Week 11

Our last blog focuses on the use of research in the input, output and outcome phases of a public relations campaign or program. Research should be undertaken at all stages of a campaign including before, during and after the completion of the final stages. Hence, research should be the first and last activity in a campaign.

I think the key points to remember from this week’s readings are:
1) Research should be an ongoing activity and is essential to successful public relations endeavours, especially plans, campaigns and strategies.
2) The use of research determines whether a practitioner is acting as a professional or a technician. And essentially, its use positions public relations ‘as a purposive, goal-directed, and problem solving management function’ (Broom and Dozier 1990: 12).
3) Time, money and the availability of human resources are the main factors influencing the type and depth of the research to be undertaken. As is deciding the actual substance of the research.
4) Practitioners should be aware that there is such a thing as too much research. This will lead to wasting valuable time and money for a limited or unrequired result.
5) It is necessary to set clearly defined goals and objectives for the research to be effective.
6) In put research can show what problems or opportunities exist, what the perceptions and beliefs of the publics are, and what tools or methods of communication would be most effective in aiding the organisation to reach its objectives or goals with those publics. Therefore, input research helps with informing strategies and planning.
7) Output research looks into the delivery of messages which can help to ‘fine-tune’ the campaign as it is in progress to be able to achieve greater success with the outcomes.
8) Outcome research indicates the level of success or failure of the strategy and shows how effective the planning and communication have been. The information gathered at this stage can be valuable during the input phase of the next campaign. In order to do this to maximise its benefits, evaluation criteria must be set up at the start of the campaign.
9) Amongst all this, the public relations practitioner must determine the methodologies to be used when conducting this research. It can be formal or informal, qualitative or quantitative, and using primary or secondary research. Within all this many different techniques may be employed.
10) Formal research is characterised by scientific procedures, methodologies and analysis (Leeds, 1997:5). While informal research has no agreed rules or procedures, and is cheaper and more immediate than formal research, however, it is also highly subjective.
11) Qualitative research is interpretive and in-depth (Eliot Eisner in Leedy 1997) and is descriptive and informative. Quantitative research uses ‘verification-based methods’ (Caywood 1997:43) and is generally described as confirmatory research.
12) Research techniques vary greatly including surveys which can be conducted via mail (low response rate, hence should include an ‘incentive’); telephone (diverse range of people reachable, but requires them to be prepared to talk); face-to-face (approximately 80-85% response rate according to Babbie, 1995); and internet (speedy responses but the quality of responses are questionable).
13) Other research techniques include in-depth interviews, focus groups, ethnographic studies (observing different groups in urban, suburban or cultural settings), case studies, analysis of existing data, media monitoring, testimonials and Advertising value equivalents or AVEs (placing a value on the media coverage by calculating what the space would have cost in advertising terms).

I learnt more about public relations theory and practice in that the style of research a public relations practitioner undertakes is dependant on many things including their objectives and the environment in which the program operates. There are many different ways and methodologies to collect the data or information needed. No matter how good the research is, I think the most important thing is how you use the information you have gathered. Research can therefore be used as a tool in building and managing successful public relations activities.

This week I commented Nicole Magripilis' blog.


References
1)Chapters 6 – Research and Evaluation in Public relations: theory and practice / edited by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. Crows Nest, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 2004. 2nd ed.

Week 10

In this week's readings we revisted the chaptor on stategy, planning and scheduling while also elaborating on that with the chapter on tactics.
I think the key points to remember from the week's readings are:
1)the first step you should take in a strategy should be made internally. To make a strategy operate effectively, the public relations function should operate within the decsion making body of the organisation.
2)The vision statement(where the company would like to be in the future) and mission statement(how it plans to get there) should be paramount to the begining of planning.
3)One must be open to two-way and responsive communication, be receiver orientated, timely, clear, consistent and comprehensive in the writing of an effective startegic communication plan.
4)Budgeting is crucial to any plan, strategy or tactic one wishes to undertake.It is not going to work if you pay for it.
5)Lists and charts provide good visuals and checkpoints when completing your strategy.
6)Tactics can be broken up into controlled and uncontrolled tactics. A mix of both is preferable to effectively carry out your strategy.
7)There is a wide variety of choice when deciding how to deliver your message, including, mail, email, CD-ROMS, videos and wedsites-all with different effects on the recipiants of the message.
8)Many things must be considered when producing printed materials including paper size, colours, embossing, paper stock and binding.

I learnt more about public relations theory and practice in that each step in the implementation of a certain tactic must be considered in order to communicate your specific message. Target audience is crucial to the decisions relating to these steps. Many factors can impact on these tactics and it is the analytical and creative skills of the practition that ultimately overcome these factors in order to be successful in achieve the aims and objectives of your overall strategy.

This week I commented Phoebe Spencer's blog.

References
1)Chapters 7 and 8 – Strategy, Planning and Scheduling/Tactics in Public relations: theory and practice / edited by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. Crows Nest, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 2004. 2nd ed.

Week 9

The readings for this week focused on sponsorship and event management.

I think the key points to remember from this week’s readings are:
1. Sponsorship is not like a donation-it expects a return.
2. Some of the benefits of sponsorship, as outlined by Geldard and Sinclair, include exclusivity, image association and networking with people of importance.
3. There are three types of sponsorship; philanthropic, corporate and marketing.
4. Sponsorship proposals are the key to gaining sponsorship. These should include background information on the event, sponsorship benefits, pictures of past events and a specific request for the amount of sponsor money wanted.
5. Ambush marketing exists and poses a huge threat to an event and its sponsors.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory and practice in that events can take many different forms, such as lectures, product demonstrations and so on. Therefore the aims and objectives of an event should be the factors which help decide what type of event one will hold. Also, because sponsors except a type of exclusivity-and have paid good money for it-steps should be taking to avoid ambush marketing. Also, Tonge (1999) suggests for steps to creating a good event. One should consider the feasibility of the event first and foremost. Secondly, detailed planning must be undertaken. This will impact heavily on the third stage, the execution of the event. The last step is the review or evaluation of the event.

This week I commented Michelle Hogan's blog.

References
1)Chapter 13 – Sponsorship an Event Managements in Public relations: theory and practice / edited by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. Crows Nest, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 2004. 2nd ed.

Week 8

The readings for this week focused on media writing.

I think the key points to remember from this week’s readings include the notion that journalists are very sceptical when dealing with public relations practitioners because most of them believe there is always some ulterior motive to contacting them, which I kind of agree with because ultimately that is our job. Also, the readings emphasised that overall, journalists find writing by practitioners to be poor and lacking the proper aspects to make a story newsworthy. This can also be said for the opinions of higher level practitioners of entry level practitioners.


The readings for this week made me think more about public relations theory and practice in that I learnt that I should pay attention to how I would contact a journalist. One of the readings said that we should ask straight out what one individual journalist’s preference is in relation to being contacted which I think is a good idea. Much of the reading on press releases was already covered in our professional writing course last semester.
Overall, what I learnt from this week is that I should always be working on improving my writing (including structure, content and grammar), I should work towards building good relationships with journalists and as an entry level practitioner there is always going to be people in higher positions who think you aren’t capable.

This week I commented Taegan Reid's blog.

References
1)Sallot, M. & Johnson, A. (2006). To contact … or not?: Investigating journalists’ assessments of public relations subsidies and contact preferences. Public Relations Review. 32(1) 83-86.
2)The Importance of Writing Skills by Kurt Wise in Public Relations Quarterly; Summer 2005; 50, 2; ABI/INFORM Global. pg. 37
3)How To...Ten Steps to Press Release Perfection PR News. Potomac: Mar 20, 2006. Vol. 62, Iss. 12; pg. 1.

Week 7

We have already learnt that as public relations practitioners we have a duty to disseminate information to the media and the readings for this week were very helpful in helping to understand how to do this. I found the section on media ownership in Australia very interesting especiall (because I want to work in the magazine industry), the fact that the Packer empire owns 14 of the top 30 magazines in Australia.
The key points to remember from this weeks readings includes the fact that it is a good idea to become familiarized with the media people relevant to your organisation. I think this is a good point because a bad public relations practitioner would only send out information to generic sources, which would not make a journalist feel as though this information is especially aimed at anybody at all. I also found it helpful to read that it is not in your best interest to simply just release a media release most of the time as production crews and editors of different media must meet different requirements to show a marketable story, such as visual accompaniment.
This week’s readings made me think more about public relations theory and practice in the section on constructing media releases, media kits and media conferences. I learnt in this course that these were all good tools for disseminating the information you want but I was not exactly sure of what each entailed. I would have some reservation about trying not to make a media kit to corny or over the top and generic as I could imagine a media kit could feel a bit like a show bag, so I would aim to make it as professional as possible.
The readings on public speaking were interesting but did not really introduce me to any new information.

I commented Nathan Swan's blog this week.

References
1)Chapter 10 of Public relations: theory and practice / edited by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. Crows Nest, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 2004. 2nd ed
2)Drew, S. (2001) Oral Presentations (pp 98-114) in The Student Skills Guide. (2nd ed.) London:Gower.
3)Van Emden, J. and Becker, L. (2004). Speaking as Part of a Group (pp 77-93) in Presentation Skills for Students. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Week 6

The readings for this week made me realise that there is a lot of things one needs to watch will working in the public relations industry. Because I am also studying law, I knew that there was a lot of stuff, such as trademark and copyright laws, that need to be checked out before publishing anything.
I think the key points to remember from this week’s readings are that if your organisation does not have an ethical committee or some structure to keep the ethics of the organisation in check then it would be a good idea to discuss this with management if you can; and that the law is in place to prevent you from doing wrong but also to protect you from being wronged against, which I think most people look at less.
This week’s readings made me think more about public relations theory and practice in that it made me aware that I should carefully scrutinize every piece of work I do to ensure that it is both legally and ethically sound. I know that one small overlook can have massive repercussions on my career and future in the industry. Even if all of my other work was way above average, having to explain a breach of copyright made by myself to a potential employer would not be worth the slight laziness which caused that breach in the first place.
This week I commented Jessica Capper.

References
1)Chapters 4 and 5 of Public relations: theory and practice / edited by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. Crows Nest, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 2004. 2nd ed.

Week 5

This week’s readings helped me to understand the nuts and bolts of public relations practice. I thought the readings explained very well public relations strategies and programs.
I think the key point remember from this weeks readings is that a public relations strategy is useless unless it can be evaluated. The readings mention that it is all well and good to set objectives such as “To improve staff happiness” or “To improve the public perceptions of an organisation” but they are useless objective unless one can break down the ways to get to such objectives into smaller, manageable strategies. This made me feel less anxious about working as a public relations practitioner because I was not quite sure exactly how one would, say, overhaul the public image of a whole company or improve overall internal communications. The readings pointed out that such big objectives are achievable through successful strategies.

This week’s readings made me think more about public relations theory and practice in that I realised that more often then not I will be working within a budget that would probably not be enough to achieve the best possible PR strategies or that one could be working for somewhere where management does not see public relations as a key managerial position in the organisation. I could imagine that until recently many organisations only thought they needed a public relations strategy in times of crisis. Hopefully such ideas about public relations have gone as many companies begin to see the importance of public relations strategies and planning.

This week I commemted Gabrielle Ryan.

References
1)Chapter 7 of Public relations: theory and practice / edited by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. Crows Nest, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 2004. 2nd ed.

2)Chapter 4 - A Typical Public Relations Program. In C. Tymson, P. Lazar, P and R. Lazar, (Eds.)The new Australian and New Zealand public relations manual (5th ed.) (pp. 74-117) Manly: Tymson Communications . 2006.

Week 4

I found this week’s readings to be extremely helpful in showcasing the more day-to-day role of a public relations practitioner.

I think the key points to remember from this week’s readings came from Chapter 11 of Public Relations Theory and Practice (Johnston and Zawawi). This chapter explained that an organisations success relies on genuine and honest relationships through both internal public relations and community relations. This showed that an organisation should hold employees as their most valuable asset, because, as it says on page 295, “employees are not machines but people who have families and enjoy a social life.” This got me thinking about how I, as an employee, would like to be treated. Some corporations may say they have excellent employee relations programs running, but due to time and monetary constraints these may not be implemented s well as they would like, and thus won’t be as effective. For example, I work for one of the corporations mentioned in the text. It is noted that this corporation regularly awards staff but through my experience this has not been the case. As an employee this makes me feel undervalued and, as mentioned above, like a “machine”. This made me think that I, as a PR practitioner must make sure that any internal relations strategy is being implemented in all areas that it should, because I would like to enjoy a positive, genuine culture in my workplace and when working as in PR I can see that I must ensure this for other employees like myself.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory and practice in that I was able to see what a day practicing PR would be like thanks to the ‘Insider Info’ chapter in Melanie James’ Career FAQs; Public Relations. Up until now, I feel as though I have only been looking at an outline of what PR is and not what it’s day-to-day workings would be like. I found the cases in this chapter most easily relatable when it involved someone close to my age and working in a place that I would like to work, like, Jessica Forrest, account manager for Shearmans PR. Overall, this chapter gave me a clearer idea of where I would like to work and how to go about getting there.
This week I commented Kellie O'Sullivan.

References

1)Insider Info chapter (pp 37-93) in Public Relations by James, M. (2006). Sydney: CareerFaqs.

2)Chapter 11 pages 287-297 of Public relations: theory and practice / edited by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. Crows Nest, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 2004. 2nd ed.

Week 3

My first thought upon reading the title of chapter three-‘theoretical perspectives’ from this weeks readings was that I thought PR was a pretty self explanatory occupation and that it didn’t need any theoretical mumbo-jumbo to get the job done. However upon reading this chapter I was enlightened to say the least. Previously, I did not even know there was a theory relating to public relations let alone many of them. The first sentence links theoretical perspectives to “road maps” which got me thinking that possibly one could adopt such perspectives from a theory one relates to and use it to mould their own personal style of PR.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory and practice in that I could see that there is more than one way to conduct PR. I could see how the relationship management approach would greatly aid an organization in finding out where they stand with their publics, which I can see is vital to its survival and success. Also, the generalists systems theory allowed me to visualise more clearly the links between organizations, their publics and PR practitioners.

I think the key points to remember from this week’s readings related to Grunig’s two-way symmetrical model, also known as the ‘excellent model’ within public relations. J.E. Grunig noted that the values within this model are negotiation, collaboration and compromise, which I think clearly articulates the values of a successful practitioner. When I look at a powerful organization like McDonalds I can see that they have comprised to keep up with social values. For example, Australians’ standards for nutritional information are growing and hence McDonalds have started to list their products’ nutritional value on each packet. I believe that these values must form part of a practitioner’s professional values to ensure that their work is ethical and effective.

I commented Emma Murphy's blog for this week.

References

1)Chapter 3 of Public relations: theory and practice / edited by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. Crows Nest, N.S.W. Allen & Unwin, 2004. 2nd ed.
2)Gower, K (2006) Public Relations Research at the Crossroads in Journal of Public Relations Research. 18 (2), 177-190.

Week 2

What is Public Relations?

Admittedly, my understanding of public relations has solely come from its representation in popular television shows. Much of what I saw glamorized public relations as an occupation concerned mainly with party planning and spin-doctoring information about an organization. Even though I knew this was not the case, the readings for this week opened my eyes as to the real work involved in PR and, sadly, moved a vision of my future career away from one similar to that of Samantha Jones in Sex and the City. Therefore, I think the reason for many people's misconceptions of public relations is that they only take into consideration what they are presented with about the occupation. Say, they only saw a company's PR person on television or they heard about a launch party for an organisation organized by So-and-So Public Relations and hence think the job is all about looking good and throwing parties. Perhaps PRIA could do some PR to change certain publics' misconceptions about the industry?

I think the key points to remember from this weeks readings were that there is such a vast scope of activities undertaken by PR practitioners and that the industry in Australia is still developing as the roles of a practitioner grow as technology grows.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory and practice in that its early practice in Australia relied on 'ballyhoo' stunts to publicise within the entertainment industry and this is probably where some of the misconceptions I noted before arose. It made me see that these 'ballyhoo' stunts are still very evident today. For, example, Richard Branson constantly flys around the universe solo in a box elevated by a balloon or opens every new venture with a bevy of bikini girls to promote his Virgin brand.

Amongst the myriad of descriptions of the various roles of the the PR practitioner I found Harold Burson of Burson-Marsteller's list of the four main functions of public relations the most understandable. He recognizes that PR practitioners act as a "sensor of social change", "corporate conscience", "communicator" and "corporate monitor"(1), which gave me a much simpler overview of the purpose and function of public relations.

References

1)Chapters 1 and 2 of Public relations: theory and practice / edited by Jane Johnston and Clara Zawawi. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2004. 2nd ed.
2)“The Big Picture” Pages 1-36. in Public Relations James, M. (2006). Sydney: CareerFaqs.