Main topics of study:

The Role of Public Relations in Organisations:

• Public Relations – A Management Discipline
• Models of Public Relations Practice
• Public Relations Practitioners’ Roles
• Boundary Spanning & Systems Theory

The Evolution of Public Relations – Principles & Practice:

• Definitions & Meaning of Public Relations
• Relations between PR & Marketing
• Functional Areas of Public Relations
• Public Relations Activities
• Marketing PR

Strategic Perspective of Public Relations:

• Defining the Concept of Strategy
• Strategic Implications for Public Relations
• Generic Approaches to Strategy
• The Strategic Potential of Public Relations
• Strategic Management for Public Relations

Internal & External Public Relations:

• Implications of Organisational Structure & Culture
• Implications for the Role & Scope of Public Relations
• Researching the Organisation
• External People & Groups
• The Organisation Publics
• Evaluating & Defining Key Publics
• External Public Relations Activities
• Corporate Identity & Image
• Strategic Public Relations
• New Developments in External Public Relations

Corporate Social Responsibility:

• The Social Responsibilities of Organisations
• Community & Environmental Responsibilities
• The Demands of Public Opinion
• Discharging the Organisation’s Social Responsibilities
• Ethical Implications
• Long-Term Implications

Financial & Investor Public Relations:

• Importance of Public Relations to Financial Services
• Publics for Stock & Currency Markets
• Publics for Insurance
• Fund Manager Publics
• Retail Publics
• Public Relations Strategies in Relation to Financial Services
• Research & Its Applications to Financial & Investor Public Relations

Government & Lobbying Activities:

• Theoretical Perspective Underpinning Lobbying Practices
• Governmental Activities & Lobbying from the Public Relations Perspective
• Main Elements of Lobbying
• Measurement of Effectiveness

Corporate Advertising:

• Introduction to Corporate Advertising
• Value of Corporate Advertising
• Media for Corporate Advertising
• Effective Corporate Campaigns
• Psychological Perspectives on Corporate Advertising
• Branding Strategy & Brand Equity
• Criticisms of Corporate Advertising
• The Future of Corporate Advertising

Issue & Crisis Management:

• Introduction to Issues Management
• Nature of Crises
• Planning to Communicate in a Crisis
• The Risk Audit
• Defining the Audiences/Publics
• Procedure Development
• Training Required
• Testing – Exercise Simulation

Interaction between Public Relations & Marketing:

• Debate Issues between Public Relations & Marketing
• Increased Importance of Public Relations
• Marketing Public Relations (MPR) & Corporate Public Relations (CPR)
• The Marketing Perspective of Public Relations
• Spheres of Responsibility for Marketing & Public Relations
• Marketing Public Relations (MPR) in the Marketing Mix
• Using Marketing Public Relations

Developing a Research Framework & Evaluating the PR Efforts:

• Development of Research Methods & Objectives
• Research Design – Practical Applications of Research Methods
• The Nature of Evaluation
• Barriers to Effective Evaluation
• Models of Evaluation
• New Evaluation Approaches
• Integration & Planning of Campaigns & Programmes

Reading List

Main Text:
Public Relations: Principles & Practice – P J Kitchen (Thompson Learning)

Alternative Text and Further Reading:
The Practice of Public Relations – Sam Black (Butterworth/Heinemann)
The Essentials of Public Relations – Sam Black (Kogan Page)