Program Overview

Public Relations Certificate

Program Overview

The Graduate Academic Certificate in Public Relations is specifically designed for professional journalists, public relations practitioners, educators, authors, writing instructors, editors, and researchers currently working in the media, public relations, advertising, or business arena with an interest in or responsibility for public relations.

Program Type

• Graduate Academic Certificate

Format

• On Campus
• Online
• Hybrid

Estimated Time to Complete

• 1 year

Credit Hours

• 15

Program Description

Develop your persuasive communications skills to influence public opinion and advance your career. The Graduate Academic Certificate in Public Relations is positioned to provide additional education for media practitioners wishing to increase their knowledge as they move into management positions. Professionals in other fields (such as advertising, human resources, and emergency management) who find themselves responsible for public relations will also benefit from obtaining the certificate.

Program Highlights

• State-of-the-art technology and classroom labs with the latest software applications
• Preparation with the latest academic and professional material, including an overview of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for contemporary practices of public relations
• Up to 15 hours will apply toward a master's degree for those who wish to pursue an advanced degree in journalism
• Courses offered at the UNT campus in Denton, at the UNT campus in downtown Dallas, and at various venues in the DFW Metroplex

Courses

• Media Studies and Theories (3 hrs)
  • Examines mass communication as a social system and the contributions of social scientists to the study of mass communication
• Media Ethics (3 hrs)
  • Promotes the development of critical thinking and reasoning skills needed in mass and hyper media
• Strategic Persuasion and Media Effects (3 hrs)
  • Theories about social influence, persuasion, and media effects focusing on source, receiver, message, and medium
• New Technologies of Mass Communication (3 hrs)
  • Theoretical and practical approaches to new technologies
• Advanced Study in Advertising and Public Relations for Social Good (3 hrs)
  • Learning and practicing various strategies that advertising, public relations, and marketing professionals use to change consumer behavior for the purpose of social marketing, or for promoting prosocial behavior
• Advanced Public Relations Campaigns (3 hrs)
  • Research, plan, create, execute, and evaluate a multimedia public relations campaign for a designated client

School Information

• Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism
• Sycamore Hall, Room 206
• 1155 Union Circle, Denton, Texas

Additional Information

• The Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism at UNT is among the nation's top schools for journalism and mass communication, with undergraduate and graduate degree programs that prepare students for careers in print and digital journalism, broadcast journalism, advertising, public relations, and photojournalism.