Department of Media Studies
University of Botswana
Course Outline
Course Code: BMS 405
Course Title: Public Relations III
Lecturer: Prof Richard Rooney
1:0 Course Synopsis
Bring ethical issues in the practice of public relations to the fore as well as an examination of the practice of public relations in other parts of the world to enable students to understand the best practices of the profession.
2:0 Course Objectives
At the end of the course students should be able to:
a. Identify and explain ethical problems in public relations.
b. Recall public relations practice in selected countries
c. Explain the regulation of PR
d. Identify and explain corporate social responsibility
3:0 Course Content
a. Ethical considerations in Public Relations
b. Code of professional standards for the practice of PR
c. Social Responsibility
d. Professional PR organisations
e. Criticisms of PR
Assessment
You will be assessed by course work only. There is no final exam.
Assessment 1 (40 percent)
Why should people who work in public relations behave in an ethical way? Give examples of some bad practice in PR and explain what can be done to overcome this. (About 1,700 words).
DEADLINE: 6 October 2011
Assessment 2 (60 percent)
Write an essay (about 2,200 words) on ONE of the following:
1. Why are people worried about bad behaviour of public relations people? What can PR people do to show they can behave ethically?
2. What is ‘self-regulation’ and how is it used to try to ensure good professional behaviour among public relations people?
3. Some people say that there is no such thing as ‘public relations ethics’ and even say that PR people are deliberately ‘unethical’ because their whole business is about telling lies. Discuss.
4. There have been attempts to create codes of professional conduct in PR that can apply to everybody globally. What do these codes consist of and how useful do you think they can be to a country such as Botswana?
5. What is ‘corporate social responsibility’? Why do some companies engage in it and what roles do PR people play in achieving successful CSR?
DEADLINE: 10 November 2011.
4:0 Recommended Texts
Shannon A. Bowen, Ethics and Public Relations http://www.instituteforpr.org/essential_knowledge/detail/ethics_and_public_relations
Global Protocol on Ethics in Public Relations
The International Public Relations Association (IPRA) Code of Conduct http://www.ipra.org/detail.asp?articleid=31
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