Approximately half of Americans distrust national news to the point that they believe news organizations are intentionally seeking to misinform their audiences, according to a survey conducted by .

This year, two teams of public relations students from the College of Media, Communication and Information helped combat this concerning trend as part of the annual —which is organized by the Public Relations Student Society of America. 

team members ran under the slogan “Think Before You Share.” team members encouraged their peers to “Stop the Rumor Ripple,” and their campaign earned them a second place finish out of 49 teams nationwide.

“It was a joy to see our PR students earn this second place award,” said Dawn Doty, a teaching associate professor in the Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Media Design. “It is a testament to their smart, creative work and faculty our college employs to prepare them for this moment.”

The campaigns were for the , which seeks to promote critical evaluation of the media and dissuade misinformation from spreading.

“I am so grateful for the opportunity to compete in the PRSSA National Bateman competition representing CU Boulder and CMCI,” said The Daily He(a)rd team member Jack Forman. “I am so proud of all the work we put in and everything we accomplished with our campaign.”

Before executing their plans, False Creative and The Daily He(a)rd conducted research to understand what the perceived problems are with misinformation, the best ways to reach their target audiences and more.

After surveying approximately 300 people and conducting three focus groups, The Daily He(a)rd found that while many people recognize misinformation as a problem, they don’t seem to know how to combat it. Similarly, False Creative found that news literacy education is often lacking. Somewhat surprisingly, they also found that most of their survey respondents said they trusted Twitter and Instagram the most for news.

The teams were given a $300 budget–with the option of raising in-kind donations to help supplement their funds–for marketing tactics like giveaways and events for their campaigns, which ran from Feb. 6 through March 6.

Both groups primarily used social media to connect with their peers, and False Creative garnered media attention from a number of Colorado news publications, including the Daily Camera, The Durango Herald, Aspen Times and others.

“Our most successful marketing tactic so far has been our op-ed. I recently wrote an article on the ‘Importance of News Literacy’ directed toward rural communities,” said Cassidy Davis of False Creative. “We pitched it to over 70 newspapers across Colorado and have been/will be published by around 20.”

In addition to media-related outreach, the groups also used in-person components like tabling in the University Memorial Center, informational events and giveaways to encourage student engagement. Notably, The Daily He(a)rd organized a trivia night and a screening of an award-winning media documentary called Trust Me.

“Our most successful marketing tactics have been giveaways,” explained Bailey Ghashghai from The Daily He(a)rd. “We are trying to make things digestible and approachable for our audience and encourage participation. Doing this through incentives has definitely helped to attract more people.”

After the campaigns ended in early March, Bateman teams evaluated their experience into a summary report—considering research, objectives, tactics, etc.—which was sent to Bateman Competition judges. Teams who placed first through third, including The Daily He(a)rd, were invited to give a presentation and received a monetary award.

Doty noted that the competition is an invaluable experience for students because the communication and public relations industry they will enter after graduation is competitive.

“It is always exciting to see students create campaigns and have a real-world opportunity to test out how they actually work,” Doty said. “I think CMCI should be proud that we give students this opportunity in their senior capstone.”

In mid-April PRSSA announced the top three finalists: University of Colorado Boulder - The Daily He(a)rd, University of Florida (first place) and Louisiana State University (third place). Notably, CU's team is the first to represent not only the school, but also the state of Colorado. These three teams then presented their pitches to the Bateman judges Thursday, May 4, and the winners were announced in the early afternoon. 

“The Daily He(a)rd is thrilled with our achievements throughout the Bateman competition,” said team member Erin Bauman. “Being the first team from the state of Colorado to make it to the finals was an honor in itself. Placing second in the nation was the cherry on top. With help from our advisors, we created a successful campaign and encouraged so many people to Stop The Rumor Ripple.”

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The Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Design received widespread recognition this year for both its exceptional students and the program itself.

At CMCI, those students took their high-quality training to the next level. This month, 25 APRD students received six of the 13 student awards during The One Club Awards Denver 2022—making them among the highest award-winners in the state, according to APRD faculty.

One Club Denver is a nonprofit promoting collaborative, creative culture throughout Colorado. For over 60 years, it has recognized the best work in advertising, interactive design and branded entertainment by industry professionals and agencies.

In the student award category, APRD students earned one gold, two silver and one bronze medal alongside two merit awards.

“We’re always proud to see our students recognized for their work and have been pleased to see it happening at local, regional and even international levels,” said Glenn Griffin, an associate professor of advertising.

In this year’s competition, the gold award-winning took on the issue of misogynistic, racist and homophobic language used by players. The students’ campaign advertised a new product focused on creating a safe space for all players.

The Colorado chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) honored Professor Dawn Doty and CMCI alumna Nora Thomas. Doty was recognized with the 2022 Swede Johnson Lifetime Achievement and Thomas is the 2022 Joe Fuentes Rookie of the Year.

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The , which won a silver award, advertised a real-life version of the game that would pit students from 100 universities against each other. Another silver award-winning team, advertised a new service that would allow users to earn degrees through the popular audio streaming company. 

The won a bronze medal for its campaign to bring MasterChef meals to viewers’ homes. 

The merit award-winning proposed an innovative marketing refresh for the high-end electronics company, Bang & Olufsen. Student David Wagonheim also received a merit award for his project, , an advertisement for the Pour Brothers Community Tavern.

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In the public relations world, the is legendary. 

Renowned since its inception in the 70s, the year-long project tests students’ abilities to plan, produce and execute a full-scale public relations campaign. 

This academic year marks CU Boulder’s first foray into the competition––an accomplishment that happens to coincide with the program being named an . CU’s contenders are competing against 370 PRSSA affiliated chapters, all respected public relations departments across the country. 

“Yes, we want to win,” says Dawn Doty, faculty advisor for CU Boulder’s chapter of PRSSA. “But frankly, competing in it is equally as important. It shows that our PR curriculum and faculty are now robust enough to even consider entering the competition.”

Last year, students had the opportunity to apply for a two-semester course, which focuses on preparation for and participation in the competition. After primarily focusing on research during the fall semester, students are now embarking on their campaigns. The top three contenders will give virtual presentations to a panel of professional PR practitioners in May. 

In response to a noticeable decline in American civility over recent years, this year’s judges prompted students to focus on preserving civility in American life and fostering inclusive discourse. 

Fourteen CU Boulder participants formed three groups, each with separate concepts for improving civility. They are currently in the implementation section of the competition––a unique challenge for Bateman contestants during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The first group, , is using the slogan, “Hear Someone Out” to call upon people to engage in civil conversations and listen with empathy. The next group, , is centered on the concept, “Learn one. Do one. Teach one.” Their campaign goal is to create a trustworthy environment to facilitate education, action and direction involving civil public discourse. The third group, , created the campaign “Break the Spiral”––inspired by the theory of The Spiral of Silence, which holds that people’s unconscious perceptions can lead to an unwillingness to share opinions.

“I feel honored, honestly. I think it's really cool that we have this opportunity to show the nation that we can make good campaigns,” says Lauren Garrow, a member of the Civilly CU team. “We’re definitely looking to get a lot of people to sign our pledge and think critically about their own self discourse.”

The three groups are carrying out their campaigns through a range of tactics, which include developing websites, engaging through social media platforms, recruiting pledges and building informational tool kits. They also have access to a budget of $300 from the Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Media Design. They can raise up to $1,000 in additional funding from outside donors. Garrow’s group, however, will take a unique approach. 

“We’re trying to make this a completely budget-free campaign,” she says, “Although we are so grateful that we have been able to have the support, we wanted to challenge ourselves and say we weren’t going to use a budget at all.” 

The team hopes to demonstrate that, ultimately, it's priceless to engage in civil discourse, she says.

Helena Regan, a member of the Buffs For Civility group says communication, organization and work ethic are an integral part of competing in this national competition. 

“Thanks to this competition, we also have developed skills such as networking and knowing the ins and outs of how a campaign is produced and managed,” said Skyler Boterenbrood, a member of The Bateman Buffs team. 

For their final step, each team creates a final report––a culmination of the research and work they have completed over the past year. 

“As we strive at CU to shape tomorrow’s leaders, I hope we all see the civility movement that our students are igniting as worthy of our time and engagement,” Doty said.

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As Americans brace for the full effects of the coronavirus, one group seems to be missing the message: college-aged students.

Though many people are heeding health officials' guidance to practice social distancing, footage of young adults at beachside parties and packed concert venues across the country have flooded social media.

“If I get corona, I get corona,” says one student. “I’m not going to let that stop me from partying.”

Locally, about large groups of CU students attending St. Patrick's Day parties in Boulder’s “The Hill” neighborhood.

In response, students in CU Boulder’s Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) are taking action with the launch of an Instagram campaign on their account, . 

Through pictures and personal stories, students are highlighting loved ones who may be most at risk should they contract the virus. They hope the posts will convince fellow students to help #FlattenTheCurve. 

“We all know someone that is vulnerable to getting COVID-19, and uniting as students to spread this message will make our collective voice so much greater,” says Anna Ritz, president of CU’s PRSSA chapter. “We all have a part to play in combating the spread of this disease."

As the group discussed ways to encourage their peers to practice social distancing, they realized they had to find a way to make the issue personal, says Dawn Doty, CU’s PRSSA advisor and an instructor in CMCI’s Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Media Design.

“Once the students started thinking about the people that they cared about in their lives––and needing to protect them––they sort of just really rallied around this idea, like, ‘Yeah, let's start a student-led campaign to flatten the curve,’” Doty says. “So this is just a way to make it resonate with them.” 

The hashtag #FlattenTheCurve in conjunction with a graph, originally attributed to the Center for Disease Control, which demonstrates how social distancing can slow the spread of the virus to avoid a spike in cases that would overwhelm hospital resources. 

In one of the first posts from the campaign, Ritz shared a picture of herself with her elderly grandfather. 

“I may not show symptoms or get sick,” she wrote, “but that doesn't mean he won't get sick.”

In another post, the chapter’s vice president, MacKenzie Murphy, highlighted her friend’s younger sister, Lily––an 18-year-old CU Boulder student who is immunocompromised.  

“[The virus] also affects those with underlying health conditions that could be even younger than ourselves,” Murphy wrote.

Saving vulnerable populations is the campaign's focus, though new evidence suggests younger age groups aren’t immune from a serious outcome.

A indicates that nearly 40% of the individuals known to be hospitalized by the virus in the U.S. are between the ages of 20 and 54––and almost half of the 121 individuals known to be admitted into the ICU are under the age of 64. 

Doty says the chapter is in preliminary talks with the national organization to expand the campaign. Already, several instructors at CU Boulder and within CMCI have committed to giving their students extra credit if they participate, she says. 

“Students are active Instagram users,” she says. “So it just makes sense for this kind of campaign to live there because that's where they're going to see that content the fastest.”

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CU Boulder’s chapter of the is wrapping up a busy year.

Students from the chapter, which is now in its second year, recently participated in PRSSA’s 2017 National Conference, held in Boston. Throughout the conference, students met with fellow PRSSA members from other chapters, as well as public relations professionals and potential employers. They also attended sessions and workshops focused on growing and improving local chapters.

“It was a great opportunity to personally develop our students and professionally see how we can bring that kind of information back to our chapter,” said Bailey Gannett, the CU Boulder chapter’s president.

The conference was one of many events attended by chapter members this year.

Over the past several months, students involved with the chapter also toured several Boulder and Denver-based public relations firms, including , and . The tours gave students the chance to experience a real-world environment and learn more about working in the public relations field.

The chapter also held a banquet that featured food, awards and a talk from Andrew Hudson, the creator of Colorado-based job site, .

As for Gannett, she’s already thinking ahead to what the chapter can achieve in the coming year. Currently, she’s working to set up a talk from United Airlines on the topic of crisis communication. She also hopes to schedule more tours—possibly with public relations teams at large corporations in addition to public relations firms.

Gannett encourages students who are interested in joining PRSSA to sign up, whether they’re new to the college or in their senior year.

“It’s a great chance for freshmen to meet people and network,” she said. “It's a great way for juniors and sophomores to get internships, and it’s a wonderful way for seniors to build their network and get jobs.”

To learn more about CU Boulder’s chapter of PRSSA, visit their official website.

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