2012 PROCEEDINGS - Public Relations Society of America

A Stronger Foundation for the Industry‟s Future:
Integrating Evidence Based Practices into Public Relations Education
Dave Remund, Ph.D., APR
Drake University
david.remund@drake.edu
Kathy Keltner-Previs, Ph.D.
Eastern Kentucky University
Karen Freberg, Ph.D.
University of Louisville
Introduction
Digital, social and mobile technologies make information increasingly and immediately
accessible to both organizations and their publics. Transparency is the new public relations currency,
and this calls for a shift in mindset for public relations educators. Professors must teach students to
see situations from multiple perspectives and understand the many implications of information
exchange with key publics, drawing evidence from proven best practices and past cases to formulate
sound strategies. This approach is standard in professional fields such as medicine and law but has
not yet been aggressively modeled in public relations.
This research explores the impact of integrating evidence-based practices in public relations
education. The study involves a contemporary social media crisis communications situation and
undergraduate public relations students from three different universities in the United States, none of
whom had previously been introduced to the concept of evidence based practices relative to public
relations. Ultimately, the goal of this study is to determine the degree to which evidence based
practices improve the counsel provided by emerging public relations professionals.
Literature Review
State of Public Relations Education
While understanding the application of evidence based practices related to research studies
and projects is one goal for public relations educators to incorporate into the curriculum, it is another
matter to be able to teach these practices and insights in the classroom. Measuring the effectiveness
of teaching assessments and student outcomes continues to be a growing focus in public relations
education (Taylor, 2011).
Several articles have focused on the use of incorporating more applied tasks for students to
receive in public relations courses including co-creating and importing ideas from other areas into
assignments and projects (Willis & McKie, 2011), internship opportunities in public relations (Bush
& Miller, 2011); Daugherty, 2011); incorporating a service learning assessment in public relations
campaign courses (Werder & Strand, 2011), capstone team and peer evaluations (Lubbers, 2011);
incorporating focus areas like into course curriculum and projects (Austin & Toth, 2011), and having
students run student run public relations firms (Swanson, 2011). Most of these activities are geared
toward upper division or capstone courses in public relations, but there is no foundation for
incorporating applied tasks and activities at the introduction level for public relations students to gain
experience on how to balance applied, theory, and best practices comprehensively.
Evidence Based Practices (EBP)
Evidence based practices (EBP) is an approach focused on integrating three perspectives
together -- namely the practitioner‘s expertise, the client‘s situation, and proven best practices.
Shlonsky and Gibbs (2004) define EBP as involving ―a well-built practice question, an efficient
search for best evidence, a critical appraisal of that evidence, and action based on the interchange
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