Reflection about this log and final entry

After ten entries I must say that this log exercise ended up being rewarding . The biggest benefit derived from doing this reflective log was that it encouraged me to read more. I must say up to the fifth class I use to prepare by reading prior to the classes. However my assignments due dates changed that. For this semester I felt that my understanding of the issues in PR have deepen as a result of the lectures and by extension these logs. I also noticed that many of the issues discussed are related in some way. For example in the case of crisis management , diversity and CSR knowing and reaching out to audiences is very essential. Another example is that when the PR practitioner uses new media they have to apply the same ethics as they would for traditional media. Armed with this knowledge, we as students will no doubt contribute positively to the profession.

On a broader note as the teaching side of the course comes to an end I also reflect on the experience as surreal and unbelievable . I would have to say one of the most challenging element has been perfecting the pitch . I must say last semester I found that one quiet difficult however by the end of this semester I've noticed some growth in the area. Also was it not for this MA I wouldn't have known about new media, need I say more I'm actually using one of the tools.

Education and PR

"Success is determined by personal contacts, public relations qualifications are irrelevant ."

I was on the team that supported this moot, here were some of our arguments:

-persons enter the field from different backgrounds other than public relations namely : liberal arts degrees such as english and journalism and social sciences.

-many people in the industry view PR as a practical practise and so are skeptical about the idea of being taught at universities.

-public relations is becoming increasingly competivity , now ranking as one of the top three most popular in the UK, so graduates have to stand from the crowd. Thus having education isn't enough.

Enough said although my team established that PR education is not necessarily required to obtain a job in PR we had to concede that it is important . Education helps to establish the practise as a worthy profession . In fact Ehling( 1992) asserts that there is a direct link between public relations education and professionalism. He further states, that 'education is the primary means for providing the necessary knowledge and skills needed to fulfil the tasks and responsiblities of any public relations activity.'(pg 339). PR education also has the ability contribute to the profession by increasing knowledge of ethics. This as we know increases standing of the profession.

As was said, by studying PR we are sending a message to future employers that we are serious about it. For this course in particular the practical courses will prove especially useful to those who have no work experience .
My conclusions are that education in PR gives the student a distinct advantage and knowledge to contribute to the upliftment of the profession.

Ehling W.( 1992) .Excellence in Public Relations and Communication.Lawerence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.

New Media and PR

For me learning about new media and how it relates to PR has to be one of the major highlights of this MA. Although we just touched on it briefly in the first semester my understanding of it was deepen in the NGO module. This sector has adopted the tool new media as a way to mobilize support for a cause and to build momentum for campaigns that will make it in mainstream media.

New media in a way has presented a new challenge for the practise of public relations.Some of these include the fact that reputation management is harder to control, the power of feedback and that the reach is instant. So the practitioner might exert some amount of control on the company websites but there are blogs , social networking sites, virtual worlds that this is not so.

As was illustrated in class the relationship between new media and traditional media is not estranged. They both to an extent depend on each other and as was pointed out the techniques used in traditional media also apply to new media. The PR practitioner has be transparent and ethical when doing online work.

After my classmates presented I was keen to do the podcast but after 3 unsuccessful attempts I was not able to do it for the blog. I want to eventual do one as I might not know when it will become handy.

Dissertation Focus

This class was especially nerve racking but it was well needed. The first exercise allowed us to basically assess if our topics were at all feasible. In so doing I left the class terrified but equipped with more knowledge about what to do for this to make sense. Prior to this class i wasn't aware that we should include what we expect to find and also outcomes we are expecting. Dividing us into related groups allowed us to work out how we approach a dissertation topic by coming up with :

questions

subquestions

what do we expect to find

method

limitations

what will we follow

what PR practitioners will find

The lessons learnt from this exercise will no doubt be used to refine my proposal for the dissertation.

Good Business the rise of CSR

Why corporate social responsibility ?
Organisations in developed economies are today influenced by public opinion , shareholders, members of campaigning groups.Tench and Yeomans : 2006 pg 100). Also according Adam Garfunkel companies are also implementing CSR because of globalisation, the state of the planet , the information age and also risk and reputation management .
The PR practitioner can utilize CSR to build a company's corporate image and reputation.Most companies that are more interested about the bottom line can rest assure that practising social responsibility can be used to differentiate their organisation and so provide them with competitive advantage.
In a review of the role of PR firms in corporate social responsibility programs, Lisa Roner wrote in Ethical Corporation that "many early efforts to communicate on corporate responsibility have been high on production value and low on substance."As was discussed in the lecture some CSR programmes are not well thought through and can end up having a negative impact . The main issue that was also raised was that some companies end up targeting programmes that are not even remotely to their businesses.
The lecture and exercises helped me to clarify some impressions of CSR , I automatically thought that CSR was the PRO's responsiblity . I didn't fully grasped the role of PR in a CSR programme. Another point that i also recognized was that the practitioner has to work closely with other departments to formulate an effective programme.

References:
Tench and Yeomans(2006) . Exploring Public Relations. Prentice Hall
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Corporate_social_responsibility

Diversity in PR

Multicultural public relations can be defined as management of formal communication between an organization and their relevant publics to create and maintain communities of interest and action that favour organization. Diversity speaks to the inclusion of ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians, elderly, customers etc. Zena Martin in her lecture outlined that companies in the United States have embraced diversity more than their counterparts in the UK. The argument then is why is diversity so important especially for the public relations practitioner? Firstly our society is rapidly changing and so includes people of various backgrounds, race, creed, sexuality etc. Also according to Banks (1995) by not including diversity into practice it is potentially filled with missed opportunities and inadequate performances that can result in misunderstanding cultural differences.
Colin Bryne (2008) outlines that many companies have embraced diversity but their PROs need to reflect this. In his article he focuses on diversity within the workplace. However as Zena Martin outlined in her lecture it extends to include customers. As with all aspects of PR, integrating diversity involves researching and understanding audiences.
Although more needs to be done to integrate diverity into public relations there has been strides by the CIPR via their website " Diversity Matters" which is designed to help their members tackle this issue.

Class Exercise

The class exercise for attracting men to the public relations profession for our group was somehow challenging. We sought to concentrate on messages that would attract more men. We identified that messages would speak to their ego and include words such as macho, strong and prestigious. We were influenced from the previous lecture on feminization of PR and thought that only specific areas of PR would appeal to men. The outcome from the class is that implementing diversity can be complex from the employees to the customers/ clients. The important point is to know the audience and this has to be based on research.


References

Banks, S. (1995) Multicultural Public Relations: A Social – Interpretive Approach.
Sage Publications
Byrne, C. (2008) PR WEEK Opinion: Industry needs to reflect social diversity. [Online] Available at: http://www.prweek.com/uk/home/article/789078/ [Accessed March 2008]
CIPR available at: http://www.cipr.co.uk/diversity/ [Accessed March 2008]

Feminization of public relations

To demonstrate that feminization of PR is all around us we can just look at the ratio of men to women in our MA class. It’s a striking contrast to the early days when the field was dominated by men. The class debate brought up an interesting point that although there are many women in the profession to the extent that it is regarded as a ‘pink collar’ profession men still hold the management positions.
HON et al (1992) asserts that feminization has been at the fore of the discussions about the future of the field with regard to professionalism, prestige and salaries. Although more women are involved in education and subsequently the PR field they experience inequalities in regards to salary and status.

An argument exist that men biological and socialization attributes cause them to be disposed to self-select the inherently risky manager role . While on the overhand women choose the technician role because its safe and there are low levels of involvement . This point supports the idea that its not out of discrimination that they are paid low but instead because of their assigned roles.
The way forward to address the feminization of PR is to see women as equal and to acknowledge their contribution. Notwithstanding this mobility up the work ladder should not be based on gender but on merit.

Grunig , J.( 1992) Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management . Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Audiences and Stakeholders.

In the lecture one crucial point to knowing an audience is to consider groups that affect the organisation and are affected by the organisation. According to Wilcox and Cameron (2006 pg 271) in defining audience they state that it is a complex intermingling of groups with diverse cultural, ethnic, religious, and economic attributes whose interest coincide at times. Out of all the models to segment stakeholders I preferred the 9 ways by Broom and Dozier. It was extremely helpful with our group exercise and we would not have identified all the publics. Also I found that the social marketing approach would be more applicable for use by NGOs and government organizations.
Public relations practitioners have to realize that audiences are dynamic and the strategies to reach them are not static. An example of this challenge is the Internet and the fact that it’s hard to control the message and hence the communication.

Reference: Wilcox and Cameron( 2006) Public Relations Strategies and Tactics . Pearsons International

Case Study:
How Oakland Children's Fairyland reached new audiences?
The Challenge: Oakland Children's Fairyland, opened in 1950, was Walt Disney's model for the legendary theme park he built a few years later in Orange County. But Fairyland's visitor base had narrowed to local neighbourhoods. This limited repeat attendance and net income, which depends on souvenir and refreshment sales. Public agencies had cut funding on which the park historically counted. With a limited budget, Fairyland needed to expand promotional coverage outside the inner city to reach new parent/child visitors elsewhere in the Bay Area.
The Solution: They worked quickly with staff to promote a new upcoming evening show. The park's news media mailing list was updated and expanded, and photography showing children enjoying themselves in park surroundings was accumulated. A photo call was issued for the lively preparations made for Fairyland's 47th birthday by young, costumed volunteers.
Results: A front page, above-the-fold colour photo in the city's largest suburban paper the day before the new show's debut, plus generous calendar listings in all major regional dailies. Dozens of queries from other periodicals and freelance writers stemmed from this initiative. The new show debuted to a sell-out audience. Both weekday attendance and concession revenue are up.
Source: http://pr.e-agency.com/case_children.shtml

Balancing the scales to make ethical decisions

Through the case study exercises in class I learnt that our value systems influenced our decisions more often than not. Applying some theories could help with making ethical decisions. These could either be application of the cognitive theory that looks at right and wrong then making a decision or just adopting codes of ethics outlined by the different bodies. However some argue that making these decisions can be much more complicated.
“One of the most difficult things for practitioners is reconciling the sometimes conflicting loyalties and duties that they have.” [1] They have to assess their duty to themselves, duty to client or organization, duty to profession or duty to society. Additionally, PR practitioners have to also contend with legal implications and being social responsible.
Now the dilemma how do they resolve these conflicts?
Public relation practitioners have to apply aspects of the decision making process that would help them make sound choices.[2] These include external guides such as the law and companies and or industry codes. Another model is Parson (2004:21) which involves five criteria such as veracity (tell the truth), non-malfeasance (do no harm), beneficence (do good), confidentiality (respect privacy) and fairness (to be fair and socially responsible). Whatever the choice of theory, practicing good ethics will only contribute positively to the profession.


[1] Tench, Yeomans. Exploring Public Relations Prentice Hall 2006 pg. 297
[2] Ibid pg.300

PR, Propoganda and Persuasion

For Kevin Moloney in his book Rethinking Public Relations he states that he cannot see PR and propaganda as two separate entities. With this in mind I have to agree that although some people can make a distinction between the two, PR to me is the modern version of propaganda. This is since they have similar elements namely:
They are done systematically
They aim to influence and to gain support
They use media relations
They are meant to be persuasive
However an argument against my theory is by Shirley Harrison which states that “in effect”, propaganda tries to spread the faith and persuade people to believe, perhaps through half truths and distortions. While PR is more done honestly since practitioners generally are guided by ethics. What do you think?


Commentary on DVD War Spin

In commenting on the DVD I think the question to pose is did the US military engage in good media management? The evidence presented shows that at the beginning of the War in Iraqi, the military maintained control to some extent by creating a central command that handled all information. Additionally another strategy used is that key people were chosen to deliver specific messages.
Another way they tried to maintain this control was to shoot their own footage which was then disseminated to journalists. They also made sure to broadcast information between time zones. Images and pictures were very important to transmitting the information worldwide and so the military made sure these were shown in breakfast time.
Notwithstanding this view the journalist thought that the central command unit restricted them and the truth was elusive at times. Since questions asked were often unanswered and it seemed they were told only what the military wanted them to know. Even when allegations were made they were always denied or a ‘spin’ was placed on the subject.

Crisis Management Theories and Practice Reflection

In preparing for this particular class I realized that the books I read such as Strategic Communications Management :Making Public Relations Work and Handbook of Public Relations outlined that planning is the key for effective crisis management. I agree with this to some extent but sometimes I think that planning can help only to a point. An article by Claire Murphy in PR week illustrated this about the 2005 July bombings .This crisis brought communications teams challenges they could never have foreseen. Chief among these was the almost immediate, and sometimes overwhelming, quantity of so-called 'citizen reporting'. With a public hungry for news, blogs with eyewitness reports – and wild conspiracy theories – became almost as popular as output from the major broadcasters. For PROs battling to minimise panic and misinformation it was a distraction they did not need.
This supports the point that as PR practitioners we have to bear in mind new media when setting up a crisis management programme.
An interesting point that I gained from the lecture is dealing with the media in a crisis is similar to a practitioner’s daily duties since questions will be based on who, what, where, when and how.
The crisis management exercise was very useful; I realized that a crisis might not only affect one organisation. So depending on who the issue affects that organisation might have to respond to different groups. It thus has to tailor the messages to cater for the needs of that particular audience. Also in the early stages of a crisis when little is known by the organisation its best to release press releases with factual information.