As a team, you will edit and create a short video about either a) an outtake video or a behind the scenes video of the flashmob or b) a video to showcase the department. You will develop a creative idea, obtain footage, edit the video, add sound and text, and format it for distribution. Have fun with this one, it is your chance to be creative! Each member in the team receives the same grade earned for the video. Technical Notes
The assignment is due at the end of class on Oct 29th. Contact me if you have questions.
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In your teams, edit and create a short video about the flashmob with the potential to “go viral.” Each member in the team receives the same grade earned for the video.
Technical Notes • Length must be between 1-4 minutes (no more, no less) • Obscene material prohibited – push the envelope, but keep in mind the purpose of the video • Prominently mention our school, give the new website, and link the information to OSU so viewers know what the video is about if unfamiliar with the OSU. • Credits somewhere in the video (preferably at the end) list all the names of team members • Any music or material used must be done so legally (permission from artist) – provide credit for work used. Review Creative Commons licenses on images on Flickr or other image sites. • Write a short description and provide key words to accompany video when it goes on YouTube • You must have at least 5 transitions and 2 graphics. Tips • Understand the audience – inside jokes are good, but not so much if it leaves majority out • Be informational while entertaining, consider a humorous or musical approach • Use other videos as inspiration, but do not completely copy content or concept • Save and back-up all project files often Turning the Video In Submit your video to our Youtube page. I will view your video on YouTube. However, keep all files (the exported .mov/.avi file plus the source file (e.g., iMovie or Windows MovieMaker file) and write the video files to a CD ROM. If the team used a video editing program to edit the video, the team should turn in that project (e.g., iMovie or MovieMaker) file as well on the disk. The disk must have the final movie exported as a .mov or .avi. The short description and key words should be on the CD ROM in a text file. Drop off a copy of your CD or DVD to the Comm Arts office and ask that the disk be placed in my mailbox. Sample Viral Videos There is no “right way” to do this project. Be creative. Do it well. Popular viral videos can inspire (not copy): • Motrin Moms ad • Dear Gossip Girl • UNC Chapel Hill Library Flash Mob • Clarkson University rap • Georgia Tech YouTube rap • Snellebrate UGA rap about Snelling • Go Green Alliance campaigns teams’ videos • Navy flight squadron Sun Kings sing Hey Ya • Dove “Evolution” campaign • Smirnoff tea party and response Green tea party Bonus Opportunity: After each video is be posted on our YouTube channel, there will also be a class competition on our facebook page. The video that receives the most likes on Facebook by the November 1st will get +2 points of adjustment to the viral video project grade. The video in second place with the second most number of views will get a +1 point adjustment to the viral video project grade. Yesterday, my students created and executed a flashmob to promote the name change of our college. It was an awesome, fun and incredible learning experience (for both them and me). For example, they learned how to contact the press, do a social media release, and that no matter how much you can prepare, there will almost always be something that goes wrong. I learned that I can't dance.... I flail. (And, apparently, there is video evidence to prove it.) At least we all learned something. It was a fun experience, and we got some press (which was our end goal), so it was definitely worth the while. Below you'll find a rough video from the dance. College Students Coordinate Flash mob to Promote Name-Change In June 2010, Oklahoma State University’s School of Journalism & Broadcasting officially changed its name to the School of Media & Strategic Communications. In an effort to bring attention to the newly renamed School of Media and Strategic Communications, the school’s Advanced PR Media course is planning and promoting a flash mob: a choreographed, yet seemingly random, dance done by a big group of people lasting only a few minutes. The group, also known on Twitter as @OkStateFlashmob, will be dancing on Sept. 30, before the OSU v. Texas A&M football game and immediately following the Spirit Walk. This flash mob will be the first of its kind in Stillwater (not to be mistaken for the flash rave held during finals week in past years), and has been completely planned and executed by OSU students. This event will be similar to the T-mobile flash mob. WHO: Oklahoma State University’s Media & Strategic Communications students, along with other OSU students, faculty and staff from varying fields and levels of study. Be sure to follow on Twitter (@OKStateflashmob) and Facebook (OKState flashmob) for exclusive video and text updates. WHAT: A student-organized flash mob to create awareness and conversation about the School of Media and Strategic Communications new name. The School of Media & Strategic Communications (formerly School of Journalism & Broadcasting) has a proud tradition of preparing students for successful careers, and providing students a well-rounded education for the future. Interview opportunities are available. WHEN: Sept. 30, 2010; immediately following the 4 p.m. Spirit Walk before the OSU vs. Texas A&M football game. WHERE: The corner of Hester and Athletic Avenue on the OSU campus. A campus map is available here. WHY: This flash mob is a unique way for PR students to have real-world experience planning a large-scale event, communicating with the media, and using the Internet to connect with participants. The flash mob is designed to surprise people and generate excitement for the School of Media and Strategic Communications. BONUS: If you're in one my classes... you get extra credit for participating.
Understanding the basics of Photoshop are important in our line of work. Therefore, you will take three different pictures and alter them in Photoshop. Feel free to utilize the web for step-by-step instructions. Here is a cheat sheet:
http://simplephotoshop.com/photoshop_tools/index.htm. There are plenty of cheat sheets out there, so don’t be afraid to search. For each of these, you must show me the before & after. When completed, it must be uploaded to D2L (or printed in color). 1. Color: Take a CU (close-up) of a flower. (Make sure you give me the original when you turn it in.) Change the photo to Black & White. Feel free to use tutorials:
To get a feel for the social media technologies we will be discussing in class, you will need to learn how to use them. Therefore, starting this week, you will create a blog and post original content throughout the semester. Each week (12 weeks total), you will add new, original content to your blog, tweet about it, and comment on a classmate’s blog. The focus of your blog will be up to you. However, there will be several times during the semester that you must include specific elements. Citing sources in your blog is just as important as it is in any academic paper you write; therefore, plagiarism is not tolerated. However, links are appreciated & encouraged. Link & Summary (6 points) - SUPER-IMPORTANT: In order for you to get credit for your blog, I need to know where it is. Tell me your blog address by completing this Google Form; do this no later than September 5th. When you give me the link, include a 3-4 sentence summary of your blog. A list of blogs will compiled on D2L as well as on CynthiaNichols.com so you can find them easily.
Blog Posts (120 points) - You are required to make one post per week. It does not matter what day of the week you post, so long as you post at least once per week. Please note that you will NOT receive credit for posts that are added late. A week runs from Monday to Sunday. You may choose any topic to write upon during the semester. The point of this assignment is to have you maintain and create a social media presence in whatever area of expertise you so choose. However, there will be required blog topics or elements throughout the semester. For example, you will be required to blog about how social media & PR has had impact in your topic area. Grading Criteria: 1. Post is substantive (thoroughly developed) 2. Post is well written (organization, grammar, spelling) 3. Post demonstrates your understanding of the topic/issue 4. Post included the weekly required element Blog Comments (12 points) - You are required to make one comment per week on the blogs of other SC4493 students. You must keep a log of where you commented, which you will hand in at the end of the semester. For each comment you leave, your log should include the name of the blog you commented on, the URL of the blog post you commented on, the date of the comment, and the actual comment. Please note: I expect substance and civility. Add value to the original post to further deepen the conversation. Do not just say, “I agree,” “Good post,” etc. Do not use expletives, obscenities, etc. If you disagree with the blogger, make your point respectfully and politely. Grading Criteria
Sharing your posts (12 points) - Each week you will also be required to share your posts with the outside world. Remember, we are creating an online brand for you. This will help you get exposure, and possibly a job. (No, really. Just ask @Mikinzie.) To get credit, you must tweet about it, and include the hashtag #SC4493. I will search for #SC4493 to determine if you have completed this part of the assignment. Note: If your tweets are protected, I will not be able to see them. To remedy this, either allow me to follow your tweets or create a public profile. Topic of the Week - You will have a specific topic related to public relations writing to write about. Below is a tentative list of topics/special elements that you need during the semester. (These are subject to change.) Topic Special Element Due Week 1 – Introduce your self, blog & topic None 9/12 Week 2 – Open Pictures 9/19 Week 3 - Pulling from the news Linking 9/26 Week 4 – Social Media/PR impact on topic None 10/3 Week 5 – Viral videos related to your topic Video Embedding 10/10 Week 6 – Interview a Pro Pictures, Linking 10/17 Week 7 – Listening to & Critiquing Podcasts None 10/24 Week 8 – Open Create Podcast 10/31 Week 9 – Watching & Critiquing Vlogs None 11/7 Week 10 – Open Create Vlog 11/14 Week 11 - People to watch Twitter, Linkedin 11/21 Week 12 – Tips for new bloggers None 12/5 Need some help getting started? - Review the slides in Getting Started in WordPress. Watch some of the many FAQ screencasts provided by WordPress to help you with the step-by-step instructions. Here are a few of the best ones to help you get started on the right foot: · What should I do first? · General settings · Where’s my dashboard (and what’s it for)? · Writing & publishing your posts · Choosing and applying a theme (look and feel of your blog) · Displaying your blog’s Categories (using the Category widget) Also, read the blogging tips offered by Barbara Nixon: · 10 Blogging Tips That Will Change Your Life (or Grade, at least): = · 11 Tips for New Bloggers, from New Bloggers ( · 3-5-3 :: Blog Feedback for #PRCA2330 and #PRCA3330 Though you may have a good handle on the technical aspects of blogging, remember that the technical side is only part of the blogging equation. Corinne Weisgerber, a professor at St. Edward’s University and fellow PROpenMic member, created this presentation for her Social Media for PR class. The emphasis? How blogging can help you create your personal brand online. Take a look. It’s worth the time. Blogging & Managing your Personal Brand. For this assignment, you will choose and interview a public relations or advertising professional, and then write about this interview in a concise manner. During this interview, you will interview a PR practitioner about their typical managerial styles, seek advice for future career steps, and analyze the practitioners approach to their job. Though a face-to-face interview is preferred, a phone or webcam interview is acceptable. An interview that is e-mail or text-based only is not acceptable. Schedule your interview at least a week before this assignment is due, preferably two. PR professionals sometimes have unpredictable schedules, and it is possible that you may need to reschedule.
Include an introductory paragraph that introduces the PR professional, including title and company, educational background, etc. Mention your connection to the professional (how you found him/her) and how you conducted the interview (face-to-face, phone or webcam). Include a photo of your interviewee. (This can be a photo he or she provides or one that you take yourself.) This will be analyzed for not only grammar and AP style, but also depth of the questions and analysis of the interview. This assignment will be a minimum of 500 words. When you turn in the assignment, you’ll also need to provide me with the professional’s contact information (name, title, company, phone number and e-mail address). Some questions & topics you may wish to ask: · What’s a typical week like? (If no week is typical, then what was last week like?) · Tell me about a project you worked on that you are especially proud of. · What do you do to keep current in the PR industry? · What do you wish you would have known before starting your career in PR? · How important is writing in your career? · What three tips would you offer someone just starting out in PR? · After interviewing this person, are you (the student, not the practitioner) more or less likely to want to have a career in PR? Why? · What do you do if you (or your client) encounters a crisis? · Are the answers you got from the PR pro what you thought they would be? · Did your education prepare you for working in PR? How? · What has surprised you the most about working in PR? · How has PR changed since you entered the field? · How does technology affect your daily work? · When your company is hiring for an entry-level PR position, what makes a candidate stand out? · What professional organizations are you involved in? (For example, PRSA, IABC, etc.) · Ask for feedback on your resume · More informational interview questions EXTRA CREDIT: For additional credit, you can post this interview on your blog, (If you don’t I’m happy to help you set one up.) include links to the pro’s company and/or linkedin, and photo of the pro. You can also conduct the interview using Skype and two webcams, or record the interview with Vodburner, and then post the interview at your blog. Warm: No, Cool: Yes My first week at Oklahoma State is done, and I have to say, I have that shiny happy feeling. Granted, it is just the first week, but I really like it. There are some smart kids here, and I am definitely looking forward to seeing what they come up with. However, there is something that is bothering me. I loathe to admit it, but I will. You ready? Here goes: My name is Cynthia, I'm an Oklahoma State Cowgirl, and I look horrible in orange. There, I said it. I can, however, pull off a soft tangerine or coral when needed. And that need may be on every Friday. Apparently, everyone (AND I MEAN EVERYONE) wears orange on Fridays. Normally, I would totally support school spirit, but orange isn't exactly a good color for me. I look good in cool tones, jewel tones, and softer hues. Bright orange... not so much. However, I love this job, this school, and my students. So, even though I look horrible in orange and most warm tones, I will try my hardest to pull it off. With that said, I'll leave you with a Roll Tide! & Go Pokes! This past semester, I have had the privilege to teach some of the best and the brightest PR students in the nation. How do I know this? Well, two reasons. First, The University of Alabama's Advertising & Public Relations department has recently been ranked the #1 undergraduate PR program in the nation by PR Week. We even have a sign to prove it. I've been a part of teaching in the APR department since January of 2007, and let me just tell you, there are some exceptional students here at Alabama. As corny as it may sound, I really love these kids. I honestly think that some of them have the potential to take over the world. (When y'all do, just remember Ms./Dr. Nichols, okay?) The second reason? Well, when you challenge the APR students at Alabama, they will rise to the occasion. Case in point: PR Campaigns. This semester my PR Campaigns students had an extremely challenging and rewarding start-up company for their client. I'm sure it scared them to death at first, but in the end, the client was extremely impressed. They even told me that the work looked like it was done by a professional agency. My response? A gentle smile and an "Of course. That's what we do here are Alabama." (Although inside my head I was doing some major fist pumps, but I think I pulled off serene and knowledgeable.) The thing about teaching college students is that not every student is going to like you. In fact, some may hate you. But if you challenge them & they learn, then you've done your job... and I'm okay with that. While teaching in the APR department, I've learned that my job is not to be their friend, but to get them ready for the real world... and I think I do. In fact, I got one of the best possible compliments in an email from one of my students today:
Before I get any further, let me just say that NO campaigns class is easy. Students have to take everything they have learned up to their final semester and integrate the information into a seamless campaign. It is very intimidating. I remember being there *cough cough cough* years ago, and it was scary as hell. You wanted to do well, but you were also terrified that everything would fall apart and you would never be able to graduate. (Whoa. I'm having flashbacks.) But, I also remember the point that it all clicked because I had an awesome professor that challenged my team at every turn and changed my life. (Thanks, Dr. Mullins.) I want to be that professor for my students, because I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they can do it. Okay, so back to my PR Campaigns kids and their extremely challenging/rewarding client. Like I said, the other reason that I know I've worked with the best and the brightest is that when I challenge my students, I really challenge them. And, man, do they ever rise to the occasion. Our client this semester was a VERY unique one. Think your kids can handle a local non-profit? Great. How about a national start-up company that has 3 target audiences and a VERY unique position in the market? When I say start-up, I mean a company that is a week old. Did I mention I like to challenge them (and myself)? Yeah. Enter PlayScience. According to their brand-spanking new website, "PlayScience is a research, consulting, and innovation firm on a mission to break down the walls between industry innovators, academics, and consumers. We are passionate about helping organizations create groundbreaking play and entertainment products that have a positive impact, especially for kids and families. We offer a full range of research services, from in-home ethnographies to nationally-representative surveys using our proprietary PlayLab research panel. From start-ups to the big players, we provide strategic consulting and innovation services to help them understand and engage their audiences and consumers." For those of you who still don't get PlayScience, here is their vision: In essence, they want to be able to link academics, families, and the media industry so that better products can be made to entertain AND educate kids. (If you are a parent and want to participate, read about PlayLab.) That's a lot to wrap your head around, right? Now, imagine you are a college Senior and you have to come up with a PR campaign for this company as your capstone project. You hate me already, don't you? Can you imagine the sheer panic that my students probably experienced when I tried to explain PlayScience to them? For the first couple weeks of class, I had A LOT of deer in the headlight stares. They probably thought I was crazy. Heck, I may have been. But, after a semester of cursing my name and my red pen, they had AMAZING final projects. I saw so many light bulbs go off this semester, it was ridiculous. One by one, they started to get it, and slowly but surely their campaigns formed. They understood the client, and came up with unique ideas in every single campaign. At the final presentation, the client was blown away. PlayScience told the students that if they took their campaign books into any job interview, it could very easily land them the job... because they had done professional, quality work. I'm not going to tell you about the specific ideas that they came up (because that's confidential). However, I will tell you that @PlayScience is already implementing them. My students can go into the workforce knowing that a national company is implementing their ideas. That's pretty cool. And to make the semester just a little more interesting, the teams competed for an "A" in the class. If the client chose their campaign as the winner, then the students in that group got an "A" for the semester, no questions asked. It got pretty competitive, and I'm pretty sure that a few hearts were broken when the winning team was announced. But the client fell in love with the Aqua campaign, and it was a good one. (Congratulations, ladies, you did a fantastic job.) To ALL of my students: You did an exceptional job, and should be very proud of yourselves. You not only survived the class, but you thrived under extreme circumstances. I am very proud of you. I know it wasn't easy, but I really hope you learned something. If you ever have questions, just ask. If you are interested in hiring one of my students, please contact me. They are extremely bright, hard-working, and were willing to put in the long hours needed to create professional-level, quality work. If this semester is any indication, they have VERY bright futures ahead of them.
Note: All information about PlayScience shared or created in this class is strictly confidential. The information in these campaigns will not be shared outside the parameters of this class. Call me crazy, but I love lightbulbs. No, not the Thomas Edison type of lightbulb, but the figurative ones. The ones that I get to see pop up above my students heads. If you have ever been an educator of any sort, then you know what I'm talking about. It appears the instant a kid gets it. You can try to hammer it into their heads until you're blue in the face. You may be frustrated and think you can't explain it anymore... but then, all of a sudden, a light flickers on and it changes your entire day. You can do anything; you can teach anything; what you're doing matters. And, that lightbulb inspires you to find new and different ways to get other lightbulbs. Because, as a teacher, your main goal is for your students to get it, to understand, and to want to know more. I think my love for lightbulbs started at Space Camp. Laughing? Go ahead, get the jokes out of your system... I've heard them all. And you know what? I don't care. It could quite possibly be the best job/experience I've ever had. Got it out of your system? Good. Okay... like I was saying... Space Camp. It was working at Space Camp that I first saw the lightbulb. I was explaining the propulsion system of the STS (space shuttle) and looked at my team to discover... lightbulbs. Lightbulbs were everywhere. Granted, we were sitting under a life-sized shuttle stack, but it could possibly be one of the greatest teaching moments I've ever had. Sixteen little bodies with 16 little lightbulbs above them. It was truly fantastic. I got a couple lightbulbs today, and it made my day. I decided to scrap the lecture in order to spend one on one time with the students and their research projects. As I went to each group, I noticed something... after I left, there were a couple lightbulbs flickering. They weren't everywhere, but there were some definite sparks. And it reaffirmed my belief in the value of one on one time with students. We can wax philosophic about a topic all day, but until we show the students how to do something, and let them think it through, we may never get any lightbulbs. An old Chinese proverb says it best. "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you can feed him for a lifetime." Same with students. Give a students the information, they can pass a test. Give a student a lightbulb, and they will learn for a lifetime. As my friend @BarbaraNixon told me, "sometimes it's an incandescent & other times it's a slow, flickering fluorescent. But all lightbulbs are good." And I agree. Students may not get all of it all of the time, but as long as I can still see a flicker of light somewhere, I'm in. At least that's my take. C |
AuthorI'm a Ph.D. in Mass Communication, PR Consultant, & SM junkie. Archives
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