Program Overview

Public Relations Degree

Program Overview

The Bachelor of Arts in Journalism with a concentration in Public Relations from the Mayborn School of Journalism emphasizes the skills of persuasion gained from extensive hands-on experience working in state-of-the-art technology labs and with different media. Public relations professionals are responsible for developing and maintaining the public image for corporations, non-profits, government agencies, educational institutions, professional sports organizations, civic groups, and more.

Program Details

• Program Type: Major
• Format: On Campus, Online, Hybrid
• Estimated Time to Complete: 4 years
• Credit Hours: 120

Program Description

Developed in close partnership with industry, the Mayborn School of Journalism curriculum gives students broad and diverse skills for work in multiple media platforms. Students develop the skills needed to analyze, evaluate, and inform a global audience, as well as to consider the ethical implications of mass communication and its impact in today's world. Mayborn students have access to multimedia labs featuring state-of-the-art computers, software, and video equipment. The school emphasizes curriculum and career advising and mentoring by professionally trained faculty and staff.

Marketable Skills

• Oral and written communication
• How to collect, analyze, and interpret information
• Knowledge of media operations
• Storytelling with graphic design/visual materials
• Teamwork

Public Relations Degree Highlights

• UNT is located within the fifth-largest media market in the country, offering access to numerous outstanding internship opportunities at advertising agencies throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
• Hands-on experience through coursework, cutting-edge classrooms and labs, and through extensive student-run media outlets, such as North Texas Daily, NTTV, and NT Daily Radio.
• Student organizations are regularly recognized as among the best in the nation and provide students with valuable connections, mentorship opportunities, and the chance to learn from alumni and other working professionals.
• Explore international media systems, including the press, magazines, broadcasting, and online media, and earn credit hours through study abroad opportunities.
• The Mayborn faculty brings more than 400 years of combined experience in real-world settings to our classrooms to inform and inspire our nearly 1,000 students. And Mayborn alumni work at the heart of some of the world's leading media and communications companies.

Career Outlook

A career in journalism is exciting, dynamic, and critical to the future of an informed and enlightened American society. The Mayborn School of Journalism provides students with the creative and critical-thinking skills to prepare them to work in fields including:

• Journalism — News and sports reporting, writing, visual journalism (stills and video), design, and publishing for the internet, newspapers, broadcast, magazines, and books
• Advertising — For agencies, corporations, nonprofit organizations, and media
• Public Relations — For agencies, corporations, government, and non-profit organizations
• Internet — Web and desktop publishing, podcasting, and blogging
• Education — Teaching in secondary schools or institutions of higher learning

Public Relations Degree Courses

• Applied Design for Advertising and Public Relations (3 hrs)
  • Lab setting that incorporates lectures and demonstrations with hands-on experience where students learn and apply the fundamentals of core software applications used in the advertising and public relations industry. Lectures also cover an appreciation of graphic design, typography, and other principles used by professionals in advertising and public relations.
• Fundamentals of Public Relations Practices (3 hrs)
  • Broad overview of public relations practices covering the history, mechanism, and processes of public relations in various workplace settings and types of relations. Emphasis is on the four-step public relations process, strategic planning, writing formats, and real-world cases. Implications of technological changes, globalization, as well as unethical and illegal practices are discussed.
• Sport Media Relations (3 hrs)
  • Course explores the purpose, processes, and careers in sport media relations including history, media convergence, economics, budgets, operations, law, and ethics of sport media communication. Course will survey sport media careers and provide a better understanding of sport media career opportunities.
• Public Relations Campaigns (3 hrs)
  • Provides classroom situation where students work in teams to research, plan, create, execute, and evaluate a multimedia public relations campaign for a designated client. Students use their accumulated knowledge from their major courses.
• Public Relations for Non-Profits (3 hrs)
  • Examines the philosophical and theoretical foundations of public relations and volunteerism in the United States. Students learn to apply these theories to public relations campaigns in the nonprofit sector. Strategic communication strategies relating to both internal and external publics are explored, including the unique legal and ethical issues impacting non-profits.
• Public Relations Communication (3 hrs)
  • Advanced PR writing, planning, and media relations, including writing strategic communications plans as well as writing, editing, and producing a wide range of public relations communications materials for traditional and new media.