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.