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.