2010 - Public Relations Society of America
2010 - Public Relations Society of America
2010 - Public Relations Society of America
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Crisis in the Classroom:<br />
A cross-departmental approach prepares PR students as spokespeople<br />
Colleen Pope Lemza<br />
State University <strong>of</strong> New York, Plattsburgh<br />
colleen.lemza@plattsburgh.edu<br />
Introduction<br />
Much has been written about the value <strong>of</strong> service learning in the public relations<br />
education curriculum. Just from last year’s conference proceedings Bartoo & Slater and<br />
Muhtaseb all discussed the positive benefits to the public relations industry, the service<br />
learning clients and mostly, the students. However, service learning, born from<br />
experiential learning, isn’t new. John Dewey discussed its benefits in his 1959 paper<br />
entitled Experience and Education (Dewey, 1959). Educators agree there’s value in<br />
experiential classroom learning, but incorporating all aspects <strong>of</strong> public relations into the<br />
classroom can be difficult or even damaging to the client.<br />
Any public relations practitioner who’s been responsible for handing a crisis<br />
situation knows that doomsday isn’t the right time for a student to be calling the shots in<br />
an experiential learning course. It takes significant skill and experience, not to mention a<br />
cool head, to come out on the other side <strong>of</strong> a hot issue with your reputation intact. This<br />
isn’t a learning opportunity most companies would turn over to an intern or a project<br />
team in a service learning class.<br />
The Challenge<br />
So the question becomes how do students learn this important aspect <strong>of</strong> public<br />
relations to gain an appreciation for the preparation and composure it takes to handle the<br />
pressure? Think back to your first heated interview with that first microphone in your<br />
face. I’m sure like most you watched the evening news and asked yourself why you said<br />
that. Or just as common, screamed “That’s not what I meant!” at the television.<br />
Who wouldn’t have appreciated an opportunity to be in the hot seat without any<br />
negative ramifications to your organization or career before it was showtime? Certainly<br />
there are day-long to week-long media training courses available to teach these valuable<br />
skills, but not at a price recent college graduates can afford.<br />
<strong>Relations</strong>hip-Building<br />
Another aspect <strong>of</strong> crisis communication that can’t be easily learned from a<br />
textbook or even a campaigns course is how to develop, use and retain those important<br />
relationships with the media. Granted, the landscape has changed drastically in this area<br />
<strong>of</strong> media relationships with all the new technologies. However, in most small towns<br />
across the country, a phone call or email from the local newspaper or television affiliate<br />
still make public relations practitioners want to return messages.<br />
How can students learn about culturing that relationship before they get burned on<br />
their first job? Opening the newspaper in the morning and reading a quote not truly<br />
intended for print is one way to learn your lesson. If nothing else, exposing too much<br />
information once is a good incentive to master those media/practitioner relationship skills<br />
so it doesn’t happen again. Being caught <strong>of</strong>f-guard in a media interview, whether in<br />
crisis mode or not, will prevent one from being ill-prepared the next time. This is exactly<br />
the lesson I try to leave on my students by creating full-blown crisis scenarios in the<br />
classroom involving television, print and audio journalists.<br />
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