Title: An analysis of the public relations management department’s strategies for sustaining stakeholder relationship with its key industry partners

 ABSTRACT

Recent studies in the public relations discipline emphasise the importance of stakeholder relations management in order to service key stakeholders that remain despondent with the quality of engagement. Authors such as Steensen (2014), Steyn (2002) and Steyn and Niemann (2014) believe organisation stakeholder’s engagement strategies are critical for sustaining organisation stakeholder’s relations. The study will analyse strategies that the Department of Media Studies’ Public Relations Management programme use to build and sustain its relations with key industry partners. It will be framed around two key public relations theories: stakeholder and communicative action theory and it will use qualitative methods to collect empirical data from participants. To understand the strategies, key findings will be analysed and based on the findings, recommendations will be provided to the management of the programme. In addition to the recommendations, the study hopes to contribute to debates on the relationship between academic programmes and industry partners.

BIOGRAPHY

Frank Kassongo joined CPUT in 2010 as a public relations management student. In his first and 3^rd year he managed to win various academics award including excellent academic award, most diligent and hard working student. Frank Kassongo is the founder of The Governance (an Nonprofit organisation) and StudentsIn.Pty.Ltd. Mr. Kassongo has successfully completed a baccalaureate degree of technology at Cape Peninsula University of Technology in 2013, and is now a Public Relations MTech candidate at CPUT. He has gained experience working directly with communities and university students focusing on education and empowerment of boys and girls. His interest in community development started in 2000 when he was still at High School. The nature of his work and education background has enabled him to identify challenges that young Africans are facing in high schools and at universities thus working on alleviating those challenges through significant programmes. In addition, Frank has worked in the faculty of Informatics & Designs at CPUT as a Work Integrated Learning Assistant Coordinator and was an assistant to Dr. Blessing Makwambeni who is the research coordinator in the department of public relations at CPUT. Frank Kassongo’s studies have been funded by different well-wishers including the Cape Agulhas Municipality, Cape Town Press Club, FloraLand (Pty) Ltd, Overberg Community Trust Fund, Cape Peninsula University of Technology and individuals including friends that he met at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Frank is indeed a product of good people and as a result he is always positive and grateful to all the institutions and individuals who have funded his studies to this day.

The Media Research Forum

The Media Research Forum (MRF) is a platform dedicated to promoting rigorous dialogue between post graduate students, academic staff and industry. The forum seeks to contribute towards the promotion of high quality media and communication research in multiple ways:

• Building research capacity among post graduate and academic staff through occasional seminars where senior researchers and industry lead discussions on topical issues.
• Providing a platform for post graduate students and academic staff to share their research experiences and learn from each other.
• Provide a public sphere where mock defenses of students and staff members’ research work is discussed before it is formally presented at higher forums such as conferences, faculty higher degrees committee e.tc
• Create space for academics to interact informally, motivate each other, get to know each other, and inform each other about current developments in the field.
• Act as a communication channel where students and academic staff get information about research processes, activities and opportunities in the faculty and the university at large.

This blog will serve as the primary channel that we will use to cover our research related events and communicate with all interested stakeholders on research related matters.

Media Research Forum Programme

5h30pm    Opening address and Welcome, H.O.D Media, Prof. Nirvana Bechan

5h40pm    ‘The vision for the Media Research Forum’, Dr. Blessing Makwambeni

5h45pm    Address by the Dean of Informatics and Design, Prof. Johannes Cronje

6h55pm    Guest Speaker address, Prof.  M’Rithaa Mugendi

610pm    ‘The Multi disciplinary nature of media and communication research’, Dr Ashraf Jamal

625pm    Faculty Research Office, Prof. Retha De La Harpe

635pm    Media Department’s post graduate students’ response, RFP, Kassongo

645pm    Vote of Thanks, Programme Co-odinator Public Relations Programme, Ms Deidre Porthen

655pm        Refreshments

Speaker Profiles

 Dr. Ashraf Jamal

Ashraf Jamal teaches film and media studies at CPUT. He is the author of Predicaments of culture in South Africa (UNISA-Brill), Love themes for the wilderness (Kwela-Random), Art in South Africa: The Future Present (David Philip), and 100 Good Ideas Celebrating 20 Years of Democracy (Umuzi). He has published widely in the fields of literature, design thinking, popular culture, visual art, and maritime studies. He has edited Art South Africa and Indian Ocean Studies: Social, Cultural, and Political Perspectives (Routledge.)

Prof. Mugendi K. M’Rithaa

Prof Mugendi K. M’Rithaa is an industrial designer, educator and researcher at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. He holds postgraduate qualifications in Industrial Design, Higher Education, and Universal Design. He is passionate about various expressions of socially (responsive and) responsible design, including Participatory Design; Universal Design; and Design for Sustainability. Mugendi has a special interest in the pivotal role of design in advancing the developmental agenda on the African continent. He is associated with a number of international networks focusing on design within industrially developing/majority world contexts, and is currently the President-Elect of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid)

Prof. Johannes Cronjé

Johannes Cronjé was born in Davenport Iowa in 1959 when his parents were there doing more than just studying. At the age of eight months he persuaded his parents to return to South Africa where he attended an Afrikaans primary school and then Pretoria Boys High School where he matriculated in 1976. Following this he enrolled at the University of Pretoria where he obtainend the BA majoring in Afrikaans, English and Anthropology, the BA honours as well as a Teachers’ diploma before reporting for military service at the Infantry School, Oudtshoorn.  During his second year of national service he completed an MA in Afrikaans literature while serving on the Angolan border.  He then taught English and Afrikaans at Pretoria Boys High until 1986 when he was appointed lecturer in Language Communication at Technikon Pretoria.           

He obtained a Doctorate in Afrikaans Literature in 1990 and then a Masters Degree in Computer-Assisted Education from the University of Pretoria. From 1994 to 2007 he was a professor of computers in education with the University of Pretoria. Currently he is the Dean of the Faculty of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. He has also been visiting professor at Sudan University of Science and Technology, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia; the University of Joensuu, Finland, and the University of Bergen, Norway, The University of Namibia and the University of the Free State, South Africa. He has supervised or co-supervised 72 Masters and 55 Doctoral students and published more than 42 research papers. His hobbies include public speaking, road running, and dabbling in social software. He is married to Franci and they have 3 children, two dogs and a cat.