Lesson 10 Research & Evaluation

When public relations practitioners need to organize an event or campaign, they are required to provide accountable and accurate information to the public. At this state, research and evaluation is used to find the relevant questions and obtain the answers from it.

I think the key points to remember from this week’s reading was the use of research helps to position public relations as purposive, goal-directed and problem solving management function. It is also a crucial step in public relations to identify the requirement for communication program. If the research has done badly, it will affect the rest of the strategy planning and performance of the campaign & events.Effective outcome which demands reliable and informed resources based on research findings.

There are three type of research which are input research(research in problems or opportunities of strategies), output research(measurement during the campaign or events), and outcome research(measurement of achievements).

The readings made me think more about public relations practices is always find out what’s the main purpose of doing the research and evaluate from there. Maybe ask yourself, why research? We can list out the point and following do the research. For instance, if the campaign is related to a global warming issue, then we need to go with the issue with an appropriate research which is relevant and accurate for maximum and best outcome in campaign or events.

The research is determined under the environment and requirements of the activity being undertaken, it is time-consuming and resources-intensive sometimes.Thus, It is good to plan early to manage well with sufficient and credible research inorder to reach outstanding goal.

Lesson 9 - Tactics

Tactics are always used to achieve the strategic outcome. It must be relate directly back to its defined purpose. There are a range of different tactics to apply in different public relations campaign. The choices of tactics are identified depends on target audience, individual and types of public relation campaign.

The key points to remember from this week’s readings are there is no specific precise and correct tactics that ensure successful implementation of a public relation campaign. It relies on the creativity and analytical skills to exploit the tactics to reach a desirable goal.

Controlled communication :

- The public relations practitioner have full control every aspect of the process.
- They determined the overall planning and what information to reveal during the campaign.
- Example: Advertising, brochures, posters, direct mail and etc.

Uncontrolled communication:

-Information can be altered or totally blocked by the public relations practitioners.
-Example : Media relations, public meeting and etc.

The readings made me think more about PR practice it is sometimes difficult to convey the strong single message to every audience as all of them have different perceptions and own personal experience towards the context. It is better to make careful considerations on the types of tactics and apply it appropriately to achieve the best outcome.

Lesson 8- Sponsorship and Event management

Sponsorship is a special tactics to deal with event management.The expenses are high but it repay by the goodwill and positive response if the event is well-managed.

Event is always essential to prepare before hand. It requires precise planning and timing to fulfill the aims, such as strategies of the organization of the media or the sponsor, and also attract the attention of the media.

I think the key points to remember from this week’s reading are sponsorship helps to generate goodwill and provide opportunities to enhance the image and reputation of the organization by association. Sponsorship also shows the growing variety of relationship but not merely focus on money. It is about sharing and exchange resources such as expertise and manpower.

There are different types of sponsorship which are;

- Philanthropic Sponsorship: as close as to a donation, generally community based, offered measurable benefits, engender goodwill between employee.

- Corporate Sponsorship: usually entered in order to link the sponsoring organization to a popular or a high-profile event or activity.

- Marketing Sponsorship: most popular among other form of sponsorship, offers cash and goods in return for tangible revenue-oriented results, used to promote product and services to reinforce the brand and sales.

Somehow there is a tactic called Ambush Marketing; could misrepresents the sponsorships as it has no official, legal and moral rights. Ambush marketing used tactics to carry signage which has no formal connection, gaining TV coverage or just simply attract a large number of spectators. It can worsen the concept of sponsorship and the viability of some events.

The readings made me think more about public relations practice are sponsorship demands two-way-interactions to gain positive benefits that being taken by the event organizer as well as the sponsor.

Lesson 7 To contact...or not?

I was quite surprised of the results after I have read about the journal article on how journalists think about public relations practitioner. In chapter 6, media relations, it mentioned public relations practitioner and journalist depends on each other in order to create the superlative outcome. Although they have mutual relationship,bu tthey have different perceptions, which eventually create conflicts and disagreement between each other.

I think the key points to remember from this week reading was journalist and PR practitioner should compromise with each other to produce an effective and influential news angle.

For PR practitioner, their main purpose is always to promote their organization &product and gain goodwill & reputation from the public. So it is inevitable for them to boast themselves and provide promotional information to the journalist.

However, journalist complained that PR practitioners are lack of professionalism. For instance, they provide the sources which are lack of news angle, unethical, have poor quality of writing and etc. They also felt those PR practitioners are not trustable as they always give inaccurate information. Journalist thinks that PR practitioner should always put inclusion of a local angle at the top of their checklists of basic requirement for effective news release.

The readings made me think more about public relations practitioners and journalist can’t avoid the quandary by dissatisfied each other. They should have a proper and suitable solution in order to work out the best results that beneficial to both of the professions.

Lesson 6 Media Relations

Do media relations act as vital part in public relations?

The answer is Yes. After reading, I felt that media relations is crucial in public relations' field.
They need to depend on each other in order to achieve their own sets of agenda although conflicts do occured at times.

When people heard of media relations, most of them will relate to public relations as they are the sources of information provided in news story. In recent years, the ways that press demands had enhanced the growth of public relations industry.

“PR has become one of the most important external influences on journalism as it is now practiced” (Marshall and Kingsbury 1996:127)

I think the key points to remember from this week’s reading are although public relations practitioners play as vital role in the media, it is not an asymmetrical relationship. It takes two hands to clap. Public relations provide information to the media to raise public awareness and public interest whereas media get the information from public relations and get to publish newsworthy news.

So what are media relations all about?

There are media monitoring which is about being up to deal with issues, events, and crisis management. For daily monitoring, public relations practitioners cover a wide range of area (e.g : trends, government policy and legislations, debates and opinion) to deal with media so as to gauge public opinion and trends.Public relations practitioner will usually generate media releases that are too promotional and as threatening the job of working journalist.

On the other hand, the press will analyze and evaluate whether the media stories have a certain news value. There are 8 Conley news value to use as criteria to determine the media stories (impact, conflict, timeliness, proximity, prominence, human interest, the unusual, and money ).

The readings made me think more about public relations theory or practice that the relationship between media relations and public relations are inextricable. Even though there are always uneasy alliance with each other, but there is a potential growing interdependence in the two industries.

Strong communication will be achieved if there are clear understandings and respects between each other.

Lesson 5 - Part 2 - Ethical Practice

My mum always teaches me to ‘Do The Right Thing’ in any circumstances. Even though if I am in dilemma, I should not choose the outcome that would harm or damage the relationships with each others.

That’s called ethics.

Ethics is not equal to morality. It is the personal values which emphasize the behavior and moral choices made by an individual response to a specific situation. It is the standards of integrity.

So how do the practitioners put the ethics into practice?

I think the key points to remember from this week’s reading are the public relations consultant use the Potter box technique to help them in making more precise decisions and actions.

The Potter Box

Besides the potter box that helps to identify consistent and inconsistent values,principles and loyalties, there are three basic ethical doctrines, which are:

- Deontolory (doctorine that ethics is duty-based and relies on moral obligation)

-Telelogy (an outcome-based ethics doctrine where 'the ends justify the means ')

-Aristotle's Golden Mean (based on what is best for majority )

The readings made me think more about public relations theory or practice in that there are actually several roles that played by PR practitioner.The four major roles are counsellor,advocate,corporate monitor and corporate conscience. The best practice of public relations serves the public interest by devoloping mutual understanding between the organisation and its publics.

There are empirical evidence shows that practitioners who based on their decision-making and recommendations to management on ethicasl principles are more likely to have a greater role in management decisions and activities.(Grunig 1992:309)

Lesson 5 - Part 1- The Legal Environment.

I didn’t know a public relation practitioner need to learn the legal environment until I read the relevant chapter of the book. It was quite surprising that the practitioners are required to have the basic understanding of legal environment.

I think the key points to remember for this part of the reading is all the decisions made by public relations practitioners entails with the consideration in the context of ‘legal environment’. Therefore, the practitioners are responsible to negotiate with lawyers on strategies employed to minimize the harm and risks.

A public relation practitioner has the part to

- protect it’s organizations reputation ,
- to protect the creative ideas that originated from the organization,
- handle the legal risk management
- be the role of contracts in global legal environment

The reading made me think that defamation can be test in three kinds of circumstances:

-the publication exposed the plaintiff to hatred, contempt or ridicule
- it lowered the plaintiff in the eyes of right-thinking members of community
-it cause plaintiff to be shunned or avoided, without moral blame.

Apparently, there are also defenses against defamation balance the right of the individual to protect their reputation and show the need for freedom of speech and the public’s right to receive the information.The three defenses are usually :

-Truth defence , which the publisher must prove the truth by providing admissible evidence but not only hearsay from anyone.

-Fair comment, to allow people to express opinions.

-Priviledge, to protect a person from liability for the publication of defamatory material.

Lesson 4- Strategy, PLanning and Scheduling

“Strategy is a pattern or plan that integrates an organization’s major goals, policies and action sequences into a cohesive whole.” (Mintzberg and Quinn 1991:5)

Strategic planning is the nutshell in every organization. Without a proper planning, no matter how good the strategic is, it won’t be successful if there is no vision and mission of organization. Strategy is not a series of campaign steps or tactics. It is underlying rationale that guides the selection of these tactics or stages.

There is a quote that suits this chapter, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

I think the key points to remember for this week’s reading were that strategic planning is not as easy as playing ‘lego’ but to plan consistently and logically in order to achieve the public relations goal. These are the key elements to consider before start doing strategic planning:

-vision and mission statements
-key performance indicator (KPIs)
-budgeting
-scheduling
-making lists

The readings made me think more about public relations theory or practice in that a effective and well-prepared framework of strategic planning leads to clearly set and relevant goal and objectives of its organisations.

Lesson 3 - Internal and community relations

Building a good relationship with anyone is essential in our social life. Every one has their own sets of thinking and perspective in life. It is impossible to agree fully on other’s perception. Therefore, people tend to try and understand each other by communicating with each other effectively, it is also the simillar application that applyed in between the organizations and their employees.

I think the key points to remember from this week’s readings are that the internal relations is always important and put on priority in public relations practice. It is vital and inevitable to reveal good relationships between the employee communication and job satisfaction and productivity. Also, goodwill is important asset for businesses too. The two-way symmetrical model focuses on the management in internal relationships.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory in that internal relations might tarnish one’s organization just because of one employee’s dissatisfactory. I was inspired by this quote in the PR book: “It is people who make businesses successful.”

Indeed.

Without coping well in internal relationships and community relations, an organization will be in hard to develop efficient and productivity results. Lastly, I personally think a strong bond that build in internal relationship will serve to enhance the organization’s overall operations and outcomes.

Lesson 2 – Theoretical Perspectives

In my point of view, theories are frameworks that help to enable public relations to construct a better understanding for the entire scenarios. For public relations practitioners, they don’t just simply make organizations become prominent and build a good reputation for them, but also need to handle all sorts of crisis management when problems occurred. In this case, public relations practitioners are required to use strategies and effective methods to overcome the barriers.

I think the key points to remember from this week’s readings are that different scenarios have its different theories to apply for, in order to maximize the efficiency in particular circumstances. For instance, the article ‘A crisis of epidemic proportions: What communication lessons that can practitioners learn from the Singapore SARS crisis? has implemented the theory of two-way symmetrical model.

During SARS period, the public relations have played an important role to create public awareness by increasing issue salience. Also, the engagement between the government and the publics are necessary to bring about symbiotic changes in the ideas, attitudes and behaviors. Mutual communications, which is the two-way symmetrical model, helps to gain more trust from the public because they were assimilated on the issue too.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory or practice in that the two-way symmetrical model neglects the theory of power on other organization. Firstly, the organization in this model adapts public’s opinion and do research and analyze in order to satisfy their needs. Secondly, they don’t persuade the publics but to do something that suits them and satisfied them.

This model has gradually become the most effective model in recent years. ‘Several studies have shown the ineffectiveness of the press agetry, public information, two-way asymmetrical models’ (Grunig and Grunig 1992:308).

1st Lesson

The roles that play by PR practitioners amazed me after I have attended the first lecture of Intro to PR theory and practices.

What I thought of PR practitioners at first was manage good social relationships in both the public and the company by using media communications. Surprisingly, PR practitioners do more than what we expect, they need to plan and arrange everything when there are activities or events. They handle all sorts of incident like crisis management, fund raising, sponsorship, press agentry and etc.

I think the key points to remember from this week readings are that public relations cover wide range of work as communication is vital nowadays. Besides that, public relations does not only involves in communication, but it has its own methods or theory to apply in practical

The theory is Grunig and Hunts’s four models which includes press agentry, public information, two-way asymmetric and two-way symmetric.

The theory of press agentry is to get attention and to pressure the public to accept the messages. For public information, they simply aim to broadcast the information to the public. The two-way asymmetrical theory aims to reach a target market where they provide the information about the products and services by organizing campaign and events .Lastly, the two-way symmetrical theory concentrates on public view and comments.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory and practice in that public relations and marketing can be quite similar in some ways. People might mix up if they don’t know the definition of public relations.The differences between public relations and marketing are public relations aim to reach the objectives by passing message with sevices unlike marketing aims to reach target sales by promoting.

This module makes me want to understand deeply about the theory and practice in PR. I am happy that I have found something that I am interested to study =)