Suggested Public Relations Courses

Courses for those interested in public relations and marketing

The courses listed below will give you some of the skills you need to be successful in public relations. Please note that courses without a COM prefix mean that you will need to abide by any course registration restrictions set by the managing department. This is for guidance purposes only.

Internships allow you the opportunity to practice those skills in a real world setting. The best public relations internships are with non-profit agencies, such as the Red Cross, museums, environmental groups, etc. Government agencies; cities, county, and state and private sector public relation firms.

You can get more detailed information on public relation internships from the Communication Commons in room CMU 118. A good public relations internship will involve a great deal of writing such as press releases and newsletters and the participation in every phase of a public relations campaign. You should leave your internship with a portfolio of work that you could show a future employer. Ideally your internships will serve as a bridge to your first public relations position.

For this reason it is important to choose an internship that will give you the most material for your resume. The best time to do an internship is in your junior and senior years. Ideally you should complete COM 444 and 359 before doing an internship. The more course work you have completed, the more you will bring to the internship and the more you will get out of it.

For more hands-on experience, check out the Public Relations Student Society of America on the student organizations page.

COM 220 INTRO TO PUBLIC SPEAKING
COM 270 INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION
COM 231 INTRODUCTION TO RHETORIC
COM 334 ESSENTIALS OF ARGUMENT
COM 343 EFFECTS OF MASS COMMUNICATION
COM 351 INTERVIEWING
COM 359 WRITING FOR MASS MEDIA
COM 377 ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION
COM 395 INTERNSHIPS
COM 444 PUBLIC RELATIONS AND SOCIETY
COM 452 CRISIS COMMUNICATION
COM 471 PERSUASION
MGKT 301 MARKETING CONCEPTS (this does not count for COM credit)