Editing as part of an advertising and public relations curriculum / Редактирование в учебном плане подготовки по рекламе и СО

Introduction

 The discipline, Editing in Advertising and Public Relations, was not included in the St Petersburg University curriculum of a BA in Advertising and Public Relations of either 2020 or 2021. This is yet another attempt to argue the expediency and even an urgent need to include editing in the curriculum as a general humanities course and a specific professional discipline.

We have three lines of argumentation for it. The first line concerns the educational standard, the second draws on the development trends of the communication services market (and its expectations), and the third concerns staffing.

 Justification of the position

 The first argument

Let’s start with the latest edition of the Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education (FSES 3 ++) of undergraduate programs in 03.03.01 Advertising and Public Relations, which has been in effect since February 2021.

Editorial work is listed second among the total of seven types of professional tasks BA degree holders are capable of fulfilling: working as an author; editorial work; project work; marketing; management; social and educational activities; and technological tasks[1]. If we look at the descending order of activities, we see that while the logic of enumeration is not impeccable throughout, placing editorial work second is quite justified. In the previous 2016 version of the educational standard for advertising and public relations, editorial skills were not even casually named.[2] In other words, the current educational standard supports our thesis about the relevance of an educational discipline related to editing in the curriculum for training bachelors in advertising and public relations.

True, the standard does not prescribe, but recommends: “Within the framework of mastering the undergraduate program, graduates can prepare for solving problems of professional activity of the seven types listed above”[3]. That is, an educational organization itself has the right to concretize the content of the program within the framework of the degree field, by focusing it on: the area (areas) of professional activity and (or) the area (areas) of professional activity of graduates; the type (types) of tasks and tasks of professional activity of graduates; if necessary, on the objects of professional activity of graduates or the field (s) of knowledge[4].

At the same time, the formation of such general professional competencies as OPK-1, which implies that program graduates are able to create media texts and (or) media products, and (or) communication products society and the industry, and (or) communication products in accordance with the norms of Russian and foreign languages, as well as features of other sign systems, and OPK-5, which implies that program graduates are able to take into account in professional activities the development trends of media communication systems of the region, country and the world, based on the political and economic mechanisms of their functioning and legal and ethical regulation[5] calls for an editing course to be a core part of the academic program.

 The second argument

The year 2017 is an important year because it saw editorial competencies being included in the advertising and public relations educational standard. The same year, for the first time in its history, the Association of Communications and Corporate Media Directors of Russia ran the nominations Best Young Editor / Rising Star (no more than three years in the corporate media industry) and Best Editor of Corporate Media (more than three years in the industry) making it part of the main competition program[6]. This is despite the fact that the competition itself had been held for a decade and a half before that, since 2003. That is, the communication services market not only perceives the editorial skills of a PR specialist as significant, but also encourages that these skills develop to a high level.

On July 13, 2021, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) conducted a survey of Russians about their attitude to corporate media. First, the very fact of such a survey conducted by the oldest Russian opinion polling organization is significant. Secondly, its result is also noteworthy: seventy-six percent of working Russians who have corporate media in the company like it, fourteen percent do not like it [Corporate media: from a wall newspaper to a Telegram channel]. But in order for three quarters of the respondents to respond positively to the question if they liked or disliked corporate media, we must ensure that corporate media itself were of a very high quality to be able to compete with other types of media. This means that we are back to market trends and expectations.

Our opponents emphasize that many of the best corporate media are outsourcing projects, that the personnel issue can be resolved by inviting specialists with a journalism degree (currently, courses in literary editing are included in the curriculum of all faculties and departments of journalism in the higher education system [Nakoryakova, 2011, 19]), that the curriculum is not limitless and that there is no need to single out editing in advertising and public relations as a separate, independent field of training. Although, we have already answered these objections and substantiated our position [Feshchenko, 2019b], and we will provide additional arguments in support of our view.

The main skill this course develops is the ability of students to self-edit, which implied the ability to critically look at one’s own work in the paradigm of the expected norms, of the correct model. In applied communications, this critical reflection must be based on strict algorithms for an editorial analysis of a text as they serve as protection against subjectivity and taste.

There are unique text forms inherent in applied communications. Understanding the principles of working with these forms requires professional training in our educational area (for example, the company’s mission as an object of an editor’s attention.

We as specialists in applied communications stand on the shoulders of giants, but the theory and practice of literary editing in journalism requires serious adaptation when working with advertising and public relations texts. This is especially noticeable when one works with genre forms [Feshchenko, 2019a].

 The third argument

Section “3.2. Staffing” of the syllabus template for academic disciplines offered at St. Petersburg University is regarding by many as a tribute to formality. Suggested answers include: “Lecturers with an academic degree and / or academic title, who have experience in planning and organizing the educational process, as well as the leading specialists in this field should be involved in lecturing.” Taking this opportunity, we consider it necessary to identify the internal logic connecting clauses 3.1.2 (The methodological support of a student’s independent study) and 3.2.1 (Education and (or) qualifications of instructors and other persons admitted to conducting training sessions) of the syllabus: qualification characteristics and the status of leading specialists must be confirmed, among other things, by the candidate’s publications on the topic (the absence of which is a serious reason for questioning the aptitude of the author of the syllabus to teach the course at St. Petersburg University).

We should be reminded that the first editing textbook for PR specialists was written by a staff member of the Faculty of Journalism, St. Petersburg University [Smetanina, 2003].

 Methods and material

It is a common phenomenon that at some point terms can go beyond their traditional usage area as the concepts they name develop. One of such terms is algorithm — a set and strict sequence of operations.

The concept of algorithm is directly related to our topic, because editorial text analysis is not a universal technique applicable to any text, but a set of algorithms, each of which is applied to a specific group of texts. In editing as a specific type of professional activity, algorithms ensure consistency (strict adherence to the editorial text analysis method creates conditions under which, even if the editor is replaced, the recommendations for correcting textual deficiencies will not fundamentally change) and protect the author from comments based on taste and style preferences (editing cannot operate with concepts such as “it would be better,” “it seems to me,” etc.).

As part of the discipline, Editing in Advertising and Public Relations, we have developed methodological algorithms for identifying and eliminating textual inferiority in relation to the two most frequent genre-specific media forms of PR communications (news and interviews), the company mission as the most complex PR genre, advertising modular texts, and audio / video ads.

 News discourse

News as one of the basic genres is becoming the main object of an editor’s attention in corporate media.

The uniqueness of the editorial analysis of news lies in the fact that we are not examining the text itself, but the news story and the communicative expectations it forms (the formal, i.e., the information volume required for a given news story, and stylistic features of the news language). The matrix formed as a result of such an analysis becomes a template to which the edited text must correspond. That is, the editorial analysis of the news is a check of whether the author’s material, constructed during the study / research of the covered event, corresponds to the template.

The editorial analysis of a news story is based on a strict sequence of questions. Revision recommendations are formulated depending on the answers to specific questions. The first question is whether we understand what made the news. If it is not clear what event is covered, the material is returned to the author for editing and reworking. But even in this case, it is necessary to construct a news matrix so that the author understands exactly what the revised text should look like. The second question is how the news event relates to the publicity capital of the company, whether it serves to form the publicity capital, ensures its growth or protects it. Depending on the answer to this question, for a given news occasion we determine the required and possible news volume (minimum, average or maximum) and news style (soft or hard news).

Structural and stylistic features are tabulated for each genre-specific form of news discourse, which ensures the consistency of editorial work.

The last object of editorial attention is microediting — the identification and attribution of lexical, grammatical, speech, logical and formal logical errors.

Interview

The methodological algorithm of editorial analysis of interviews in corporate media is also based on a strict sequence of operations. The focus is on two macrostructures of the text, e.g., the headline and question complexes.

First, it is necessary to determine how the interviewee is connected with the interests of the client, their publicity capital, and formulate the purpose of the interview.

An important technological stage of the editorial analysis is the construction of the first macrostructure. Each element of the headline complex is copied and attributed in the text. The consistency of the functional load of each of these elements, the semantic connectivity of the elements of the headline complex with each other and content completeness are checked. The headline complex includes the headline itself, the subheadline, the lead, chapters (internal headings), captions to the text and to illustrations, sidebars (quotations, factual, inset commentary) and pre-text elements (footnote, epigraph, dedication).

When we scan media content, the headline complex becomes the main representative of the content. In an interview, it forms structural-thematic (what will be discussed and in what micro-topic sequence) and genre-specific expectations (an informative interview, i.e., the interviewee as a carrier of new, unknown, current and meaningful information reports it by answering questions; a discussion of serious issues in the form of a dialogue; or a portrait interview).

Therefore, the first object of editorial attention in an interview is the headline complex itself and the communicative expectations it forms.

The question complex, akin to the headline complex, also plays the role of a navigator through the text. Therefore, it must also be logically consistent and internally consistent.

Working with the question complex as the second object of editorial attention in interviews also requires preliminary preparation (the interviewer’s speech extracted from the text makes the logical structure of the question complex clear and logical, and its consistency with the structural-thematic and style expectations that distinguish genre-specific forms of interviews). Thus, the communicative expectations formed by the heading complex and the question complex must be structurally and stylistically coordinated. As in the news discourse, the features of each type of interview are tabulated, which makes working with them efficient and convenient.

 Company mission

The company mission is one of the most difficult genres of PR communications, which requires its own specific method of editorial analysis.

The time-honored design of this genre, characterized by written format, a diplomatic substyle, and the use of allegory, results in the bulkiness of the speech structure of the text, metaphorical presentation, and the use of the high style of speech, which is uncommon today. Being microtext communication (the text volume is one or several sentences), a company mission does not function in the form of free retelling (presentation), because the internal structure and lexical material of this communicative unit, which is an important part of the company’s corporate culture, are thought out and verified.

The text must meet the criteria of quality including coherence, articulation, formalization, and modality (completeness is not a significant criterion for the mission). An editorial analysis of the company’s mission is based on the method of definition focusing on the semantic core and semantic periphery in the text. The techniques used for this include the digital, or a combination of digit-and-letter, numbering of semantic elements, the color marking of the main and secondary parts, and the spatial and compositional transformation of the text. They allow us to reveal textual flaws at the semantic and formal levels, such as the inaccuracy of meaning transfer and the incorrectness of the speech form used.

As a rule, in the process of such an analysis, logical, lexical, grammatical and speech errors (everything related to microediting) are also revealed.

Modular advertising

When editing a modular text, remember that all meaningful units in such a text carry some information. While the editorial analysis of verbal communication has its own long history and tradition, editing of non-verbal communication as a system of science and practical techniques is still at its early stages.

We have developed an algorithm for diagnosing textual flaws of modular advertising as a communicative unit that causes communicative discomfort. The algorithm is based on the differentiation of five levels of text analysis.

At each level, its own object of editorial analysis is identified and analyzed: 1) the semantic deficiency of the text as a communicative unit (logical structure) — in this case it is difficult to answer the question what exactly is bad, since the text message itself is not clear; 2) the content and form of the verbal component; 3) an incorrect distribution of the functional load of verbal components in the structure of the headline complex; 4) a key image error; 5) a connection between verbal and non-verbal components. Microediting, which implies identifying and attributing errors, always completes an editorial analysis of the text.

Audio and video advertising

The algorithmы for working with modular and multimedia text are similar. The objects of editorial attention are the text as a communicative unit, the verbal component, the non-verbal component, and the connection between verbal and non-verbal components. That is, editing is based on similar principles, adjusted for the multimedia nature. The focus is on the speech structure of the verbal component of the text, the consistency of the interaction of verbal and non-verbal components, the logic of the visual and sound design.

The editing analysis of multimedia texts includes such important technical procedures as storyboarding (for video ads) and transcription (for audio ads).

The uniqueness of editorial work with the verbal component of multimedia advertising is determined by the fact that it has different forms: the text in the frame (written communication) and voice-overs (aural communication). There is also a character solution, when the voice-over is not neutral, that of an announcer, but creates or complements the image of the character; the character can speak on camera. Semantic problems arise for various reasons. The form of the verbal component or the combination of different forms (for example, a combination of a voiceover and a text in the frame) may not be thought out properly. Communicative discomfort can be created by the logic of choosing a speaker (the problem with the speaker’s rhetorical ethos or the style of speech behavior proposed to the speaker) or by a combination of voiceover and character verbal solutions.

Microediting, which implies correcting grammatical, lexical, speech, and logical mistakes, is carried out at the very end of the editorial analysis, and punctuation and spelling are objects of editorial attention only in especially difficult or conflict situations.

The algorithms we developed, which underlie the methodology of editorial analysis of applied communication texts, ensure the implementation of the requirements of the educational standard and make it possible to train a professional who meets the high requirements of the communication services market.

 Conclusion

 These are formal criteria. The essential fact that it would not work just to take a philologist “off the street” or a successful journalist to teach editing to bachelor students in advertising and public relation, and it would take years to train such a specialist. They must have theoretical and practical background both in journalism and applied communications; be able to develop their own teaching methodology reflected in scholarly publications, which would meet the academic standards of the oldest university in Russia. Very few universities are capable of solving such a complex task. The good news is that specialists that would meet these high standards work at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, St. Petersburg University. It would be shortsighted not to use this unique potential.

References

Korporativnye media: ot stengazety do Telegram-kanala (Corporate media: from a wall newspaper to a Telegram channel). July 13, 2021 [Electronic resource] // VCIOM. URL: https://wciom.ru/analytical-reviews/analiticheskii-obzor/korporativnye-media-ot-stengazety-do-telegram-kanala (last accessed on 20.08.2021)

Nakoryakova K. M. Koncepciya discipliny «Literaturnoe redaktirovanie» (The concept of the discipline, Literary Editing). In: The Bulletin of Moscow University. Series 10. Journalism. 2011. No. 2. pp. 19-27.

Smetanina S. I. Literaturnoe redaktirovanie dlya zhurnalistov i specialistov po svyazyam s obshhestvennostyu (Literary editing for journalists and public relations specialists). St Petersburg: V.A. Mikhailov Publishing House, 2003. p. 252

Feshhenko L. G. Zhanrovye kompetencii redaktora korporativnogo izdaniya. (Genre competences of the editor of a corporate publication). In: Genres and types of text in scientific and media discourse: a collection of scientific papers. Ed. A.G. Pastukhov. Volume 16. Orel, 2019. pp. 180-195.

Feshhenko L. G. «Redaktirovanie v reklamnoj i PR-deyatelnosti» kak uchebnaya disciplina: tradicionnoe i unikalnoe. (Editing in advertising and PR activities» as an academic discipline: traditional and unique). In: Media education: vectors of integration into the digital space: materials of the IV international conference. Ed. A. A. Morozova. Chelyabinsk, 2019. pp. 363-369.

[1] Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation of June 8, 2017 No. 512 On the Approval of the Federal State Educational Standard for Higher Education — Bachelor’s Degree in 42.03.01 Advertising and Public Relations (with amendments and additions). Edition with amendments and additions No. 1456 of 26.11.2020, 08.02.2021 [Electronic resource] // Portal of Federal State Educational Standards of Higher Education. URL: http://fgosvo.ru/uploadfiles/FGOS%20VO%203++/Bak/420301_B_3_15062021.pdf (last accessed on 20.08.2021).

[2] On the approval of the Federal State Educational Standard of Higher Education in the field of training 42.03.01 Advertising and Public Relations (bachelor’s level). August 11, 2016 [Electronic resource] // Portal of Federal State Educational Standards of Higher Education. URL: http://fgosvo.ru/uploadfiles/fgosvob/420301.pdf (last accessed on 20.08.2021).

[3] Order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation of June 8, 2017 No. 512 On the Approval of the Federal State Educational Standard for Higher Education — Bachelor’s Degree in 42.03.01 Advertising and Public Relations (with amendments and additions). Edition with amendments and additions No. 1456 of 26.11.2020, 08.02.2021 [Electronic resource] // Portal of Federal State Educational Standards of Higher Education. URL: http://fgosvo.ru/uploadfiles/FGOS%20VO%203++/Bak/420301_B_3_15062021.pdf (last accessed on 20.08.2021).

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Annual All-Russian Competition, Best Corporate Media — 2017: Competition Regulations [Electronic resource] // Association of Communications and Corporate Media Directors of Russia. URL: https://corpmedia.ru/events/?id=175 (last accessed on 20.08.2021).