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FINAL EXAM REVIEW

(NEW ITEMS IN BOLD)

Here's a preliminary breakdown of the exam: Ten questions will be from the textbook, although there is some overlap. About five will be from or related to the presentations. The ratio of old material to new is about 50-50, although there's a lot of overlap. The numbers from each section are likely to be: two from definition; three from history; four from roles; two from ethics; nine from law; nine from theories; 14 from research; five from management; and 13 from communication, audiences, media and messages (weeks 13 & 14).

About three questions are from the presentations on Nike, Iraq and the baseball strike and eight are from the textbook, weeks 10-14.

Studying and test-taking hints: Highlight when you read and review lecture notes. Try to go over your highlighted notes and text at least twice. Underline key words and rehearse their meaning so that you get beyond the "I think I know it" phase of learning (when material looks familiar, but we don't really know it). It's important to comprehend the material rather than merely memorizing so you can (1) apply the concepts to fact situations, and (2) recognize the concept when worded in a way not precisely memorized. There will be some synthesis and application questions. If you don't understand a concept, see me or email me at lperry@jou.ufl.edu.

BE SURE TO BRING A PICTURE I.D. and a No. 2 pencil with eraser.

  1. The class definition of public relations.


  2. The four models of public relations, their characteristics and who are associated with them.


  3. The "great leaders" of PR and their contributions to the field or noteworthy achievements, such as Ivy Ledbetter Lee, Edward L. Bernays, and Samuel Adams.


  4. Public opinion theories; contributions of James Madison and Bernard Hennessey.


  5. Systems theory's contributions to PR. Elements of a system and PR's role. Terms: proactive and feedback; negative feedback.


  6. The importance to PR of accuracy, truth and the public interest, both in terms of ethics and legal issues. The role of PR in a democracy.


  7. The major activities of PR practitioners, and the most pervasive activity at all levels.


  8. The role of the First Amendment in American democracy and the impact of that role on corporate speech; rationale for restrictions on corporate speech, past and present.


  9. The significance to public relations of Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight, First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, Consolidated Edison Co. of New York v. Public Service Commission of New York, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. v. Public Utilities Commission of California, and Cohen v. Cowles Media.


  10. Principles, rules of law and/or issues of Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference v. Noerr Motor Freight, First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti and Cohen v. Cowles Media.


  11. Financial disclosure reports for investors required by SEC and rationale for mandating them; fiduciary responsibilities under the Securities Act of 1934.


  12. Impact on corporations and unions of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 and its 1974 and 1979 amendments; soft money and its significance. Relevant changes in Campaign Finance Reform legislation of 2002.


  13. Most significant contributions to media effects theories of: Lazersfeld's presidential campaign study, "The People's Choice"; the Cantril Study of public reaction to the radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds"; The World War II studies of the effects of Frank Capra's films.


  14. Primary and leading secondary sources of attitudes; roles of attitudes on behavior and vice versa. Ordered steps to persuasion; barriers to persuasion; elements of source credibility.


  15. Social learning theory and assimilation-contrast theory and application of each to PR.


  16. Research designs; research to determine causation, to generalize to a population, random sampling; qualitative v. quantitative research; internal validity; external validity.


  17. RACE; its use in PR. Problem definition & criteria. Roles of research in management; use of Gannt charts.


  18. Goals, objectives, MBO's, strategies, tactics. Importance of specifics in setting and achieving objectives and in effective messages.


  19. Objective of publicity; pitfalls; what makes publicity effective on public opinion.


  20. Members of public information system. The nature of the relationship between news and public relations; guidelines for good media relations. Elements of PR press releases. News values; agenda-setting.


  21. Presentations: PR or public opinion principles, theories, etc., that were correctly applied: Nike, Iraq, baseball strike.


  22. Situational theory.


  23. Advantages and disadvantages of kinds of surveys; sampling error & how it affects results; kinds of survey questions such as psychographics, demographics, etc.


  24. Formulating research design.


  25. How PR practitioners achieve effective communication.


  26. TEXTBOOK: PR publications and objectives; tools in media relations to obtain coverage of an event.


  27. TEXTBOOK: Research in PR to set and evaluate communication goals and objectives; levels of evaluation; how PR objectives are stated.


  28. TEXTBOOK: Audience trends that PR communicators must be aware of; most significant aspects of U.S. audiences; basic concepts of issues management.


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