comments!

Today I commented on Phoebe's blog.

Week 11

WEEK 11

This weeks readings were all about research and evaluation. I think that research is the single most important thing to do in a PR campaign. If a practitioner does not research well, chances are the aims and objectives of the campaign will not be in line with the company's aims and objectives and therefore will not achieve the desired outcome.

I think it's also important to remember to evaluate at all stages of the PR campaign, to both make sure this campaign is successful and to know for the future which tactics worked well.

There are many considerations when undertaking research, mainly being time, money and human resources. care must be taken to carry out the correct amount of research, not enough and the campaign may fail, too much and money and time is wasted for little gain.

The readings made me think more about PR theory/practice in that I had not really considered which aspects of a company need to be researched (input, output and outcome research), and how many different ways there are to evaluate a campaign.

I found the methodology section in the readings really interesting, and was particularly interested in the table, research methods and techniques. It gave me a few ideas for my assignment!

I was having trouble coming up with research techniques before reading this chapter, which is an overload of surveys, interviews, focus groups, ethnographic studies, case studies, analysis of existing data, organisational culture study, feedback analysis, media monitoring, content analysis, benchmark research, statistical analysis, environmental monitoring, communication audits, corporate communication archives, testimonials, expert review, internet monitoring, measurement of online presence, AVEs and secondary info sources. I now have research methods coming out my ears...

The case study was also really helpful... Well done Mel! It showed me the types of research and evaluation that can be used in a campaign such as the Census.

Cheers guys... last blog ever and my birthday... today is the most exciting day ever!!

comments!

Today I have commented on Fabian's blog :)

Week 10

Week 10!

Although I had already read Chapter 7 of this week's readings, I found that this time around I thought more about PR strategy in relation to our next assignment, the PR plan. I think it's important to know the value of strategic PR and always remember that planning is key to a successful campaign!

I think they key points to remember from this week's readings are that included in the PR plan is:
1 Executive summary
2 The communication process
3 Background
4 Situation analysis (SWOT)
5 Main message statement
6 Stakeholders
7 Messages for key stakeholders
8 Implementation
9 Budget
10 Monitoring and evaluation

Although this is the outline in the textbook I think there are other areas such as identifying target publics that are also really important in the PR plan. I think the budgeting section really helped me to understand more that everything costs something, to the printing of posters to the staging of a major event.

I thought the checklists and Gnatt chart was really interesting and taught me a lot about how PR plans are implemented out in the big wide world.

The readings made me think more about PR theory/ practice in that although there are many different kinds of tactics, not all tactics are effective for all campaigns. I think this shows how important it is to research.

There are two main types of PR tactics, controlled and uncontrolled. Although I understand the difference, I think that even controlled tactics are uncontrolled to a certain extent. Even if a PR practitioner spends a month perfecting a brochure on a company, targeting who they will give it out to etc, they cannot possibly control what that person will do with that brochure, be it throw it straight in the bin, glance at it then drop it on the ground or read it front to back. Therefore, I think it's important in PR to create maximum impact and information from one glance.

I also found the case study about gaining public support for the ENERGEX community rescue helicopter service was a good example of a PR plan similar in style (though not content) to the Maitland Rep. plan I will complete soon.

comments!

Today I commented on Rhanna's blog.

Week 9

Week 9!

This week we were asked to read Chapter 13 of the textbook which was about Sponsorship and Event Management.

This week's readings made me think of all the times on the news or in the newspaper that I've seen a CEO of a major company handing over one of those huge cheques to a charitable organisation or donating money to a hospital or something. I've never before considered (before starting this course) how much PR planning goes into such a situation.

Event Management is an area of PR that I am particularly interested in. Events need to be carefully planned and executed, and are planned using the steps of feasibility, planning, execution and evaluation. This also made me think of my PR tutorial a few weeks ago in which we were looking up Golden Target Awards. Many of these involved sponsoring an organization or managing an event. They all did it well, and I reflected on these case studies while reading the textbook this week.

Sponsorship involves a high level of research, planning, scheduling and creativity to ensure that both organisations involved gain benefit from the relationship. Different types of sponsorship include philanthropic and corporate.

The readings made me think more about PR theory/ practice in that when managing an event, a PR practitioner must ensure that the event "not only fulfills the aims and strategies of the organization or sponsor but also attract the attention of the media". In other words, if the CEO of your company hands a big cheque to a charity and no media is there to see it or write about it, the relationship is not mutually beneficial, although I'm sure the charity would still be very happy :)

comments

Today I commented on Zac's blog

Week 8

WEEK 8

The readings this week were about writing for the media. I think it was really important as this is one of the most important aspects of Public Relations. The readings pointed out that journalists are often suspicious of media releases written by PR practitioners as they think they are often concealing things. I agree with this, as I think that is sort of our job. Not to conceal things from journalists, but sometimes it is better for the company for the media to not know certain things.

The readings made me think more about PR theory/practice in that we should know how to write well and structure news stories. It made me think more about how the course at uni is structered. I like that we have to do Intro to Professional Writing before the Public Relations course so we learn how to write a media release, and the basics of journalistic writing like the inverted pyramid and news values. I like how I know a little about writing but I'd like to learn more about it before getting a job in the PR profession.

comments!

Today I'm commenting on Phoebe's blog. I've already commented on her blog but the first three people I looked up hadn't done their blogs this week.

week 7

WEEK 7

I am doing my debate on this week’s topic, Media Relations. As I’m on the negative side, I read the readings while thinking, ‘Look for things that prove that the journalist has more power in this relationship’. Therefore, this week I may have a one-sided view of the readings but I’ll try to give a balanced perspective… without giving too much away to the other team.

Media Relations is the best known element of PR. I think that this is the most important thing to remember from the readings. PR is one of the most important influences on journalism, and PR practitioners must be aware that the must seek to have good relationships with journalists.

To do so, media tools are often used. Melanie spoke about this in the lecture this week, referring to spoken/written and imagined tools, but the textbook lists the most common tools as being the media release, media kit and media conferences. I was unaware previously that a media kit included such things as a backgrounder or biographies of important company figureheads.

The readings made me think more about PR theory/practice in that almost everything a practitioner does is for publicity, which means knowing how to successfully relate to the media and hold successful conferences, write good media releases etc. I think this is the most important aspect of PR, because without publicity campaigns often fail.

The other readings that weren’t in the textbook this week were really useful for my debate coming up, as they went into detail about public speaking and working as a group.

comments!

This week I'm commenting on Jacqui's blog.

Week 6

WEEK 6

Oops! Last week I seem to have read the course outline a little incorrectly and I did this week's readings last week. Getting a little ahead of myself. So, this week, I figure I'll do last week's readings. So I'm now talking about the readings from Week 5, and my comments on Week 6 readings are in Week 5 blog.

This week I think they key points to remember from the readings were that the basic underlying issue in relation to a successful PR plan is implementing a SMART strategy. This is, a strategy which is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. I think that the readings really emphasised how important strategy is to a campaign.

The readings made me think more about PR practice/theory in that I realised how much of a PR campaign relies on knowledge and research. I did know that obviously, research must be conducted in relation to the company or objectives prior to starting the campaign, but I didn't know the different sections of this research. For example, research into the company's mission statement and their objectives, what objectives the company wants from the campaign, realistic outcomes from the campaign, other campaigns that are similar, and looking into past campaigns that have been successful. Successful campaigns might then be looked at in terms of how they were implemented and what sort of strategy was used.

The second reading made me think of how vast PR strategies can be, and how publics, outcomes and messages need to be clearly defined in order to determine which is the best way to go about things, and what the strategy for the campaign should be.

comments!

Today I'm commenting on Phoebe's blog :)

Week 5

WEEK 5!

I think the key points to remember from this week’s readings were that PR practitioners need to understand the legal environment in which they work and that ethical decisions can’t be made lightly and are sometimes very hard decisions to make.

The readings made me think more about PR theory/practice in that I considered all the crazy defamation cases I’ve heard about in the media, and thought of the PR staff behind them. I thought about not only defamation, but all other major court cases too. I hadn’t before considered the PR work behind the media surrounding major court battles.

“PR relies on good reputations, positive images and strong relationships”. I think this is a good quote from the reading, as these things must be considered before entering into any litigation. I thought it was interesting that because of globilisation, its important to remember that there are different defamation laws in different parts of the world and these must be thought about.

I thought the Potter box technique in relation to ethical matters was interesting, even though it does not produce the most ethical decision 100% of the time. I think the guidelines for ethical advocacy in chapter 5 were especially useful and practical. I also thought it was interesting to know different organization’s stance on ethics, including PRIA, MEAA, PRSA and IABC.

comments!

Today I'm commenting on Emily's blog :)

Week 4!

WEEK 4

I think the key points to remember from this week’s readings are the importance of relating to different publics, both internal and external, and that a PR practitioner may be involved in many different jobs/tasks.

The readings made me think more about PR theory/practice in that I considered the different interviews in PR FAQ’s and thought about which sort of PR I would most like to wok in.

I thought the reading from Melanie’s book was really interesting, in that the different people interviewed all had different things to say about their job. I thought it was interesting how the majority of interviewees said that on the job training helps a lot more than a uni degree, although the see the value in having the degree. This made me think more about work placements etc during uni.

This reading also made clear to me, although I did have some idea before, the number of different organizations that employ a PR team. These included government and non-for-profits, among many more.

The second reading I couldn’t get hold of, so I read chapter 11 from Public Relations: Theory and Practice. This spoke about internal publics (employees etc.) and ways in which to communicate effectively with them. Methods included newsletters, company newspapers, noticeboards, memos, awards, events, and intranets. The reading emphasised the importance of internal relations, and provided case studies that further proved the point.

comments!

Today I'm going to comment on Sakshi's blog.

Week 3

WEEK 3

I think the key points to remember from this week’s readings were that, put simply, there are many different theories that relate to public relations, and although none are either right or wrong, each can be applied in a different way to different situations.

The readings made me think more about PR practice/theory in that some theories which I am familiar with from CMNS1110 (Intro to Communication) relate to PR in ways in which I hadn’t considered. I had not linked Communication theories such as Semiotics and Agenda Setting to PR practice before now, but now I understand the broad range of theories which can relate to PR.

A quote from the Gower reading which I found to be interesting was “values implied by the model are collaboration, negotiation and compromise”. This was relating to the two way symmetrical model. I think this is an accurate description, and it made me think more about how equal communication from an organization and its publics would indeed promote collaboration and negotiation, but especially compromise. I agree that this model would be favourable to the other three of Grunig and Hunt’s models.

Gower also brought up the point of PR differences in different cultural situations. This is also something I hadn’t really considered (the difference in PR in different countries, naïve I know…) but I now see the obvious difference in publics and culture would produce a different result.

I think the main thing I have gained from this week’s readings was that although there are many theories, both specific for public relations and borrowed theories from other disciplines, that an individual PR practitioner must decide what is relevant to a specific situation, having experience with the benefits and criticisms of most or all of these models.

Week 2

WEEK 2!

This week in Introduction to Public Relations I read the first few chapters of the big textbook and as I don't have the other textbook yet I didn't read any of it.

I think the key points to remember from this weeks readings are:
* the different skills that Public Relations practitioners use in their work, like managing and problem solving
* definitions of Public Relations
* different roles of Public Relations practitioners, from writing newsletters to communicating with many publics.
* the difference between marketing and PR. This is something that I was confused about before I read the textbook. I wasn't sure where the line was between PR and marketing, although now I have a better understanding that PR is less money driven and more about mending and keeping good relationships with a company's publics.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory/ practice in that I understand the basics of 'What is PR?' and a brief history of PR.

I need to buy the other textbook to finish off the readings for this week. I'll get it on Thursday.