions and which theories of institutional behavior best explain those choices. Are companies motivated solely by economics as Marx would argue, or do they approach their image in a more functional way? Are the messages of politicians determined by race and class, or do they respond to a different framework? Requires students to follow current issues and dissect significant past campaigns. Knowledge of public relations tactics is helpful but not necessary.