Assignment

As you can already predict, connections are an important part of good public relations.

A wide network of contacts can increase the power and value of an individual in the marketplace, which is filled with conflict and competition.

This assignment requires you to write a two-page single-spaced essay about (1) an organization in your local area, and (2) an analysis of a public relations campaign.

Please use a 12-point Times New Roman font, and set the margins at 1 inch each.

1. First, you will choose an organization/company you are interested in learning about or would like to work for. From their website, gather information about:

• The type of organization (for profit, non-profit, etc.)
• Their general characteristics
• Their organizational links (competition, partners, local agents)
• The type of corporate image projected
• Their social media presence
• Their mission
• Their vision
• Their values

Once you have done your basic research, you will contact this organization and try to gather information about their communicational strategies and tactics: how do they communicate with the public? Do they have a PR department/person?

How do they track and measure the effectiveness of their communicational efforts? After gathering all this information, conduct a SWOT analysis. Your assignment should reflect all of these steps and the material covered in both the textbook and D2L.

2. Michigan State University: Who Will? Spartans Will.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co4SQENVFEU

After watching the commercial above, please analyze the Spartans Will campaign launched by Michigan State University in December 2014. Your work should focus on analyzing the two stages of the RACE acronym: action and communication. You should identify the target audience(s), whether or not the ad satisfies the characteristics of an effective communication message (appropriate, meaningful, etc.), and the objectives you think MSU had when launching the campaign (exposure, dissemination, etc).