~Andrea

The university should offer the best possible package to all their students. Doing so only furthers their stake in their services and the quality that represents them in the workforce. That being said, the university owes these PR and marketing students the highest levels of communication and ethical considerations. After all, doesn’t every student deserve these offerings?

I know that I was taught that the PR industry was first created by an exodus of reporters into the corporate sector, and their mutual roots have always been intertwined. Seeing how the new media landscape is ever increasingly user generated content and iReporter styling’s, I think that the traditional media institution should make a distinction between creditable and proven investigation and the newer, lightweight samplings – Unquestionably so.

I also believe that this distinction should be made in the field. I think that bloggers and PR agencies will remain a relevant influence, especially if traditional news continues to wane. With this influence, these practitioners need the same legitimate training that journalist do. I’m not going to pretend to defend PR practitioners as agents of the media, but I will defend their need to receive the same levels of ethics, integrity and professionalism. In fact, I think all students should.

Every student should obtain the highest distinctions of grammar and prose. Every student should master media literacy. It’s humorous because Bowers de facto assertions feel a lot like the sort of elitism I’d hope that scholars and journalist would hope to erase.

“But teaching advertising and public relations in the University’s School of Journalism and Communication really goes contrary to what journalism and communication studies (outlined above) are supposed to do: develop sharp, critical thinkers who look at information provided to them with a skeptical eye instead of blindly taking information provided to them.”

As a former student in the School of Journalism and Communications, I don’t know how that message wouldn’t be taken with some feelings of offense.