Media and Public Relations

Get Noticed!

Media releases are submitted to appropriate local, regional, state, and national media outlets to promote upcoming events, projects, achievements, programs, etc. All media releases are added to our news database for display on our website as well.

Faculty and Staff Experts

As part of our media relations efforts, we are often seeking faculty or staff members to speak as experts on their subjects in response to specific media requests. As a routine procedure when seeking faculty and staff experts, we will contact the appropriate department chair or dean first for recommendations of the best person to speak on a particular subject.

Media Relations Best Practices

In order to effectively maintain professional, open lines of communication with media outlets, University Marketing and Communications recommends that all faculty and staff adhere to the Working with the News Media: Tips and Guidelines.

Please note that this office cannot guarantee that a story will be highlighted by local media on broadcast news or in the newspaper. This office sends media releases regularly to the media, and then they decide what, if anything, will be featured.

Digital and Social Media

UMC manages the University's public web and social media presence and the Content Management System (CMS). Additionally, UMC manages resources for campus web managers and assists campus clients with improved content quality for their websites.

In order to maintain the highest standards for web design, architecture, and development, UMC works closely with campus clients to ensure compliance with the established USC Upstate’s brand standards and technical requirements in order to maintain the tone and organization of USC Upstate’s web content in alignment with the institutional image.

SOCIAL MEDIA

The University of South Carolina Upstate believes that social media is an important vehicle for sharing our stories, events and information with the world. University organizations, departments and divisions are required to register social media channels representing the University with the Office of University Communications. Only registered social media channels will have their content shared on the official University channels. 

USC Upstate Social Media Standards PDF Document Download

Getting started with social media


ACCESSBILITY COMPLIANCE

Web Accessibility Statement

The University of South Carolina Upstate is committed to campus-wide universal design and accessibility policy and process development.

To ensure that the information and technology provided through our website is inclusive and accessible for the widest possible audience, USC Upstate has adopted the best practices and standards as defined by Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act and level AA of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) per the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Following these guidelines makes content accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these. Following these guidelines will also often make your Web content more usable to users in general.

WCAG 2.0 success criteria are written as testable statements that are not technology-specific. Guidance about satisfying the success criteria in specific technologies, as well as general information about interpreting the success criteria, is provided in separate documents. See Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Overview for an introduction and links to WCAG technical and educational material. In this regard, for all new web development, we use WAVE, an accessibility evaluation tool that facilitates human evaluation by embedding inline accessibility feedback into your web content, to identify potential problems or features

For all new content, we are preparing guidelines and gathering training material to provide to our content creators. 

If you have other accessibility concerns, or need to request accommodations, please contact the Office of Disability Services at either 864-503-5199.