Interview :: Doug Newsom of TCU

15. Oct, 2008 View Comments

Doug Newsom will be speaking at tonight’s World At Your Fingertips event, and we had the opportunity to ask her a few questions. Doug (yes, she is a woman) is a professor at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth and a public relations practitioner. A Fulbright lecturer in India in 1988 and Singapore in 1999, she also has done public relations workshops in Singapore (1998), South Africa (1992), Bulgaria (1993), Hungary (1994 and 1995), Romania (1994), Poland (1995), Vanuatu (1997) and Latvia (1998).

Q. You wrote the first book on media writing in the 1970’s. How have things changed over the past 30 years?
The reason I wrote the media book is because I was trying to teach our students to be prepared to write for both print and broadcast, as well as handle typical business communications, such as letters (no email then) memos and reports. Guess I was ahead of my time. In any case, it seems to me that gathering and checking information and communicating in the proper format for a medium, any medium, is still essential. All of our students are learning the basics of doing that in a Media Writing 1 course, and the news students are learning more about congruence in reporting in Media Writing 2.

Q. How do you teach your students at TCU to have a global perspective on PR and communications?
We have four basic undergraduate degree programs: news-editorial (print, online, broadcast) and international news-editorial; strategic communication (ad/pr) and international strategic communication.

Additionally, our study abroad program offers a certificate in international communication.

These are on the university’s website. In the law and ethics classes taught for all majors, we remind students of the legal, ethical and moral implications of instant communication on unintended audiences.

Q. What is your top piece of advice for an Austin-based emerging technology company to consider about the global markets?
The last sentence is also some advice corporate and non-profit organization need to keep in mind.

It is essential to remember that all audiences are “volunteer” readers/viewers and interpret information through their own prism formed by experience, education, values, culture and a particular governmental, social and economic climate.