The war between my major and minor




People often don't get it when I tell them what I'm studying, especially my fellow students in either field. The attractive, well-dressed PR kids minoring in hospitality can't fathom a world of public communication beyond press releases and promo events. These are the fun-loving types who want to be publicists with a client list of celebrities miles long. These are the skinny-jean-wearing boys and girls who want to write for a fashion magazine. These are the douchebags who want to work in the "music industry", or worse yet, the "record industry."



Except for the last, I really really love my shallow(er) classmates. They are so much fun and they have the best accessories! They tell me about the awesome new tapas bar I need to try, and that Salon Red's new Candler Park location has just opened around the corner from its old location. They love my hair! They want to know where I got my shoes! They want to friend me on facebook! Omigod we just have so much fun we can hardly stand it!!



They don't even know how to react when I tell them my interests lie in political communication, and that, come graduation, I want to move to Washington, DC or New York, where all the political action is.
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"Wow...I'm not really into politics. It's really cool that you are, though."



Then there are the political science nerds. There are more heterosexual men here than in PR lalaland, but their fashion sense and/or social skills always seem to be lacking. The women are generally bland looks-wise, with the exception of a few stray Russians tarted up like airport hotel call-girls.



The pace is slower in the political science circle, the vibrancy and energy of PR replaced with the laconic narcolepsy of political theory and poor fashion sense. Sometimes I wonder if anyone besides myself and the blowhard 19-year-old who has read (too much) Noam Chomsky and WANTS EVERYONE TO KNOW IT has a pulse.



The Polisci nerds are completely bewildered by the PR major taking upper-level courses in Comparative Politics and Public Administration. What is she doing here? is a look I tend to get at the start of every term. They soon realize I mean business, though, when I make one of the highest grades on the first test. That's when they start to try and figure me out.



The problem is most of these kids are distrustful of THE MEDIA or anything having to do with THE MEDIA. They like to blame everything that is wrong in our political system on THE MEDIA. They are disgusted by how much THE MEDIA is involved in electoral politics. They hate that THE MEDIA doesn't have enough international news coverage. They despise THE MEDIA for putting "Britney and K-Fed Split" on the front page of CNN.com. They think PR is all SPIN and the douchebags in THE MEDIA are just the messengers of PR SPIN.



Or something along those lines. Anyway, the point is there seems to be this huge disconnect, at least at my school, between those who study and analyze policy, and those who publicize and interpret (for the public) policy. It's kind of disheartening. I find myself constantly explaining why I'm studying what I am, and if I can get people to shut up and listen for a minute, it actually makes a whole hell of a lot of sense to them.



(But, just between you and me, if I were to throw a party I'd invite the PR people over the polisci people any day.)

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