2008 PROCEEDINGS - Public Relations Society of America

IMC as its own discipline and utilize it in the early 1990s. Some 15 years later, the level of
integration between advertising and public relations courses noted in this study indicate that
academic programs are finally catching on to a healthy extent, and that graduates can better
connect their degree work with the realities they encounter in their first job with an advertising
agency or public relations firm.
The moderate-to-high integration scores (.70 and .64 respectively) that respondents
provided in the “courses” and “course topics” sections should provide further inspiration to those
pursuing curricular integration.
Implications
The findings in this study create implications for educators and administrators in four
major areas of work: (1) program and curriculum planning, (2) faculty hiring, (3) ties to industry,
and (4) institutional issues.
Program and curriculum planning. JMC educators face critical choices related to the
kind of programs they want to develop. The findings in this study should not be taken to mean
that total curricular integration is desirable or possible for all JMC programs. Many high-quality
JMC programs are training students to be journalists, media professionals and others who pursue
career agendas that have little to do with advertising, public relations, or IMC. Curricular
integration based on IMC principles is not a realistic or desirable goal for all programs.
However, the findings do demonstrate that faculty who teach in advertising and public relations
are now exposing student to a reasonably healthy mix of disciplines, theories and skills that the
marketplace will demand of any graduate who hopes to work in advertising, public relations, or
IMC.
Because advertising and public relations are rooted in different philosophies, integrating
the two under an IMC banner can become a complicated task for curriculum planners. Efforts to
do so must account for these differences, according to Griffin and Pasadeos (1998). In this study,
the researchers concluded that while a total curricular overhaul may not be possible everywhere,
programs may be able to incrementally adjust course content and make other less drastic changes
to work toward integration.
Faculty engaged in planning for curricular integration must carefully consider the
attitudes and predispositions of their colleagues. Research by Griffin and Pasadeos (1998)
indicated a more positive attitude toward curricular integration among advertising educators than
among public relations educators. Eight years later, research by Larsen and Len-Rios (2006)
showed that these differences were becoming less pronounced, and more equal between
educators in both disciplines. In light of these previous studies, this study indicates increased
favorability among all JMC educators to integrate their curricula, regardless of discipline.
“I believe that a curriculum should be a living thing,” wrote one respondent in the openended
comments section of the survey. “We should be in a constant state of assessment to ensure
that our students are receiving the training that will best make them marketable in the ‘real
world.’”
Faculty hiring. Findings in this study also indicate that JMC educators face critical
choices related to the type of faculty they recruit and hire. Faculty members build the programs,
plan the curricula, deliver the courses, and color every aspect of it all with their attitudes,
backgrounds, and expertise. They will ultimately determine the success or failure of an
integrated curriculum. The higher mean scores that respondents gave to “faculty expertise” and
“faculty interest” (3.2 to 4.0) as advantages to curricular integration underscore this point.
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