Halkla ilişkilerin kamu ve özel sektörde giderek önemli hale gelmesiyle halkla ilişkiler eğitimi sorgulanmaya başlamış, eğitim programıve içeriği hakkında ulusal ve uluslararasıbirçok dernek, akademisyen ve uygulayıcıgörüşbildirmişancak halen bir uzlaşıya varılamamıştır. Devlet ve vakıf üniversitelerinde eğitimi devam eden 31 halkla ilişkiler bölümü vardır. Bunların 14’ü İstanbul’daki çeşitli üniversite kurumlarındadır. Bu veri alanın sektörle işbirliğini açıklamak için anlamlıbulunmuştur. Uygulama birimlerinin devlet üniversitelerinde sayıca fazla olması, vakıf üniversitelerinin sektöre yakınlığınedeniyle uygulamalarınıburada yapmalarıyla açıklanabilir. Lisansüstü programlar alana akademisyen yetiştirilmesi açısından önemlidir. Türkiye’de halka ilişkiler dalında 18 adet yüksek lisans ve 9 adet doktora programıvardır.18 devlet üniversitesinin sadece 7 adedinde profesör düzeyinde akademik personel olduğu görülmektedir. Vakıf üniversitelerinin 12 tanesinde profesör olmasına rağmen bu kadroların çoğu yarızamanlıçalışmaktadır. Bu çalışmayla Türkiye’deki halkla ilişkiler lisans eğitimi hakkında genel bir değerlendirme yapılmasıamaçlanmıştır. Çalışma, alana ilişkin toplu bir veri sağlamasıbakımından önemlidir. Araştırma kapsamında halkla ilişkiler bölümü olan 31 devlet ve vakıf üniversitesinin web sayfaları01.10.2011- 15.12.2011 tarihleri arasında incelenmiştir Çalışmanın web siteleri üzerinden yapılmasıve bazıbölümlerin bilgilerine ulaşılamamasıçalışmanın sınırlılığıdır. Araştırmada bölümlerin; kurulduklarıbölgeler, yüksek lisans ve doktora programları, uygulama atölyeleri, eğitim kadrolarıve lisans programlarının müfredatlarında zorunlu/seçmeli, teori/uygulama dersleri incelenmiştir. Çalışmamızda halkla ilişkiler lisans bölümlerinde zorunlu derslerin seçmeli derslere göre daha fazla olduğu görülmüştür. Lisans eğitimi boyunca bir öğrencinin almasıgereken seçmeli ders sayısı, devlet üniversitelerinde vakıf üniversitelerinden daha fazladır. Formasyon derslerinin devlet üniversitelerinde ağırlıklıolduğu, vakıf üniversitelerinde ise sektöre yönelik ve piyasanın talep ettiği derslerin ağırlıklıolduğu görülmektedir. Anadolu, Ankara, Ege ve Selçuk üniversitelerinde formasyon derslerinin halen önemli olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Teorik ve uygulama derslerinin oranlarına bakıldığında aralarında bir denge olmadığıgörülmüştür. Araştırma sonunda; iletişim fakültesi kurulmasına bazıkriterler getirilmesi, kadro ve teknik alt yapıtamamlanmadan bu bölümün açılmasına izin verilmemesi, dersiçeriklerinin halkla ilişkilerin çok yönlü olduğu göz önünde bulundurularak zenginleştirilmesi önerilmiştir
Upon the fact that public relations have become a significant aspect in state and private work zone, the phenomenon of public relations education has been questioned and several insights have risen in terms of the subject. Numerous national and international organizations, academicians and practitioners have put forward their ideas and suggested solutions in terms of the educational program and content of public relations education. However, several challenges of the public relations such as being a new subject area; being an interdisciplinary subject including politics, economics, management, psychology, and communication; lacking subject-specific terminology slow it down in terms of development. Therefore, a common consensus has not been reached. These problems are still observed at undergraduate level. Currently, plenty of academicians, practitioners, and organizations at both global and local scale have been debating over the ideal way of public relations educations, yet couldn’t agree on a common decision. The question of how public relations education should be given has been put forward by several organizations and academicians; some curriculum descriptions have been made both internationally and in Turkey. Public relations area has not handled the problem of definition in theory and practice. Several issues such as having a broad application spectrum; being in coordination with other social sciences; being applied in organizations that use various techniques and have different objectives; the need for application in almost every condition make it difficult to define public relations. First steps in public relations in Turkey were taken by communication and media education. In 1950, İstanbul University Media Institution started newspaper and communication education; in 1965, Ankara University Political Sciences Faculty Media Publishing Institution included newspaper and communication education in their program. After 1990s the number of schools that started communication education in Turkey increased. With the legislation passed in 1992, many schools opened communication faculties and started communication, newspaper, public relations, radio and television education. Especially after 1997, with the opening of private universities several departments such as public relations, public relations and campaigning, public relations and advertisement were opened. During the years 2000-2011 public relations and campaigning departments were started in both state and private universities. In this research it is aimed to evaluate the general outlook in public relations education at undergraduate level in Turkey. In order to realize this goal the related webpages of both public and state universities in Turkey that offer publish relations courses were scanned. The research is significant since it provides data for all universities offering public relation courses. Hence, the webpage of Higher Education Institution YÖK was scanned in order to outline public relations programs at universities. In addition to this, 31 webpages of state and private universities were scanned between the dates October 1, 2011 and December 15, 2011 so as to evaluate the overall condition of public relations education. In the latter scanning, first the geographical locations, undergraduate and graduate levels, practice environment agency, radio-TV studios, newspapers and magazines were analyzed. Then, the curriculums of the programs were studied. 8 semesters in total were analyzed and must/elective/theoretical and application courses were defined with calculations and percentages with the help of the information taken from the webpages. As the research is only done through the webpages, there are several limitations such as missing information or outdated data. Some of the universities put their curriculum on a term basis or they do not put 4 year-program on the web since they have just been founded. Therefore, the universities that have their full program on the web were chosen for course evaluation. In the research carried out between the dates October 1, 2011 and December 15, 2011, it is seen that there are 52 communication faculties in Turkey. While 33 of these faculties are serving in state universities, 19 of them are located in private universities. 17 of state faculties are actively giving education; however 16 of them have not started yet. Similarly, 16 private faculties actively serve, while there are 3 newly founded faculties. There are 16 state and 13 private public relations departments in faculty of communication. In addition to this, Atılım University and Haliç University have public relations departments in faculty of management. 14 of 31 public relations departments are located in İstanbul. The reason for this is the fact that faculty of communication and public relations departments are working hand-in-hand with media sector. 3 of state universities are founded in Ankara. These are the first public relations departments opened in Turkey. These departments first served for state institutions and ministries. When the practice areas in both private and state universities are observed, formerly founded universities have better facilities. Faculties generally have their own radio and television facilities which make public relation courses open for public. It is a crucial aspect that graduate level programs are designed to provide academicians. Effective 2011, there are 11 state and 7 private, in total of 18, departments serve graduate programs. On the other hand there are 9 post-graduate programs, 8 state and 1 private departments. When we evaluate the number of departments as 7 in 1992 and 52 in 2011, it is not surprising that the graduate programs fall short in providing adequate academicians for these programs. It is understood that just 7 of 16 state universities have professors in their departments. On the other hand 12 of 15 private universities have professors in their programs. Since private universities are close to the work zone, they are planning to have forerunners of the business as part-time professors as they aim at making their name popular among others. In our research, we have found out that there are more prerequisite courses than elective courses in undergraduate courses. During the course of public relations education a student takes more elective courses at state universities compared to private universities. There are similarities regarding the name of the courses. However, pedagogic courses at state universities are more important, whereas sector-oriented and demanded courses are the attention of focus. The pedagogic courses at Anadolu, Ankara, Ege, and Selçuk University are still thought to be crucial. Many academicians and practitioners have still been debating on the portion of theoretical and application levels of courses. In conclusion, there are several point to be taken into consideration such as the utmost care for designing programs and technical background; curriculum modification in terms of course content and unrelated parts; necessary balance between theoretical and application courses.
Public Relations Public Relations Educations Public Relations Undergraduate Educations in Turkey
Primary Language | Turkish |
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Journal Section | Research Article |
Authors | |
Publication Date | February 1, 2012 |
Published in Issue | Year 2012 Issue: 27 |
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