Contact

For more information about the public relations concentration, contact:

Sadie Wilks

Sadie Wilks, APR
Area Head
225-578-3912

Email

Public Relations

Public relations is the planning and implementation of strategic communication that attempts to improve the relationship between individuals, organizations and/or companies with key constituencies. In a day of work, PR professionals can move from writing a news release to planning a product launch to countering a negative story in the media. Learn how to implement strategic communication tactics to build and maintain relationships between individuals, organizations, or companies and their various publics.

The public relations area focuses on strategic communication creation, planning, problem solving and relationship-building in today’s digital world. PR professionals often play important roles in an organization's reputation management, crisis communication and corporate social responsibility. If you are thinking about PR, as a career you will want to build good writing skills, understand the inner-workings of various forms of media and be a good public speaker. 

As more communication platforms are now available, PR is evolving to embrace a broader range of innovative strategies for engaging diverse audiences. It is becoming more critical for PR professionals to create tailored and shareable content for audiences with different needs and develop sustainable relationships with them. PR will continue to serve as the link between organizations and their constituents, meeting the growing demand for strategic communications in many sectors.

PR graduates typically land jobs with businesses or non-profit organizations as public information officers, communication/marketing directors, events coordinators, press secretaries and PR agents. Manship School alumni work at Edelman, the Denver Broncos, American Red Cross, International Communications at General Motors and Think PR in New York.

Our curriculum offers a mixture of foundational and specialized PR courses. You learn both theoretical knowledge and practical skills that prepare them for multiple professional roles in this fast-changing industry. 

We aim to expose you to as many different PR scenarios as possible while at the Manship School. We do this in several ways:

Internships

We encourage you to pursue multiple internships. We have an extensive database of local and national, paid and unpaid internships.

  • Louisiana Office of Tourism
  • Ochsner
  • LSU College of Engineering
  • Bread and Butter Public Relations (Dallas)
  • American Red Cross
  • BASF
  • Louisiana Sea Grant
  • Catapult Creative Media 
  • CBS Sports
  • Zehnder Communications (New Orleans)
  • Pierpont Communications (Austin)
  • New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau
  • Jones Walker Law Firm
  • Emergent Method
  • SMG Mercedes-Benz Superdome
  • Nottoway Plantation

Service-learning

Our students engage in service-learning in many of our classes. Student-led teams operate as PR firms, doing work for real clients. Students in Dr. Jinx Broussard's Public Relations Campaigns capstone course have won first place in PRSSA's National Organ Donor Awareness Competition twice (2016 & 2014), and came in second in 2015.

PRSSA

We encourage students to participate in the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA at LSU) where they interact with a variety of professionals. They can also work with ImPRint Communications, our student-run public relations firm.

The Bateman Team

We have a team each year that participates in PRSSA’s Bateman competition for a national client. Since 2007, four LSU teams have earned honorable mention recognition in the competition. In 2018, our student public relations team took home first place in the Bateman competition beating out 84 other university teams from across the country.

Special Events

Each year, we encourage our public relations students to attend a variety of off-campus events like the annual PRSSA student conference, monthly PRAL luncheons and regular imPRint meetings. These events allow you to mingle with PR students outside of the university, network with professionals and have career-defining experiences outside of the classroom. 

Recent Graduates

Students who are interested in public relations should look for opportunities to develop their writing, problem solving and leadership skills. While many of our graduates go on to graduate programs or law school, some of our recent graduate professional placements include:

  • University of Louisiana – Monroe Athletics
  • Marina Maher Communications (NY)
  • Audubon Nature Institute (New Orleans)
  • Hill & Knowlton (Houston)
  • University of Tulsa Athletics
  • Louisiana Public Broadcasting
  • Touro Infirmary (New Orleans)
  • New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau
  • Dow Chemical
  • Exxon Mobil
  • Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers
  • CRT/tanaka (New York)
  • Harris, DeVille & Associates
  • Seavers Design, Inc (Houston)
  • National Center for Biomedical Research and Training
  • Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals
  • Children’s Hospital (New Orleans)
  • Blue Williams (New Orleans)
  • Renaissance Publishing (New Orleans)
  • Acropolis (Orlando, FL)
  • Creative Communications (Baton Rouge)
  • Zehnder Communications (New Orleans)

Curriculum

The public relations curriculum is subject to change each semester. Please refer to the LSU Catalog for the latest listings, or schedule a meeting with a Manship School counselor by calling 225-578-1899.

  • MC 2010 or 2011 (Media Writing)
  • MC 2015 or 2016 (Visual Communication)
  • MC 2035 (Social Media and Digital Branding)
  • MC 3080 or 3081 (Mass Media Law)
  • MC 4090 or 4091 (Media Ethics and Social Responsibility)
  • MC 3001 (Public Relations Writing and Applications)
  • MC 3010 (Introduction to Public Relations)
  • MC 4002 (Strategies for Public Relations and Social Media)
  • MC 4020 (Public Relations Research)
  • MC 4005 (Public Relations Campaigns)
  • MC electives (9 hours)
  • MKT 3401 (Principles of Marketing)
  • MGT 3200 (Principles of Management)

3+3 Pre-Law Option

The Manship School of Mass Communication partners with the Paul M. Hebert Law School to offer the 3+3 Pre-Law Program to students interested in both mass communication and law. This program is open to all mass communication students, no matter their chosen concentration. These students are, however, still required to complete coursework for one of Manship's four concentrations. 

 

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