Image Alternative Text: Christie Lawrence

Christie Jones Lawrence wins 2023 PRAM Professional Achievement Award

The Public Relations Association of Mississippi honored the achievements of Mississippi’s best public relations professionals and students during their annual awards ceremony last week. The awards recognize outstanding work by Mississippians in the field of public relations and celebrate select individuals for their contributions to the profession. Christie Lawrence, President of Surge Advisors and past president of the Starkville-MSU Chapter is the 2023 PRAM Professional Achievement Award winner, the state’s top honor recognizing excellence in public relations.

Image Alternative Text: Anna Wilkinson

CO Connection: Anna Wilkinson

Mississippi State University's Department of Communication Head Dr. Terry Likes interviews PRISM advisor and instructor, Anna Wilkinson. Anna talks about the student PR agency, how students get involved with PRISM, the real-world opportunities of working with actual clients, and the results and awards students have earned.

Image Alternative Text: Dr. Melody Fisher

Untold history of marginalized groups in public relations field chronicled in Fisher's new book

Mississippi State Associate Professor Melody Fisher fills a void in social science literature about public relations history with her 2022 book highlighting the practices and scholarship contributions to the field by members of ethnically and racially underrepresented groups.

Image Alternative Text: Karyn Brown Headshot

Karyn Brown & Dr. Melanie Loehwing present at Council on Colleges of Arts & Sciences

Karyn Brown and Dr. Melanie Loehwing presented ""Mentoring New Faculty: A Multi-Tiered Approach to Professional Development and Retention" at the annual meeting of the Council on Colleges of Arts & Sciences in Washington, D.C. The presentation focused on how mentoring new faculty members helps bring new faculty into the fold of the college and ultimately helps with faculty retention.

Image Alternative Text: Karyn Brown Headshot

Karyn Brown presents at Council on Colleges of Arts & Sciences

Karyn Brown presented a three-hour branding workshop for deans of colleges of arts & sciences at the annual meeting for the Council on Colleges of Arts & Sciences. Her presentation titled, ""Branding Arts & Sciences--A Public Relations Approach to Promoting the Liberal Arts," helped deans consider the overall branding approach for their colleges.

Image Alternative Text: Lynn Henderson Oldshue

CO Connection: Lynn Oldshue

Mississippi State University's Department of Communication Head Dr. Terry Likes interviews Lynn Oldshue ’91, (PR concentration) the gulf coast correspondent for Alabama Public Radio. She also reports for an independent newspaper in Mobile and tells stories of those in the south and around the world via Our Southern Souls. Learn more about Lynn’s experiences and advice she has for students.

Image Alternative Text: PR Awards

MSU proves successful at annual CPRAM, SPRF competitions

Mississippi State students and staff members representing various colleges, departments and professional units took home numerous awards from recent College Public Relations Association of Mississippi and Southern Public Relations Federation annual competitions.

Image Alternative Text: Heesook Choi

Dr. Heesook Choi presents “What Mobilizes Political Satire Viewers: The Role of Partisanship and Discussion Networks in the Effects of Political Satire Viewing on Political Participation"

Dr. Heesook Choi presented “What Mobilizes Political Satire Viewers: The Role of Partisanship and Discussion Networks in the Effects of Political Satire Viewing on Political Participation" at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention held in Detroit in August. Within the framework of social identity theory, this survey study (N = 1,203) explores the role of partisanship in the selection and processing of political satire and its influence on political participation.

Image Alternative Text: Uyanga Bazaa Photo

Dr. Uyanga Bazaa & co-author present “#EAListen: A Thematic Analysis of a Successful Fan Activist Campaign" at ICA conference

Dr. Bazaa and her co-author, Megan Condis, presented their work “#EAListen: A Thematic Analysis of a Successful Fan Activist Campaign" in May at the 72nd Annual International Communication Association's conference in Paris, France. Fans are a special type of public that is of great interest to public relations researchers. Dr. Bazaa and her co-author analyzed tweets with the hashtag #EAListen to further understand online fan activism that happened to occur during the peak of Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. The authors discovered Simmers (people who play the Sims, a real life simulation video game) successfully pressured Electronic Arts (EA; the Sims developer) to ensure inclusion and diversity in their video game.

Image Alternative Text: Flora Dedeaux

MSU students, professionals recognized by Public Relations Association of Mississippi

Mississippi State senior Flora Dedeaux is the 2022 Student of the Year for the Public Relations Association of Mississippi, joining other MSU students and professionals receiving honors during the organization’s recent PRism Awards ceremony.

Image Alternative Text: PRism Award photo

Two PRISM client projects win awards at 2022 PRAM Conference

Two MSU Public Relations & Integrated Student Media Agency client projects won awards at the 2022 PRism Awards Banquet as part of PRAM’s 2022 Conference in Gulfport, Miss. PRISM students won an Award of Excellence and a Best of Show award.

Image Alternative Text: 2022 PRAM Conference Logo

MSU Communication students win annual prestigious awards at PRAM conference

For the fifth year in a row, an MSU Department of Communication public relations concentration student has won the honor of Public Relations Association of Mississippi Student of the Year. Flora Dedeaux, a communication major double concentrating in public relations and broadcast & digital journalism, from Gulfport, Miss., received the 2022 PRAM Student of the Year.

Image Alternative Text: Dr. Melody Fisher

Dr. Melody. Fisher publishes article in Family and Community Health

Dr. Melody Fisher, an associate professor in public relations, recently published The study "Assessing Readiness for Barbershop-Based HIV Prevention Programs Among Rural African American Barbershop Patrons" in Family and Community Health. The study aimed to quantitatively assess the readiness of rural African American men to participate in a barbershop-based HIV prevention program.

Image Alternative Text: SPRF Logo

MSU communication graduates, faculty win big at public relations conference

Recent graduates from Mississippi State University’s Department of Communication received four top awards at the Southern Public Relations Federation Conference in Panama City Beach this month.

Image Alternative Text: Dr. John Forde

MSU now one of three SEC schools with Certification in Education for Public Relations

Mississippi State University now is one of three schools in the Southeastern Conference and one of only 52 schools internationally to obtain Certification in Education for Public Relations, a distinction from the Public Relations Society of America earned by organizations meeting top PR education standards.