This week's reading talks about different approaches and theoritical models that public relations people need to apply in different environment and different countries depending on their culture and shared values. Like in Indonesia, PR is scarcely used because they find that PR is more of a western thing and not popular in this country. Companies in Indonesia still use a lot of marketers and advertisement to convince people to buy their products/services. They think that this way of persuading is more effective in Indonesia. You can still find public relation practitioners in Indonesia, but not as many as in Western countries. Majority of the people in Indonesia are Muslims, in Thailand most people are Budhist and in Western countries people embrace Catholics. So, the way PR practice their job is vary according to the shared believes in every region. But not only religion, their etnichity will also effect their job scope.
For example in doing campaigns for government/president election. In the US, Obama use a lot of press conference to increase publicity, but in Indonesia, SBY (the president of Indonesia) uses more of the media and campaign on the streets to reach their audience and attracts public because they believe that people watch the media more and they like personal contact.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
WEEK 10 New Media and Public Relations
The new online communication tools have a potential in relationship-building and in developing new ways of communicating with public.
However, the Internet has changed “the management of relationships between publics and organisations and/or the management of communications between publics and organisations.” (Fitch, 2009). PR now cannot use the traditional way to maintain the average no. Of people who watch the existing broadcast media because of the uncontrolled world of new media. People around the world who have an internet connection can be a publisher and everyone is connected through the Internet (with blogs, Twitter, Facebook).
With Twitter/Facebook, anyone can just write a group page and spread it to their friends. Their friends of friends might also see the page. It needs no cost and even though it gets low feedback, at least people can see our products or services.
Shunji Matsuo, a Japanese hair expert is also aware of this trend. The PR person is very creative indeed that they invited local bloggers to an event to try out their new hair-wig products hoping that they will write about it and spread it on everybody else.
This is somehow related to the theories being discussed in the book which is, one theory has proved that the Internet is only for scatter information and not for boosting up discussion or dialogue. But the other side said that Internet can enhance two-way communication and can let the information to flow without organisations or gatekeepers’ control. This may pose another problem which is changing the capacity of an organisation to communicate with respect to legitimacy of leadership, authenticity of message and the relationship with stakeholders.
So, again we need to be aware of the environment of the country we’re working on depending on the usage and accessibility of the Internet. Some rural areas or communist countries have less access to Internet. Like China, they have banned some international sites. Recently, Google also was threatening to leave China.
To sum up, we have to be conscious and stay up to date to the trend. And all we need to do is to take advantage of this opportunity by getting active online – Paull Young.
However, the Internet has changed “the management of relationships between publics and organisations and/or the management of communications between publics and organisations.” (Fitch, 2009). PR now cannot use the traditional way to maintain the average no. Of people who watch the existing broadcast media because of the uncontrolled world of new media. People around the world who have an internet connection can be a publisher and everyone is connected through the Internet (with blogs, Twitter, Facebook).
With Twitter/Facebook, anyone can just write a group page and spread it to their friends. Their friends of friends might also see the page. It needs no cost and even though it gets low feedback, at least people can see our products or services.
Shunji Matsuo, a Japanese hair expert is also aware of this trend. The PR person is very creative indeed that they invited local bloggers to an event to try out their new hair-wig products hoping that they will write about it and spread it on everybody else.
This is somehow related to the theories being discussed in the book which is, one theory has proved that the Internet is only for scatter information and not for boosting up discussion or dialogue. But the other side said that Internet can enhance two-way communication and can let the information to flow without organisations or gatekeepers’ control. This may pose another problem which is changing the capacity of an organisation to communicate with respect to legitimacy of leadership, authenticity of message and the relationship with stakeholders.
So, again we need to be aware of the environment of the country we’re working on depending on the usage and accessibility of the Internet. Some rural areas or communist countries have less access to Internet. Like China, they have banned some international sites. Recently, Google also was threatening to leave China.
To sum up, we have to be conscious and stay up to date to the trend. And all we need to do is to take advantage of this opportunity by getting active online – Paull Young.
week 9 - Chapter 10&8
Reputation is something that people use to think or said characteristically. Public relations job is to position themselves between a business and its society when the company is facing distrust from the society. They are useful to bring back their reputation so that the public will have trust for the company or a brand.
Integrated communication can be described as the work of organizing communications so that the company characteristic is well communicated internally and externally.
Stakeholder is an individual or groups who involve or affected by the achievement of company’s goals, such as: customers, employees and communities. The point of this concept is the management should be open to the needs, rights, and interest of an internal and external organization, not just the shareholders and the business owner.
Good relationship = good reputation
To have a good corporate reputation is to have good relationship of organization and their key stakeholders. This requires creating same value for all the stakeholders, not only the shareholders. Two-way communication is needed to build trust between stakeholders and the organization.
Reputation is created when the promises from the company to the stakeholders is been delivered. Public relation practitioners cannot make a reputation for the company, but they can make sure that the company gets recognition for its achievements.
The role of corporate public relations is connecting the stakeholder and the organization by making sure that the company understands stakeholder needs. Secondly, public relations encourage them to deliver the promise and to teach how to communicate effectively with the stakeholders to all the employees at all level and structure the message that may deliver to the others.
Corporate reputation is a cooperative evaluation of an organization’s capability to provide important outcomes to a group of stakeholders. It is good when the outcomes have been delivered to the stakeholders.
Corporate image is an impression that set up in minds of the public, person and etc.
Ch 10
Organization may face crisis and issues and Public relations role here is to respond to the society and media questions; they also need to deal with the issue that the media write about. And because many people uses the web, companies started to put their information in the website, the history and etc. However, if the media make rumors, public relations has to take action to manage the online information. The management effectiveness depends on how fast and how well the company reacts and tackles the issue.
Issues happen when there is a difference between what the organization does and the society expectations. Crisis appears if the organization does not take action regarding that issue.
Public relations practitioners have to be sensitive to an issue and then find the best way to manage with it as soon as possible to maintain the business position in the society.
Type of crisis:
1. External economic attacks for example boycotts.
2. Mega damage (environmental).
3. Psycho (terrorism).
4. External information attacks like rumors and copyright infringement.
5. Breaks for example poor operations and security.
Crisis life cycle
1. Signal detection
When an organization faced an event, it might turned out into a crisis, but it stills an issue. If the issue is well managed, it can avoid crisis.
2. Preparation
In this stage, the organization needs to control the message and manage the issue. In other words, to get prepared before the crisis occurs.
3. Acute
When the crisis appear, it will harm the company; as it usually reported in the media. So, public relations need to manage mass media by creating a discussion session for the media as a representative.
4. Chronic
In this stage, to make it positive it’s better for the company to do audit of the events, introduce the successful management and learn from their mistakes.
5. Resolution
In this stage media want to make summary of the crisis; how the company doing and etc. So, remember that the public is the priority, answer the most honest question when the media ask, maintain effective communication, be prepared for the information that the public wants to know.
Integrated communication can be described as the work of organizing communications so that the company characteristic is well communicated internally and externally.
Stakeholder is an individual or groups who involve or affected by the achievement of company’s goals, such as: customers, employees and communities. The point of this concept is the management should be open to the needs, rights, and interest of an internal and external organization, not just the shareholders and the business owner.
Good relationship = good reputation
To have a good corporate reputation is to have good relationship of organization and their key stakeholders. This requires creating same value for all the stakeholders, not only the shareholders. Two-way communication is needed to build trust between stakeholders and the organization.
Reputation is created when the promises from the company to the stakeholders is been delivered. Public relation practitioners cannot make a reputation for the company, but they can make sure that the company gets recognition for its achievements.
The role of corporate public relations is connecting the stakeholder and the organization by making sure that the company understands stakeholder needs. Secondly, public relations encourage them to deliver the promise and to teach how to communicate effectively with the stakeholders to all the employees at all level and structure the message that may deliver to the others.
Corporate reputation is a cooperative evaluation of an organization’s capability to provide important outcomes to a group of stakeholders. It is good when the outcomes have been delivered to the stakeholders.
Corporate image is an impression that set up in minds of the public, person and etc.
Ch 10
Organization may face crisis and issues and Public relations role here is to respond to the society and media questions; they also need to deal with the issue that the media write about. And because many people uses the web, companies started to put their information in the website, the history and etc. However, if the media make rumors, public relations has to take action to manage the online information. The management effectiveness depends on how fast and how well the company reacts and tackles the issue.
Issues happen when there is a difference between what the organization does and the society expectations. Crisis appears if the organization does not take action regarding that issue.
Public relations practitioners have to be sensitive to an issue and then find the best way to manage with it as soon as possible to maintain the business position in the society.
Type of crisis:
1. External economic attacks for example boycotts.
2. Mega damage (environmental).
3. Psycho (terrorism).
4. External information attacks like rumors and copyright infringement.
5. Breaks for example poor operations and security.
Crisis life cycle
1. Signal detection
When an organization faced an event, it might turned out into a crisis, but it stills an issue. If the issue is well managed, it can avoid crisis.
2. Preparation
In this stage, the organization needs to control the message and manage the issue. In other words, to get prepared before the crisis occurs.
3. Acute
When the crisis appear, it will harm the company; as it usually reported in the media. So, public relations need to manage mass media by creating a discussion session for the media as a representative.
4. Chronic
In this stage, to make it positive it’s better for the company to do audit of the events, introduce the successful management and learn from their mistakes.
5. Resolution
In this stage media want to make summary of the crisis; how the company doing and etc. So, remember that the public is the priority, answer the most honest question when the media ask, maintain effective communication, be prepared for the information that the public wants to know.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
week 8 - Public Relations Management in Organisations
System theory explains about a structure that is used to illustrate an organisation’s relationship with its environment. System organisation is not constant and it depends on the inputs and outputs (such as products, plan closures, services and job cuts) between the organisation and its environment.
Public Relations needs to connect the organisation and its environment to explore areas of growth. Adaptation is important to promote stability in an organisation’s relationship with its surroundings. PR practitioners need to maintain this positive effects by adapting organisation's policies to the environment in the organisation. If this adaptation tactic succeeds, it can result in employees being more committed and motivated in their job.
Systems used:
A closed system: Separated from the environment, this method gathers information only from the inside of the organisation. In this method, public relations functions are minor because the system doesn’t fit with how PR practitioners usually do things -- which is to gather information from the public. The opposite takes place in the Open system.
Open System: An organisation actively takes optimum information from outside the organisation (and often from their environment) that can bring positive effects to the organisation itself. However, PR practitioners must be critical in choosing only the information that they need.
"Same same but different”
Public relations and marketing are 2 different departments. Marketing is customer-oriented while PR is not. The function of PR is to build a bridge between the environment outside the organisation and the organisation. PR practitioners are often referred to as the people who interact with people outside the company. While marketing works to advertise and market products, PR is important educate people on products and services.
Building internal relationships within an organisation is also one of the fortes of PR. It is crucial because it helps to improve the atmosphere in their workplace. If the employees are comfortable with the environment in the organisation, it will increase worker’s satisfaction and result in higher productivity. Finally, PR practitioners can help workers to adapt to the culture in an organisation by providing interactions between employees that will encourage innovation and creativity.
Public Relations needs to connect the organisation and its environment to explore areas of growth. Adaptation is important to promote stability in an organisation’s relationship with its surroundings. PR practitioners need to maintain this positive effects by adapting organisation's policies to the environment in the organisation. If this adaptation tactic succeeds, it can result in employees being more committed and motivated in their job.
Systems used:
A closed system: Separated from the environment, this method gathers information only from the inside of the organisation. In this method, public relations functions are minor because the system doesn’t fit with how PR practitioners usually do things -- which is to gather information from the public. The opposite takes place in the Open system.
Open System: An organisation actively takes optimum information from outside the organisation (and often from their environment) that can bring positive effects to the organisation itself. However, PR practitioners must be critical in choosing only the information that they need.
"Same same but different”
Public relations and marketing are 2 different departments. Marketing is customer-oriented while PR is not. The function of PR is to build a bridge between the environment outside the organisation and the organisation. PR practitioners are often referred to as the people who interact with people outside the company. While marketing works to advertise and market products, PR is important educate people on products and services.
Building internal relationships within an organisation is also one of the fortes of PR. It is crucial because it helps to improve the atmosphere in their workplace. If the employees are comfortable with the environment in the organisation, it will increase worker’s satisfaction and result in higher productivity. Finally, PR practitioners can help workers to adapt to the culture in an organisation by providing interactions between employees that will encourage innovation and creativity.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
week-seven
From the readings, I found Public relations practitioners are about understanding the big picture of the issue, see an issue from diverse perspectives, uncover problems, building relationships with key publics and audiences, confidence in the communication solutions and to help create and implement the communication solutions.
It is an active profession that benefits from creative thinking, specific targets and good understanding of the operating context and the factors required by an organisation.
Although public relation practitioners deal with diverse issues and different outside conditions and pressure in their operating environment, there are common elements that apply for all such as: the Standards that must be met in how the job is accomplished that makes PR as a profession, Theories – common understanding for conceptualising problems, Communication tools (websites, news release) that vary according the needs of the situation, Focusing on the goals with respect to audience, Contribution and Effectiveness in an environment, and Work On Matters of importance to the organisation.
Effectiveness – as in responsibility to the job, seek & give advice, optimise company’s image, capability of strategies (and executions), solid experience, High degree, build own knowledge, honest and ethical, contributing to goals, good reputation in industry and profession, protects reputation, and sets standards of public relation.
In doing our job, we are affected by our values. We do things according to what we value. We make judgement out of everything and that what makes us a standard that guided our actions. It, however, built through family, friends, and community where we grew in.
PR practitioners had to have adequate skills thats required to do their work,one of which is reporting community relations performance (in business, future, etc).
Challenges and pressures include: (1.) Maintain good relationship between you, organisations, stakeholders, and community. (2.) Maintain good records, (3.) Budget & Time management, (4.) Being proactive.( 5.) Good networks (6.) Adapt with changes.
Chapter 9
Further...As studied in week 3, planning a strategy is essential. It has to have methods and processes of intentional representation that needs to be done in a contested space and have intended meaning to achieve certain objectives.
Also look beyond ‘obvious competitors’. E.g: if you are promoting a car company, your competitor may seem another car company. In fact, the real competitors (the first problem that’ll decline the urge to buy more cars) are public transportation (bus, MRT, taxi). People will be arguing whether to buy a car at all when they can still take public transportation at affordable price. So here, we may want to find out more about the problem; not the solution.
Types of Tactics
Tactics can sometimes constructed intentionally to represent organisation’s meaning, such as: usage of logos, buildings’ style, and uniforms.
It is an active profession that benefits from creative thinking, specific targets and good understanding of the operating context and the factors required by an organisation.
Although public relation practitioners deal with diverse issues and different outside conditions and pressure in their operating environment, there are common elements that apply for all such as: the Standards that must be met in how the job is accomplished that makes PR as a profession, Theories – common understanding for conceptualising problems, Communication tools (websites, news release) that vary according the needs of the situation, Focusing on the goals with respect to audience, Contribution and Effectiveness in an environment, and Work On Matters of importance to the organisation.
Effectiveness – as in responsibility to the job, seek & give advice, optimise company’s image, capability of strategies (and executions), solid experience, High degree, build own knowledge, honest and ethical, contributing to goals, good reputation in industry and profession, protects reputation, and sets standards of public relation.
In doing our job, we are affected by our values. We do things according to what we value. We make judgement out of everything and that what makes us a standard that guided our actions. It, however, built through family, friends, and community where we grew in.
PR practitioners had to have adequate skills thats required to do their work,one of which is reporting community relations performance (in business, future, etc).
Challenges and pressures include: (1.) Maintain good relationship between you, organisations, stakeholders, and community. (2.) Maintain good records, (3.) Budget & Time management, (4.) Being proactive.( 5.) Good networks (6.) Adapt with changes.
Chapter 9
Further...As studied in week 3, planning a strategy is essential. It has to have methods and processes of intentional representation that needs to be done in a contested space and have intended meaning to achieve certain objectives.
Also look beyond ‘obvious competitors’. E.g: if you are promoting a car company, your competitor may seem another car company. In fact, the real competitors (the first problem that’ll decline the urge to buy more cars) are public transportation (bus, MRT, taxi). People will be arguing whether to buy a car at all when they can still take public transportation at affordable price. So here, we may want to find out more about the problem; not the solution.
Types of Tactics
“plan your strategies and tactics in ways that will result in your audienceIn developing tactics, one must consider how many people available to do the task &people we are engaging with. Also the amount of time we have. When dealing with large no. of people, we may want to use printed publications(flyers), media relations or special events. If dealing with small no. of people, meetings or presentations will do. Often use someone that is potentially attractive to certain community.
constructing only your intended meaning, not other meanings.”
Tactics can sometimes constructed intentionally to represent organisation’s meaning, such as: usage of logos, buildings’ style, and uniforms.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
week 6 - Engaging with Media
Engaging with media is important because even though we often listen to the word-of-mouth, we are still exposed and influenced much by media unconsciously. So, PR need to develop strong relationships with relevant media outlets to ensure the proactive positioning of a company and continuous corporate messages in the media – McConochie, Public Affairs advisor.
Take an example of Organize Chaos Daily (or OCD in short). The company founder is aware that the new media has taken a big portion in the communication world. That's why she started her publication by writing a press release on the Internet (with keywords such as home-organizing, clutter) and also sent it local magazines. Followed by making a page of it on Facebook. These, interestingly, has made OCD the center of attention in 2009. OCD has been featured 6 times by local magazines and newspaper from June-November 2009 including Cleo and Men's Health magazine for free. And by such publications, it is no doubt that OCD gain a lot profit and become more and more recognized in Singapore.
From this of course we can relate that engagement with media is very important in reaching through the public. It is also the fastest way to reach consumers beside word-of-mouth.
Today’s readings talk about the many ways of using the media and how we should choose the one that’s suitable for the organisation’s needs. Convince the people in that media is important bcoz people who trust him/her will listen to what they say. Find something (media) that is the Majority, can also be a good tip to succeed.
Further, in involving the media, we should be able to frame something in a way so that the audience can speculate the intended meaning by reading or watching our program.
Later, there are 2 ways of communicating: controlled and uncontrolled. For uncontrolled, media is only as a ‘gatekeeper’, which is not responsible with the published news. They are the editors or chief who only sorts the story (like media releases, blogs, etc). Controlled communication is when the media has total control of what they have written down; they are the sender.
Some news values that can attract journalist and editor are: The material has to be the truth, up to date, celebrity involvement; usually works to get attentions, and something that has an impact to many people. Human or animal interest also often sells, unusual and remarkable issue also attracts people. Some also believe that bad news also more newsworthy than the good ones.
Lastly, Media vary depending on the cultures and environments. So, we have to ensure that we clearly understand the law and legal practices.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
week 5 'Chapter 5 - Public Relations Research'
Research, analysis, and evaluation is needed to construct a strategy, so that the strategy would carry out the intended meaning.. it’s like how can you develop a strategy without knowing the public knowledge, how is your organization’s surrounding, and what is the background that leads to the problem?
Ron Kawalilak said that research is “central to communications planning” and can be defined as “ the process of systematically gathering information that will provide the basis to establish an understanding of situations and issues and make sense of them” (Synnott, 2009). “Good insights, developed through research, are essential,” adds Kawalilak.
As we all know, research are important in all aspects of work. With it we can support our essay or, in this case, PR plan with evidence and theory. Lot of communication problem & case required different levels of research, like fact finding, opinion assessment, message testing, planning, execution and evaluation.
To cut to the chase, Research provides info that helps us to plan (when done in the beginning), implement (during), and evaluate (at the end). Thus, everything must link back to the main role of PR practice which is contribute to organisation’s reputation and manage relationship, and has to make a Change.
EXAMPLE from the reading:
Your objectives is to create awareness of the problem of premature deafness through continual iPod use/loud music. In this case, the first step to do will be increase public awareness. Then after you reach the desired awareness of your target audience, your objective now (and they also want to know) about what can they do about it. Maybe to buy a specific earphone that you sell, or some therapy or whatever. But nothing too obvious!
Your objectives is to create awareness of the problem of premature deafness through continual iPod use/loud music. In this case, the first step to do will be increase public awareness. Then after you reach the desired awareness of your target audience, your objective now (and they also want to know) about what can they do about it. Maybe to buy a specific earphone that you sell, or some therapy or whatever. But nothing too obvious!
So, here, research (in the beginning) can be a useful tool to establish the current level of public awareness which then allow us to set the target that need to be achived and plan a strategy. During the program, research helps us to monitor whether the objectives are achieved. At the end of the program, research could be used to measure how much the level of awareness has changed. We can test whether the audience has gain knowledge about the issue and opportunity as a result of the communication program.
Quick steps to conduct research are: (1) Understanding the problem&context, (2) constructing the research questions, (3) designing the research acticity.
The method used can be qualitative or quantitative. “Quantitative is the what”, and usually numbers and figures, often use surveys like to know ‘how many people do what’. While “qualitative is the why”; such as their opinions, ‘how’ things done, audience’s responses and is more in-depth.
*For chapter 6, you can refer to week 7 thank you!*
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