The school has noticed a growing trend of students toward public relations and marketing rather than journalism over the last couple of years. But most students and faculty in the school still feel the fields are closely related enough to be in the same department.
Daniel Lathrop, one of the Journalism professors at UI, said, “We definitely have students who are choosing to pursue careers in public relations, maybe more than we’ve seen before. I think it’s been a gradual addition over time. But I also think it’s a healthy thing to keep public relations and journalism in the same school.”
The Director of the school, David Ryfe explained that the demand for such classes has exploded, with maybe as much as 70% of the students taking classes in the school wanting more PR and communication strategies classes than journalism ones. He said, “The field has exploded so that the boundaries between public relations, advertising, and journalism … They’ve all blurred. We’re moving where our students are moving. Such a large percentage of our students come to us with an interest in strategic communications. We’re seeing fewer and fewer students interested in journalism.”
Since many colleges have not had PR departments in the past, this trend likely will see other universities and schools adding more PR classes to their curriculum to meet the growing demand from students. That’s an outcome likely to improve the PR industry over the coming years as students move from classrooms to internships and jobs better prepared to do what the clients need.Featured PR & Marketing Coverage
By EPR Editorial Team2 min read
U of Iowa Journalism school Adds PR & Strategic Communications classes
By EPR Editorial Team2 min read
The school has noticed a growing trend of students toward public relations and marketing rather than journalism over the last couple of years. But most students and faculty in the school still feel the fields are closely related enough to be in the same department.
Daniel Lathrop, one of the Journalism professors at UI, said, “We definitely have students who are choosing to pursue careers in public relations, maybe more than we’ve seen before. I think it’s been a gradual addition over time. But I also think it’s a healthy thing to keep public relations and journalism in the same school.”
The Director of the school, David Ryfe explained that the demand for such classes has exploded, with maybe as much as 70% of the students taking classes in the school wanting more PR and communication strategies classes than journalism ones. He said, “The field has exploded so that the boundaries between public relations, advertising, and journalism … They’ve all blurred. We’re moving where our students are moving. Such a large percentage of our students come to us with an interest in strategic communications. We’re seeing fewer and fewer students interested in journalism.”
Since many colleges have not had PR departments in the past, this trend likely will see other universities and schools adding more PR classes to their curriculum to meet the growing demand from students. That’s an outcome likely to improve the PR industry over the coming years as students move from classrooms to internships and jobs better prepared to do what the clients need.Written by
EPR Editorial Team
EPR Editorial Team - Author at Everything Public Relations
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