Your Annotated Bibliography Assignment

For your annotated bibliography, you will extensively search library-owned and electronically available sources on a particular topic. 



The goal is to create a bibliography which you will use in the future to write up a situational analysis for your client as an organization and your client's priority public.

You will need to summarize the most current (no later than ten years old) journal articles, periodical publications (maximum of 4), and electronically available research reports that directly deal with the chosen topic. I wrote a blog post about finding sources for your annotated bibliography. You should review that ASAP. Also, I have a Google document that lists key resources and references that you should consider for the theories you have to discuss. 

Thus, you will need to create a bibliography of 40+ sources. These sources include scholarly journal articles, electronically available research reports, and books. Make sure that your bibliography addresses the following: research on the industry as a whole, research on the organization; research of the priority publics, any previous publications/media hits about the organization and/or its issues/activities.



The assignment will produce the most current peer-reviewed research and periodical sources in your area of interest.



Your abstracts should be in bibliographical format, each with an APA style citation followed by a summary of the selected article. Specifically, each summary has to be two (2) paragraphs long. Group articles with same commonalities together in one subtitled section (e.g., all references related to nonprofit public relations belong in one section).



In order to write a good summary, you HAVE TO get familiar with the entire article, not just the abstract or index. Your summary has to be written in your own words. NO plagiarism allowed. You cannot use exact sentences from articles for your summary. You will lose points if you only paraphrase abstracts.


To find an electronic source, use the Research link on the Institute for Public Relations website. If there are no research reports on your topic available, go to other reliable electronic resources to access research articles. You need to find electronic-only research journals in mass communication or communication. NO electronic version or printed journals, private, commercial, and unidentifiable sites are allowed! Check with any librarian or Dr. Tindall if you are not sure whether this electronic research is truly scholarly. 



You will be evaluated on the relevance and quality of the sources and summaries and on the APA style.

Selected Topics from PRSA Trends for Jan. 25 & Jan. 26

Apple Creates Buzz Without Saying a Word
The New York Times

PR Newswire and Hispanic PR Wire Launch Spanish-Language ProfNet
Daily Dog

Marketing to Muslims Poses a Challenge for Retailers
The Los Angeles Times

PRSAY: Is Supreme Court's Decision a PR Boon?

Three New Apps for 2010
ReadWriteWeb

Trolling for Social Media Strategy
ComPRehension

Check out PR@GeorgiaState

Last semester, I started PR @ Georgia State, a blog for GSU students. I thought this would be an easy way for students to get up-to-date information on the local and national job and internship market.

I post job and internship announcement on this site, and I also post networking opportunities. I will send you some job postings via e-mail, but please check the PR @ Georgia State as we go through the semester.

Client Assignments

Based on your client preferences I have assigned you to the following groups:
1:30 p.m.

Group 1 (Smith, Perez,Nguyen,Lowe): First Book

Group 2 (Nxumalo, Pardner, Corlette, Green): Enchanted Closet

Group 3 (Rispin, Dubois, Northen, Valentine): Center for Puppetry Arts

3:00 p.m.

Group One: First Book

Group Two: Center for Puppetry Arts

Group Four: Enchanted Closet

Group Five: Department of Communication

The full client briefs for the Spring 2010 PR Research clients is available for your viewing.

Finding Resources for Your Annotated Bibliography

Your annotated bibliography is the building block for your primary research. It seems daunting and overwhelming, but I am available to assist and review the documents you procure.

To build your annotated bibliography, here are some sites with explanations of what to include and how to build it:
Cornell University Library: How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography
Purdue University Online Writing Lab: Annotated Bibliographies
University of North Carolina: Annotated Bibliographies

As you start collecting resources, one site that will be helpful is Dr. Kirk Hallahan's PR Bibliography. The site has not been updated since 2006, but the listed books and articles are good jumping off points for your research. (I would strongly suggest chasing the bibliography of your documents to located more materials.) Within the bibliography, I would suggest looking in the following sections: Publics, Public Opinion, Activism (section 1), Communication Theories, Nonprofit/Fundraising.

When doing your online search for documents, develop a list of pertinent search terms. Use the client document as a guide. Pull key words and phrases from that document. For example, your clients have asked you to look at their social media presence. When searching you should look for social networks, social media, social networking, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and online technologies.

(An excellent resource for social media trends is the Pew Internet Research Center. Use this as a jumping off point. I would also suggest Charlene Li's Groundswell, a book on social media trends, and suggest reviewing Danah Boyd's research.)

All of your clients are nonprofits. I would suggest that you look for materials using the term "nonprofit public relations" as well as "nonprofit PR", "nonprofit marketing," "nonprofit fundraising" (or development).

To better understand your public (the group/collection of people you hope to understand) and who it is , I would suggest looking at Census data and looking for psychographic information. I would also recommend that you look to this site for book chapters that may be relevant to your search and understanding of publics.

To understand how to differentiate your publics, I would also recommend that you review the public relations research on publics. This will help you understand the type of public you are reaching (active, latent or aware) and how to communicate to those groups. To start, look at this article on inactive publics, this article on idenjavascript:void(0)tifying key publics using a case study with Louisiana wildlife, this article on segmenting publics.

If you have any questions or concerns, please e-mail me or see me during office hours.

Sites that Jason Puckett Mentioned in His Talk

I hope everyone learned something in the library presentation.

The librarian who spoke to our classes, Jason Puckett, mentioned a few sites:

http://research.library.gsu.edu/pr1209: This site was built for your class and contains links to databases and resources that will help with your client research.

GIL Find: This site will take you directly to the university's catalog.

Zotero: This is the online bibliographic tool you can use.

A Tale of Two Styles: Associated Press and American Psychological Association

In PR Research, you will use two styles for your class projects.

You will use AP style for the narrative writing you will do. The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, usually called the AP Stylebook, is a style and usage guide used by newspapers and in the news industry in the United States. The book is updated annually by Associated Press editors, usually in June.

Some references for AP style are:
AP Stylebook
Media Writing Tips

You will use APA style for your references. American Psychological Association (APA) style is a widely accepted style of documentation, particularly in the social sciences. APA style specifies the names and order of headings, formatting, and organization of citations and references, and the arrangement of tables, figures, footnotes, and appendices, as well as other manuscript and documentation features. APA style uses the author-date style of parenthetical referencing, with such source citations keyed to a subsequent list of "References." The APA Publication Manual provides basic guidelines for documenting both print and electronic resources. The section on electronic resources is updated and supplementd by the APA Style Guide to Electronic References (APA, 2007).

Some references for APA style are:
Long Island University Library Workshop
APA Formatting and Style Guide - The OWL at Purdue

Syllabus Scavenger Hunt

Welcome to PR Research.

To be successful in this course, you need to be familiar with the course administration resources (syllabus and course schedule) that I have given you.

Working collaboratively in small groups, you will discover the answers to the following questions about the syllabus for the course.

What is your professor’s name?


List two ways you can get in touch with your professor.


In your own words, state the learning objectives for this course.


What is academic honesty?




Are handwritten assignments accepted? Are there any exceptions?




Of the listed goals and objectives for this course, which one do you consider to be the most important? Why?


In your own words, describe the purpose and requirements of the final project.


What materials will you need for this course?


When is your first assignment due?


When is the final exam?


How many exams are there in this course? How many points is each one worth?


What is the minimum number of points required to pass this class?


Is late work accepted? What is the policy on turning things in late?


What is Blackboard/ULearn? How will it be used in this class?


For what reason(s) would a student be granted an incomplete in the course?


How will your grade be determined in this course? (How many points is each assignment worth?)


What is your professor’s opinion on cell phones and other electronic devices in class?


Check any of the following items which are true regarding doing well in this class.

• Attend class regularly
• Read the material
• Complete assignments
• Study
• Prepare to adequately discuss information and issues
• Spend half of each class text messaging your friends and the other half dozing
• Devote as much time to developing “creative” excuses why your work isn’t done as actually doing the work

Also, list two questions that you have about this course that are not answered on the syllabus.

What Color is Your Bra?

If you didn't get a Facebook message last week that asked you the color of your bra or undies, you were in the minority.

I got one:

We are playing a game...... silly, but fun! Write the colour of your bra as your status, just the colour, nothing else!! Copy this and pass it on to all girls/Females on your chat ...... NO MEN!! This will be fun to see how it spreads, and we are leaving the men wondering why all females just have a colour as their status!! Let's have fun!! And - as you do this - keep all the women who have breast cancer in your prayer 

A lot of people participated.

A lot of people were not too happy at the range of colors on display.

Review these documents and we will discuss in class.
Facebook Bra Color Campaign Goes Viral But Nobody Knows the Source

What Color Is Your Bra? Facebook's Pointless Underwear Protest

Facebook bra color question: Real breast cancer awareness effort, or slacktivism at its finest?

What are your thoughts?

How do you think this relates to Public Relations Research?