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.