Behind “The Brief”
Inside MSU’s PR 320: PR Storytelling for Digital, Video and Print
Photo Credit: Michigan State University
As part of Michigan State University’s PR 320: PR Storytelling for Digital, Video and Print, undergraduate PR Majors create original content suitable for publication on the Department of Advertising + Public Relations website, The Brief. Known as “The Student Voice of AD+PR,” The Brief is produced monthly during the academic year and features digital and video stories produced by enrolled undergraduate students.
“From public relations and integrated marketing to advertising, storytelling is at the heart of every professional communicator’s job,” said Amanda Vasas, course instructor. “This course gives students the chance to gives students the opportunity to hone their digital and video PR storytelling skills for students, faculty and alumni audience.”
Since spring 2020, Vasas, now in her eighth year of teaching for the Department of Advertising + Public Relations, has led this advanced public relations writing and editing course in a fully online, asynchronous format – teaching students how to package stories for digital, social media, print and video platforms regardless of their geographic location. In spring 2022, undergraduates enrolled in course were assigned to produce two videos telling the stories of the Department of AD+PR’s scholarship and awards recipients for their final project for the class.
As part of the course’s video storytelling unit, students were surveyed for their preferences for roles and responsibilities as part of two 15-member teams, to carry out the Herculean task of developing two video stories soup to nuts: from creative concept, scripting and recording voiceover and interviewing 20 scholarship recipients – all without ever being in the same classroom or in-person location. Amidst Omicron’s unprecedented wave of COVID-19 disrupting the semester’s progress, the course’s 30 undergraduates produced two PR videos, sharing the stories of some of the department’s top undergraduate and graduate students, and promoting its Awards and Scholarships and Program.
“I knew the magnitude of this video project’s scope combined with the semester’s circumstances would be a challenge, but I also know what our MSU PR Majors are capable of,” said Vasas. “The final product is a testament to these students’ determination, grit and talent as future PR storytellers.”
Check out the class’s final video stories below and as part of The Brief’s Summer 2022 Special Issue:
How We Got to Now:
Meet MSU AD+PR’s 2022 Undergraduate Scholarship Recipients
Taliah Martinez, PR 320 Multimedia Intern/Video Editor
Katie Franz, Project Manager
Moriah Hartfield and Becca Wynne, Editors
Fanta Kaba and Grace Kos-Dondlinger, Creative Team
Interviewers:
Max Dutra
Kelsey Gruzin
Kaitlyn Keele
Mason Kerecz
Maria Laskowski
Nia Lanier-Mitchell
Anna Lionas
Emma Ross
Keeley Ziegler
Researchers, Innovators and Changemakers:
Meet MSU AD+PR’s 2022 Graduate Scholarship Recipients
Taliah Martinez, PR 320 Multimedia Intern/Video Editor
Rachel Eyre, Project Manager
Lacie Kunselman and Morgan Vandenberg, Editors
Evan Hardacre and Olivia Neppel, Creative Team
Interviewers:
John Avery
Audri Carmona-Chavez
Zoe Church
John Hart
Stephen Hawn
Gabby Huerta
Taiyier Parks
Madison Parsons
Sarah Peltz
Avery Tyson