It appears that businesses and other large corporations are taking the lead in helping changing the overall public relations practices. One example of this would be the major retail store Walmart. Walmart just announced their large public relations campaign that is geared on focusing on consumer communications as well as marketing practices. Walmart is looking for corporations that specialize integrating various disciplines and skills together in their campaigns for their clients. In the AdAge article, Walmart specifies in stating that they are interested in firms that can “excellent capabilities in the areas of new media, online, media relations, crisis communications and multicultural outreach” as well as writing effectively in multiple mediums.
In other words, public relations professionals are now expected to know these various skills from these disciplines – public relations, consumer behavior, and marketing. Plus, it is very important to be knowledgable about these lines of research as well. I feel like public relations practices are going to become more integrated and interdisciplinary as time goes on. We need to make sure that we can offer our clients and others various types of skills that separate ourselves from our competitors and makes us unique and a valuable resource.
That is one thing that I believe that the University of Tennessee has really done an excellent job in preparing its doctoral students for. We are encouraged to study in our primary area in Communications (Public Relations) and choose a cognate area of study to be interdisciplinary (Marketing / Consumer Behavior). I have been taking course work in Public Relations and in Marketing at UT- and it has been a great learning experience for me.
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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