About the Public Relations Option

Why go with the PR Option?

PR practitioners are the facilitators of communication between an organization and the outside world. It’s the job of the PR professional to be the voice of the company, to create good will, and to develop relationships with key internal and external audiences, such as employees, consumers and journalists.

At the same time, the practitioner is responsible for educating upper management about how others perceive an organization’s reputation, brand, image, messages, products and services.

The PR professional must constantly watch for new trends, monitor the news media and social networks, know what the competition is doing, and be able to identify opportunities and obstacles for organizations.

Chico State public relations students are trained to:

• Conduct effective primary and secondary research for clients;
• Help shape informed, ethical decisions that achieve mutually beneficial outcomes for clients and publics;
• Write for print, broadcast and online media;
• Create strategic communication plans that connect clients with and target messages to a variety of stakeholders;
• Develop methods to measure and evaluate plan success; and
• Identify and engage with emerging technologies and identify their influence on communication.

Career opportunities in public relations

The multiplatform storytelling skills we teach our students are needed by nearly every major organization. Public relations is practiced by all organizations, whether nonprofit or a Fortune 500 multinational.

In 2018, U.S. News & World Report ranked public relations as the second best creative and media job option, and the U.S. Department of Labor has projected a 9 percent growth rate in the PR industry between 2016 and 2026. 

Students graduating from the PR option find employment in a wide variety of fields, including: 

• Nonprofit communications
• Tech PR
• Public affairs or governmental PR
• Consumer PR
• Media relations
• Entertainment and sports PR
• Crisis communication
• Legal PR
• Health care PR