A once-in-a-lifetime experience hearing from the leading scholar in Psychology, Dr. John Cacioppo
It is not every day that you get to have a legend in the social science academic world come and speak to your class. Thanks to the latest technologies like Skype, I was able to have a guest lecture presentation for my students in my PR Cases Class with one of the leading experts today in social sciences and research – Dr. John Cacioppo. Dr. Cacioppo talked with my class today on his work on the Elaboration Likelihood Model, which is one of the main models that public relations professionals use when it comes to their message strategies.
I asked my students before class to prepare questions for Dr. Cacioppo during our presentation regarding the ELM as well as his current work on Loneliness. Dr. Cacioppo did an amazing job with his guest lecture presentation with my students – the lecture began with discussion on how the ELM developed with Richard Petty, the key elements of the model, and how it can be strategically applied in public relations practices. We also got a chance to hear about Dr. Cacioppo’s research on Loneliness, and how knowing if our stakeholder groups show the signs of loneliness and how we can connect with them with our strategies and messages effectively. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for my students and for me as well as a future scholar and researcher. Psychology has truly impacted the Public Relations field with its theoretical foundations and research, and it is truly what Dr. Cacioppo calls a hub science.
Not only that, with the use of new technology such as Skype, professors are now able to have distinguished researchers and scholars come and speak to their class in a way that it was not possible a few years ago. This is one thing that I have really enjoyed about being at the University of Tennessee – all of our faculty encourage us to embrace new technology into the classroom and use it to enhance our class material. Our role as scholars is to give our students the materials and exposure to leading scholars to enhance their education – Dr. Cacioppo is indeed one of the leading scholars in the social sciences and it was very good for my students to see the evolution in his research line in psychology to neuroscience to social neuroscience, and how a scholar needs to be an expert and have specific specialties, but also be open to other perspectives as well.
It was an absolute pleasure to have Dr. Cacioppo speak to our class, and I am very grateful that he took the time with my students to share his insights on research, where the fields are going, and what he suggests they can do to establish their specialities in a specific area within public relations. Thank you Dr. Cacioppo very much for taking the time to speak to my class! 
Hope you all are having a wonderful day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
November 12th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
[...] into the classroom to speak to their students via Skype.I had the honor and pleasure in having Dr. John Cacioppo come and speak via Skype to my PR Cases class about a month ago on the ELM, and how it applies to Public Relations. This was a [...]
November 12th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
[...] into the classroom to speak to their students via Skype.I had the honor and pleasure in having Dr. John Cacioppo come and speak via Skype to my PR Cases class about a month ago on the ELM, and how it applies to Public Relations. This was a [...]
October 15th, 2012 at 5:21 pm
[...] for me as a professor. One of the first that I did while at the University of Tennessee was with Dr. John Cacioppo, where he talked to my students about PR and the ELM model. Great to hear from one of the leading [...]