How About We Wrap This Baby U, Shall We?

Over the course of the semester, I’ve learned a lot about ethics in relation to journalism, advertising and public relations. Man, I feel like we’ve covered so much information in a short period of time. I’m not exactly sure where to start…. I say we take it back to the very beginning, shall we?

Once upon a time (yes, I just said that) during the fall semester, I had registered for JOUR4470 (Ethics, Law & Diversity in Strategic Communications). Short after, over Thanksgiving break, I received an email from Samra Bufkins, the course professor. Within the email, Bufkins gave us information on everything we needed to have prepared before the beginning of the class. This ranged from an online personal blog, a Twitter handle, and a few other necessary materials to have prior to the first class lecture. After reading this email, I admit to being annoyed. I was happily enjoying my time away from everything school related and here’s this woman telling me to have this, that, and this way before the spring semester even began.

Thus, I responded with the following:

Hilarious, right?

Having to follow Bufkins via Twitter, I began to pay attention to her tweets. I found them somewhat humorous, as she would tweet about grammar goofs made by students in her classes. Although, I found them funny, I admit to being a little hesitant about being in her class because I felt that she was some strict, crazy woman who sat on Twitter all day and did nothing but tweet sports, news and grammar (which I will talk about a little bit later).

I also had Bufkins for another class entitled Topics in Journalism & Mass Media. This was a social media applications course. With this class, the students were all expected to be on nearly every social media network available. I swore this woman was trying to turn me into a computer geek.

Ok, we’re going to fast-forward into the semester. Are you ready?

So here we are, day one. Typical syllabus overview, not really paying attention but alas, I finally get to meet the woman behind all of the madness. I’m thinking to myself, “Man, she’s tall! She’d probably dunk on me.” This is when I found out her love for Kentucky basketball…and at that moment, I knew she was the professor for me (as I am a huge college hoops fan). Major cool points.

 Throughout the semester, the students would have to complete a few cases studies, blog assignments, class presentations and mini-exams. Not too bad. As an advertising major, I wasn’t  that into public relations going into the class and didn’t figure I’d get much out of the course. I just knew I had to take it in order to graduate. Boy, was I wrong. Over the course of the semester I learned tons of interesting things that I will definitely use over the course of my professional career. Our class studied everything ranging from ethical/unethical practices, ethical theory, social responsibility, and even law. Our case study assignments really educated me on the issues that huge companies and organizations face and the steps to take to make sure there aren’t any ethical issues that could compromise a brand. It was interesting to work in a case study group of both PR and advertising majors to get a different perspective on how to apply ethics. Personally, the case study assignments help me to realize the purpose of the class. I could easily be in a job position (whether it be advertising, public relations or communications) and issues like these could come up at any moment. I would definitely need to know how to handle dealing with crisis communication, especially in the wonderful world of advertising.

All in all, I am so upset that I will not have the pleasure of being in Professor Bufkins’ class anymore. It’s bittersweet. She was one of my favorite professors because she was super laid back, hilarious, and just a joyful and energetic person. One thing I will miss the most is when she would check the students on their grammar in class. I would sit in the back and just crack up laughing. Man, that was always a highlight. I’d always double check my papers just to make sure I didn’t have any typos or spelling errors just to make sure that she wasn’t talking about me (no worries, I was good).

The whole part about Bufkins being this crazy, Twitter-crazed woman…well, that’s pretty much true. I totally mean crazy in a good way (sort of like, this woman cracks me up sort of crazy). As far as being Twitter-crazed? Well, I believe her license plate says it all.

(it says TWITTER, no joke)

Bufkins, it was my pleasure. Keep in touch. #OrElse (I will be watching you).

Never Goodbye. See You Later.

An Ad Major.

Brittani J. Wilkins