Students of public relations: motivations and career aspirations

This thesis examines the ways in which public relations students differ from other journalism and mass communication students. Results suggest that, compared with other journalism and mass communication students, public relations majors choose to study communication for different reasons, exhibit different personality types, value different work rewards, have different goals and make different job choices after graduations. These differences were not related to gender, except that men are more likely than women to go into communication because of an interest in sports. These findings may help administrators attract students who would not otherwise consider communication as a major.