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SUGGESTED LESSON PLANS

THE IMAGE OF THE PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTITIONER IN
MOVIES AND TELEVISION
1909-2011

11:46:05  - 326 movie and television clips

DISC ONE: The Image of the Public Relations Practitioner in Movies and TV
1901 to 1959–  113 clips – 3:41:07
DISC TWO: The Image of the Public Relations Practitioner in Movies and TV
1960 to 1996 – 120 clips – 4:02:49
DISC THREE: The Image of the Public Relations Practitioner in Movies and TV
1997 to 2011 – 93 clips – 4:02:39

NOTE: There is profanity, nudity and sexual innuendo in this video. Please screen privately before showing it to your class.

Here are some suggested lesson plans using this video or supplementing it by showing the complete films and television shows excerpted on the video:

1. Teach a class on The Image of the Public Relations Practitioner in Popular Culture. Each week or two highlight a different decade. Have the students research what real public relations practitioners were doing in real life in the 1930s, the 1940s, and the rest of the 20th century and 21st centuries decade by decade. Break up the 11-hour-plus video by showing portions of it during the appropriate weeks. Each decade's excerpts run between 45 minutes and 90 minutes. You can show the complete 1930s, for example in one class session or over two class sessions. Then go on to the 1940s, and so on.
2. Have the students compare the images of the public relations practitioners from the 1930s with the the current image of the public relations practitioner in films and TV programs.
3. Review films made outside the United States and compare and contrast those films featuring public relations practitioners with American films featuring public relations practitioners. How are the portrayals different, the same?
4. Describe the stereotypes prevalent in films featuring public relations practitioners.
5. Have students supplement the work you do in class by reading and reporting on novels featuring public relations practitioners. You can find a complete list of novels featuring public relations practitioners in the IJPC Database. Under comments, write "public relations."  Then under "Type," highlight all the novels and hit Submit. A list will instantly show up on the screen. About 266 novels will appear for your students to investigate.
6. Discuss alcoholism and public relations using examples on the video. Discuss image versus reality.
7. Discuss the good vs. evil images of the public relations practitioner. What qualities make a "good" image, what qualities make a "bad" image.
8. Discuss the differences and similarities between the image of the public relations practitioner in films as opposed to television programs.
9. Discuss why press secretaries, political aides and military information officers run the gamut from evil to heroic. Use key examples such as Washington: Behind Closed Doors to The West Wing.
10. Discuss why the public has such a negative image of the public relations practitioner? Is it  the images they see in films and TV programs, and read in novels. Does the industry have a problem and how does it resolve that problem?