Foundations of Public Relations

This unit introduces core public relations concepts and practical skills needed to plan and launch basic PR efforts. Students learn to identify stakeholders and audiences, assemble teams and resources, produce key communications (press releases, briefings, presentations), and apply early measurement, ethical, and crisis-awareness practices to prepare for more advanced campaign work in subsequent units.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze stakeholder groups and audience needs using segmentation techniques to prioritize target publics for a given PR scenario
• Apply pre-planning steps and team-selection processes to produce a concise PR plan that defines objectives, roles, channels, timing, and scope of authority
• Demonstrate media-relations and message-development skills by drafting a news release, preparing a media briefing, and delivering a short public presentation tailored to selected media or audiences
• Evaluate PR tactics, monitoring and measurement options (including advertising equivalency and analytics tools), and ethical/crisis indicators to recommend appropriate tactics and escalation paths