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UC Prof Looks at School District Websites
Opportunities for Strategic Communication Highlighted
Written By Victoria Lamanna '15, PR Intern
Swann examines how school districts use websites to communicate to stakeholders
Contact - cleogrande@utica.edu
Utica, NY (09/10/2014) - Websites are important tools used by organizations to communicate and establish relationships with stakeholders. Patricia Swann, associate professor of journalism and public relations at Utica College, examined how 135 New York State school districts use such websites to accomplish these tasks.Swann has studied this topic since 2003 when she conducted the study, “Establishing a Typology of New York State School District Web Site Home Pages from a Public Relations Perspective.” Both studies examined the communication features of school districts’ websites, such as navigational tools, content variety and current educational topics, that are used to communicate to various publics. Such publics include students, teachers and staff, alumni, community members, prospective employees and journalists.
Now, more than a decade later, school districts’ use of websites has advanced considerably in content variety and other features. Because of this, the 2014 study was expanded to include leadership communication, board of education information, financial information and social media.
Several communication opportunities for school districts were highlighted as a result of the study. Although there were many messages from school district leaders and superintendents, they were generally of the “welcome back” kind rather than a message that provides context into complex issues or educational topics.
The study also showed that school districts were less likely to offer district-specific information on key educational topics that were widely covered in the news media, such as Common Core, Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) or the Dignity for All Students Act (DASA). In relation to financial information, only half of the schools’ websites contained two or more items related to the school budget.
Also outlined in the study were the social media tools used by New York State school districts. Only 44 percent of districts used a form of social media linked to their home page, and the most popular was Facebook. To see the executive summary, visit http://bit.ly/1ByeVDs. To see complete results, visit http://bit.ly/1m0bC40.
Swann has been a member of the Utica College faculty for more than a decade and has previously served as the public relations director for the Oneida-Herkimer-Madison Board of Cooperation Educational Services for more than 10 years. She has won national, state and local awards for writing, photography, publication design and public relations activities.
Swann earned her bachelor’s degree in mass communication from Truman State University and her master’s degree in public relations from Syracuse University S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication. She is a member of the Public Relations Society of America and a former member of the New York School Public Relations Association.
For more information about this study, contact Swann at pswann@utica.edu.
About Utica College – Utica College, founded in 1946, is a comprehensive private institution offering bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees. The College, located in upstate central New York, approximately 90 miles west of Albany and 50 miles east of Syracuse, currently enrolls over 4,000 students in 36 undergraduate majors, 27 minors, 21 graduate programs and a number of pre-professional and special programs.
