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.