Department of Advertising/Public Relations

Courses offered in the Department of Advertising/Public Relations focus on the role of advertising and public relations in business, social, and economic affairs. The sequence of courses is divided between professional courses in advertising and public relations practice and contextual courses focused on the system of mass communications in the United States, the relationship of advertising and public relations to that system, and the ethical problems and issues that arise in the practice of advertising and public relations.

Concentrated study of advertising or public relations provides students with a broad understanding of persuasive communication issues and the opportunity to develop the ability to create effective communication analyses and campaigns.

Undegraduate Degree Programs Bulletin, with online course descriptions.

Options
Advertising option: This option seeks to acquaint students with advertising in a variety of contexts and from a number of different viewpoints. It attempts to explain why organizations use advertising as a form of communication: how advertising affects the mass media; how advertising is used by consumers in making business decisions; how advertising is controlled and regulated; and what effects advertising has on the economy.
Public Relations option: This option seeks to acquaint students with the role and function of public relations in building cooperative and mutually beneficial relations between organizations and their constituent publics.

Career Opportunities

The background and understanding a student gains from courses taken in the department should be useful to anyone who decides to pursue a career in communications, the mass media, business, or a variety of other organizations. The advertising and public relations business worlds draw upon the skills and abilities of many different professional specialties.

Advertising practitioners include artists, writers, researchers, designers, managers, planners, analysts and others. Studying advertising will give students an overall understanding of how these approaches are brought together and used to help solve advertising communications problems. The public relations option prepares students for careers in public relations in organizations and companies in which they will contribute to the planning, development and execution of the information and communication activities of such organizations.