Outline

Overview

Media Relations provides students with practical experience in seeking media coverage for a specific issue on behalf of a non-profit organisation. It requires students to research, design, present, implement and evaluate a communication plan, and to develop key tactical elements including media releases for distribution across multi-media platforms.

Unit details and rules

Academic unit	Media and Communications
Credit points	6
Prerequisites ?	None
Corequisites ?	None
Prohibitions ?	None
Assumed knowledge ?	None
Available to study abroad and exchange students	Yes

Teaching staff

Coordinator	Mitchell Hobbs, mitchell.hobbs@sydney.edu.au
Tutor(s)	Tiffanny Junee, tiffanny.junee@sydney.edu.au
Tutor(s)	Mitchell Hobbs, mitchell.hobbs@sydney.edu.au

Type	Description	Weight	Due	Length
Assignment	Communication plan n/a	30%	Week 05 Due date: 27 Sep 2020 at 23:00	2000 words
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Media relations tactics n/a	30%	Week 08 Due date: 25 Oct 2020 at 23:00	2000 words
Outcomes assessed:
Presentation	Client Pitch n/a	15%	Week 12	500 words
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Essay n/a	25%	Week 12 Due date: 29 Nov 2020 at 23:00	1500 words
Outcomes assessed:
= group assignment ?

Assessment summary

Assessment 1: Communications Plan

This assessment task requires you to write a communications plan for an Australian not-for-profit organisation. Your plan, written for the Board of Directors / CEO of your not-for-profit organisation, must convince Management that you can design and deliver an impactful media relations campaign in a professional and timely manner, across appropriate platforms.

Assessment 2: Media Relations Toolkit

This assessment requires students to prepare common media relations outputs to an advanced professional standard. These outputs are:

Media Release
Backgrounder
Media List
Media Plan

Assessment 3: Client Pitch

This assessment requires students to prepare a presentation pitch for a prospective client.

Assessment 4: Essay on campaign on evaluation

The final assessment is a longform essay on methods of evaluation in the field of media relations.

Word Length Penalty

Where a word length is specified, you must conform to the word length. Where a student exceeds the word length, the student will lose 10% of the total marks when the submission is 10% above the word length and 10% for each 10% over-length thereafter. Note that the word limit excludes the reference list at the end of the document.

All assessments must be attempted in order to pass the unit.

Assessment criteria

The University awards common result grades, set out in the Coursework Policy 2014 (Schedule 1).

As a general guide, a High distinction indicates work of an exceptional standard, a Distinction a very high standard, a credit a good standard, and a pass an acceptable standard.

Result name	Mark range	Description
High distinction	85 - 100	Professional Criteria (Communications Plan & PR Tactics) HD: 85-100% A grade at this level indicates work of outstanding overall quality. It will consist of an original and ambitious project, which has achieved its goals with a very good to high level of technical competence (in relation to the experience of the student). It will have been well researched and planned and exhibit a highly developed critical awareness of the medium or industry, as well as the intended audience, including an excellent strategy. It will be informed by the strength of its original idea(s) and an appropriate structure, which is both engaging and professional. It will demonstrate an understanding of the theories related to ‘best practice’ in the industry and have a sound evidence base. It will be work that the Department would normally regard as appropriate to exhibit to the University or wider industry partners and communities. Essay Criteria HD 85-100% Work of outstanding quality, demonstrating an excellent standard of written English and of criticism, logical argument, interpretation of materials or use of methodology. Evidence of extensive research and use of primary sources, a thoughtful structure, substantial additional work and independent learning. This grade may be given to recognise particular originality or creativity.
Distinction	75 - 84	Professional Criteria (Communications Plan & PR Tactics) DI: 75-84% A grade at this level indicates work that overall achieves a very high standard. The work will have achieved most of its goals and will demonstrate a significant degree of originality and ambition, with a very good level of technical competence, especially in regard to a messaging strategy. The work will be based on original ideas and will be well structured. It will show significant evidence of research/planning and demonstrate a critical awareness of the medium. It will be work that the Department would normally regard as appropriate to exhibit or publish within the School or University. Essay Criteria DI 75-84% Work of superior quality, demonstrating a command of language, sound grasp of content, efficient organisation and selectivity. Evidence of relevant research, additional work and independent learning.
Credit	65 - 74	Professional Criteria (Communications Plan & PR Tactics) CR: 65-74% A grade at this level indicates work that overall achieves a higher than satisfactory standard. The work will have achieved its principle goal(s) and will demonstrate degrees of originality and ambition, especially regarding an appropriate messaging strategy. Technically it will be competent in quality with a recognisable and successful overall structure. It will be based on a degree of research and planning and exhibit some critical awareness of the medium and of issues such as audience and representation. It will be work that the Department would normally regard as appropriate to internal Department exhibition or publication. Essay Criteria CR 65-74% A sound performance, competent and appropriate. Work that is well written and demonstrates good research skills. Demonstrates a clear grasp of the basic skills and knowledge. Work of good quality, showing more than satisfactory achievement.
Pass	50 - 64	Professional Criteria (Communications Plan & PR Tactics) PS: 50-64% A grade at this level indicates work of an overall satisfactory standard but with some significant positive features. It will demonstrate some originality or ambition and a limited critical awareness of the medium and of issues such as audience and representation. Its goals will have been only partially realised although some reasonable attempt will have been made to achieve them. The level of technical competence will range from adequate to poor with significant structural weaknesses. Its weak structure will show evidence of inadequate research/planning. It will be work the Department would not normally regard as appropriate for exhibition or publication. Essay Criteria PS 50-64% A satisfactory attempt to meet the demands of the assignment. Demonstrates understanding and command of basic skills and core knowledge. The assignment may have significant weaknesses, or may not be wholly successful or coherent, but shows at least satisfactory achievement in more important aspects.
Fail	0 - 49	When you don’t meet the learning outcomes of the unit to a satisfactory standard.

For more information see guide to grades.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

This unit has an exception to the standard University policy or supplementary information has been provided by the unit coordinator. This information is displayed below:

For every calendar day up to and including ten calendar days after the due date, a penalty of 5% of the maximum awardable marks will be applied to late work. The penalty will be calculated by first marking the work, and then subtracting 5% of the maximum awardable mark for each calendar day after the due date. For work submitted more than ten calendar days after the due date a mark of zero will be awarded. The marker may elect to, but is not required to, provide feedback on such work.

Academic integrity

The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and automated writing tools

You may only use generative AI and automated writing tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator. If you do use these tools, you must acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section. The assessment instructions or unit outline will give guidance of the types of tools that are permitted and how the tools should be used.

Your final submitted work must be your own, original work. You must acknowledge any use of generative AI tools that have been used in the assessment, and any material that forms part of your submission must be appropriately referenced. For guidance on how to acknowledge the use of AI, please refer to the AI in Education Canvas site.

The unapproved use of these tools or unacknowledged use will be considered a breach of the Academic Integrity Policy and penalties may apply.

Studiosity is permitted unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission as detailed on the Learning Hub’s Canvas page.

Outside assessment tasks, generative AI tools may be used to support your learning. The AI in Education Canvas site contains a number of productive ways that students are using AI to improve their learning.

Learning support

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

Weekly schedule

WK	Topic	Learning activity
Week 01	Course Overview, Media Relations Language & Theory	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 02	The Media Relationist & The MR Toolkit	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 03	Building a Media Relations Campaign Plan & The Australian media landscape	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 04	Communication Strategy: Goals, objectives and tactics	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 05	Media Relations Tactics: Writing a media release & backgrounder for multi-media	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 06	Media Relations Tactics: Approaching media, releasing the release	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 07	Framing the media release	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 08	Industry presentations - Project for Purpose: The Client, The Agency, The Corporate Partner, The Media Perspective	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 09	Planning proper timelines and budgets	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 10	Evaluating Impact	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 11	Group Presentations	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 12	Group Presentations	Seminar (2 hr)

Attendance and class requirements

Attendance: According to Faculty Board Resolutions, students in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences are expected to attend 90% of their classes. If you attend less than 50% of classes, regardless of the reasons, you may be referred to the Examiner’s Board. The Examiner’s Board will decide whether you should pass or fail the unit of study if your attendance falls below this threshold.

Lecture recording: Most lectures (in recording-equipped venues) will be recorded and may be made available to students on the LMS. However, you should not rely on lecture recording to substitute your classroom learning experience.

Preparation: Students should commit to spend approximately three hours’ preparation time (reading, studying, homework, essays, etc.) for every hour of scheduled instruction.

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

All readings for this unit can be accessed on the Library eReserve link available on Canvas.

Mahoney, J. (2017). Public Relations Writing (3rd edition). Oxford.

Delahaye Paine, K. (2011). Measure What Matters: Online tools for understanding customers, social media, engagement and key relations. Hoboken NJ: Wiley &Sons.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

Outcomes
Graduate qualities

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

LO1. identify and analyse the types, forms, features and functions of media relations
LO2. understand what flows into the development of a PR media campaign across multiple platforms
LO3. design, implement and evaluate a media campaign on behalf of an actual not-for-profit client
LO4. demonstrate an understanding of professional issues such as ethics and stakeholder engagement.

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1	Depth of disciplinary expertise Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.
GQ2	Critical thinking and problem solving Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.
GQ3	Oral and written communication Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.
GQ4	Information and digital literacy Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.
GQ5	Inventiveness Generating novel ideas and solutions.
GQ6	Cultural competence Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.
GQ7	Interdisciplinary effectiveness Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.
GQ8	Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.
GQ9	Influence Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes	Graduate qualities
Learning outcomes

Responding to student feedback

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

We appreciate your feedback and regularly update our unit based on your comments.

Additional information

Assessment Task #1 - Communications plan

This is an individual task.

Recommended approach to this task:

Research Australian not-for-profit organisations.
Choose a not-for-profit organisation that aligns with your interests.
Through the process of research, identify the organisational goals and business objectives.
Through the process of research, identify the issues (past, present and future) your organisation has faced or potentially might face. For instance, the database Factiva can be used to locate all news stories on a particular organisation and is a great source of independent information. Likewise, Annual Reports are an excellent source of information on an organisation's values, operations and finances. Primary research in the form of a small-scale survey or focus groups can also be conducted with classmates (and the public) in order to test message strategies or understand public perceptions of a particular service, initiative or organisation. More information on these research methods will be provided in class.
Choose an issue/s to address/resolve/promote.
Imagine you are the Public Relations manager. Now explain the strategic communications approach to address one (or more) of the issues you have identified.
Following the standard template (outlined below), write a communications plan based on the findings of your research that identifies and strategically aligns with the organisations' business plan and strategic communications objectives.

This communications plan should be written in report format and include the following sections:

1. Introductory Information

Executive summary (introduce the organisation, the scenario and the aims)

2. Research and analysis

Background to the problem, issue, scenario or brand
Situation analysis
Research findings (primary and secondary findings)

3. Strategy development

Goals and Objectives (the latter needs to be measurable)
Publics and Stakeholders
Key messages and tactics
Third party actions (that you might depend on in order to make your communication effective)
Risk management
Ethical considerations
Budgeting (be realistic by sourcing current industry prices)

4. Implementation

Project management

5. Evaluation and adjustment

Measuring the effectiveness of messages, media and outcomes

6. References (NB: these will not be included in the word count)

This is an industry assessment item. As such, students can make use of bullet points and tables where appropriate, but fragmented expression should be avoided. Evidence will also be needed to support the strategic approach outlined in the Communications Plan. Accordingly, students should provide in-text citations and a list of references. Both academic and industry sources will be valuable sources of evidence and should be cited using the APA system of referencing. All Communications Plans must be submitted to the Turnitin assignment drop box.

Marking criteria:

Professional written presentation appropriate to audience (client).
Demonstrated knowledge of issue and client, evidence of research.
A strategic approach to media selection, media “fit” with the issue and target public.
Content, word length and angle relevant to the audience of target publication/s and or media outlets.
Accuracy and appropriateness of written expression.

Assessment Task #2 - Media Relations Toolkit

This is an individual assessment task.

It requires you to develop a Media Relations Toolkit for the not-for-profit organisation you developed a communications plan for in Assessment #1.

For the purposes of this assessment task, a Media Relations Toolkit comprises:

Media Release
Backgrounder
Media List
Media Plan

This task comprises two parts. BOTH parts must be completed IN FULL and submitted via Turnitin.

PART ONE: Write a Media Release AND Backgrounder for the not-for-profit organisation you developed a communications plan for in Assessment #1.
PART TWO: Develop and submit a Media List AND Media Plan for your proposed campaign. Be sure to include and align with the distribution of your media release and backgrounder.

You should use the templates provided to you in class to write your media releases, backgrounders and media plan.

Marking criteria:

Professional presentation and attractive and appropriate layout.
Evidence of thorough and accurate research.
Evidence of efforts to make information accessible/attractive to journalists.
Quality of written expression and appropriate structure as well as evidence of editing and proofreading.
Strategic choice of release elements.

Assessment #3 - Group Presentation: Weeks 11 and 12

This is a group task.

In groups of 3-4 (max), students are required to research, design and prepare a client pitch presentation to a not-for-profit organisation of their choice.

As a group, you should assume the role of a media relations / PR agency that is 'pitching' the campaign idea to a prospective client.

All group members must contribute equally to the delivery of your pitch presentation.

Audio-visual aids should support your presentation (assuming PowerPoint slide usage, we provide an estimate of around 500 words for this task).

The presentations should be no longer than 15 minutes in duration.

Following the presentation, Groups should allow 5 minutes for questions from their instructor and members of their peer group. Additionally, each student will complete an individual peer evaluation report, where group members assess the contribution of their peers. Both of these tasks will flow into the grade for the assignment for each member.

Marking criteria:

1. Group members are well prepared, organised and work as a team.  2. Presentation is well structured and appropriate to the audience.  3. Content is relevant and clearly explained.  4. Presentation shows strategic intent.  5. Visual aids effectively support the presentation.

Assessment Task #4 - Essay

This is an individual task.

Your 1500-word essay needs to make a scholarly argument, properly referenced, discussing the role of evaluation in the media relations industry and the various methods of evaluating campaigns.

The essay question will be released in Week 6 via CANVAS at 9am on Monday

Marking criteria:

1. Demonstrated understanding of methods of media campaign evaluation. 2. Phases of evaluation research are discussed in terms of application in campaign. 3. Campaign evaluation discussed against the objectives and implementation. 4. Writing, organisation and presentation of the essay is at an adequate level. 5. Follows academic essay conventions, including accurate referencing.

Disclaimer

The University reserves the right to amend units of study or no longer offer certain units, including where there are low enrolment numbers.

To help you understand common terms that we use at the University, we offer an online glossary.

Current students

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Additional information

Additional information

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

Media

Student links

About us

Connect

Current students

MECO6901: Media Relations

Semester 2, 2020 [Normal day] - Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Additional information

Additional information

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

Media

Student links

About us

Connect