Renae Desai FCPRA

What has been labelled the digital media revolution is now more than ten years old, but a best practice framework to teach transmedia platforms is yet to be developed. Social media and its role in tertiary education has been extensively researched across multiple disciplines, for example marketing (Constantinides & Zinck Stagno, 2011), journalism (Hirst & Treadwell, 2011) and hospitality (Fortune, Spielman, & Pangelinan, 2011), with a focus on fostering student engagement (Rutherford, 2010) and the notion of digital media platforms as interactive study support tools (Saw, Abbott, Donaghey, & McDonald, 2013; Silius et al., 2010; Wolf, 2010). However, there is little empirical research or conceptual guidelines capturing the challenges and opportunities for pedagogy presented by the continuously changing media landscape, despite the recognition that the higher education workforce is struggling to adapt to these significant changes (Fortune et al., 2011; Manca & Ranieri, 2016). Whilst the millennial generation are often assumed to be digital natives, there is a distinct difference between using technology, understanding technology, and utilising it appropriately in a professional context. Hence, this paper critically investigates communication students’ engagement with new technologies (in particular social media platforms) and learning in a transmedia environment. This study is the beginning of a longitudinal project, which aims to develop a comprehensive pedagogical best practice framework to teach transmedia concepts in real-time.

The AIDS 2014 conference in Melbourne declared 'that all women, men, transgender and intersex adults and children are entitled to equal rights and to equal access to HIV prevention, care and treatment, information and services' (AIDS 2014). Along with declarations in relation to gender equality, anti-discrimination and calls for changes to law to support the rights of sufferers around the world, the Melbourne Declaration renewed global support to fight HIV/AIDS. However it was not made explicit what role communication and education would play in relation to these admirable goals. One of the reasons could be the complex nature of any potential solution. Culture, society, economics and the environment play a part in the myriad factors that lead to infection. While there has been a global decline in the rate of HIV infections since 2001, this has not been uniform across the world. Indeed, there are two key factors that suggest
that messages regarding HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention do not reach certain demographics. First, high rates of HIV infection continue to be recorded for young people aged between 15-24 (UN 2014, 35). Second, the rate of infection in developed countries such as Australia has been on the rise in recent years (The Kirby Institute 2013, 9).

Despite targeted campaigns and improved health services, the rate of HIV infections in these groups implies that existing communication methods are lacking. So in this context, can the online environment offer any viable solutions? Despite the progress made in combating HIV/AIDS in the last decade, not much has changed in terms of how the problem is framed. As the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals come to a close in 2015, the same questions regarding HIV/AIDS are still being posed: what methodologies should be used, and how can technology play a part? What is missing in this picture is an examination of what role communications can play in contributing to the fight against HIV/AIDS. We believe that in in this context, online

Effective collaboration between journalists and public relations practitioners and academics alike has been traditionally fraught, with each approaching communication with audiences in different ways. But what happens when they work together to achieve a common goal? This has been the basis of the success of the Australian Asbestos Network website project, which brought together academics from three different professional areas to develop, build, launch and manage an integrated online communications platform in order to increase public awareness and draw public and media attention to this contentious and at times politically--‐driven issue. This presentation will show how a multi--‐disciplinary academic and practical approach, involving academics from journalism, history and PR disciplines, successfully built a website that now garners the first page in Google search results for its topic. As the site was developed it grew from being a story--‐telling, archival repository that documented the shameful history of asbestos in Australia, to being a live health communication portal, a focus for a community of those who have suffered the ravages of asbestos--‐related disease and others who want to know about more about the risks of exposure in their everyday lives. However, success brings its own problems, not least of which is sustainability, a pressing problem for community--‐based research projects that take on a life of their own, well past the arbitrary boundaries of funding cycles. Moral and ethical obligations arise. When does storytelling become advocacy? Do we have a duty to continue the ‘good work’ after the funding runs out? These and other issues have confronted the researchers who started with one idea for a website but success made it another. The presenters will discuss the crucial role of interdisciplinarity in creating an authoritative, credible and engaging website, social media network and offline stakeholder community in order to effect change in public awareness and understanding and government policy in relation to asbestos and its impact on the Australian community. The presentation will focus on the success and the unexpected outcomes of this National Health and Medical Council of Australia funded project and what this means for the longer term viability of this important community resource.

The sophistication of new communication technologies continues to grow, and allied industries such as marketing, advertising and journalism are trying to keep pace. But what about public relations? How should the field evolve to take advantage of the unprecedented access to communities on the Internet, which in the past would have been too remote, expensive or marginalised to communicate with? Social media challenges the way public relations is conceptualised, approached and practised. However, while there is much discussion about the increase in interactivity, and mutual exchange between organisations and stakeholders, there is little hard evidence to support the 'view that communication via online channels is increasingly dialogic or collaborative (Pieczka, 20 II). With a persistent emphasis on the normative approach to public relations, that of the organisation working to establish mutually beneficial relationships with publics (Grunig and Dozier, 1992; Grunig, Grunig and Dozier, 2002), rather than a critical approach, in which the 'public' is considered central to the success of such relationships, not as a receiver of carefully conceived messages (Surma 2006), the dominant paradigm is not conducive to understanding the nature of relationships and dialogue in the online public sphere. However, websites and social media do present real and accessible platforms for those organisations determined to develop and extend authentic and reciprocal relationships with stakeholders, with the Internet providing a platform for large-scale communication activities and a testing ground for online engagement. We want to illuminate and illustrate this critical approach in public relations by conceiving of the organisation as establishing and developing a community through an ongoing process of what we have coined storybuilding. Importantly, this term suggests the way in which the most effective public relations communications are not composed of discrete 'messages' 'delivered' by one entity to another but, rather that such communicative processes embed, and are embedded in, the stories that give our lives meaning (and see Petraglia, 2007), and that enable our relationships to be reciprocal. Moreover, this approach both highlights the significance of narrative in constituting, shaping and negotiating human experience, and it pays attention to the connections between both the agency and the interdependence of community members and the organisation involved-that is, their mutuality.

The professional communications industries and academia alike have long viewed 'effective interpersonal skills' as essential to the success of graduates in their first few years of employment and beyond. Often they are assumed to be the reason why so many young aspiring professionals are drawn to the bright lights of disciplines such as public relations, marketing and advertising and openly used as essential recruitment criteria for graduate jobs. However, teaching these complex life skills proves to be a challenge for tertiary educators. Identifying exactly what is means to be highly effective and then implementing appropriate strategies in curricula requires further research. The concept of emotional intelligence (EI), in particular the model posited by Bar-On in 1997, provides a useful framework to identify those particular skills that are required for 'effective communication' as well as point to those traits that make one individual more likely to succeed in complex situations over another. This may provide guidelines for developing specific teaching strategies that engage the student in constant self and peer review from their very first learning experience thus drawing them into their life-long educational journey as communication leaders. Drawing on the results from a recent study on the internationalisation of the public relations curriculum at Murdoch University, this presentation will analyse and discuss the relevance of EI as a useful concept for understanding and nurturing interpersonal skills such as creativity, curiosity, adaptability and empathy; all essential for success in a global community, both on and off the campus.