*In this edition, the errata have been corrected*
Last year, when Kali Blackerby’s friends and fellow public relations (PR) classmates began their campaign for the Bateman Case Study Competition; she took a real interest.
“I really enjoyed their campaign for everylibraryri. I thought the events they held were really cool to be doing on campus for a national campaign. It’s something I’ve always seen myself doing because I’ve always been interested in completing an actual campaign,” says Blackerby. Which is when she started to consider taking part in the 2026 competition.
“I was asked by my advisor, Dr. Shelton and she thought I would be a good asset to the team! I decided (to join) over the summer knowing it would be a good experience overall,” said Blackerby.
The Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) holds the national Bateman Case Study Competition each year for Public Relations students. Previously called the National Case Study Competition, it was renamed to honor J. Carroll Bateman, APR, for her work in founding PRSSA.
PR students who take part in the competition are given a client and have to build a public relations campaign for them. This year, the client is ACCESS Newswire’s EDU Program, one of the top three newswires in America. They help brands ranging from startups to global enterprises distribute press releases, manage investor relations and amplify their social media.
For the competition, PR students must create a campaign that helps align ACCESS Newswire with universities and make them visible to a younger audience. The purpose of the campaign is to drive professors nationwide to adopt the ACCESS Newswire platform as a teaching tool in the classroom as well as arrange ACCESS to be a long-term, credible partner for universities’ media distribution needs and their newsrooms.
The objectives for the competition include: Classroom Integration and Student Training, University Partnerships and Brand Visibility as well as Media Coverage and Thought Leadership.
The six students from RWU work together as a team with the help of their advisor, Dr. Amiee Shelton and professional advisor, Robert Hancock. Sadie Barnard, a senior, is Account Executive with junior Emma Loftus as Assistant Account Executive. Natasha Alvarez is a senior and in charge of Strategic Initiatives. Senior Fionna Cashman is the team’s Graphic Designer and Victoria Fahey is a senior and Director of Research and Planning with Blackerby as the Communications Coordinator.
“We start right at the beginning of the fall semester, meeting for three hours a week. During the first semester, we focused heavily on research and planning. As the ACCESS Newswire EDU program is a new platform, we collaborated with the Media Relations class since they were using the platform for the first time for a newsroom project. We used this to identify potential challenges and opportunities for classroom projects. This is where it really sparked the idea to highlight the importance of media education across all disciplines,” said Sadie Barnard.
On February 2nd, the team launched their campaign by targeting faculty across various disciplines at colleges throughout Rhode Island. “We provided them with integration tools like projected examples and a guide on using the platform. We also offered zoom calls to answer questions and walk them through the platform,” said Barnard. The campaign then expanded to include high schools where they targeted business, marketing and journalism classes.
“The goal was to demonstrate how media literacy shapes future careers,” said Barnard.
So far the team has created a website, accessnewswirerwu.com, where their campaign is in its beginning stages. Through their work with colleges and high schools, they created an initiative called “ACCESS Your Passion,” which features a video series of interviews with different campus organizations, emphasizing the importance of media education.
“We featured groups like the Dance Team and how increased media coverage has increased the popularity of national competitions, the Rugby team highlighting the correlation between the sports growth and the availability of streaming and information and the Plant Club showcasing how media is used to build awareness for new organizations on campus,” says Barnard.
Everyone on the team helps each other along with doing the duties assigned to their roles. The campaign will continue until March 2nd where the team will start writing the case study and submit it for judging by the PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) where three finalists are selected and then those finalists present their campaign to judges and first, second and third place winners are chosen.
