Give students the tools to analyze, respond, and lead in crisis scenarios
The “PR Case Studies” courseware equips you with 12 industry-relevant case studies designed to strengthen students’ strategic thinking and communication skills. Each case addresses a high-stakes PR scenario — ranging from product failures to funding crises — and gives students the structure they need to analyze, evaluate, and respond like professionals. Every case includes a narrative-driven scenario, a Case Analysis Tool (CAT) assignment, a live role-play prompt, and a “Rest of the Story” follow-up that connects classroom learning to real-world outcomes. It’s a turnkey solution for adding experiential, decision-based learning to your PR course.
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Explore the table of contents
Equip your students with the strategic thinking, ethical reasoning, and crisis communication skills needed in today’s complex PR landscape. Each case study invites students to step into a real-world scenario, encouraging them to evaluate and respond like professional communicators.
Chapter 1: The Principles of Public Relations: A Revisit
Chapter 2: Case Analysis
Chapter 3: Fatality and Facebook: A Perilous Combination
Chapter 4: Staying on Track During a Rail Disaster
Chapter 5: You Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover
Chapter 6: Bad Data Breeds Bad Conclusions
Chapter 7: Taking Food from the Table: Embezzlement at a Local Nonprofit
Chapter 8: The Painful Truth About Medical Theft
Chapter 9: Students Stifled Thanks to State Funding Cuts
Chapter 10: Not in My Backyard: Staying Nimble in a NIMBY Crisis
Chapter 11: Cheers to the Chief of Police
Chapter 12: A College Vice President Battles an Underground Student Newspaper
Chapter 13: A High School Basketball Coach Afoul: Behavior that Crosses the Line
Chapter 14: Hidden Wounds from a School Shooting
See how easy it is to immerse students in real-world communication challenges with the “PR Case Studies” courseware.
About the Authors
Terry L. Hapney Jr., Ph.D.
Terry L. Hapney, Jr., is a marketing and management professor in the C.H. Lute School of Business in the College of Business and Engineering Technology at Shawnee State University. Dr. Hapney also taught public relations, advertising, journalism, communication, and English during his career in higher education. He is the director of the MBA program at SSU and has many years of experience in higher education administration, teaching, research, and service; marketing, public relations, and advertising; radio and television broadcasting (promotions, programming, and advertising sales); and print journalism (newspapers, magazines, and online). He coordinated the public relations academic program at a state university in West Virginia for many years. He also held positions as a news anchor and radio show host for a number of broadcasting companies in Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia. Dr. Hapney was named the "Dr. Hal Shaver, APR, Public Relations Educator of the Year" in the state of West Virginia by the Public Relations Society of America, and served as president of the PRSA-River Cities chapter (for which he was a founder)--serving northeast Kentucky, southern Ohio, and western West Virginia. Hapney served as Director of Communications and Assistant to the President at a state university in Ohio, serving four university presidencies. He managed and led the Office of the President and Office of Communications (an office he established in 2001) there. Dr. Hapney and his students have earned nearly 100 awards/honors at the international, national, regional, state, and local levels for their professional and academic work. He serves as advisor to the SSU American Marketing Association student chapter and was advisor for many years to the Public Relations Student Society of America chapter at his previous university. Dr. Hapney holds a Ph.D. from the University of Dayton, a D.B.A. from Marshall University, several master's degrees from Ohio University, Kent State University, and Marshall University, and a B.A. from the University of Kentucky.
Jason Lovins, Ph.D., APR
Jason Lovins has more than 35 years of professional practice in business leadership, entrepreneurism, journalism, and public affairs. He has also been teaching college courses for more than 20 years, including instruction in more than two dozen subjects.
Jason earned his Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, Scripps College of Communication, Ohio University, where he focused on crisis communication responses and their effect on image repair. He is also an Accredited Public Relations Practitioner (APR) in the National Public Relations Society. He has earned awards nationally and in Ohio for his work in public relations, marketing, college instruction, and photography.
Jason’s experience in crisis communication has been an integral part of his career. He has two decades of work in public relations and marketing within health care, environmental remediation, and the nuclear industry.
Jason has more than 12 years’ experience as an award-winning newspaper reporter, photographer, and editor, covering numerous community crises in addition to crime, business news, and human interest features. His work in the 1980s and 1990s in rural southern Ohio included more than 5,000 published articles and photos. He earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from the Ohio State University and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Findlay.
Jason has provided instruction in public relations, marketing topics, including management, digital engagement, social media, media ethics, news reporting and editing, graphic design, news/information gathering, business/professional communication, and video production/editing, among others.
A frequent guest speaker on management and marketing topics in the Appalachian region, Jason is an associate professor and interim director of the C.H. Lute School of Business at Shawnee State University, Portsmouth, Ohio, where he revised the marketing degree program and tripled its enrollment through hands-on learning approaches. He and his family reside in southern Ohio.
Instructor support you can count on
With a 96.4% satisfaction rate and an average response time under 10 minutes, the Stukent Support Team and customer success managers ensure you can focus on teaching.
Always have the latest edition
The “PR Case Studies” courseware contains robust resources for educators and students. Best of all, the Stukent team updates the courseware annually, which means your curriculum will always be on the cutting edge of your industry.
