MNPR Blog Teams with class at the University of Minnesota

Recently, I was approached by Marti Jones, an adjunct at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communications, to guest lecture about the influence of blogs and how students need to understand blogs as a growing communication channel for public relations professionals.

The class, Public Relations Writing and Tactics, is a professional skills course designed to develop writing expertise and tactical thinking for public relations practitioners. Marti assigns various assignments to help students gain experience in the art of public relations writing. But she felt it was time to do something different than the standard tactics, she wanted to create something new for her students beyond just the press release, media alert, feature article, and op-ed.

So we decided to create an assignment where her students would write a blog post for MNPR Blog focusing on a public relations trend or an aspect of the public relations profession that they believe would interest the readers of MNPR Blog. We thought we could accomplish two objectives with these series of posts throughout the month of April. One, we would provide a different twist for the readers of MNPR Blog to read what students are thinking about in regards to the profession; and two, we would provide a different outlet for the student to express themselves and to tailor their writing to a blog with a distinct audience.

I have come realize that as a public relations professional I get so wrapped up in my day-to-day business, I don't have time to focus on new trends or the past history of our profession.

We hope you enjoy this series, it is something new and different for both myself and Marti, but new and different are good especially when it comes to teaching about the fast pace nature of public relations. I encourage you to comment on their posts and encourage them on their journey to become PR practitioners.

-Ryan